Recipe - Pineapple Payasam

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan
16
Onam - the most awaited festival in God's Own Country - is here.
Flower carpets, flower carpets everywhere. Of course, you know me by now so naturally you know that my roving eye is always headed towards the kitchen where the traditional Kerala feast - the sadya - will be 'under construction.'

If you need to refresh your memories, here is the list of the most common 29 items (yes, 29 items in one single meal) that one can find in a Sadya. Invariably, the final two in such a list will be sweet payasams. The common ones you can expect to see are:
  1. Semiya payasam (vermicelli pudding)
  2. Ada pradhamam (rice ada/pasta pudding) 
  3. Pazha pradhamam (banana and jaggery pudding)
But as usual, we Mallus are quite malleable (Malluable? okay, okay. I know. That was terrible!).
Anyway, there are variations to this sadya too, depending on the ingredients you have, your location, your level of creativity and whatnot. With Onam being a celebration of our harvest festival, I thought now would be a good time to make use of that harvest to give Lord Mahabali something different when he visits us.
So instead of the usual trio, this time I thought we would use some lovely fresh pineapples in our payasam this time. And believe me, this is an easy recipe which yields absolutely yummy results.

So, without further adieu, I give you Pineapple Payasam.





Ingredients : 


  • Pineapple - 2 cups, chopped and cooked
  • Melted jaggery syrup - 2 cups
  • Coconut milk - 1 cup
  • Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
  • Raisins - 1/4 cup
  • Ghee - 3 teaspoons
  • Small banana - 2
  • Rice powder - 2 teaspoons
  • Cardamom - 10, to be powdered





Recipe :


  • Heat a vessel and add Ghee. 
  • Now add raisins and cashew nuts and fry them till the cashews are light brown and the raisins start to swell. Remove the raisins and cashews and set aside. 
  • In the same vessel, add the cooked pineapple and stir till you see the water evaporate. 
  • To this, add jaggery syrup and stir well. 
  • Add coconut milk and rice powder and bring it to a boil while stirring. 
  • Turn the heat off and add cardamom powder, cashew and raisins. 
  • Cut the bananas into small round slices and use as a garnish. 




Click the image above to convert it to its full size and download the recipe

Expect to see the odd food recipe like this at Godyears too - all prepared by my mother - from recipes she has collected as far back as the 1980's - with some unique to Kerala cuisine and some variations of international dishes. 
Since the goal is to share, I will be looking to make all the recipes into easy downloadable single images as well so that you can save them on to your mobile/device and use them offline. Of course, if you do try them out, it would be awesome if you gave me (and her) feedback here on what you thought of the dish.

For the list of all the recipes so far (including seafood, egg dishes, sweets, twists on traditional dishes et al), click here:
For more food posts,  you can just check out the Category on Godyears labeled "Foodgasm" here.



Pineapple Payasam


Happy Onam, Everyone.
Wishing you tons of happiness and a pineapple full of payasam, wherever you are.



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16Comments

Let me know what you think.

  1. This looks yum. Three cheers to Aunty and you for the beautiful clicks! Love the presentation and I'm keen to try this recipe at home. :) Happy Onam, Roashan and to Aunty and Snoopy too :)

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  2. Happy Onam Doc and thanks for the recipe, am going to make it :)

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    Replies
    1. Please tell me how it went :) Happy Onam!

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    2. So, I substituted a couple of ingredients. Instead of jaggery I used Brown Sugar and instead of rice powder I used some almond meal and omitted the bananas. Thanks again for the recipe.

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  3. Looks simply divine! I'm sure Lord Mahaballi will be pleased with your innovative payasam. Happy Onam to you and your family.

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  4. Happy Onam Doc Roshan. Luscious paysam this seems to be. I will try itt as soon as I can find a good pineapple. Btw I tried your eggless choco cake and its was yummy. Thanks :)

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  5. Best wishes of the festive season, Doc! The pineapple payasam served in a pineapple is so very innovative. I have had semiya and rice payasam but not this one or banana jaggery one! This pic reminded me of watermelon juice which KG made and served in a watermelon sometime ago!

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    Replies
    1. I think its an innovative idea to use the outer layer too in the dish presentation. Gives it a very "whats inside the box" feel :)

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  6. Heading to a Sadya on 18th and this better be there.
    Happy Onam and hope you had a good one. This payasam looks delicious and more so it's in the pineapple. Look at that creativity. Gosh! Too much. :)

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    Replies
    1. You will need a creative cook to have this ready for you. Or else, by default, it will be one of the 3 mentioned in the article :)

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  7. Ran to the internet as soon as I saw "jaggery" (can you tell I have no Asian ancestry?) I like recipes like that though; ones that stretch my mind.

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    Replies
    1. haha... oops. Never considered that. We are so used to things like that... it never occurs to us that others may never have seen such items.

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  8. I'll fancy the payasam, doc. But that vessel seems a tad too prickly to hold. ;-)

    We make pineapple pachidi usually. :-D That's yum too.

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