Aravana payasam or Nei Payasam is a rich and sacred temple-style sweet made with rice, jaggery and ghee. This traditional offering from Kerala temples, especially Sabarimala, has a deep flavour and a glossy finish. Let’s see how to make this perfect Aravana Payasam at home with step by step pictures, tips.
It is usually prepared during festivals like onam and temple rituals and perfect as a part of Sadhya (festive meal) with just a spoonful of this payasam is great way to end the meal.
Check out my Jackfruit payasam recipe and Ada pradhaman recipe in this website.
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About Aravana Payasam
Aravana payasam is made with rice, jaggery and ghee as main ingredients. The amount of ghee we add to the payasam gives the other name ‘Nei Payasam‘. Traditionally prepared as a temple prasadam in Kerala, it is also perfect as part of festival meals like Onam Sadhya.
Aravana payasam has unique texture, taste, colour and flavour. Texture because of the kerala short grain raw rice. Simmering in ghee and jaggery gives a caramelized taste and the dark Jaggery lends the deep hue of the prasadam. Chukku (dry ginger), cardamom and edible camphor contributes the divinely taste.
With no complicated steps or ingredients, you can prepare the nei payasam even if you are a beginner.
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you need to make Aravana payasam or nei Payasam
- Rice – Kerala raw rice – Unakalari – Chemba rice works best but if you want you can substitute with other raw rices like seeraga samba or such small raw rice grains.
- Jaggery – Use dark jaggery for authentic results. Usually Kerala jaggery is dark and you can use it for all the payasams.
- Ghee – Main ingredient that adds flavour, taste to the payasam.
- Dry ginger – Sukku podi – Always use in Kerala sweets for flavour as well as digestion, balances gastric caused by jaggery.
- Cardamom – For flavour, added generously.
- Edible camphor – Optional but gives the flavour close to temple-style prasadam
- Cashews – Added for crunch and its texture
- Coconut – Optional, but gives a good texture difference as well as balances the taste
Please see my recipe card below for quantities.
Step by step photos
Let’s see how to make aravana payasam with step by step photos.
- Firstly, wash the rice well for 2-3 times. Use Kerala raw rice variety like Chamba pachari/ Unnakalari rice.
- Wash and set aside.
- After that, in a heavy bottomed pan, heat 2 tablespoon of ghee and roast cashes.
- Once golden, drain from ghee and set aside.
- Then, in the same ghee, add coconut pieces and fry them in meidum heat until golden. Make sure to keep stirring for even browing. Drain from ghee and set aside.
- Add the rice and give it a quick mix in the ghee. Do not roast for longer.
- After that, add 2 cups water for ½ cup rice.
- Cook covered for 30 – 40 mins.
- Meanwhile take crushed jaggery with ½ cup water and mix well using a ladle to dissolve it.
- Smash well with ladle if there is any bigger pieces to fasten dissolving. Set aside.
- Check rice for doneness. It should be soft to press. All water should be absorbed to ensure the perfect consistency and texture of rice. If rice is not soft, add more water and cook futhermore until it is done.
- Once you make sure the rice is soft, then, add the jaggery water strained. After adding jaggery and continue boiling, the rice is gonna turn harder, so it is important for rice to get soft.
- Bring to boil and add 2 tablespoons of ghee at this stage.
- Cook in medium heat.
- Payasam gets thicker and sticky. The entire process should be in medium heat, do not cook in high heat.
- Then add 2 tablespoons of ghee again.
- Cook furthermore until you get a thick consistency, bubbles get frothy and gets a lovely hue.
- Then add dry ginger powder and cardamom powder, mix well.
- Add a mustard size of edible camphor, crushing between fingers to powder it and sprinkle. Do not add more, keep it subtle.
- Once it is thick like this and not watery, switch off the stove. Gets little more thick as it cools. Aravana payasam is ready.
Beautiful colour, divine smelling, glossy Aravana payasam or Nei payasam.
My notes
Do not compensate on ghee which is the main ingredient. It gives flavour, balances the taste too.
This is supposed to be Temple prasadam, so a spoon is the serving size. It is very sweet, with loads of ghee. The ghee also prevents the texture of the payasam becoming hard.
Boiling the syrup until it is sticky is very important, otherwise the texture won’t be right. It is supposed to be thick (yet loose) so that even they wrap in banana leaf and carry. Also the shine comes from the syrup and ghee.
