(Kheer Recipes, Sweet Porridge Varieties, Payasam Recipes, Pradhaman Types)
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India is a country, where our forefathers and ancestors have taught us the wisdom of eating right. If we notice, in most of the traditional South Indian meals, the first food that is served in the banana leaf is the payasam or kheer which is then followed by other delicacies. This is basically to emphasize that we should start any ritual on a sweet note. While in other parts, an elaborate meal never ends without a kheer. It is an integral part of North and South Indian meals.
Kheer or payasam (in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam) or payash ( Oriya and Bengali) is derived from the Sanskrit word “ ksheera” meaning milk. Payasam is made from milk and sugar or the combination of jaggery and coconut milk. In the annaprashanam( introduction of solids) the first weaning food that we give to infants is the payasam. In many cultures, payasam or kheer is made as Prasadam or serving to god. The Guruvayoor temple in Kerala is very famous for its “nei payasam”. In addition to this, Kerala also boasts of its famous chakkapradhaman and paruppupradhaman in its cuisine. In the northern state of punjab the baisakhi( Punjabi new year) is incomplete without the preparation of the traditional kheer which is served with lots of dry fruits and strands of saffron.The people of Odisha also make their special rice payash on their new year. The festival of Ramadan is also incomplete in the absence of their unique specialty ‘sevayaan’.In my opinion, the payasam is so popular in all the cultures, that we can christen it as the “ national sweet dish of India
Traditionally the payasam is made with rice, vermicelli,rava,green gram dhal, Bengal gram,sago and poha but we can always twist the same with new age ingredients suiting our taste buds and nutritive content. My children love pasta very much and I discovered the pasta kheer which is a very small twist to the vermicelli kheer. In an attempt to satisfy my diabetic Mother in law, the apple cinnamon oats kheer came into fore. The water melon kheer and the cucumber kheer were tried, to soothe my husbands stressed mind&body and his sweet tooth.
In this section I have included both the traditional payasam varieties and the new age kheer variety. Each of them are highly nutritive, delicious and mouth watering. So, go ahead and indulge yourself and your family in this national sweet dish of India. Cheers!!
Kheer / Payasam / Pradhaman Recipes