Appi payasa/ appe payasam/ Appi kheer

Happy Shree Krishna Janmashtami to all my readers & friends! Any festival won’t be complete without a sweet! People look for quick or traditional recipes too!

Today, I am focusing a traditional dessert called appi payasam. This was initially introduced to me by my friend Anuradha, until then I knew only halittu/ ade payasam. It is very similar to haalittu payasa which is made with cooked rice batter, whereas appi payasa is made with deep fried wheat flour dough. Though process of making appi payasam is bit lengthy with 2 different phases of making fried poories & adding them in thick sweetened milk, it is worth trying for the taste!

Now let us see the process.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Wheat flour/ maida – ¼ cup

Small semolina/ chiroti rava – ¼ cup

Ghee – 3 tbsp

Salt – ¼ tsp

Oil – for deep frying (1.5 cup)

Full fat Milk - ¾ ltr

Milk powder – 3 tbsp (optional)

Sugar – 1.5 – 2 cups

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Cashews, almonds, raisins – 2 tbsp

Method:

• Combine wheat flour, fine rava, 2 tbsp ghee and salt. Make dough of poori dough consistency by adding little water at a time. Kneed well and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• Now dissolve milk powder in milk and bring to boil. Add sugar, simmer and boil for 10 minutes or until milk becomes little thick.
• Meanwhile, divide poori dough into small balls of equal size. Roll to make pooris.
• Heat oil in a thick bottomed wok/ pan. When ready, drop poori one by one and fry until crisp. Drain oil completely & transfer to a plate with spread tissue paper.
• When it cools a bit, make pieces of pooris by tearing with fingers and add it to the boiled thick & sweet milk.
• Add cardamom powder,mix and bring to boil. Switch off the heat.
• Fry nuts/ raisins with 1 tbsp ghee and add that too to the kheer.
• Serve this payasam/ kheer hot.

Notes:

• Instead of making pooris & cutting them to make pieces, you can also roll into bigger pooris, cut into desired shape and then fry.
• Milk powder is optional, & you can prepare this payasa with only milk.
• Saffron strands can also be added for the flavor.