Elaneer Payasam

“Elaneer” means tender coconut in the kannada language.
I tasted this payasam a few months ago at a well-known restaurant in Bangalore. It tasted absolutely divine. The taste still lingers in my mouth! Eversince I tasted this, I wanted to prepare this at home but somehow it never materialized. They say that there is time for everything and when the time comes it just happens !

Well, the time finally came and after going through a lot of recipes, I prepared this with some variations – I did not have condensed milk and I was not very keen on buying one. Instead, I boiled half a cup of milk with 3tsps of sugar and reduced it to half the quantity and used this. The payasam tasted just the way I wanted it to be – heavenly ! And, you will have to take my word for it. Try it out and see it for yourself.

While buying tender coconut, ask the vendor to select one with water and some pulp i.e. “ganji” (in kannada), and “malai” (in hindi). The pulp should not be very thick.

Ingredients:

Tender coconut water	About 1 cup
Tender coconut pulp	1/4th cup
Condensed milk	1-2 tbsps or as per taste
Thick coconut milk	1/4th cup
Cardamom powder	About 1 tsp
Cashew nuts (coarsely powdered)	For garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Pour out the tender coconut water into a glass.
2. Remove the pulp and keep aside a small quantity and the rest grind to a paste.
3. Now chop the small quantity of the pulp that is kept aside. This is to be added later to the payasam.
4. Mix the ground paste and the coconut water into a bowl.
5. Add the condensed milk, coconut milk and the cardamom powder. Mix well and keep it in the refrigerator for an hour or so. The payasam is now ready to be served.
   Serving Suggestion:
6. While serving, first place some pieces of the chopped pulp in the bowls.
7. Then pour the payasam in the bowls and garnish it with coarsely powdered cashews.
8. Serve chilled.

                                   

                               

                           

                               

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins . No cooking required if using condensed milk

Serves: 3-4 persons

Note:

• You can omit garnishing altogether Or use a combination of cashews, almonds and pistachios Or any one of these nuts. The choice is yours. I have used only cashews.
• The payasam should be slightly watery and not thick.
• Grind the pulp for just a few seconds.

Muskmelon "hershalen" (dessert)

Musk melon is also known as cantaloupe. The Indian name for this fleshy fruit is

 “kharbuz”. In konkani language, this is known as “Chibbad”. However, I have found 

that the  ‘chibbad ‘ variety that is specially available in Karnataka is slightly

different in shape from the  kharbuz that is available elsewhere in India. 'Chibbad" is

elongated while the kharbuz is round in shape. Taste wise too I believe there is a

subtle difference (with my tongue I could not find much) ! People who have been

brought up on chibbad, since childhood probably would find the difference !

My mom used to prepare “hershalen” with this fruit. She used to prepare it by cutting the

melon into tiny cubes/ thin strips. Milk and sugar was then added to the melon pieces

sprinkled with cardamom powder and served chilled. It tasted very refreshing especially 

during the summer.

I have made this "harsahalen" with a slight twist. I have used the melon ball cutter 

instead of cutting them into cubes and made a milkshake with  the remaining melon.

In my earlier post, with  watermelon too, I have made use of this melon ball cutter

to make it more appealing !

 

 Muskmelon hershalen with a twist

 

Ingredients:

Musk Melon /Kharbuz	1 small
Milk	11/2 – 2 cups
Sugar (powdered)	2-3 tbsps
Cardamom powder	1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash the melon and cut it into half. Scoop out the pulp.
2. With the help of melon ball cutter, scoop out as many balls as you can and place them in a bowl.
3. Then peel off the outer skin of the melon and cut the remaining melon into chunks and place it in the blender. Now add milk and sugar and run the blender for 2 mins or until all the melon pieces have blended well into a smooth milk shake.
4. It is now ready to be served.

Serves: 4

 

Muskmelon cut into half

 

Muskmelon ball scoops

Serving suggestion:

Place few melon balls in each of the 4 bowls. Pour the blended mixture over these balls.

and sprinkle cardamom powder on top and serve.

