Figs kheer/ Anjoor payasa

Hello there, hope you are doing good & staying warm this winter. Today, I am sharing a delicious dessert recipe for this winter with figs. It is anjeer/ anjoor payasa or figs kheer. If you like bananapayasa or dates kheer, then you will definitely love this.

The fig variety that I used is elephant ear fig which we harvest in good numbers from my garden during the season! So far, I made delicious fresh figs milkshake, banana & figs smoothie, anjeer banana buns, Fresh figs halwa and figs & banana bread. This time, I tried preserving some of the figs harvested by following the same method we use to preserve ripe banana.  I stored this sweetened & cooked fig in freezer and used in payasa after a month. It turned out very tasty. Optionally you can add few dates while making this sweet/ pudding. Here, I am writing the process of making payasa with fresh figs, not with pre-processed figs. You can use pureed & processed figs or dry figs too.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Well ripe juicy figs – 6 nos

Jaggery (powdered/ grated) – 1 cup, Adjust according to desired sweet taste

 Sugar – 3-4 tbsp

Coconut milk – 1 cup thick & 1 cup thin

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Dates – 6-8 (optional)

Chopped nuts of choice (cashews/ almonds) – 2tbsp

Ghee – 3 tsp

 

Method:

• Wash and soak dates in water for half an hour. Remove seeds.
• Wash figs, peel the skin and chop the pulp roughly.
• Take chopped figs & soaked dates in mixer jar and make smooth paste without adding water if possible.
• Take a thick kadai/ pan, add 2 tsp ghee and ground paste of figs & dates.
• Add 3 tbsp sugar, mix well. Heat this on medium flame, stirring frequently.
• Take care not to burn this mixture. Switch off the stove when fig paste is cooked well and it forms a single mass leaving the sides. Process will take around 15 minutes. (If you are planning to store this for few days, then cook until it turns to halwa consistency).  
• Now, add this cooked figs mix & thin coconut milk in a thick vessel or in the same pan in which figs are cooked. Mix well and bring this to a boil.
• Meanwhile, prepare jaggery syrup with little water, strain to remove any impurity.
• Add this syrup to the boiling kheer, further boil for a while.
• At the end add thick coconut milk and switch off when it just starts bubbling. Do not boil it after adding thick coconut milk as it will result in curdling.
• Top with roasted/ fried nuts in little ghee. Serve this kheer/ payasa hot or chilled.

Notes:

• If you are using dry figs, then soak them in water for a while before grinding like how I added dates. You can directly add this ground paste to coconut milk & boil to make kheer.
• The process remains same to make dates payasa.