Pazham Pradhaman - Vishu Special

Nendram pazham is one of my fav variety of banana. My mil buys that almost twice a week. My MIL born and brought up in Palakkad, so there will always a kerala touch in our menu. This is a perfect payasam for vishu.

Ingredients:

·         Nendram banana – 4 – ground into smooth paste

·         Jaggery – as much as the quantity of banana paste

·         Water – 2 cups

·         Semi thick Coconut milk – 1 cup

·         Ghee – 2 tbsp

·         Cashews – around 10 roughly chopped.
·         Cardamon powder - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

Extract thick milk from half a coconut. You can also use store bought coconut milk, Or dilute store bought coconut milk with about 1 cup of water.

Roughly chop cashews and fry them in ghee till golden brown.

Cut nendram pazham into slices and grind it into smooth paste. Keep it aside

Method:

Measure same amount of jaggery as the banana paste.  1:1 ratio. You can also reduce a lil if you prefer a less sweeter version.

Heat a thick bottom vessel, add jaggery and a cup of water and let the jaggery melt completely in the water. There is no need to attain any string consistency, just melting should be fine. Switch off the stove and strain the impurities from the jaggery syrup if any.

Now in another vessel, add the banana paste and a cup of water and heat until the banana gets cooked well and attain a shiny consistency. For about 5 mins.

Add the jaggery syrup into the banana paste and let it cook for about 10 mins with occasional stirring till it starts boiling. 

Switch off the stove, add the coconut milk.

Add fried cashews.

Add cardamon powder. Mix well.

Payasam ready.

Serve it either hot or cold.