Bajra Kheer / Kambam Pal Pradhaman / Kambu Pal Payasam

This recipe gives you a pleasant cooking experience as no supervision required. hence saves your labour and let you concentrate on other things while your payasam / kheer is getting ready. End resut : absolutely delicious recipe.

Bajra - pearl millet (Kambam in Malayalam, Kambu in Tamizh)  packed with iron and various nutrients is the traditional food that is taken by natives in the form of porridge. These millets and grains are then slowly replaced by the white rice culture.

Native grains are packed with all goodness and so refreshing our menu with them makes it healthy and interesting.

In my journey of replacing rice with native grains, my sister helped me with this recipe. I gave it a very light twist and sharing it with you.

You will need :-

1. Milk - 1 Litre
2. Broken Bajra - 1.5 cups
3. Sugar - 2 tea cups or more (as per preference)
4. Green Cardamom - 2 Nos. (powdered)

Procedure :

This payasam needs no garnishing except cardamom powder. I used a pressure cooker to save the labour.

You may make any pal payasam this way except semia which is cooked separately and added at the end. rest of the,process is same.

During the process the milk turns pink due to caramelising which gives a beautiful flavour and taste to any milk based payasams. Whether it is rice, rice ada, semiya, javvarisi (sago), or any native millet

 / grains.

• In a  vessel mix broken bajra, milk. 

•  Tip to avoid Spillage :- Put a heavy bowl or heavy spoon inside the milk to avoid spillage. 

•  Place the vessel inside a pressure cooker, and pressure cook. When the whistle is about to come, lower the flame and cook for 20 minutes. This will help the milk caramalise (the milk will turn pink)

• Switch off.

• When the pressure comes down, open. Add sugar and cardamom powder and stir till sugar dissolves (say a minutes).

• As Bajra normally doesn't thicken the kheer / payasam. Hence I added 2 tbsp of cornflour dissolved in little water and cooked it on stove top for two minutes (till it thickened).

•   Tip to avoid formation of malai : Place the vessel into a kadai filled with normal water and stir it for a minute. the temperature will come down which will prevent formation of the malai (layer) on top. For immediately consumption, if you prefer to have it luke warm, then change the water in kadai and keep for another 5 minutes.

• Delicious Bjara Kheer / Kambam Pal Pradhaman / Kambu Payasam is ready!

Milk Kheer / Paal Paayasam/ Paalada Pradhaman

A simple sweet dish which suits any occasions using milk, sugar, white rice / rice ada.

The speciality of the dish is the aroma, colour and taste which arises during the process of caramelising the milk  in a pressure cooker / stove top. Stove top demands continuous stirring. You can save your labour and time yet get the same tasty payasam using pressure cooking method.

To avoid spillage inside the cooker, put a heavy bowl inside the payasam.

It takes some time to make this dish to perfection but the taste and appreciation is worth all the sweat you have put in with love and dedication.

Rice ada (you get in all kerala stores), boil water, put off flame, wash ada and put it into the hot water, keep it covered for 10 minutes. Drain, wash in cold water, leave it to drain.

Ingridients : 

1. Milk - 1 litre
2. Rice Ada - 1 cup (or white rice)
3. Sugar - 3 tea cups sugar or more as per your preference
4. Water

Procedure :-

•  Prepare the rice or rice ada as mentioned above.

• In a pressure cooker,  keep the vessel of milk, put a heavy katori / bowl / spoon (should be heavy) inside to prevent spilling. put the weight. When pressure builds up, lower the flame and cook for 25 minutes.

• this slow cooking process will help the milk caramelise. This saves your labour of stirring continuously which is must when cooked on a stove top.

• When the pressure comes down, open the cooker, take out the vessel. Now the milk would have turned into pink colour.

• To that Add the prepared rice or ada, cook on stove top stirring frequently (to prevent getting burnt) on low flame for 15 more minutes as the ada or rice added should become transparent and be seen through the pink coloured milk. [don't think it is labourious. you are spending only 15 min]

• then put off the flame. sit comfortably under a fan, and keep stirring for another 10 minutes [this work you can give it to your children or your husband ;-) ] At this time, you can even adjust the sugar level if you prefer more sweet.

• Then to prevent malai (paaledu) forming on top, take a big kadai, pour normal water in it, keep the vessel with kheer inside (partially immersed) for another 10 minutes which will reduce the heat further thus prevent the malai formation and also brings it to the temeperature fit to consume.

• Your yummy paal paayasam / milk kheer is ready. 

Note :

• This kind of kheer don't require tempering of nuts & raisins in ghee
• It will not get spoilt easily
• If served chilled - makes a very very yummy dessert

Variety of payasams that we can make using this caramelising method is Rice, Semiya (seviyan) and Sabudana.

If you are using semiya, cook the milk separately in the pressure cooker as per the method mentioned below and cook semiya separately. finally remove from stove, add milk, semiya, sugar, cardamom powder together and mix.

If you use rice, cook white rice separately (grains should be separate). I use draining method.

Now to the economy part. How you can utilise the less quantity of milk wisely when you have more fans?

Follow the same process. After you pressure cook it slowly, before adding the rice or ada, dilute it by adding water (not too much), say 3 tea cups of water for 1 litre milk, then dissolve some corn starch (this you have to measure as per the consistency required. I advise 1 tbsp for 2 cups of water). boil well then add the cooked rice or ada and boil till the ada or the rice becomes transparent.

Cornflour (corn starch) will not spoil the taste but give you right consistency (thickness) to the kheer thus balance the water you added into the reduced milk preserving its taste and aroma.

Seviyan Kheer / Semia Paayasam

Today made semiya kheer after a long time on my hubby's demand. As both of us prefer to have it with just cardamom flavour, I avoid garnishing with cashews or raisins. 

TIPS : cooking with patience & dedication will enhance the flavour & taste of the food. Kheer is one such thing where milk is boiled and reduced in the traditional way though it requires little labour.

Semiya Paayasam / Seviyan Kheer

Ingridients :-

1. Milk - 1.5 litres
2. Semiya - 1 cup
3. Ghee - 1 tbsp
4. Cardamom - 3 nos.
5. Sugar - 6 laddles

this is the laddle (standard one for serving gravies like sambar)  I used to measure the sugar.

Procedure :-

• powder the cardamom & keep it aside
• Heat a wok, add ghee and roast the semiya till they turn golden colour.
• Add 3/4th cup of water, a pinch of salt, cover and cook till they are done. (I use drying method  & keep them covered for another 10 minutes after I put off the flame).
• Boil milk and reduce it to 3/4th by cooking on slow flame stirring continuously.
• When milk is done, add the boiled semiya and cook for another 5 minutes
• Add the sugar and stir in till it dissolves.
• remove from flame, add the cardamom powder and mix well
• Delicious semiya paaysam is ready

Optional Tips :

1. You can fry cashews and raisin in ghee separately till they turn golden in colur and add it last to the kheer / paayasam
2. To save your time and labour  you can pressure cook the milk for 20 minutes after pressure is built inside,  in low flame by putting a heavy spoon or katori (bowl) inside the milk,and continue with the process of adding semiya, sugar and cardamom powder as above.
3. Use a wooden spatula to stir the milk which will prevent the sound & scratches to the vessel during that process.