Pradhaman is a rich n delicious delicacy of God's own country and with out this the sadhya, the traditional banquet of Kerala is incomplete. Pradhaman is a sweet dessert served at the end of the meal n it's entirely different from the payasam which is also another rich dessert. For pradhaman the sweetening agent is jaggery, so we prepare pradhaman in coconut milk only. For payasam we can either use milk or coconut milk and jaggery or sugar as sweetener, that makes our choice. When compared to Pradhan, payasam is loose in texture and we use cardomoms, cashews n raisins for both adding taste n for garnishing. Normally in pradhaman we only use roasted cumin seed powder and finely chopped n roasted coconut, what we call "thengakothu".
There are different types of pradhamans depending upon the main ingredient which may be fruits, pulses, grains or vegetables. Pazham pradhaman, chakka pradhaman, Ada pradhaman, etc etc. The list may be too long. Out of all these the number one n most tasty one is nethrapazham pradhaman and is very good for health too. We all the know the importance of adding bananas to our daily diet.
For preparing this tasty dessert we only need a few ingredients. Bananas, coconut milk, jaggery, ghee, cumin seeds, coconut bites, and salt. The bananas must be well ripen, l would say if we choose those with black coloured skin that would be better. Like that we have to choose the dark brown coloured jaggery which will help to give the pradhaman it's texture and colour which is really appetizing.
Eventhough, there is only a few ingredients, it's time consuming and we need lot of patience as there are many steps and we need to done in low fire. We need almost one to one and half hours to prepare this, but no doubt l guarantee the result would be incredible and marvellous...
So let's try.
Finely ripen bananas/ nenthrapazham : half kg
Brown colour jaggery: 300 to 350 gm( depending upon your taste and the sweetness of the bananas)
Ghee : 3 to 4 tbs
Roasted cumin seed powder : 1 to 2 tsp
Coconut : one whole
Salt : a little to balance the taste
Method:
1. Wash bananas and peel. In a pressure cooker add peeled bananas and a half cup water and cook for two whistle.
2. Meanwhile crush jaggery and dissolve it in one cup of water in a low flame and seive to remove the impurities in it and keep aside.
3. Open the pressure cooker and transfer the bananas to another vessel and allow it to cool. Keep aside the juice in the cooker. We can use it when diluting the mixture.
4. From one half of the coconut shell take fine slices of coconut meat and finely chop and keep aside.
5. Scrape the remaining coconut. Then using a blender extract coconut milk. We have to keep the first thick milk separate ( half cup) and then add water and extract the remaining milk from the coconut. This should be two cups.
6. Take the cooked bananas and deseed it. We can do it simply by making it half vertically and can remove the black strands easily.
7. In a mixer mix the deseeded bananas well. Or you can smash it well with the help of spatula or simply by hand. I prefer blending it in a mixer.
Keep it aside.
8. Heat a non-stick pan or thick bottomed vessel(uruli) and add two tbs of ghee and then chopped coconut meat and fry it well till it became brown colour. Transfer it to a bowl and keep aside.
9. To the pan add remaining ghee and the cooked pulp of banana. Stirring continuously so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel. The flame should be low to medium. Cook till it becomes thick and light brown and ghee starts to separate.
10. At this stage add jaggery syrup and mix well without any lumps. We can also add that juice we kept aside.
11. Stir for five minutes and then add the dilute coconut milk and stirr well continuously and also add salt to balance the taste.
12. Cook in a medum flame till it starts to boil.
Stirr well for five minutes.
13. Sprinkle roasted cumin seed powder and stirr well.
14. Finally add thick coconut milk and roasted coconut bites and mix n stirr well and when it begin to start boil switch off the flame and stirr well for few minutes. Otherwise it will curdle.
15. Bring down from the stove and allow it to remain in the vessel for sometime before serving..
I just make it simple by my own tips.
In traditional way you have to steam the bananas and then peel and deseed and then smash with hand of spatula. I also use microwave for step nine. Just microwave the pulp without adding any ghee for ten to fifteen minutes. It will make us easy by reducing some stirring time. If microwaving, all we have to do is stirr n mix well after every five minutes and then transfer it to the vessel and continue as per the instructions.
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