Recipe credit: Darshana Muzumdar
Serves 6 to 8 people as part of a traditional Indian meal.
Ingredients
- ½ cup chana dal (Bengal gram)
- ½ cup wheat rava (semolina) or rice flour
- ½ cup broken cashew nuts
- 1 cup jaggery
- 1 large coconut (2 cups grated coconut)
- 10-12 cardamoms
- ¼ cup coconut pieces sliced thin (optional)
Method
- Wash and soak the chana dal and cashew nuts separately for an hour.
- Roast the semolina (if you are using it) on low to medium heat till it changes colour slightly and releases its aroma.
- Rinse them and cook them together in 3 cups of water in a large thick bottom steel pot.
- While the dal is cooking, soak the grated coconut in one and a half cups of hot oiling water for 15 minutes.
- Blend the coconut with just enough water to cover it once it is cooled off until it is very fine. Strain this through a muslin cloth placed over a pot to get the thick first extract of milk. Repeat once again with the leftover to get around two cups of coconut milk from both together.
- When the chana dal is cooked add the jaggery, two cups of water and bring it to a boil. Cook it on low to medium heat till the jaggery is dissolved.
- Add half a cup of water to the rice flour if you are using it and mix it well so there are no lumps.
- Add either the wheat rawa or rice flour in the sweet payas, add another half or one cup of water and mix it well. Bring it to a boil mixing it gently to prevent any lumps and cook it on low to medium heat till the rava or the rice flour is cooked well.
- Add the coconut milk and bring it to a boil on medium heat. Turn off the heat immediately and take the pot off it.
- Add the cardamom powder and mix it well.
- Serve hot or at room temperature. It can also be served chilled though traditionally it isn’t.
For the Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) version:
Use the entire finely ground coconut without straining it instead of the coconut milk. Also reduce the amount of coconut a little bit if you wish as the payas will become much thicker.
Use soft or soaked dates, or soaked raisins, instead of jaggery. Grind the dates/raisins along with the coconut. You may need to use more dates than normal because the fibre in the ground coconut will reduce the sweetness of the payas.
