Nei Payasam is a yummy, buttery pudding made by cooking rice in jaggery syrup & ghee and flavoured with nuts. Nei Paysam is commonly made on Onam Sadya and for special occasions. Nei Payasam is easy and quick to make.
Nei Payasam is a special traditional payasam usually served in Sabari Malai temples and many Kerala temples during occasions.I wanted to finish up unakalari rice which I bought last year so was searching for recipes using that and this Nei Payasam or also called as Aravana payasam caught my attention.As I love anything sweet and payasam being my all time favorite , I tried it last week and it was so delicious…after all rice, jaggery and ghee is always a wining combo.
Traditionally they use brass uruli to make this nei payasam so I suggest to use any thick bottomed pan.I used my new Ultra Pressure Pan and it was perfect for making payasam right from start to finish.Few main things I loved about the pan is it has a min, max marks inside which helps in easy fixing of levels, the thick base avoids burning at the bottom and the satin finished inner surface avoids sticking and easy to clean as well.I have tried few gravies, rice dishes in the pan so more experiments and reviews in the coming weeks.
More traditional recipes
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📖 Recipe Card
Nei Payasam
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unakkalari rice I used broken variety
- 4 tablespoon ghee
- 1 cup jaggery
- 3 cups water
- 1/4 cup grated coconut
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
- a tiny pinch dry ginger powder
- 7 cashews broken
Instructions
- Soak jaggery in warm water(till immersing level) , crush it well.
- Then heat it up until it is slightly thick (no string consistency needs to be checked). Cool down, strain and keep aside.
- Measure rice and add it to pressure pan, rinse it well first. Then add 2 cups of water.
- Pressure cook for at least 5 whistles in low medium flame. Rice should be cooked till soft but not mushy as we want the grains to be seen.
- Measure and add jaggery syrup.
- Mix well and cook in low flame till the jaggery syrup blends well with the rice.
- Now add grated coconut.
- Mix well and cook for 2 mins, then add ghee little by little.
- Keep mixing, at one stage the payasam will get thick and saucy in consistency.
- Add cashews, cardamom powder, dry ginger powder and switch off.
- Serve Nei Payasam hot / warm!
Notes
- You can even add ghee fried cashews but as there is lots of ghee in the payasam its better to add as such.
- Don’t cook till very thick as it will harden further after cooling down. The consistency is more like sweet pongal.
- This payasam is very rich so it is always served in small portions.
- Unakkalari is a special type of Kerala Raw rice which gives a unique flavour to the payasam. I had broken variety so used it up, you can use the whole rice too.
- Don’t make jaggery syrup too diluted.
- The color of the payasam depends totally on the jaggery color.
Nei Payasam Recipe Step by Step
- Soak jaggery in warm water(till immersing level) , crush it well. Then heat it up until it is slightly thick (no string consistency needs to be checked).Cool down, strain and keep aside.
- Measure rice and add it to pressure pan,rinse it well first.Then add 2 cups of water.
- Pressure cook for atleast 5 whistles in low medium flame.Rice should be cooked till soft but not mushy as we want the grains to be seen.Measure and addd jaggery syrup.
- Mix well and cook in low flame till the jaggery syrup blends well with the rice.Now add grated coconut.
- Mix well and cook for 2 mins, then add ghee little by little.
- Keep mixing, at one stage the payasam will get thick and saucy in consistency.Add cashews,cardamom powder, dry ginger powder and switch off.
Serve hot / warm!
Expert Tips
- You can even add ghee fried cashews but as there is lots of ghee in the payasam its better to add as such.
- Don’t cook till very thick as it will harden further after cooling down.The consistency is more like sweet pongal.
- This payasam is very rich so it is always served in small portions.
- Unakkalari is a special type of Kerala Raw rice which gives a unique flavour to the payasam.I had broken variety so used it up, you can use the whole rice too.
- Don’t make jaggery syrup too diluted.
- The color of the payasam depends totally on the jaggery color.
Sherin Deepu
Aahahaha….. what a delight to the eyes. We had these as prasadam at th elocal temple. They look soo tasty…slurp
Kushi S
WOW!!I am in love with your presentation. Its so beautiful!
Shobha
Delicious Nei Payasam.. Been a long time since I ate it.
Nancys Cookery
Payasam looks delicious…
Kiruba
Wat rice is that can i know the name correctly in tamil
Sharmilee J
Sorry..I dont know whats it called in tamil
Its a kerala pink raw rice you can replace it with our regular raw rice too
Nila Abdul
Looks very Yummy
Nimisha Ashish
Hi,
Looks delicious
Would like to know whether have you used palm jaggery or regular one. I have been longing for ambala style sharkara paysam.
Please help. Which would be a better option for this style of paysam: palm or regular jaggery.
Thank you !
Nimisha
Sharmilee J
I used jaggery here…
Neethu
Can we take matta broken rice for making this nei payasam? Or pacchari?
Sharmilee J
yes you can use
Aswini Prabhakaran
Hi Sharmi,
I exactly followed ur recipe and the result was a fantabulous finger licking nei payasam…It was absolutely delicious. I prepared this yesterday for my dear daughter’s first Bday sadhya and she loved it sooooooo much..And same with my husband too. He is a serious fan of nei payasam and started licking the remains in uruli..He told me that he wasn’t aware that I know to make such delicious payasam..I am so happy and all these credits go to u as you have posted a wonderful recipe..sorry for the long post..Thanks again for the wonderful recipe..
Suggestion: can add fried coconut bits, few Tulsi leaves and chethi poi for additional temple flavour
With Love,
Achu.
Sharmilee J
So glad to hear such comments…Sure will try with tulsi leaves next time
lakshmi
hai..sharmilee…i tried your recipe and the result was a yummy yummy payasam…
Sandhya
Thank you so much dear, made this payasam today, it has come awesome, amme saranam, kept it as prasadam…
Nitu
Tried ur recipe…It turned out to be awesome…thank u
Hema Shenoy
Hi Sharmilee!
I tried your recipe and the result was finger licking tasty payasam.Just doubled the quantity and added fried coconut pieces insted of cashewnuts and raisins.My family loved it!thankyou for this simple and tasty recipe.
suchitra
Hi,
I made this with unakkalari, it was yummilicious, Thank you so much for the delicious recipie,… Will it be okay to use jeera rice as my unakkalari is used up and need to go to Kerala if I want to get more 🙁 ..
Sharmilee J
You can try but the taste and flavour will vary.