Ada Payasam Pradhaman

Summary

Prep Time	1 hr 30 mins
Cook Time	1 hr
Total Time	5 hrs 30 mins
Course	Dessert
Cuisine	European
Servings (Default: 12)

Ingredients

Instructions

Ada are dried flakes made from pre-cooked rice. Outside of Kerala, in other parts of India they are known as palada, so the same dessert can also be found under the name of Palada Payasam Pradhaman. Ada can be bought ready-made in Indian grocery stores. Insofar as preparing the Ada yourself is by far the most complex part of the dish, you should seriously consider buying ready-made Ada. However, purchased Ada must be pre-cooked for about 15 minutes until it has a soft consistency.
To make your own Ada, wash the rice first, then soak it in warm water for an hour. Drain and leave to stand for two hours wrapped in a cloth.
Then add two teaspoons of liquid ghee, two teaspoons of sugar and some warm water and puree with a hand blender. The finished mass should have a viscous consistency. Therefore do not use too much water.
In India, the mass is now spread in small portions on banana leaves and cooked in hot water. Since this variant is often not available, you can switch to a steam or bamboo cooker.
Spread the dough on an oiled sheet of paper until it is pancake starch and let it steam for a few minutes until the mixture has solidified. Now rinse the rice cake from both sides with water so that the stickiness is lost. The pancake has no internal bond and therefore likes to disintegrate in the process. Since it will be cut into pieces later anyway, this is not a problem. Steam several times and wash again after a few minutes until you can no longer feel any hard pieces of rice when you try it.
For the rest of the procedure, first prepare three different intensities of coconut milk. In India itself, people begin to finely grate the meat of two fresh coconuts. In Europe, it is appropriate to use desiccated coconut. Add some warm water and let it steep for a few minutes so that the water takes on the coconut flavor. Mix again briefly with the hand blender for a more intense taste. The amount of water should be measured in such a way that only about 100 ml of intensive coconut milk is obtained when squeezing it.
For the second, slightly less intense coconut milk, pour enough water into the desiccated coconut so that about 300 ml coconut milk is squeezed out. 400 ml of the third coconut milk, which is already much thinner, are required.
Melt the ghee, break the Ada into pieces and fry well. Boil the jaggery and white sugar in a little water until everything has dissolved. The amount for jaggery and sugar is measured for the Indian taste, so that the dessert is very sweet. The amount can be reduced for calorie-conscious cooking. Add the sugar syrup and 400 ml of the third coconut milk to the Ada, stir and let simmer for ten minutes. Next add the 300 ml of the second coconut milk and simmer for another five minutes.
Fry the cashews and raisins in a little ghee and stir together with the first coconut milk and cardamom in the dessert mixture. The coconut cream should have a viscous consistency. Remove from heat and let cool and steep for a few minutes.
Serve warm in small bowls.
As with many Indian dishes, the result does not show the amount of work that went into the preparation. However, you will be rewarded with a wonderful taste. Depending on the jaggery used, the color of the Ada Payasam Pradhaman can vary between beige and dark brown.