Why ‘payasam’ is God’s own confection

Given the ingredients—milk, sugar or jaggery, rice—comparisons with the north Indian kheer and Bengali payesh are inevitable. But the plethora of payasams I have tasted over the years has disabused me of the notion that the south Indian dessert is a simple rice pudding. To me, it tastes like kheer with a plot twist. Sure, it’s got a familiar sweetness, but it’s mysteriously spicy. Sometimes it’s gingery; occasionally, it’s fruity, too.

Also read: Explore the delicious regional variations of the Onam ‘sadya’

Delhi-based chef Prima Kurien, who runs a home delivery service specialising in traditional Kerala cuisine, dwelled on the uniqueness of the spiced-up sweetmeat. “The north Indian kheer will only have cardamom. But payasam, depending on the type being made, also uses the likes of cumin, bay leaf, cinnamon and ginger powder. It’s a whole different kettle of fish."

There are interesting nuances to the way the dessert is served. Not meant to be eaten in bowls, the comforting mush is traditionally placed directly on the banana leaf at the end of a sadya. In the Essential Kerala Cookbook, Vijayan Kannampilly notes, “Malayali cuisine places a lot of emphasis on imparting a very high level of sweetness to the payasam. So much so that is customary to serve lime or mango pickle on the side after the payasam are served. The pickle poses just like a sorbet to cleanse the palate."

Making a good payasam requires skill, patience and the correct cookware. “It must be prepared in bell metal urulis and stirred for a long time," Marina Balakrishnan, founder of Oottupura, a Mumbai-based food enterprise devoted to vegetarian Kerala cooking, stressed. “The thick-bottomed vessel is used as it can withstand a lot of heat. The beauty lies in starting off at a very low flame and slowly building the heat. This creates texture and adds layers of flavour to the payasam," she revealed.

A cult favourite is the paal payasam served at the Shree Krishna Swamy temple at Ambalapuzha in Kerala. Made with rice, sugar and thickened milk, it’s the simplest of payasams, yet one of the most difficult to get right. Lathika George, author of The Suriani Kitchen, called it Kerala’s favourite payasam. “Everyone—Hindus, Muslims and Christians—will order paal payasam from Ambalapuzha. It was served at my wedding, too," she shared.

Also read: A tamarind ginger-pickle recipe from a book on Onam 'sadya'

Kerala’s pradhamans are a revelation for their lusciousness and unmatched depth of flavour. A sub-genre of payasam, they are made from coconut milk and jaggery (as opposed to milk and sugar) and double boiled. Many feature fruits such as jackfruit and plantains. One of the loveliest renditions I had was at chef Regi Mathew’s celebrated Malayali restaurant Kappa Chakka Kandhari in Chennai on Onam last year. “The word pradhaman or prathaman means number one, and aptly so. Pradhaman is the king of payasams. It is sweeter and richer and served last on a sadya so as not to mask the flavour of milder desserts that come before it," Mathew revealed.

To illustrate his point, he fed me two of his specialities. First came the palada payasam, made from reduced milk, sugar and freshly made rice pasta or ada made from matta rice. I enjoyed it for the chewy, almost marshmallow-like texture of ada. But it was the ada pradhaman, a blend of ada with jaggery syrup and finished with coconut milk, that knocked my socks off. The use of jaggery transformed the cloying confection, imparting a slight bitterness to offset all the sweetness. The aha ingredient was the addition of kadhali pazham, an aromatic local banana, which raised the deliciousness of the payasam by many notches.

The chef also introduced me to his sadya cook Unnikrishnan Namboodiri. A temple priest from Thrissur, the specialist waxed eloquent on the Ayurvedic benefits of eating his creation. “Chukka podi or dry ginger powder is used in ada pradhaman to cut off the heaviness and acidity and aids in digestion besides enhancing the aroma. The use of kadhali bananas builds the immune system and physical strength." On yet another Chennai visit, award-winning cookbook author Viji Varadarajan told me about idichu pizhincha payasam. A Palaghat Iyer speciality, it literally means ‘grinding’ and ‘squeezing’, as the payasam is made by combining finely blended rice and grated coconut cooked with jaggery, ghee, roasted cashews, raisins and cardamom. “It’s one of the traditional homemade payasams and made on festive occasions like Ganesh Chathurthi or Krishna Jayanthi."

The decadent black rice payasam made from karuppu kavuni rice, milk, ghee and sugar is less prevalent but worth seeking out. A delectable version is dished up at Avartana, the modernist fine dining restaurant at ITC Grand Chola in Chennai. Chatting with Chef Nikhil Nagpal, I learnt that the delicacy is part of Chettiar cuisine and eaten at the start of a traditional meal. “It’s believed to have come from Burma where the Chettiars would travel for work. The presence of anthocyanins, a group of antioxidants, in the rice causes the payasam to turn a striking purple upon cooking. When we posted a shot of this on Instagram, it got a big thumbs-up from our followers," he beamed.

I also tried Avartana’s multisensory Trail of Payasams. Served in the Chennai outlet on special occasions, it’s created by cherry-picking the best payasam traditions from across south India and reimagining them. Connecting the routes through the regions of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the dessert featured a trio of payasams, banana and cardamom, fig and almond, and jasmine. Playing with the senses, the first was served warm, the second at room temperature and the last (jasmine) chilled. I loved the spherified fig and almond the most, its creamy mouthfeel playing off against the crunchy puffed rice that punctuated each fruity, bright, delicious bite.

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