Onam may be a religious festival for the Hindus of Kerala, however for the rest of us, it is all about viewing the beautiful pookalams in front of our Hindu friends’ houses, beautifully clad girls and ladies and then the highlight – the meal on the banana leaf, called the Onasadya (ഓണസദ്യ). My memories about these sadyas during childhood is what we used to have from my uncle who was the member of the Indian Association during those times and he would get passes for all of us for the Onam celebrations. We would so excitedly wait for that day. It isn’t easy cooking up the whole meal at home, so we would wait for the day. Once the day is over, all we would want is to have a good nap, after eating all the food and drinking as much as payasam we can afford to drink….
Besan Kheer
For the Blogging Marathon #101, while I was deciding to make a sweet dish for the theme “Cooking with Besan”, my first intention was making some barfis or laddoos. I was planning to make it during Eid, since my cousins would be around and it would be easier to finish it off rather than make something that I am not sure my children would eat. But that didn’t happen. During the mad rush of those five days, time flew and I was still left with the task of having to make a sweet dish with Besan. I do make besan ka doodh occasionally, which is a hot thin concoction of milk and besan. That was when it clicked me, that there must be a kheer in those lines. My guess wasn’t out of place. Besan Kheer is prepared during the winter seasons in Punjab and some North Indian…
Semiya Payasam ~ Vermicelli Milk Dessert
Assalamu alalikum to all my readers in this beautiful month of September! Hope you all had a wonderful Eid-ul-Adha celebrations. If you would like to read more about this festival, then do check out this post! I already have a pressure cooker version of semiya payasam on the blog, but this one is old school – needs some time and patience, but the end result is sweet! 🙂 I am not sure if anybody hates semiya payasam. I have a couple of cousins who don’t like this payasam, and I find them to be really weird. When anybody says “payasam”, the first thing that will always come into mind is semiya payasam, as it is easy to make, with easily available ingredients and basically, no-mess. Just like how you need to be while making the sago payasam, you have to cook enough that the vermicelli looks transparent, the…
Musaara Varakiyathu ~ Malabar Wheat and Bengal Gram Pudding
The Muslim Food Blogger’s Challenge is 6 months old! Alhamdulillah… it feels great to be going on. The group maybe small but we have a really enthusiastic bunch, that keeps the challenge alive. I am sure you will all agree that enthusiasm and interest is what drives everything ahead, and I thank Him for this little bunch of bloggers who make my life so easier to go on… 🙂 This month, we reverted back to trying from a blog and we chose to cook from “Shab’s Cuisine“. This blog is one of them that I started following when the cooking bug hit me around 7 years ago – yes, my cooking passion is pretty young, you see! 😉 I totally love her blog since she had some very simple recipes plus her blog was a treasure of Malabar recipes. I guess I don’t need to mention the amazing…
Nenthrapazham Pradhaman ~ Plaintain Jaggery Dessert
It is so rare that two festivals coincide together. Eid and Onam have come one after the other back home. While I was returning back from home, all outlets had boards on “Bakreedashamsakal, Onashamsagal” (Eid Wishes, Onam Wishes). For me, Onam is all about the sadya. I wait for a chance to eat the lavish meal on the leaf, where you get to eat so many varieties of food at the same time. Despite being fully vegetarian, it is a play on your taste buds and will leave you full to the brim and ready to doze off! 😀 Here is a very interesting link I found this time, makes a wonderful read and has some basic knowledge of how to lay the leaf, how to put which dish where, etc…. hopefully something that will help me later when I have the courage to make a whole sadya all…
Kheer ~ Indian Rice Pudding
We are having a long weekend in this part of the world. The government departments and schools reopen only by next Sunday, so that’s 9 long days, though I, like many working in the private sector, go back to work on Wednesday. Since it’s just two days, I don’t think many would mind it. 🙂 Since holidays are very rare here, everybody looks forward to them, to plan their travel trips. Many go home, many go for a quick vacation, and many more enjoy staycations over here itself. With the climate getting slightly better, everybody is looking at taking maximum advantage of these days. From my side, we have no plans. Somehow I feel that’s also good. Yesterday was super boring. The kids and I were at home. Though I planned to finish up the laundry, we ended up watching long hours of Food Network and then finally slept…
Semiya Ada Payasam ~ Vermicelli Rice Flakes Kheer
Another brand new month begins! Isn’t it shocking that 2016 seems to be moving at such a fast pace… we are already entering month 3! Somehow I guess we don’t think about that side much… Sharing with you a slide that I so absolutely loved lately… As I was digging through my pictures, I noticed I had ignored this post for quite some time. Gosh… During my last vacation, the day I was coming back, as soon as umma was done with the thalacurry, my sister and I got into the kitchen and got to making payasam. We had a small packet of ada, which is dried rice squares which was not enough for making payasam for a huge crowd of 25+. That was when our eyes went on to the small pack of vermicelli that we had got free along with the can of condensed milk….
