Today I offered 'Payasam' to Sri Sri RadhaParthasarathi. In sanskrit 'Payasam' ( also Amrutham)means Necter and indeed it looks like some heavenly dish to me!. Traditionally it is made with rice.

In southern India, in most of the temples Payasam is offered to Lord Venkateswara (Lord Vishnu's incarnation). According to some sources on the World Wide Web, I came to know that this traditional dish's origin dates back to some two thousand years in Puri (Orissa, India) which is home to Lord Jagannatha and famous for its world renouned 'Jagannatha rath yatra'.

This is the other version of Payasam where Vermicelli (looks like thin long pasta made of semolina or wheat) is used instead of rice. It takes hardly 10 min to prepare. A small packet of 180g would serve four. But I took only one third to cook this time. The amount of ingredients like ghee/sugar might vary with individual's choice. For people allergic to milk/milk products they can add simply substitute with water or soymilk.

Ingredients:

* vermicelli 200g
* milk 1/2 litre
* sugar
* ghee (butter without salt) 1 spoon
* cardomom - 1-2 pods
* dry fruits/nuts (to garnish)
- pistachio,dry almonds, raisins etc.

-First slightly heat the pan/utensil with -little amount of ghee in it.
-Then add vermicelli to it and heat it until it turns a bit golden brown.
-Add milk/water to it and leave it to cook for 7-8min.

One can check by taking a bit on spoon and pressing the vermicelli with fingers. Once cooked, empty the cardomom pods (let the seeds spread the flavour into the dish) and take the pan out of the flame and add sugar and stir it.

I think why mum used to do it this way is, because if sugar is added with flame still on sometimes make the dish hard or tight. Now the best part comes- garnishing. I like decorating any dish to look pleasing to the eyes of Krishna, with raisins, pistachio, almonds, walnut etc. And now time to offer it to Lord and please him with a 'heavenly' delicacy.

Caution: The cook must be aware that it doesnt take much time for vermicelli to turn from golden brown to dark brown and hence might not taste good.

Best about the dish: The aroma of the dish is great and one doesnt need any perfection to make and offer such delicacies to Krishna.

Hare Krishna
Sabitha

There are currently no posts in this category.