Note:

• This dessert tastes better when chilled.
• If the musk melon is sweet, you may omit the sugar or add them as per your taste.

Mergole - Sweet Potato Paaysu

“Mergole” is the Konkani name for this sweet dish made from the tuber Kananga (Konkani), Ratallu (Marathi) or Sweet Potato (English). This is typically a Manglorean or coastal Karnataka dish.  I wanted to make this simple long forgotten paayasu and hence I had kept a small piece aside (after preparing the “Kananga Daaddau”), so that I can share this simple and tasty and easy to prepare dish.

I have used here the coconut milk pack (less work for the lazy me!) instead of the usual coconut gratings wherein you need to grind it with a little water and then strain the juice to make coconut milk. I do admit though that the fresh coconut milk does make a difference to the taste of the dish especially if one is of the “Jibbe Ruchi”  type of person (generally all Amchis are !).

Ingredients

Sweet Potato (small)	1
Coconut milk	150 ml (11/2 cup)
Jaggery (molasses) powder	3 tbsps  or as per taste
Salt	A pinch
Cardamom powder	1 tsp
Cashews (halved & roasted in ghee)-optional	6 (whole)
Raisins (roasted in ghee) - optional	8-10

Method:

1. Wash and skin the sweet potato. Cut it onto small cubes.
2. Steam the cubed bits in a steamer or boil them in a little water till soft. This should take about 20 mins.
3. Add salt, jaggery powder and the coconut milk to the boiled sweet potato bits and bring it to a boil.
4. Finally add the roasted cashews, raisins and cardamom powder. Mix well and remove from flame.
5. Serve hot.

Serves: 2

Sweet Potato - Raw

Sweet Potato - cut into cubes

    

         Note:

• This dish can be served hot or cold. The choice is yours.
• Traditionally the sweet potato is cut into cubes (you may grate it if you wish) and the skin is not removed. Here, I removed it as the skin had lot of blemishes.
• It is advisable to dissolve the powdered jaggery in water and strain it so as to remove any insoluble impurities.

Madagane (Sweet dish)

This mildly sweet dish is generally prepared during “Ugadi” festival in all Konkani households. In other south Indian states too, a similar type of dish is prepared and it is known as "payassam".

Even though, I enjoy this dish, I would always hesitate to prepare it as it involves a cumbersome process of breaking the coconut, grating it, grinding it and finally filtering it to remove the juice of the coconut.

Thanks to the coconut milk which is readily available in the market, now all this work can be completely eliminated and can be quickly prepared without hassles. Ofcourse not everybody would agree with me but I being slightly lazy would always opt for a litle short-cut method !!

In the market a wide variety of coconut milk or coconut milk powders are available. I would recommend the Homemade brand which comes in tetra packs of 200ml. According to me, these are (as the name suggests) quite fresh and does not give the coconut oil smell if you use it as per their instructions.

Ingredients

Channa dal (Bengal gram dal)	1 cup
Tender Cashew nuts	15 - 20
Powdered jaggery	1 cup
Coconut milk	1 pkt (200ml)
Cardamom powder	1-2 tsps
Rice powder	1 tbsp
Water	3 cups

Method :

1. Soak the tender cashew nuts in hot water for 15-20 mins. Then peel the skin and halve it and keep aside.
2. Wash channa dal.
3. Boil 2 cups of water. Add to it the washed channa dal and when it is almost cooked, add the halved cashew nuts.
4. When dal and the nuts are cooked, add the powdered jaggery and mix well.
5. Lower the flame and add rice powder. Stir well to prevent it from sticking at the bottom.
6. Add coconut milk and stir again. If its very thick add a little water.
7. Bring to boil and remove from flame.
8. Finally add cardamom and mix well.
9. Serve hot.
   

Serves : 6

Note :

You can substitute Moong dal (split green gram) or broken wheat or oats for Channa dal (split black gram) using the above method in which case the cooking time for each will vary accordingly.

Rice powder is added as a thickening agent. You may omit it altogether or use any other thickening agent of your choice ( like corn starch).