Cherupayar Parippu Pradhaman ~ Kerala Moong Dal Kheer
Last week, I happened to read this article. As soon as I started reading it, I related it to myself. I always have doubts about how I am doing, what am I doing, and so on and so forth. Each and every word seemed to just point at me and the checklist in that article, SubhaAllah, was a total eye opener. I would suggest my dear readers to go through it too, maybe it will answer a lot of questions for you, just like it did for me, Alhamdulillah… JazakAllah Khair to that sister who did the post… 🙂 It is not that I always crave for cakes and desserts… sometimes I crave for our humble payasam. Somehow, I don’t make the best payasams… I am more confident when it comes to baking or making continental desserts, but if someone asks me to do a payasam, I somehow…
Persian Payasam
Intrigued by the title? Me too! When my hands landed up on the book called ‘Malabar Cuisine‘ that I had ordered through Amazon a couple of months ago, this is the first recipe that caught my attention.You may wonder why do I keep buying books that are related to Malabar cooking, when I am from the Malabar side. It is mainly because there are so many forgotten recipes, that I had eaten during my childhood, but have not had it since then for many many years. Some of these books have really helped me discover some of those forgotten tastes, that I have recorded here and would continue to record. But this payasam was something of the first kind for me…. Just before moving on, the Shhh Cooking Challenge that was started by Priya akka sometime back was on hold for the past few months due to her…
Carrot Payasam/ Kheer
Onam was on while I was back home. The whole area was quite festive during the time. Though a bit hesitant, I went to the local LP (lower primary) school, where my aunt works as assistant headmistress, on the last working day before the 10 day Onam vacation. Since there was no teaching that day, the kids looked so excited. The atmosphere was really electric. Parents were cooperating and cooking up a mini sadya for the kids, who were so eagerly waiting for the sadya. I got some very curious looks as I went around with my I-phone taking some clicks. We had quite a filling sadya which was finished off with some semiya payasam. I really enjoyed the time spent with the kids over there. One of the boys managed to hide under the bench where my banana leaf was laid for food and pulled out the chips and…
Kaithachakka Chawwari Payasam ~ Pineapple Sago Kheer
Eid is almost around the corner, Alhamdulillah… We are still in the blessed last ten nights of this month, so we haveto keep our spiritual feeling high, hoping that Laylathul Qadr would or would have dawned upon us, InShaAllah. It is sad that many of us spend our time in the markets for finishing off our Eid shopping and in return, what we lose is immense as far as blessings are concerned. I always make it a point to finish off my Eid shopping prior to Ramadan, so that I don’t have any worries about it over the month. Last year, I did participate in the first version of Eid Eats with this quick fix Semiya Payasam recipe, so when I saw Asiya’s post declaring this year’s version, I was ready to participate. Just like last time, again I bring in a payasam, or kheer! Hehe… I have been…
Ragi Semiya Payasam | Ragi Vermicelli Kheer
I love to do guest posts. Somehow, it makes me feel nice that I get requests from some lovely bloggers who want me at their space. It has a feel-good factor to it. But more than that, the nerve-wrecking thought of what to make for them or post for them is another thing! Today, I am pleased to be at Gloria’s space – a chubby Mumbaikar with the zest for baking. Do check out her blog to see all those beautiful bakes that she dishes out day in and day out! I love her collection of buns and cakes that she keeps churning out every now and then. I am especially enthralled by her Turtle Buns that are hiding among the long list of my “to-do”s. I sincerely thank her for having this humble me around in her beautiful space. I was really in a fix as to what to provide Gloria with. Being…
Kadala Parippu Pradhaman ~ Kerala Chana Dal Kheer
I guess I have been working on all the challenges this month. I can’t believe it myself! All the other posts, apart from the challenges are pulled from my drafts. When the dip in cooking happens, challenges do boost up your mood. What I do is I print out the recipe challenge and post it on my fridge door based on what to post first. So each time I go up and down the kitchen, my eyes go on it and the date of posting. That helps me to keep a mental calculation of the last date by which I should finish making it. Another thing I do is that most of the time, or almost every time I halve the recipe. You will always see that my posts serve not more than 4. This helps me to control our intake – most of the challenges are unfortunately sweet posts…
Paal Payasam ~ Kerala Style Rice Kheer/ Dessert
I am somebody who has a lot of pricks. It is a good thing to feel those pricks, especially when you do something wrong! At least, it shows that you have some conscience in you! During Onam, one of our Hindu colleagues in the head office distributed paayasam – the Malayalam word for “kheer” – to everybody in the office. In fact, this was the first time she was doing it. As we were enjoying the payasam, I got a call from a colleague in another department. I have always mentioned that I keep baking or cooking and bringing them to office, but the distribution is always limited to the little bunch in my department. Very rarely, I have distributed to all, in fact on two instances, one time when I baked the Coffee Cardamom Marble Cake and the other time was with the Carrot Rice Kheer. Cooking…
Carrot Nurukku Gothambu Payasam/ Carrot Daliya Kheer
It is Onam today… we normally don’t celebrate Onam towards our side. However, the long banana plantains adorned with innumerable varieties of vegetarian delicacies, that is to be washed down with a small banana, some sharakara varatti and a couple of payasams are too good to ignore. That is why every Onam we make sure to get a couple of “Onasadyas” from the nearby restaurant and devour them to the fullest. Not to mention the sleep that comes after having such a heavy meal… I so clearly remember the Onam when I was carrying Azza. It fell during Ramadan, I wasn’t fasting due to my physical condition. A friend of mine was also carrying at that time as well, so we always shared each other’s pregnancy depressions and ups-downs during that time. I tracked down a restaurant near to my office that was arranging parcelled Onasadya and booked two meals…