Any celebration in India is marked by at least one sweet dish and more often than not, it is with a payasa / payasam / kheer / pudding. And there is no end to the types of pudding if we begin listing. The keyword – “Innovation” has crawled into the catering business too as a differentiator and it is also the key to sustenance. Caterers who offer more innovative and first-in-the-town kind of food will never fall out of favour!!! Today’s recipe is of one such dish, which is quite unique yet very tasty.
Well, today’s dish, one from my mom’s innovative recipe lists, her expert tips and our memories – ‘Hekkarpe Paramanna’ as it is called in my mother tongue, which is nothing but Sauthekai Payasa / Cucumber Pudding– is easy to cook and is healthy too. It is hardly time consuming.
Working ladies / bachelors / super moms – this recipe is for you.
Here we go with the recipe:
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Total time : 20 minutes
Servings : 3
Ingredients:
Cucumber : 1 medium sized ( or 2 cups full of chopped cucumber)
Fresh coconut milk : 1 cup
Jaggery : 3/4th cup
Salt : a pinch
Wheat flour : 2 tsp.
Water : 1 cup
Ghee roasted dry fruits : little
Method :
- Clean, scrape and chop cucumber finely
- In a cup of water add the chopped cucumber and jaggery and cook over medium flame for about 10 minutes
- After 10 minutes, add coconut milk and mix well
- If you feel the consistency is very thin, you may add wheat flour paste (Mix wheat flour in little water and make a paste) to it and stir well
- Bring it to boil
- Add powdered cardamom and a pinch of salt to it and mix ( A pinch of salt, makes the dish sharper in its taste)
- Add the ghee roasted dry fruits and mix well
- Serve it hot
Note :
- Wheat flour is used as a thickening agent here. Don’t add the wheat flour directly. Make a smooth paste with little water and then add the the wheat flour paste to the payasa with continuous stirring
- You may even replace wheat flour with vermicelli or sago, if you wish to
- If the cucumber is tender, you may retain the peel too
Cucumber payasa stories :
Cucumber is one of the vegetables which is home grown in the backyards of almost every household in the rural South Canara region. This sweet dish prepared particularly using such cucumbers leave a different taste in our tongue which lasts for a long time. Nevertheless, it can be prepared with cucumber available in the city markets. We always cherished this dish which mom prepared over the weekends when we would have guests visiting us, or during a festival. My mother could prepare halwa or payasam pretty much out of any vegetables. Cucumber payasa is one among them and is one of my favourite too.
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