Today I am immensely pleased to post a dessert being the 3rd Anniversary of our blog KKAJ – short for Konkani Khann anik Jevan . I’m thankful to all you friends that you’re on this journey with me. Thank you Admin Usha Bhat akka for including me as an Author and letting me share my recipes and making my life more meaningful everyday.
A sincere thank you for the support and encouragement from all of you, my dear readers ! I would love to thank you for all your nice comments.You all have motivated me to go on inspiring you with future posts.Without the support of you all its really impossible to achieve this success.
Now with the same happy mood lets move on to the details of todays dessert prepared with Dates which is called Kharjoor in konkani.This payasu (dessert) is prepared in GSB marriages,upanayanas and temple functions too.Here dates is cooked in coconut milk and jaggery.As dates itself has sweetness in it more jaggery is not required.
As you know dates are rich in iron and are very healthy for growing children.I request you all to try this out at home and enjoy this delectable payasu with your family and friends. Here we go with the recipe…..
Ingredients:-
- Dates – 1 cup (deseeded)
- Jaggery – 1/4th cup (powdered)
- Coconut milk – 1 cup thick and 2 cups diluted (I mean the 2nd and 3rd milk extracted from the same coconut gratings)
- Sooji rava – 1 or 2 tbsp. (roasted)
- Cardamom powder – 1tsp
- Cashew – 3-5
- Raisins – 6-8
Method:-
Step 1
Remove the seeds from the dates, Add 1/2 cup water to this and cook till soft and mushy.Keep this aside.
Dry roast sooji rava till a fine aroma comes out.Keep this separately.
Step 2
Grind fresh coconut with 1/2 cup water to a fine paste and extract thick coconut milk and keep separately, after this process add 1 cup water to the squeezed coconut and grind, extract the milk. This is the 2nd milk which is a bit thin in texture than the 1st extract. Again follow the same procedure with 1 more cup of water to extract 3rd milk which is more thinner than the 2nd extracted milk. Keep all the 3 extracts separately.
Step 3
In a thick bottom pan add the 3rd extracted milk and switch on the gas.When You see the bubbles on the sides of the pan add the roasted rava and allow it to cook.Keep on stirring to avoid lumps. Keep stove on simmer.
Step 4
Now when the rava is cooked and the mixture becomes thick, add the cooked dates paste and stir continuously till it get along with completely with the cooked rava. Add 2nd extracted milk and the jaggery powder at this stage.
Step 5
By this time the mixture gets diluted. Allow it cool and boil completely. Do maintain the flame in low flame/simmer. When you see the bubbles in the center of the vessel add the 1st extracted milk and cardamom powder. Mix very well, keep for 5 minutes. Do not boil too much after adding the 1st milk as it tends to split.
Step 6
Heat a ladle with a tbsp. of ghee and fry cashew and raisins in it till they turn brown. Pour this on the prepared payasu and serve hot.
Notes:-
- Use good quality dates. I used soft variety. Instead of cooking the dates in water, you can also soak them in warm milk and grind to a fine paste and proceed with the recipe.
- Using Sooji rava in this recipe is optional. The main purpose of adding it is to increase the quantity and give a thick texture to the payasu.
- Instead of sooji rava it can be replaced with raw rice.I n that case soak 1/2 fist full raw rice in water for 1/2 an hour and grind it to a not so fine paste/rava consistency and follow the same step used to cook rava.
- If you want just skip adding rava/rice and proceed further.
- Cup measurement may differ from person to person so adding water to cook rava depends. So always keep an eye and if necessary add warm milk or water to cook rava/rice paste.
- In case if you are not able to extract coconut milk then use warm milk to cook the rava and the dates later at the final stage add instant coconut milk powder dissolved in water. To get a thick consistency of the milk follow the method on the cover of the packet.
- Colour of the jaggery depends from place to place, but need not worry about the taste. I have used light colour jaggery hence the payasam colour is light.
- Even some dates when cooked gives darker colour too.
- Be careful with the step 5 procedure.Do not overcook or boil too much after adding the thick extract of coconut milk, because this mixture will curdle .
Konkani Khann Anik Jevan 
V v Delicious paysu wonderful
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