Parippu Pradhaman | Onam Special

Wishing all my lovely readers a very Happy and Prosperous Onam! This year my parents are here with us and that makes everything so much more special. 

Daddy's pradhaman (Payasam/Kheer prepared with jaggery) preparations are very popular at home. Both my dad and my father-in-law are in-charge of the payasam preparations during festival season. They put in a lot of effort into the preparations and the payasams always taste amazing. I tried getting Manish to watch and learn how it is made, but I'm sure that didn't work as much...lol! Daddy already made Ada Pradhaman a month back for no special occasion as such. It was so good! It was so good that I was too busy savoring it that I forgot to take a pic for sharing it with you all. ;-)

So last weekend when he made this delicious Parippu Pradhaman/Payasam for an Onam potluck with our friends, I knew it has to come on the blog for me and you all to drool over and prepare in future. :-)

Daddy likes to make his Parippu Pradhaman with split yellow moong dal. Jaggery, Coconut milk and some flavorful spices makes this payasam very unique and apt for serving as a special occasion sweet dish. It's a very easy recipe and tastes divine.  I have tried my best to explain the recipe in detail and almost as exactly as Daddy made it. 

You can see the concentration on Daddy's face as he prepares his signature Parippu Pradhaman ;-)

Parippu Pradhaman

Serves: 3-4

You'll Need

1 cup yellow split Moong Dal

2 cups water

2 cups Jaggery

2 Tablespoons Water

2 cups Coconut Milk (if using canned coconut milk)

3 cups water 

½ teaspoon dry Ginger powder

½ teaspoon Cumin powder

½ teaspoon Cardamom powder

2 Tablespoons Dry Coconut slices

2 Tablespoons sliced Cashew nuts

2 Tablespoons Ghee

Directions:

1. In a heavy bottomed pan roast split Moong Dal until it is golden brown and fragrant.

2. Add 2 cups water (or enough to cook the dal) and cook the dal until it gets soft but not overcooked/mushy.

3. While the dal cooks, in a separate frying pan, heat 2 Tablespoons Ghee and fry the coconut slices until golden brown. Next fry the cashew nuts and keep both aside.

4. Melt Jaggery in a pan with 2-3 tablespoons of water. Strain and keep aside.

5. Once dal cooks well, add the melted jaggery and cook the dal-jaggery mix until jaggery thickens and almost reaches a string like consistency over low heat (when a drop of jaggery syrup is pinched between fingers it should stick and form a thin thread)

6. Divide the 2 cups Coconut milk into 1 cup, ¾ cup and ¼ cup each – which we call 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd milk.

- Into the 1 cup coconut milk, add 2 cups water – keep aside (1^st milk)

- Into the ¾ cup coconut milk, add 1 cup water – keep aside (2^nd milk)

- Into the ½ cup milk add Cardamom, Cumin and Ginger powders – keep aside (3^rd milk)

7. Now add the 1^st milk into the dal-jaggery mix and cook over medium-low heat until the mix thickens.

8. Then add the 2^nd milk and continue to cook until the payasam reaches a good consistency. It will thicken as it cools so don't thicken it too much while cooking.

9. Finally add the 3^rd milk, stir well and turn off the heat.

10. Garnish with fried coconut slices and cashew nuts – delicious Parippu Pradhaman is ready. Serve warm or cold. Enjoy it as is or with small banana and pappadam …yumm!

Once again wishing everyone a very Happy Onam, from our family to yours! 

-Manju

Carrot Thoran...and Happy Onam wishes in advance to all !!

I realise it has been quiet here for a while now. But that's only b'coz I've been out and about enjoying a much awaited vacation with my family. We travelled a lot,  ate so much and walked and explored and enjoyed so much that now I'd actually like a vacation from our vacation...have you ever felt like that? ;-)

The only thing we terribly missed during our vacation was nothing but home-cooked meals. Ofcourse it was definitely a bliss to be away from the kitchen for a while and enjoy free continental breakfasts at our hotel and try several new cusinies and tastes, but every now and then we wished to have something simple, something homemade. Eating from Indian restaurants din't help us much either!

