Ada Pradhaman (& A Surprise Gift For You !)

Now where should I start, hhmm.. am clueless. It was exactly like this 3 years back, when I started this small space of mine called MariasMenu. Yes, MariasMenu is celebrating its 3rd birthday this month!! I never thought this space would come this far, I’ve never worked in a place for 3 years, so this is something great for me. At least I can now say that I’ve one hobby that lasted/lasts for sometime :)

If you’re interested in history, please read on or else jump straight to the recipe, wait…there is something for you at the end. As I’ve said before I was clueless when I started this. I didn’t even know what a blog was. I was told by my computer guru (read my husband Jose), its an online diary and you can write your recipes there instead of a book. I thought ok, not bad. So I started writing recipes in this diary. That’s how it all started. I am very much embarrassed to say this ….when I started the blog I didn’t even know there were other food blogs!! (how was I supposed to know that others were also writing recipes like this!!)

Didn’t I tell you before, I was stuck at the Charles Babbage era of computers? It took me sometime to get used to this “blogging” thing :). If you check the earliest recipes, you can see that there are no pictures and the reason…how many of you put pictures in your recipe diary?? I don’t. So after the “blogging” thing got into my head, pictures started appearing here :). For that I’d like to thank my in laws, because they are the ones who gave me the idea of putting snaps here. Btw, have I told you, that before if somebody used to ask me to take photo I used to flee and now because of blogging I at least know how to switch on & off a camera ;)

Blogging has helped me in many ways and I don’t have any regrets. This introduced me to many people from different parts of the world, helped me to understand different types of cuisines, encouraged me to read more about cooking, try out new recipes regularly etc etc; All this happened primarily because of my  husband, Jose. Thank you my dearest :). How can I repay you, hhmm may be I will let you do a guest post here ;). I would also like to thank my family (who don’t believe in my cooking skills yet and think that I’ve cut and paste all these snaps from somewhere else…just my luck!), thank all my friends, including my blogging friends who take time to leave sweet comments here and encourage me to continue with this.

If you’ve noticed I’ve started posting more regularly from last year onwards. For that am ever grateful to my dearest cousin sis Ammu. After she started cooking, she used to give constant feedback about the recipes, how I write them, about the snaps etc; Her feedback was a great motivation for me, thank you my dearest sis :). Another person I would like to thank is another cousin sis of mine, am sure most of you know her, yes you guessed it right, its Annita :). I think the existence of my blog was known to the world, only after she linked to me. Dear Annita, thank you for your support and encouragement.

Ok, please dont feel bad, I havent forgotten you, how can I??. After all, you are the ultimate motivator for me. If you weren’t interested in turning the pages of my online diary, MariasMenu, again n again, I wouldn’t have written  for the past 3 years. I would have stopped it long back. Thanks a ton for all your comments and sharing your happiness with me. Please do continue to drop in here and share your thoughts, comments, suggestions and happiness.

Here’s something for you: As part of our b’day celebration, we decided to give away a surprise gift. You dont have to do any cooking or take snaps, just answer a simple question. The winner will get a small gift coupon from Amazon.com

The question is: How many dishes in MariasMenu has the word “Malabar” in its title?

You can give your answers through the comment form. The last day for giving the answer is July 6th. General comments will be published, but your comments with the answer for this question will be published only after July 6th & the winner will be announced in the next post. If more than one person gets the correct answer, the winner will be decided by a lucky draw.

Update: Please try to post your answers through the comment form itself instead of sending it as a mail.

Btw, one more thing before I go to the recipe. I wanted to bake a cake for this occasion and I also wanted to send that to Ria dear’s Celebration event. I did bake one, but it was a disaster :(. So I decided to go for a Kerala style b’day celebration. Ria dear, sorry for not making it this time :(.

Ok, thank you for your time and patience, here is the recipe, finally!!

1. Ada – 1/2 cup/75 gms
2. Jaggery – 250 gms
3. Ghee – 2-3 tsp
4. Medium thick coconut milk – 1 3/4 cups
   Thick coconut milk – 1  1/4cup
5. Tiny coconut slices – 1-2 tbsp
   Cashew nut – a handful
   Cardamom – 2-3, crushed

Cook the ada in 2-3 cups of water, till it becomes soft. Strain the ada and wash it in cold water to remove the stickiness. Add 3 tbsp of water to the jaggery & melt it. Strain the melted jaggery. In a deep bottom pan, combine melted jaggery, cooked ada & 2 tsp of ghee. Cook on low – medium heat till the mixture becomes thick and start separating from the pan. Add medium thick coconut milk. Cook on medium -low heat and stir in between. When the coconut milk reduce to half the quantity, add thick coconut milk and stir well. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Kindly note that the payasam will thicken itself later on, so after adding thick coconut milk, do not keep it for a long time. Add crushed cardamoms, just before removing from the gas.

Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a pan & fry the coconut slices & cashew nuts. Add it to the payasam. Serve hot.

Check out Ada Pradhaman made by Rachel based on the above recipe.

Note: I’ve posted this originally as Palada Pradhaman. I changed it to Ada Pradhaman, since some readers pointed out that palada pradhaman is made with milk and the one I made with jaggery is just Ada Pradhaman.

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• Kadala Curry

MariasMenu is a popular food blog written by Maria Jose with its no nonsense simple, tasty and delicious recipes – all tried and tested by readers, family and friends alike. Read more about Maria and her venture.