On the occasion of Vinayaka Chaturthi today, I am sharing a simple sweet recipe. Thengai Payasam or Kobbari Payasam is a kheer made with fresh coconut and rice. Thengai (Tamil) & Kobbari (Telugu) means coconut and payasam means kheer/sweet pudding. We are big lovers of sweets and desserts at home and payasam is a must for any festival or celebration. I made this Coconut Rice Kheer for Varalakshmi Vratham a few days back and finally got around to sharing the recipe here. Today, I made a festive feast which included a quick & easy Semiya Payasam. Check out the details on my Instagram post!
I learnt this recipe of Kobbari Payasam from amma, she usually makes this as part of Friday naivedhyam for God. Although the main ingredient is fresh ground coconut, there is also a tiny amount of rice used. It gives thickness to the payasam and also makes it creamy. Both rice and fresh coconut ground together are cooked in milk, until creamy and rich. I love jaggery based payasam/kheer recipes and that’s why I love paramannam, paruppu payasam and chakka pradhaman. In this recipe of Thengai Payasam too, I used jaggery instead of sugar – in my opinion, it makes the payasam taste divine!
Making Thengai Payasam is very simple and quick. There is no fear of milk curdling or payasam getting thicker on cooling down. It is rich, creamy and really delicious. It is similar to the gasagasa payasam, except that we use soaked rice as the thickening agent in this recipe. Amma does a slightly different version of the same recipe by first cooking rice and coconut paste in water and jaggery. Once the mixture is well cooked, she adds boiled milk after switching off the heat. If you are worried about milk curdling when the jaggery is added, you can follow this approach. In all the times I have made this recipe, I never had that problem and I prefer cooking the mixture in milk for richer taste. Both ways work! Do give this recipe a try 🙂
📖 Recipe
Soak rice for an hour at least.
Grind it into a smooth paste with little water.
Now add chopped coconut and grind into a smooth paste.
Bring 2 cups of milk to a boil in a heavy pan.
Add the prepared paste and stir it quickly to avoid lumps.
Cook on low flame with constant stirring for 10-12 mins. It will thicken up. Add the last cup of milk.
Add powdered jaggery and cook on low flame until it is well dissolved.
Continue cooking it on low flame for another 5-6 mins.
Add cardamom powder and cook for a couple of minutes.
Meanwhile, fry cashews in ghee in a small pan and add it to the kheer. Switch off the heat.
Serve hot/warm/cold as dessert.
Ground soaked rice will thicken up the kheer, you can reduce it by half if you want thinner version of kheer. Adjust the amount of jaggery as per sweetness preferred. I used regular homogenized milk but using full cream milk makes it richer.
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