Traditionally it is a naivedyam made by Palghat Iyer Brahmins as an offering to Bhagavathi ( Devi).
Ingredients :
2 kg broken Jaggery (brown, not salty),
350-400 gms uncooked rice (Govindbhog is small grain rice)
250-350 ml of Ghee,
1 large cup of Coconut pieces – rectangular 5 mm by 2 mm with copra on one side
1 cup split Cashewnuts
2-3 tsps of ground Cardamom.
Equipment :
Uruli or any thick bottomed deep and wide pan for making Payasam,
another thick bottomed vessel to melt the Jaggery pieces in some water overheat, another vessel to pour the melted jaggery,
one Aapai (deep ladle), one long wooden spatula (longer the better but should be at least 2 ft long),
a small vessel to fry coconuts and cashew in ghee.
Method :
Wash the rice couple of times and strain to remove any impurities. Add 2 cups of water to Uruli and let the water come to boil. Add the rice to the boiling water and stir for about half an hour till rice is cooked. Keep adding some water occasionally as and when required till rice is 80% cooked.
While the rice is cooking in Uruli, parallelly melt the Jaggery in the second thick bottomed vessel with some water by heating it. Pour the melted jaggery slowly into third vessel ensuring any sediments, grit, dust etc. do not flow into the third vessel with the jaggery.
Once the rice is cooked 80%, start adding the melted jaggery one ladle at a time over the next 30-40 minutes,with continuous stirring of the rice mix so that the jaggery is fully absorbed by the rice.
Tips :
1. Each ladle of jaggery should be added when the previously added jaggery gets absorbed and water evaporates. The rice mix will get slightly viscous and you may notice some resistance while stirring , at this point add next ladle of melted jaggery and continue this process till less than 20% jaggery is left at which point you may pour all the jaggery liquid into the rice mix. Stir carefully but continuously so that the rice mix doesn’t get burnt at bottom of Uruli.
2. If available wear long sleeved gloves to safeguard against hot mix bubbling out of Uruli (this is why extra-long wooden ladle preferred so that one can stand at a distance while stirring). Also,the stirring speed should be slow but deep – avoid fast stirring since it will increase the amount of bubbles bursting as more air will get mixed into the rice. Anti clockwise stirring also helps prevent spillage and splashing of the contents.
About 50 min to 1 hr. from process start (i.e.starting to cook rice), the rice and jaggery mixture should be nice and relatively viscous. At this point start adding the ghee and keep stirring. The ghee now needs to get absorbed in the rice. Adding the entire 250 ml of ghee with stirring will take about 20 minutes and the mixture should be viscous again.
Add the raisins and keep stirring. Switch off heat. Add some more ghee on top. Parallelly, fry the coconut bits in separate vessel in ghee until they turn creamish brown, at which point add the split cashewnut also and keep frying till cashew also turns light brown. Pour the mix into the Nei Payasam.
Add a couple of Tulsi (Basil leaves) if available, on top and Aravanapaayasam is ready to serve the Lord and then partake by all.
By V Anand Kumar
Simple home cooking 