Payesh recipe

Recipe payesh

Kheer or Payesh is originally from South Asia.

The history of payesh is as rich as it is sweet. As far as the myth goes, payesh is believed to have originated in the temple of a prince in Orissa 2000 years ago when he demonstrated the solution to an architectural problem by dropping rice balls into sweetened milk.

The true root of rice pudding is hard to discern – the dish can be traced to multiple culture across millennia, including ancient China, the Byzantine Empire, and ancient India, where rice was a major food source.

Kheer, also known as payasam or payesh, is a pudding or porridge, popular in the Indian subcontinent usually made by boiling milk, sugar or jaggery and rice It can be additionally flavoured with dried fruits, nuts, cardamom and saffron. Instead of rice, it may contain cracked wheat, vermicelli (sevai), sago or tapioca (Sabu dana).

In Southern India, it is known as payasam and it is made in various ways. The most popular versions are the ones made with rice and vermicelli (semiya)

Rice puddings are found in nearly every area of the world. Recipes can greatly vary even within a single country. The dessert can be boiled or baked. Different types of pudding vary depending on preparation methods and the selected ingredients. The following ingredients are usually found in rice puddings or payesh

• rice; white rice (usually short-grain, but can also be long-grain, broken rice, basmati or Jasmine rice

• milk (whole milk)

• spices (cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon or others)

• flavourings and toppings (vanilla, pistachio, almond, cashew, walnut or others)

• sweetener (sugar)

Payesh, a rice pudding dessert, has cultural significance in India and Bangladesh. It is a traditional dessert for festivals, birthdays, and other special occasions.,

Payesh in Bengali culture

• Annaprashan

Payesh is the first solid food a Bengali baby eats during the Annaprasan ceremony.

• Birthdays

Payesh is a beloved treat for birthdays, especially the first birthday.

• Janmashtami

Payesh is a key part of the celebrations marking the birth of Lord Krishna.

• Litchi Payesh

Litchi payesh is a variation of the traditional dish that showcases the region's local produce.

Payesh in other cultures

• In ancient Buddhist-Jain manuscripts, the sweet dish is mentioned as "payas" around 400 BC.

• The story goes that Buddha broke his seven-year fast by having a bowl of "kheer".

Preparation

The preparation of payesh varies by region. For example, in northern India, it is made with basmati rice, nuts, and rose water. In the south, it is usually made with coconut milk. In West Bengal and Bangladesh, it is usually made with Gobindo Bhog rice.

The word kheer is derived from the Sanskrit word kshira (क्षीर), which means milk or a milk-based dish. Kheer is also the archaic name for sweet rice pudding

The word payasam used in South India for kheer originates from the Sanskrit term pāyasa (पायस), which means "milk" or a dish made from milk. This term evolved into various regional languages, including Malayalam (പായസം, pāyasaṁ), Telugu (పాయసం, pāyasaṁ), and Tamil (பாயசம், pāyacam).

Origin

It is said to have originated initially in South India thousands of years ago. The story is titled "The Legend of Chessboard" in Kerala an old sage in the form of Krishna challenged the king of Ambalapuzha (chess enthusiasts) to play chess. To motivate the sage, the king offered anything that the sage would name. The sage modestly asked just for a few grains of rice but under one condition: the king has to put a single grain of rice on the first chess square and double it on every subsequent one.

Lord Krishna (the sage) won the game and the king started placing the grains. As he stacked them, he was shocked to see the number grow exponentially. In the end, the number came up to trillions. Krishna reveals himself and asks the king to provide kheer to every pilgrim who comes to his temple there. The Ambhalpuza Krishna temple still follows this and it is located in Kerala's Alappuzha district.

According to the food historian K.T.Achaya ,kheer or payasam, as it is known in southern India, was a popular dish in ancient India. First mentioned in ancient Indian literature, it was a mixture of rice, milk and sugar, a formula that has endured for over two thousand years. Payasam was also a staple Hindu temple food, in particular, and it is served as prasada to devotees in temples.

Kheer is believed to have originated in the Lord Jagannath Temple in Orissa almost 2,000 years ago. Traditionally, it was served as a special offering to the Hindu gods. The practice of offering kheer spread to all corners of the South Asia region to a multitude of Hindu temples—the exact recipe was altered a bit depending on local traditions and tastes. Currently, there are significant differences in kheer from Southern, Eastern, and Northern India.

Kheer was also one of the most popular dishes with the British once they began settling and ruling India. Once wives began coming from England, Anglo-Indian cookbooks began to be produced and shared.

These Anglo-Indian cookbooks, which were printed often, brought what might be considered “modern” recipe standard to Indian kitchens. They weren’t just cookbooks but also management guides for homes that were intended to help the British women arriving in India adjust to this new context. During the 19th century, these cookbooks would define and continually redefine the methods of how British families and houses in India worked and what they ate. With the expansion of the colonial rule and deepening racial divide after 1857, many households stopped eating local food and stuck primarily to British cuisine. However, kheer was still consumed though it was co-opted by the British and appropriated.

When my mother first met my dad’s parents, one of the first Indian dishes my grandmother started her with was kheer. Whenever my brothers and I visited in the summers, she would always have some prepared for my arrival and right after I hugged her at the door I shot off to the fridge!

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