Yesterday was one of those days when I wanted to try something new. I wanted it to be a totally new sweet. So I thought of making halva out of some unexpected vegetable. I checked my fridge/freezer and saw I had 2 packs of frozen green peas which needed to be used soon. So I thought of making halva with them. The final result was very good. V could not stop eating it, so in my opinion, it was a success.
After I finished making this, I wanted to see if someone else had made this before. I googled and found this and this . So, I was not totally crazy to try something like this afterall :).
Ingredients: 4 cups green peas (frozen or fresh) 2 and 1/2 cups sugar 2 tbl spn cashew pieces 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 2 tbl spn ghee 1/2 cup whole milk
Method: Microwave green peas with 1/2 cup water for 5 mins (or cook on stove top for 5-6mins). Grind to a smooth paste. Heat the paste in a thick bottomed pan. Keep stirring for about 10mins. Then add sugar, cashews. Cook it for about 15-20mins, taking care not to burn it. Keep stirring often. Add ghee, milk and stir it. Cook till the mixture looks quite dry. Add cardamom powder, mix well. Serve.
PS: – This sticks to bottom of the pan very quickly. So keep stirring it. – The sweetness largely depends on the sweetness of the peas. I used the green peas from Indian store (not the sweet green peas from American stores). Start with 1 cup sugar, taste it and if required, gradually increase the sugar. – I used a big pan to give me enough room for stirring.
Pictorial:
There are many payasams/payasas that we make for festivals/special occasions. By modifying the ingredients/method slightly, entirely new sweetdish is made. Check out doodh paank , tandla paays , madagane . These all recipes have almost the same ingredients but taste very different due to the slight difference in method. My mother used to prepare this paays, we used to like it very much.
Ingredients: 1/4 cup rice 1/4 cup Sugar 4 cups milk 2 tea spn cashew nuts 2 tea spn raisins 1/4 tea spn Saffron strands 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder
Method: Soak rice in water for about half an hour.Grind it with some milk (about 2 tablespoons ) to a coarse paste.Boil the remaining milk in a pan. Add the ground paste of rice to the milk while stirring it continuously.Add cashews, raisins and saffron to this mixture and continue to heat it till they are cooked. Add sugar and boil for two more minutes. Sprinkle cardamom powder. Milk paayasam is ready to serve.
Serves : 4 Preparation time : 20mins
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