Parippu Pradhaman is a special dessert of the type “payasam” usually served during special occasions like a wedding. Parippu means lentil (dal) and this payasam is prepared by using split green gram lentils. I would say, the mix of melted jaggery and fresh coconut milk makes it a special and important item (pradhaman means number 1) in Kerala sadhya.
The usual color of this payasam is dark brown or almost black. But for that you should use dark colored jaggery. If you use white/yellowish colored one, payasam comes out as yellowish, but taste would be almost same.
So, try to go with dark colored jaggery and enjoy the appearance as well :-).
Ingredients
- Dal (Moong Daal) : 1 cup
- Jaggery : 200g
- Water : 6 cups
- Grated Coconut : 3 Cups
- Ghee : 3 teaspoons
- raisins & cashewnut : 10 each
Preparation:
Step 1:
Keep a pan on flame/heat and add dal into it. Fry dal till it becomes crispy. You can check the crispiness by try breaking one dal using you teeth. It breaks into pieces with a crispy sound. Am sure you feel the crispiness when you break it. If you overfry the dal, there would be lots of uncooked dal in payasam.
Step 2:
In a pressure cooker, add fried dal, 3 cups of water and heat it till you get two whistles. Open the pressure cooker after 15 minutes.
Step 3:
In a pan, add jagerry and one cup of water and boil it till jagerry gets fully melted. Strain and keep the jagerry water aside.
Step 4:
In a mixer grinder, grind grated coconut with 1 cup of water. Squeeze and strain and take out the coconut milk. Let’s call this as first grade milk. Grind the residue again with 1 cup of water and squeeze and strain again and take out the second grade milk.
Step 5:
Add jagerry water from step 3 into the cooked dal from step 2. Let it boil for 5-10 minutes in medium flame. Add second grade milk and boil again. Once it starts boiling reduce the flame to low and keep for around 30 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes. Once it gets thicker, add first grade milk and allow it to boil for few seconds and switch off. The consistency of this payasam is such that, when you pour in a plate, it should spreads across slowly and should not flow 🙂
Step 6:
In a small pan, add ghee and keep on flame/heat. Add cashew nuts and fry and add to payasam from step5. Same way fry raisins and add. Usually small dried coconut pieces will be fried and added to prathaman. I don’t prefer to do so.
Step 7:
Enjoy having pradhaman in banana leaf just after your main course in sadya 😉
