Ada Pradhaman

The end of an Onam sadya, when most of the leaf is cleared and everyone has stopped talking about food. Then the pradhaman comes round in a big vessel and gets ladled straight onto the leaf, warm and dark, and people fold the leaf and drink it. The ada has gone soft and taken the colour of the jaggery. There are crisp slivers of fried coconut in it that snap between the teeth, cashews, a few raisins. Nothing after this course.

Organic Jaggery is what gives this payasam its colour and its depth. It melts down clean, and once strained it carries a proper molasses sweetness with a mineral edge underneath, so the pradhaman tastes dark rather than merely sweet. The coconut slivers and cashews are fried in wooden cold pressed coconut oil, pressed from copra in a slow ghaani, and that smell rising out of the pan is exactly the smell of a sadya kitchen.

The one rule: once the thick coconut milk goes in, it must never boil. Flame at its lowest, four or five minutes, stirring gently, and switch off the moment it steams. Let it bubble even once and the coconut milk splits into grains and oil, and there is no way to bring it back.

How to make it

1. Boil the 4 cups water in a wide pot. Add the rice ada and cook on medium for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the pieces are completely soft with no white core.
2. Drain the ada in a colander and rinse well under cold running water. This washes off the loose starch and stops the pradhaman turning gluey. Keep aside.
3. Melt the jaggery with ½ cup water on low heat. Stir until it dissolves, then strain it through a fine sieve to leave the grit behind. Return the clean syrup to the pot.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of the coconut oil in a heavy pan. Fry the coconut slivers on medium for 2 to 3 minutes until they turn golden and crisp, then lift them out. Fry the cashews in the same oil till pale gold, then the raisins till they puff. Keep all three aside.
5. Add the drained ada to the jaggery syrup along with the remaining 1 tbsp coconut oil. Cook on low for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the ada takes on the dark colour and the mixture thickens and starts to leave the sides.
6. Pour in the thin coconut milk and the pinch of salt. Simmer on low for 7 to 8 minutes, until it thickens slightly. Stir from the bottom so it does not catch.
7. Turn the flame to its lowest. Add the thick coconut milk and warm it through for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring gently. It must steam, never bubble. Switch off the moment it is hot.
8. Stir in the cardamom, dry ginger and cumin powders. Scatter the fried coconut slivers, cashews and raisins over the top.
9. Rest for 10 minutes with the lid on. Serve warm. It thickens as it cools, so loosen it with a little warm coconut milk if you are serving it later.

Tips

• The fix for the commonest mistake: split coconut milk. It happens the moment the pradhaman boils after the thick milk goes in. Take the pan off the flame, not just down to low, and stir gently. If it has already split, whisk in 2 tbsp of fresh thick coconut milk off the heat, which sometimes brings it back.
• Storage: keeps 2 days in the fridge. Reheat on the lowest flame or in a pan of hot water, stirring, and never let it boil again.
• Fresh coconut milk is best, and 2 coconuts will give you both extracts. Tinned coconut milk works: use 1 cup tinned milk as the thick extract and dilute ½ cup in 1½ cups water for the thin.
• Many Kerala families fry the coconut slivers and cashews in ghee instead of coconut oil, and some use a spoon of each. Both are traditional. Coconut oil keeps it fully vegan.
• Dark, sticky jaggery gives a deeper colour and a richer taste than the pale kind. Do not skip straining the syrup, unstrained jaggery leaves grit at the bottom of the bowl.