Pure Desi food

Recently I have been craving to eat sweet; I was really not in the mood to eat a cookie or a cake. I just craved for something home made and something my mom used to make for us as kids. So, I decided to make chana dal payasam (we call it chanaga bedala payasam), one of my favorites. It can be enjoyed either hot or cold. The payasam is a combination of chana dal, sabudan cooked with milk in jaggery syrup. The thickness for the payasam comes from the cashew and coconut paste. A very simple but ultimate satisfying dessert.
There were few reasons I wanted to make this sweet -
It’s been almost four months I started blogging,
To satisfy my sweet tooth I was craving for and
Offering as naivedyam for the god.

Recipe:
Chana dal (pachi chanaga pappu) – 1 cup
Sago (sabudan, sabiyamu) – 1/4th cup
Jaggery- 1cup
Milk- 3 ½ cups
Water- 3 cups
Cardamom -2 (crushed)
To Grind:
Whole Cashews – 7
Grated fresh coconut – 2 to 3 tbsps (I used frozen coconut, I just put it in the microwave for 30 seconds for it to become soft)
For tempering:
Ghee- 2 tsps
Few cashews and raisins.
Cook chana dal with one cup of water in the pressure cooker. Make sure the dal still holds its shape, so its very important not to over cook it.
In a small vessel put the sabudan with one cup of water and cook in low heat for about seven minutes or until the sabudan is cooked through. Keep it on side.
In a mixer grind the cashew and coconut with half cup of milk.
In a small pan add the ghee and fry the cashew and raisins till golden brown.
Now take a vessel, add one cup of water with the jaggery and boil till the jaggery melts. Then add the cooked sabudan, mix and add the cashew-coconut paste with 3 cups of milk. Cook all these in medium heat for about ten minutes.
At this point add the cooked chana dal (with the water) and boil the whole thing in low heat for another ten minutes. At the end add the cardamom powder and fried cashew and raisins.
Let it sit for few minutes, offer as naivedyam to the god and enjoy this payasam with your loved once.
Please note that the payasam gets thicker after it’s cooked for couple of hours.

Urad dal, ghee and sugar
Recipe:
(makes about 17 med laddoos)
• Urad dal – 2 cups
• Sugar – 1 ¼ cup
• Ghee – ¾ th cup
• Cardamom-2 (optional)
Roast the urad dal in a low heat till golden brown. Stir continuously, it takes about 20 minutes. (My hand did hurt because of the continuous stirring, but was worth it). Let cool of completely.
Mean while, melt the ghee and let this cool also.
Now take the roasted urad dal and grind it to a smooth powder using a mixer or a food processor. (First I used the mixer, some how it wasn’t doing the job. So, I switched to the food processor). Make sure it’s nice and smooth. It’s very important that the mixture is smooth and super fine. Keep it a side.
Now add the sugar and grind it to a fine powder. Now return the urad dal mixture to the food processor and grind again. This helps the sugar and the urad dal mixture to incorporate well. At this point you can also add some crushed cardamom.
Remove this mixture to a skillet; little by little add the melted ghee till you get a consistency where you can mold them in the form of laddoo.