Aval Date Payasam | Poha Khajur Kheer | Beaten rice date pudding

Wish you all happy Sri Rama Navami.

I bought soft poha this time. Couldn’t find hard one in the nearby Indian store. I knew pretty well that the soft poha could not be used to prepare avalakki (aval upma), still ended buying that! Luckily I remembered the aval payasam (poha kheer) that amma prepares for Janmashtami. We would be more interested in the bakshanam (sweets & savories) prepared for the festival that aval payasam would go unnoticed. Amma wouldn’t let us finish our dinner with tasting the kheer (customary that the sweet taste should linger in our mouth). We would plead amma to prepare this kheer in less quantity so that it wouldn’t be an issue to finish it off. I don’t remember relishing this kheer however well amma prepares it 😀 For a change I added date (khajur) to the kheer and it tasted heavenly. Here is my version of Poha khajur kheer or Aval Date payasam.

Ingredients:

Aval (Poha/Beaten rice): 1 cup
Milk: 3 cups
Elachi (Cardamom)powder: 1/4 tsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Date (seed removed and chopped): 1 cup
Cashews: few
Raisins: few

Preparation method:

• Heat ghee and fry the aval till it turns light brownish in color.
• Allow it to cool.
• Coarsely grind aval and date in a mixer.
• Boil the milk.
• Now add sugar and elachi powder.
• Once the sugar dissolves completely, add the aval date mix to the boiling milk.
• Allow it to cook for 3-4 mins.
• Remove it from the stove top.
• Heat ghee and fry cashews and raisins.
• Add it to the kheer.
• Serve the kheer hot or cold.

Aval kheer with date tasted like “Appi payasa” (A dessert in kannada cuisine, will post it soon) or “Papada che Kheer” (in marathi).

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