When I invited Resna, who blogs at Resna's Tasty Home, to be a guest on my blog, what I got was an enthusiasm of a little girl! Her messages oozed out of the excitement that she had! Seriously, one thing I seem to like about blogging is that I get to see the actual character of people and Alhamdulillah, whoever I have come across, have been really good in their own way. I found Resna to be really down to earth and innocent. A working mother based in a GCC country, just like me, I found her having similar situations like me. What I like about her blog are the "naadan" (typically local) recipes, that are long forgotten. It is good to see that bloggers are so eager to preserve the food cultures and traditions that they have grown up with and when I asked her for a guest post, I was sure that she would give me something "naadan" as well. Yes, she did not disappoint me at all....
Coming to this Pidi Curry which has so many memories associated with it, this was something my umma used to so frequently make and slowly she stopped making it, as we started growing up. Since we were really not fond of it, we also never asked her to repeat making it. But now, that I have kids myself, I would love to recreate them and I have asked my umma to make it in her style one of these days so that I can learn from her. Not that my kids are fond of them - in fact they are very picky about traditional food, but they should also know what we ate when we were small, which is so very different from the McDonalds and junk food that they like (sigh!!!). So when Resna send this post, I was so sinking in nostalgia... I did not know how to react... I guess now I should let her do the talking before I get really out of control... hehe...
Oh... before I move on, let me tell you that this is Rasna's 100th post!!! And I am so glad to be a part of her happiness... wish you many many more lovely posts and lots of cooking, dear... :)
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I
am Resna who blogs at Resna’s Tasty Home. This is my first guest post and I feel so
happy that I am here as Rafeeda’s guest:) . Before going to the details of post
and myself I would like to tell how much happy I am. I marked that day as
golden, when I received a FB msg from Rafeeda “would you be interested in doing a guest post for my blog?” yes
that is on 7th November. I am honoured really I was very happy what
I need more as a new blogger that was like an award. After reaching home I told
this to my husband around five to six times. Next day when I started to tell again
hubby told no need to tell I understood understood....hope you all can
understand my feeling :) . From these you can know that how much I admire
Rafeeda. I am sure I don’t need to tell anything about her as you all know I am
also have same opinion that she is a very supportive and lovely person. She was
the first person who commented and +1’d my blog post. I am a big fan of her
write ups when I read her post I feel I am sitting in front of her and I am
hearing directly. Sometimes I think I know her and her family long back. Most
of the time she makes post regularly I don’t know how she manages all these.
About me I am a Biological Science Researcher
by profession (my passion) and a good cook at home. Started experiments on
foods during school days itself still hold same passion. My husband is my
strength and support. He is a good cook and he helps me lot in kitchen. My five
year old son, he is a fussy eater even though he doesn’t like to eat foods he
used to appreciate my food “it looks so beautiful mom”.
OK I am going to the post Pidi Payasam (locally we
call it as Pidi curry I don’t know how it got the name curry). This is a
traditional recipe of Muslims those resides in Calicut and Kannur area of
Kerala (if anybody knows it prepares in some other place please correct
it.). This we prepare on the day before
Eid. To convey the happiness of new moon observation we prepare this at night
and parcel it into neighbour homes. Because it is quite time consuming (‘pidi’
making/ small rice dumpling) all the family members will help to make ‘pidi’. We
prepare this in two ways white color or brown color payasam depends on the use
sugar or jaggery.
Ingredients
 |
| Shape of pidi... |
1 cup rice flour
¾ and 1 tbsp of hot water
¼ cup Chana dal (soak in water for 1 hr)
1 ripen plantain (make small squire pieces)
350 g jaggery
2 cup coconut milk extracts 1 (from 1 and ½
whole coconut (grated) extract 2 cups of thick coconut milk)
2 ½ cup second coconut milk extract (add water
in same coconut and extract )
½ tsp cardamom powder
1 tbsp ghee
2 tbsp cashews
2 tbsp raisins
Pinch of salt
Preparation
Add
hot boiled water (¾ and 1 tbsp)
in rice flour and make thick dough (traditionally we prepare this by grinding soaked
raw rice very smoothly)
Make
small cylindrical dumplings (pidi)out of it (you can find shape of the pidi in
below picture)
Steam
cook this for 20 minute
Meantime
cook soaked chana dal (don’t overcook) and keep aside
In
a pot melt jaggery in ¾ cup of water and filter nicely. Keep it aside
Take
thick bottom cooking vessel, pour second coconut milk extract then add cooked
rice dumplings into this
Once
the rice become softened add jaggery stir well
Cook
in low flame with continuous stirring
Once
whole liquid reduced into half add plantain pieces
After
five minute add first coconut milk extract and then add cooked chana dal
Keep
this in low flame for 10 minute and stir continuously. Switch off the flame
In
a pan heat ghee and fry raisin, cashews separately
Add cardamom powder and fried cashews and raisins along with ghee into the payasam
Thank you Rafee for giving great chance to share my recipe here I am really very happy and hope you all like mine sorry not mine Malabar’s Pidi payasam. Thank you...
That bowl up there is for me to gulp down... sign... I guess I should just go ahead and make some now to get the taste of it... hmm... till I decide what to do, hope all of you have a wonderful weekend... :)