So the first thing we did after we reached home was to prepare a simple yet hearty breakfast. Vermicelli Upma being something that our lil'Appu also loves, we prepared that and you should have seen how the little guy savored it, scooping in forkfull into his tiny mouth. He also missed home-cooked and familiar meals I guess :-) 

And although still tired from all the travel we decided to prepare a decent lunch and thanks to the abundance of our garden veggies, we din't have to run out to the store to buy any veggies and there was some Carrots in the fridge bought from the store a while ago.  So we cooked Rice and prepared Carrot thoran, Pulishery (seasoned buttermilk curry), Vendakka Theeyal (lady's finger /okra cooked in a roasted coconut gravy) and Achinga Payar Mezhukuperatty...the last two dishes prepared using homegrown veggies. I wish I had the recipes for all these dishes on the blog, but I'm working on getting it in here soon. 

Appu loves carrots and we add it to almost everything he eats, be it dosa, idli, sweet or savory dishes and lately he loves all kinds of thoran, including this Carrot Thoran. 
Thoran is nothing but a Malayalee version of veggie stir fry which is cooked until the veggies are almost roasted and dry and finally some grated coconut is added for flavour and texture.

Carrot thoran is a staple side dish at our house. I find grating the carrots easier but you can dice it thinly or make small cubes and prepare this thoran and the way I make it, it has a very mild hint of spice with the lovely sweetness from the carrots and onions. It’s one of our absolute favorite side dishes and tastes just great when eaten with plain white rice or Rotis and is really really easy to prepare.

 Carrot Thoran Recipe

You’ll need
Coconut Oil – 1 tblsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Dry Red Chilli – 1 (broken in half)
Curry leaves – 1 sprig (about 5-6 leaves)
Carrots (grated) – 2 large
Red Onion (diced or thinly sliced) – 1 medium
Green chillies (slit lengthwise or sliced) – 2
Fresh grated coconut – 2-3 tblsp (I used dry coconut powder)
Garlic clove – 1
Salt – to taste

Directions
1. In a frying pan, heat the oil. Temper by cracking the mustard seeds and then add dry red chillies and curry leaves.
2. Add the diced onions and green chillies, add some salt and sauté until the onions are pink and soft.
3. Add the grated Carrots now and sprinkle a tiny bit of water and cover and cook until the carrots are soft and cooked.
4. Coarsely grind or crush using a mortar-pestle the coconut and garlic and add that to the carrot and cook for few more minutes without the lid until the thoran is dry and the garlic smell wears off.

Few other suggestions:
1. If you do not want to bite into any green chillies by mistake, grind/crush it along with the coconut and garlic in Step 4.
2. You can add some chana dal or split moong dal while tempering for some more flavor and texture.
3. Use Vegetable oil if you do not prefer coconut oil.

See! now wasn't that really simple and easy. And we ate lunch to our hearts content with these simple yet yummy dishes and no restaurant food could have beat that, I say!

Onam is right around the corner (on Sep 16th this year) and I'm sure all Keralites are gearing up to celebrate this popular festival of the south-Indian state of Kerala, with family & friends and the special part is cooking up an elaborate sadhya! 

I wish you all a "Very Happy & Prosperous Onam" in advance. 

Here's a pic of our Vishu sadhya dishes which we prepared for this year's Vishu festival which was in April, just a few a days after we had moved in to our new house. Banana leaves which is traditionally used to serve the sadhya in is missing here, as we din't get a chance to go and buy them, but the sadhya was superb! Just looking at it makes me drool. Burrrp...oops!! Hehe... 

Can you guess the dishes?? :-)

We haven't yet planned our Onam sadhya menu, but we will soon.

Psst: Make this carrot thoran as one of your sadhya sides, lovely color, great taste, easy to make, what else do you want? ;-)

-Manju