On this Vishu day I want to Wish all my Readers and Friends a Happy and Prosperous Vishu. Hope this Vishu (Hindu New Year) will bring you all the happiness and prosperity you longed for.
In Kerala, southern part of India the New Year is celebrated as Vishu, a harvest festival; in neighboring Tamil Nadu it is celebrated as Tamil Puthandu and in Punjab it is celebrated as Baisakhi and in Assam it is celebrated as Bihu.
During Vishu ( April-May, this year April 14th), Laburnums/Golden shower( Cassia fistula) flowers starts to bloom, glittering everything with its beautiful yellow color, even a special variety of cucumber shows off its skin in beautiful yellow. In Kerala, Jack fruit, Mango, Cashew trees are in full form starting to share their crop from top to bottom.
There is beautiful story behind those golden yellow Laburnms flowers/ Kanikonna. In a village there was a small boy from poor household who loved God Krishna a lot, and he always wished one day he can meet lord Krishna. One fine day lord Krishna appeared before him and asked him what he wanted, he told Lord Krishna I am happy, and I don’t need anything. But God wanted to him something, so gave him his midriff gold chain (aranjanam) as a present. Next day when temple priest came and saw that idol of Lord Krishna was without gold chain, people thought it was stolen. And when they say the boy with gold chain they called him, thief. His mom got upset hearing this and gave him a spanking and took the gold chain and throw it into the floor. Suddenly that chain turned into a beautiful golden Laburnms flowers/ Kanikonna. Laburnms tree wait for every year to flower in April May just before this festival and stop flowering after that.
Vishu always brings me a lot of nostalgia, waiting for the ruppee coins which appa would give us in the form of Vishukainettam. In the early hours of the morning we would get up to see Vishukani. And we pray to God to keep us safe, happy and prosperous. And a yummy feast would follow in the day. If you want to read ritual about Vishu, read hereand here.
Vishu is festival which startsm the harvest season, where as the other major festival Onam is more like a Thanksgiving festival for a honest king who ruled the country long years ago. Both north and south Kerala celebrate Vishu with Vishukani (First sight in the morning), kaineetam (coin giving to younger ones by elders as a simple act of sharing the prosperity) and a feast, where as in central and northern it is celebrated along with fire crackers.
Vishu feast is always about having seasonal harvest flavors, Mango, Jackfruit, Cashew nut tree, cucumber, and fresh fruits and vegetables. It also has traditional recipes like Vishu Kanji (a porridge made with rice, coconut), Vishu Katta, and Vishu ada. I need to try all these, I haven’t tried yet.
As usual for this Vishu too, we will have a vegetarian feast along with this tasty Payasam/ pradhaman and our Vishukani and Kainettam . Do you know among the pradhaman, who is the king? No doubt it is Ada Pradhaman/ Ada Payasam/ Pudding made with homemade rice flakes. I already made that. I am in quest for discovering the magical taste of traditional Kerala recipes. So when I saw a video of Aranmulla vella sadya recipes, I naturally got fascinated and wanted to try it. If you want to know more about Aranmulla Vella Sadya read my post here. Normally in pazham pradhaman, it is made with Nendran pazham/ Sweet plantains. Plantains are cooked first and then fried in jaggery/refined sugar to a thick paste and then again cooked with coconut milk and finally mixed with ghee and spices. No rice is used.
However in Aranmulla version, rice is cooked first and then thickened with jaggery / refined sugar then it is again cooked with coconut milk, when it ¾ done, there is addition of mashed banana with little sugar and cooked for a few minutes. Finally after switching off the flame are added roasted cumin powder, cardamom and dry ginger. Trust me it is really tasty, full of banana flavor. If you are looking for a vegan option skips the final addition of ghee. In the traditional recipe, kadali pazham is this red bananaor rasa kadaliis used. Since Rasa kadali pazham looks like our apple banana/Manzano banana, I used that to make this recipe as rasa kadali pazham is not available here in US.
Print Recipe from here
Pazham Pradhaman/ Pazham Payasam/ Apple Banana Rice Pudding: Aranmula Vallasadya Special
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Ingredients
Payasam rice/ Unakalari/ Broken Matta rice: ⅓ cup / 90g
Jaggery/ Unrefined Sugar: ⅔ cup/ 167g
Water: 3 ¼ cup
Coconut milk: ¾ cup ( I used Thai Kitchen)
Manzano/Apple Banana:3 no
Sugar: ½ teaspoon
Ghee: 1 tablespoon ( if you want a vegan free version skip this one)
Roasted cumin seed powder: ¼ teaspoon
Cardamom Powder: ¼ teaspoon (around 3 crushed cardamom)
Dry ginger/ Chukku podi : ⅛ teaspoon.
