Nendran pazham pradhaman/payasam/Ripe plantain payasam

I love Onam because it reminds me a lot of my childhood days when my then lovely neighbours used to pass on lovely food.Back then it was really exciting to get food from friends' or even eat from out.Small kiddy wishes we used to have.

Wishing all my friends from Gods own country(Kerala) a prosperous Onam.

I was really occupied for the past week having my inlaws visit me and then the kids and exam time it is!!I hardly had time to turn on my laptop to even blog hop forget blogging.Nowadays my blogging is confined to minutes where i just rush and jot down down something and post it.I hope i don't lose interest on doing this speed blogging.

I first tasted this payasam at my sister's wedding lunch where we served two types of payasam.At home my mom's parupu/moong dal payasam is a big big hit and I haven't posted it here yet.When she comes to visit me I should ask her to do a guest post for me!! :P I usually run away when I see coconut milk in any recipe but this I really wanted to try and its Onam so a payasam has to make its way here.

Preparation time : 45 minutes

You need

Ripe plantain/nendranpazham/kerala banana 1
Jaggery 1 cup or less
Water 1/2 cup
Cardamom/elaka 3 pods
Dried ginger/chukku half an inch piece crushed
Coconut milk 1st extract half 1/2 cup
Coconut milk 2nd extract 1 cup
Ghee 2-3 tablespoons
Cashew nuts 8-10 numbers
Raisins 2 tablespoon

• Keep the coconut milk ready.
• Fry the nuts and raisins in a tablespoon of ghee and keep aside.
• Peel the plantain and chop it roughly, steam it in a steamer or cooker.I poured some water into the cooker and placed the banana in another vessel and placed into the cooker and steamed it for about 2 whistles.
• Once it cools down, remove the black seed part by slitting the banana pieces in quarters.
• Mash the banana with a wooden spoon or ladle.
• In another vessel, crush the jaggery roughly and place in water along with the cardamom pods and crushed chukku/dry ginger.Heat this until the jaggery melts completely, strain and keep aside to remove any impurities.
• Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a heavy bottom saucepan, add the mashed plantain and cook it until a nice aroma starts coming be careful the banana will tend to stick to the bottom if left unattended.
• Once the banana is soft add the jaggery syrup.Allow to cook further for 5-7 minutes until the banana starts breaking down.
• Add the second extract of coconut milk allow to simmer and stir regularly.Allow to cook for another 3-4 minutes then add the first extract and stir well for a minute on low flame and turn off the flame.
• Add the ghee roasted nuts and raisins into the payasam.
• Delicious payasam is ready to be served hot or cold.

Enjoy your Onam with a traditional payasam/pradhaman and sadya.

Ona sadya usually has an array of coconut based vegetarian dishes.Some of the other sadya items you can find below  :

Avial 
Mathanum payarum
Puli Inji
Arachu vita sambar
Rasam
Semiya coconut payasam
Javvarisi/sago payasam