Avalakki Payasa- beaten rice pudding for Krishna Janmashtami

A very happy Janmashtami to all of you!!

I have been away for more than a week. This break was completely unplanned. My apologies for the disappearing act. S was away on a business trip for almost five days. While the man of the house was away, I decided some quality time bonding with our daughter. I thought it was the best thing to do as she will be starting school on Monday. Yes. My little girl will be starting school. Some how I have mixed feeling about it.

Over the past few days, I realized how much she is like me. We share the same passion for movies and books. So we went on an animated movie binge, Babbled with each other, danced to nursery rhymes, Solved jig saw puzzles, read fairy tales. It was almost like reliving my childhood. Somehow it was like having a holiday without stepping out of the house!!Sometimes the greatest pleasures of life lies in some very simple things. Just like this kheer.

Yes. This kheer is a perfect example for less is more. Since it is customary to prepare avalakki or beaten rice on Janmashatami, I decided to make Avalakki bele bhat for the savory dish and Kheer for the sweet dish. Even though this dish incorporates the same ingredients that you would see in regular kheer, i.e, milk, sugar, cardamom and dry furits, the star ingredient in this version is the beaten rice. Although this dish was made for Janmashtami, it became more of a home coming dessert for S. Purvi and S enjoyed each spoonful of the Payasa thoroughly. This made my day even more special.What more could a woman ask for??

Avalakki Payasa recipe:

Preparation time: 10min

Cooking time: 15min

Serves- 4

Ingredients:

Beaten rice or Poha- 1 cup

Full fat milk- 4-1/2 cups

Sugar- 6tbsp

Cardamom- 8, crushed

Ghee- 2 tsp

Milk powder- 2tbsp (optional)

Cashews- 10, chopped

Raisins- 2tbsp

Method:

• Heat one tea spoon of ghee in a pan and shallow fry the beaten rice till brown and crisp.
• Add milk to the beaten rice and cook the mixture on a low flame till the beaten rice is completely cooked and soft.
• Add the milk powder and the crushed cardamom and cook for another 5min.
• Take off the heat and add the sugar and mix well and keep aside.
• Heat the remaining ghee in another pan. Add the chopped cashews and fry till brown
• Add the raisins and fry till they puff up. Take off the heat and add the fried dry fruits to the kheer.
• Mix well and serve warm or cold

Note: The addition of milk powder is optional. But I have noticed that milk powder gives a rich, pudding like flavour to the kheer. Alternatively, the milk powder can be substituted with either cream or condensed milk.