How I made
- Wash and pressure the cook the rice with 2 cup of water for about 10 minutes or until 2-3 whistles. Switch off and set aside.
- While the rice is cooking melt jaggery with ½ cup water and strain for impurities and set aside.
- Add this jaggery water into the rice and cook for about 10 minutes or until everything gets thickened well.
- To this add ¼ cup coconut milk and ¼ cup water and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Mash banana with sugar and set aside. Add this mashed banana into the cooked rice and jaggery mixture and cook for another 4 minutes.
- To this add thick coconut milk and cook for 1 minute. Then switch off flame and add cumin powder, cardamom powder and dry ginger powder and ghee. Enjoy warm.
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Follow Foodie says
Looks Yum
http://www.followfoodiee.com/
Reeni Pisano says
Happy Vishu to you and your family! What a scrumptious way to celebrate with this banana rice pudding! I have never seen one with apple before - so delicious together.
Saraswathi Tharagaram says
Simply awesome payasam, Thick and creamy..
Suja Manoj says
Looks divine,love your presentation..sure the addition of banana has made it very flavorful and delicious...
Guru Uru says
Happy new year my friend and it seems you had a delicious celebration 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Hema says
Very delicious and beautiful clicks..
Sanoli Ghosh says
Wish you a happy vishu Swathi. Delicious and creamy payasam.
today's post:
http://sanolisrecipies.blogspot.in/2013/04/rava-semolina-idli.html
Shailaja Reddy says
Wish u the same. Pudding looks delicious and tasty.
Sangeetha Priya says
Happy Vishu Swathi n delicious payasam ...
Arthy shama says
luvely story narration followed with detailed recipe... Wishing u belated vishu..
divya says
wow! so tempting..
Gayathri Ramanan says
looks delicious...nice clicks
Gajus kitchen says
Happy Vishu . Pazha pradhaman looks delicious and nice to know about the story behind the yellow flowers.
nilanjana majumdar says
This looks amazing and as much as I love Bengali version of this dish called Paayesh, I would quite happily indulge in the calories and flavours of this Vishu Special Payasam. Looks and sounds cooked to perfection!
Latha Madhusudhan says
what a combi of fruits, drooling.
Treatntrick Treat and Trick says
That's a lovely treat for special occasion!
PT says
very traditional presentation swati.. nice clicks..
Renata says
Happy Vishu to you and your family too! Thanks for sharing the New Year story, always interesting to learn about other cultures. Your pudding sounds delicious!
Rani Acharyulu says
Nice delicious payasam looks yummy Swathi, happy Vishu to you and your family.
Priya Anandakumar says
Wish you and your family a very happy vishu. very nice and yummy combo. beautifully made....
Beena.stephy says
Good payasam. will try . Happy Vishu
Vidhya Viju Govind says
yummy payasam - happy and prosperous vishu to u and ur loved ones!
Sapana Behl says
Thanks for info about Vishu! the pudding looks simple yet delicious..
Amrita Vishal says
Happy New Year to you!! Love the dish
Rafeeda AR says
such a thick and creamy payasam... i could just have that bowl... 🙂
Shri says
Happy Vishu to you too Swathi!:-)
Archana Potdar says
Happy Vishu to you.
Rita Bose says
Looks so delicious! Happy Vishu to you and your family, even though I'm a Bengali!! 🙂
http://www.rita-bose-cooking.com/
Shanavi says
Happy VIshu to ur family Swathi, superb finger licking payasam..
Hamaree Rasoi says
A Happy Vishu to you and your family. Payasam looks simply delicious.
Deepa
Babitha costa says
happy vishu to u
mjskit says
Happy Vishu to you and your family! Thanks for the information about Vishu. I knew nothing about the Hindu New Year, so it was quite interesting. Love learning something new! Have never seen a rice pudding with apple and banana. Sounds delicious!
Kaveri Venkatesh says
Never tried like this....Looks yummy Swathi! Also I didn't know about the Kani Konnai story...nice one..
Happy Vishu
CHITRA says
I wish to taste it 🙂
Eric Pepple says
Yummy! This sounds fantastic, great combination of flavors 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Veena Theagarajan says
wishing u happy Vishu Swathi. Nice combo.. Loooks yum
Julie says
nalla fruit combination...yummy payasam!!
Wishing u n family a very happy Vishu,Swathi:)