Payasa(Kannada) or Payasam or Paays(Konkani) or Kheer(Marathi/Hindi) must be the most authentic sweet dish from Southern India. We make this sweet dish with so many different things. Traditionally it was made of jaggery, but now, sugar is widely used. Any South Indian festival/function is not complete without paays.When I was a kid, we all kids loved sugar paays and grown up people liked jaggery paays. Usually we kids won almost every time because if jaggery paays was made, none of us would touch it. Since no body at my home likes sweet, my mom has stopped making them these days, even if she makes, she makes mildly sweet. As far as I am concerned, I cook sweet when I feel like, not necessarily a festival, and I feel like eating it only once in a year or so. But I want to learn all of my traditional dishes whether they are spicy or sweet. So I try to make them once in a while.
Today I cooked this wheat – ganvu(Konkani) or godhi(Kannada) paays for dinner. One of my readers had requested for this recipe and I had bought whole wheat many days ago. Somehow I could never make it. Today I made a point to make something different than my staple vermicelli paays or sabudana paays. Luckily I had a tin of coconut milk which I had picked from Indian store during my last visit. This paays got ready in around 25mins and it was just out of the world.
This is an instant paays recipe. This might not be the traditional one, but I am happy I tried it. I got this recipe in a Kannada weekly. Small pieces of wheat can be tasted in the paays which enhances the richness of this sweet dish.
Wish you all a very happy Yugadi(thats how it is pronounced in Kannada) / Gudi padva.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat
1/2 cup jaggery
1 cup thick coconut milk
1/4 tea spn cardamom powder
1 tbl spn raisins(dried grapes)
Method:
Wash the wheat and grind it to a coarse paste.
Add around 2 cups of water to it and cook on a low flame mixing it at regular intervals. You can see the mixture thickening. This sticks to bottom very soon, so keep mixing it. Add coconut milk, jaggery, raisins and cook for around 10mins.
Take out from heat, add cardamom powder and mix well. Serve hot or cold.
Serves : 2-3
Preparation time : 25mins
PS: The raisins can be fried in ghee and then added to the paays.
Milk can be used in the place of coconut milk.
I think lapsi(broken wheat) can be used instead of whole wheat. Just wash it well before using. If it is too coarse, grind it a bit before using.
Hey Shilpa,
Happy Ugadi..
Nice looking payasa. I generally make this with lapsi..and sometimes I add jackfruit also. this is called “gharayi” in SK.
Thanks,
Hi Shilpa,
Can I use semolina/suji flour instead of wheat for this? Or, whole wheat flour?
Thanks.
~Amit
Dear Shilpa
I just love your site. Recipes from other sites are complicated and just saved to be done some other day. (They rarely get cooked) But your recipes make me feel like cooking right now. Your style of narration is simple and friendly and the lovely introduction to the recipe is simply wonderful. Keep it up Shilpa. Happy Yugadi to Your family and You. By the way, Your cake decoration is out of the world. All the flowers look yummy.
Dear Shilpa do you mean whole ganv? Ideally what variety of ganv is taken for this paays. Does the laapsi variation taste as good as this?
Gowri, I didn’t know it has a separate name in SK. Thanks for letting me know.
Amit, do not use flour to make this dish. The pieces of wheat which you can feel while eating enhances the taste. I will post the rava/sooji payasam soon.
Shubhada, thanks for your kind words. Let me know if you try anything. Btw, I am very happy that you find these recipes very easy to make. That’s my main intention. Let me know what recipes you want to see here(there is a recipe request page link on top), any kind of suggestions which would help me to improve this site/blog is always welcome 🙂
You can pick up any kind of wheat. Lapsi is also fine, just make a paste of it, if it is too coarse.
Never made Godhi payasa,very creative! Thanks sweetie:))
Shilpa-
This looks so tempting and simple to make! I find this particular combination of flavours intriguing, in that it reminds me very much of a classic Italian sweet pastry known as “Torta Della Nonna” (literally, “grandmother’s cake”). The filling for this cake/pastry is made of a custard(milk and eggs), thickened and fortified with whole wheat grains(they are left whole in this case), sweetened with sugar and flavoured with vanilla. If the eggs were removed, the wheat smashed a bit, coconut and cardamom used in place of milk and vanilla, you would have this paays/payasa/payasam/kheer! Perhaps complicated dishes have beginnings in less-complicated, humble and nourishing dishes such as this. The jackfruit doesn’t fall far from the tree… 🙂
Speaking of jackfruit, A few days back I made a jackfruit “pradaham”… Shilpa, do you or anyone else know if this word has the same meaning as “payasam/payasa/paays”?
Shilpa, my comments are ending up in your spam filter. The one for cake is not there.
Let me see whether this will go through.
