Dates Sweetdish (Dates/Khajur Payasam, Khajura Payasu)

Dates Sweetdish (Dates/Khajur Payasam, Khajura Payasu)

Dates taste amazing in sweets and desserts. Any dessert prepared using dates tastes just yum!!! This dates sweetdish is super delicious, super creamy and super rich. Tastewise and calorie wise too, as dates are rich in calories, but you gotta try this dessert!

A Konkani special meal is not complete without a dessert or without payasam called as payasu in Konkani. Payasu or payasam are desserts usually prepared using coconut milk or milk as the base. My mom's dates payasam is super delicious, super creamy, super rich and the best in the world! ;-) Here's the recipe to her mouth watering, amazingly yummy dates payasum. Called khajura payasu in Konkani, dates are called as khajuru in Konkani. 

Ingredients:

1 cup of dates
1/2 cup of grated jaggery
1 cup of grated coconut
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom powder
1 tablespoon of rice flour
1 tablespoon of cashews
1 tablespoon of raisins
1 tablespoon of ghee

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 40 minutes

Preparation Method:

1. Deseed the dates if they have seeds. Then cut each date into four pieces. 

2. If the dates you're using are hard, then soak them in hot water for about 15-20 minutes. If the dates are soft then you can skip this soaking step.

3. Extracting coconut milk: Whilst, the dates are getting soaked, you can extract coconut milk by grinding 1 cup of fresh grated coconut with 1 cup of water for 2-3 minutes.

4. Pass the ground coconut through a strainer and collect all the coconut milk in a vessel. Keep this thick, concentrated coconut milk aside.

5. Grind the ground coconut again with another cup of water for 2-3 minutes. Strain this coconut milk into another vessel as this coconut milk isn't as concentrated as the one extracted before. 

6. Heat 1/2 cup of water in a cooking vessel. Add jaggery, chopped dates and cook them on medium heat until the jaggery dissolves. 

7. To the second batch of coconut milk collected, add rice flour and mix well such that there are no clumps formed. Add this to the simmering jaggery water and mix well.

8. Add cardamom powder, mix well and simmer until the dates cook through.

9. When the dates are almost cooked, add in the first batch of thick, concentrated coconut milk kept aside and mix well. Check and adjust sweetness by adding more jaggery if needed. Adjust the sweetness according to your palate.

10. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

11. While the payasam is simmering, heat ghee in a tempering pan, add in cashews and roast them until they turn golden brown. Add raisina and fry them for few seconds. Add these to the simmering payasam and mix well. 

12. Once all the ingredients blend in well and you get a nice, thick, syrupy payasam, remove the payasam off heat and serve them hot.

13. This dates payasam tastes great once it cools down too.

14. They taste delicious even chilled, but if your serving payasam chilled, keep it a little extra sweet as cold payasam tastes less sweet than hot payasam.

P.S: You can cook raisins and cashews along with the dates, or you can add roasted cashews and raisins in the end. Roasted cashews add a nice crunch to the payasam and taste heavenly. Raisins and cooked dates add a nice bite to the creamy, rich payasam. 

For more Indian desserts and sweets recipes look here.

Tags: payasam, payasu, dates, khajur, Indian dessert, festival food, sweet, rice pudding, khajuru, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food.