Payasa, Payasam or ‘paays’ is the sweet dish, a must in all functions. The Konkani ‘Paays’ or ‘paaysu’ is broadly classified as ‘GoDa paays (Paays with jaggery )’ and ‘Saakre paays (Paays with sugar)’. As far as my observation goes, all the elder generations like the jaggery paays and younger generations usually like sugar paays.There are a few paays like tandla paays(rice paays), muga paays(moong paays) etc in the first category. I haven’t yet tried a single one in this type. May be its time I should try some.
Sabudana paays, shevya (vermicelli) paays etc are under the second category. Basically I am a fan of this kind of paays. I still remember, whenever my aayi asked what sweet I would like, my answer was always either sabudana or vermicelli paays :).
Ingredients: Sabudana(Sabutandul) 1 cup Sugar 1 cup Milk 1/2 cup Cardamom powder 1/2 tea spn Cashews & raisins(dry grapes) 1 tea spn
Methods:
Soak sabudana in water for about half an hour. Cook in 2 cups of water until it becomes transparent. Add sugar, cashews, raisins and cook for around 5 min. Add milk and cardamom. Paays tastes yummy, hot or chilled. Serves : 3 Preparation time : 15min
I was planning to post this recipe from many days. One of my reader, Manoj had inquired about this recipe a few days ago. In fact he had asked for the authentic Konkani “ Methi Sukke “. ‘ Sukke ‘ is some dry side dish usually containing coconut. So I started my quest for the recipe. Though I did not get the authentic ‘Sukke’, I made this absolutely delicious sukke :). I got this recipe from Sunil. Since I try to cook at least one non-coconut dish daily, either sambar or side dish, I loved this recipe.Well..I am saying that because, usually Konkani food contains coconut in almost all of the recipes. One more thing was, it looked something different and a healthy one too :).
Ingredients: 1 cup methi leaves(chopped) 3/4 cup toor daal or masoor daal 1/2 cup potato(boiled and cut into cubes) 1/2 cup chopped tomato 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 tea spn mustard seeds 3-4 green chilies 1/2 tea spn coriander powder(optional) 4-5 curry leaves
Oil Salt
Method: Cook daal (do not mash it) and keep aside. Heat oil and add 1/2 tea spoon mustard. When they start popping, add chopped onion. Fry till they become translucent (do not make them brown). Add chillies and grind it into a smooth mixture. Heat remaining oil and add mustard and curry leaves. Fry for some time and then add chopped tomatoes. Close the lid and cook till the tomatoes are completely cooked and all water is evaporated. Add methi leaves and cook for 5min. Now add the cooked daal , ground mixture, potatoes and salt. Mix everything and cook for 2-3 min. Add coriander powder, mix well and cook for about 2min again. Serve hot with chapathi or rice.
Serves : 3 Preparation time : 30min
