Paasi paruppu Payasam

• From the pantry :
  - Moong dal ( also called Payatham paruppu, split green gram, paasi paruppu, Pesara pappu )
  - Jaggery
  - Cashews
  - Cardamom
  - Ghee
  
• 
  From the fridge :
  - Milk
  - Coconut (optional)
  

1. Heat a vessel and add a cup of paasi paruppu. Roast on medium heat until you smell the dal. Probably 4 to 5 mins

2. Then cool and wash the dal. Its just my way of doing it. This step is optional.

3. Add 4 cups of water and cook the dal. You can alternatively pressure cook with 2 cups of water, but I find the texture of the dal much better this way. This step will take around 20 mins. Extra water does no harm here.

4. Heat a skillet add 3 tablespoons of ghee ( come on ! Its a festival day ) and fry handful of cashews until golden brown.

5. In another vessel heat a cup of water to three fourth cup of jaggery. Heat till the jaggery dissolves. Strain through a cheese cloth. Jaggery will have impurities like sand. This step is to strain those impurities

6. Add the jaggery water to the boiling dal and continue to simmer for another 3 minutes.

7. Make a powder of 4 cardamom pods and add to the simmering mixture ( or use the mortar and pestle). Back home it will be the pods between the newspaper and quite a few good whacks with the mathhu, the dal masher.

8. Optionally you can add two tablespoons of grated coconut at this time.

9. Add a cup of warm milk and the fried cashews along with the ghee. Serve cold or warm.

Yummy yumm !!