Hi Shilpa,
I was just dying to eat some ethnic sweet dish. Thanks for that post. By the way no need to soak the wheat?
Thats a delicious goDshe for Ugadi. Shilpa, Happy Samsaar padvo to you and your family.
I made maDgaNe using frozen coconut milk available in the Chinese markets, they have better taste and sweet flavor unlike the canned ones.
hey shilpa , Happy Ugadi to you and your family , i started blogging recently and came across your blog today
Hi Shilpa
A very happy ugadi to u and ur family..
wheat payasam is looking awesome.
Hi Shilpa,
Happy Ugadi. Ive had a bag of broken wheat for a while and did not know what to make with it. Now I can try your payasam.
Looks delicious! I’ll have to watch out for whole wheat next time to try this recipe out!
Happy Ugadi Shilpa.
The payasam looks delicous
-Sushma
Shilpa,
I love the new style of your blog! Looks ubercool. Now you are the next blogger to turn pro at cake decoration, nice of you to share your learnings about your teacher!
Have a wonderful year ahead.
love
nandita
i love this payasa shilpa. tastes better with jaggary than sugar. i made dates payasa for ugadi.
happy ugadi to u and ur family:)
Hi Shilpa
Thanks for the recipe. I will surely make it as I am eating only cracked wheat as a substitute for rice.
Shilpa… I made ‘madgane’ on Samsar Padvo (Gudi Padwa in Marathi) This is a slight variation. I have abt two fistful of lapsi left, was wondering what can i made. Thanks for the recipe and for the small qty of lapsi which can be used. Gowri made me miss garayi by writing abt it in her comment. Need to look if i can get fresh jackfruit.
Hi Shilpa.. Happy Yugadhi to u and ur family.
Nice payasam for the festival.
Asha, this dish turns out very good. Do try it. I had ignored it for a long time, but I am happy I tried this.
Pelicano, thats a very nice piece of information. I am learning so much from you. Thanks. I haven’t heard of the sweet you have mentioned. Let me search for it.
Inji, SpamKarma was acting weired. I have fixed it now. Thanks for letting me know.
Molin, you need not soak the wheat. I just washed it and ground it. Make sure to grind to a coarse powder.
Manjula, I bought a fresh tender coconut from Chinese store sometime back. It was spoiled. So I have stopped shopping for any such items in Chinese store. But will surely try sometime, thanks.
Rahin, thanks and wish you the same. Welcome to blogging world.
Swapna, thanks and wish you the same.
Nandita, I am trying to become a pro, but I am sure it would take me a very long time. But since Micheals is just across the street, I didn’t want to miss the classes :). I am happy to know you liked the template :D. Thanks dear.
Sia, yes, I didn’t add sugar, the jaggery gives a very different taste to it. I simply loved it. A very happy Ugadi to you too.
Lakshmik, let me know if you try this.
Aruna, let me know how it turns out. I liked it, I hope you will also like. I asked my mom about garayi, will see if I can get jackfruit here. I have never tasted it.
Thanks Prema. Wish you the same.
Shilpa,
I make godhi payasa in a slightly different way. Here is the procedure:
I use broken wheat(godhi nuchchu in Kannada). Slightly roast the wheat with a little ghee till the raw smell disappears and then pressure cook it with milk (2 whistles). Transfer to a pan and add jaggery. Add a fine paste made of coconut with 2tsp khuskhus(soak the khuskhus in water for 1/2hr..otherwise it will not grind properly). Cook for a few mins and add raisins and cashews fried in ghee.
While serving, mix with a little milk to get the reqd consistency.
Pleas try this and let me know.
Cheers,
Pavithra
hi,
i have just got married and tried some of your recipes like the wheat payasam. it came out really well and my husband and inlaws were very happy. this is a good website and is very easy to follow. i wish you come out with more creative dishes and help ladies like me to do something new and better.
Hi Shilpa,
You have a nice, simple and a dedicated blog. I stumbled upon your blog in a despair to cook new, newer, and newest stuff for my kid, who is hard to please when it comes to food and for my husband who is just the opposite and I used to hate cooking.
My request is can you post some fun foods for kids..if you have any recipes or if you mom does. I know mothers will always have a way to please children. Also I was hoping if you had a recipe for besan laddu or saatu (marwari recipe) if possible. I love it but could never get it right! Thanks! and Keep up the great work!
Hi Shilpa,
Thanks for the recipe. Please clarify if we have to soak whole wheat before making paayas?
Thanks
I did not soak it. You can soak it to help in fast grinding and cooking if needed.
Shilpa.. I tried this recipe last evening and it came out really well. My family just loved the payasam. Thanks for posting this recipe. You have forgotten to mention when the jaggery needs to be added while making the payasam.