Mani Payasam - Sago Dessert

Mani Payasam (Jevvarisi Payasam) - Sago Dessert

Jevvarisi or Sago (Sabbakki / Sabudana) was our first solid baby food in the days when cereal food tins for babies were still a long way off in the market. Mother roasted the sago and ground it to a smooth flour and stored it for her babies. Two or three table spoons of this flour was cooked in water to a gruel (koozh) like consistency. Though I don’t remember my ‘jevvarisi koozh’ days, I cannot forget the way my younger siblings relished the koozh, sometimes with milk and sugar, and other times with mashed lentil and thin rasam. The way they chuckled with the koozh smeared all over, when mother turned away her face in mock fright to avoid their koozh filled kisses! This is a picture still remains a happy picture etched in my mind.

Jevvarisi payasam has been an all time favourite among the children in our family. The Sago or tapioca pearls look like transparent glass beads when cooked, and tastes heavenly in the creamy milk and sugar payasam, thus earning its pet name “Mani Payasam” (bead payasam).

Sago, a product derived from the tuber tapioca is full of starch. It is also said to be a good coolant. The addition of milk and sugar makes this heat buster and energizer into a refreshing drink on hot swealtery days.

INGREDIENTS:
Sago – 1 cup
Milk – 3 cups
Sugar – ¾ cup
Ghee – 2 tsps
Raisins – a few
Cashew nuts – a few
Cardamom powder – 1 pinch
METHOD:
1. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and roast sago until all the pearls pop up.
2. Boil milk with one cup of water and add the roasted sago.
3. Cook on low flame stirring now and then until all the pearls become transparent like glass beads.
4. Add sugar and cook till it blends well.
5. Add cardamom powder and roasted cashew nuts and raisins.
This Mani Payasam can be served warm.

If you want to covert this to a cool & exotic dessert, then add a drop of vanilla essence instead of cardamom powder and chill it. Raisins and cashew nuts are optional. Serve the chilled payasam in tall glasses topped with a scoop of vanilla or kesar pista ice cream.

Biscotti

Biscotti is my daily snack, I have it in my kitchen at all time for my craving teeth. I know many of you know how to made it but it's just a sharing as I didn't bake and blog much recently. This is a recipe from James Martin. I've been using his recipe for many years as my snack or gift for friends. I find homemade biscotti is always richer because we could add any nuts as we like and the quantity of nuts added will not stingy at all. The nuts I like the most is Almond, Hazelnut and Pistachio. Other than nuts, I find that adding some lemon zest into the mixture taste really good. I used food processor to make the mixture, it's really a simple snack to make and nice to crave!

Recipe of James Martin (Desserts):

250g plain flour
125g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1 lemon zest
75g shelled pistachio nuts
50g whole blanched almonds
50g shelled hazelnut

1. Toast the shelled nuts in the preheated oven at 100'C for about 15 minutes.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest and baking powder in a large bowl (I mix the ingredients in a food processor). Add half the beaten eggs and mix well, then add half of what's left and mix again. Now add the last quarter a little bit at a time until the dough takes shape but isn't too wet (you may not need to use all of the eggs). Add the toasted nuts and mix well.
3. Divide the dough into six, roll into sausage shapes and place on the lined baking tray (wetting your hands before rolling these cut helps to prevent the dough sticking). Lightly flatten the doughs.
4. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave for 10 minutes to cool and firm up.
5. Using a serrated knife, cut the biscotti on an angle into slice. Lay the slices on the baking trays. Return to the oven and cook for 8 minutes, then turn the slices over and cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until a pale golden colour. Cool on wire racks, then store in airtight jars.

Dates Kheer

A healthy and delicious kheer with dates. To make a sugar free dessert, you can actually do with out adding sugar too, not to forget the natural sugar in the dates. I have added sugar since I made it when I had guests at home. This is a very easy recipe. Its almost like a dates milkshake transformed into a kheer. And it sure makes a rich dessert. No soaking required if using soft dates.

Ingredients
Dates deseeded - 100 gms/20 nos
Milk - 1 litre
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder -1 tspn
Ghee 1 tblspn
few cashew nuts to garnish

Method
Soak the dates in a cup of hot milk (from the 1 lite) for an hour. Grind to fine paste. If you would like to bite into tiny pieces of dates, you can make a coarse paste. Boil the remaining milk. When it comes to boil, simmer for few minutes in low flame. Stir in the ground dates and simmer till it
blends well. Add sugar and continue cooking till the sugar is well dissolved and kheer thickens. Add cardamom powder and remove from fire. Roast the cashew nuts in ghee and sprinkle on the kheer. You can also roast some finely chopped dates in ghee and add as garnish in addition to nuts. Serve warm or chilled.

I am sending the bowl of kheer to Srivalli's Mithai Mela.