Substitutions & Variations
- Rice – If you can’t get unnakkalari / Kerala Chamba raw rice, you can use any short grain rice, but make sure it is raw rice. My friend Laxmi made it with Seeraga samba and it was really good too.
- Jaggery – Dark variety works, you can try palm jaggery too, but taste may vary.
- Some people add Raisins, skip coconut for longer shelf life.
- You can skip edible camphor, but it gives the typical temple-style flavour.
Equipment
Use heavy bottomed vessel like a uruli (a traditional bronze vessel) or a thick bronze vessel/ any thick bottomed vessel to make nei payasam. I used my Bronze Kadai.
Storage
Since I have added coconut, the shelf life is 2-3 days in room temperature. But if you skip coconut and handle properly, aravana payasam can be good for a week in room temperature.
Top Tip
- Make sure to cook rice in low heat, covered to ensure it is cooked soft. The water quantity mentioned will be just right, but in case if it is not enough, add hot water and cook furthermore as needed. But make sure not to add too much water as we need almost no water when adding jaggery syrup for perfect consistency.
- Even after adding jaggery syrup, to avoid hardening of the nei payasam, cook in low heat or medium heat.
- Rice should be cooked soft. Otherwise it will be too hard to bite. That’s the reason we use raw rice (apart from we use only raw rice for offering God) After adding the jaggery, rice becomes chewy. But it will be slightly chewy only. For one spoon as prasadam, it’s perfect!
- If you can cook rice without becoming mushy, you can even choose to pressure cook the rice. Roasting ensures it doesn’t turn mushy.
FAQ
Kerala short grain raw rice, dark jaggery and ghee.
Aravana means God, since it is made as temple prasadam, it is named so. Also it is said that a sage named Aravana, made this first as he visited sabarimala and it is named after him.
Recipe card
Aravana Payasam Recipe | Nei Payasam
Aravana payasam or Nei Payasam is a rich and sacred temple-style sweet made with rice, jaggery and ghee. A traditional offering from Kerala temples, especially Sabarimala.
Cup measurements
Ingredients
- ½ cup Kerala Raw rice Chamba ari/ Unakkalari
- 2 cups Water to cook rice
- 1.25 cups Jaggery (1 & ¼ cups Jaggery)
- ½ cup water for syrup
- ¼ cup Ghee
- 1 teaspoon Dry ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon Cardamom powder
- 1 pinch Edible camphor mustard size
For roasting
- 2 tablespoon Ghee
- 1 tablespoon Coconut chopped
- 5-6 Cashews split to two
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Instructions
-
Firstly, wash the rice well for 2-3 times. Use Kerala raw rice variety like Chamba pachari/ Unnakalari rice.
-
Wash and set aside.
-
After that, in a heavy bottomed pan, heat 2 tablespoon of ghee and roast cashes.
-
Once golden, drain from ghee and set aside.
-
Then, in the same ghee, add coconut pieces and fry them in meidum heat until golden. Make sure to keep stirring for even browing. Drain from ghee and set aside.
-
Add the rice and give it a quick mix in the ghee. Do not roast for longer.
-
After that, add 2 cups water for ½ cup rice.
-
Cook covered for 30 – 40 mins.
-
Meanwhile take crushed jaggery with ½ cup water and mix well using a ladle to dissolve it.
-
Smash well with ladle if there is any bigger pieces to fasten dissolving. Set aside.
-
Check rice for doneness. It should be soft to press. All water should be absorbed to ensure the perfect consistency and texture of rice. If rice is not soft, add more water and cook furthermore until it is done.
-
Once you make sure the rice is soft, then, add the jaggery water strained. After adding jaggery and continue boiling, the rice is gonna turn harder, so it is important for rice to get soft.
-
Bring to boil and add 2 tablespoons of ghee at this stage.
-
Cook in medium heat.
-
Payasam gets thicker and sticky. The entire process should be in medium heat, do not cook in high heat.
-
Then add 2 tablespoons of ghee again.
-
Cook furthermore until you get a thick consistency, bubbles get frothy and gets a lovely hue.
-
Then add dry ginger powder and cardamom powder, mix well.
-
Add a mustard size of edible camphor, crushing between fingers to powder it and sprinkle. Do not add more, keep it subtle.
-
Once it is thick like this and not watery, switch off the stove. Gets little more thick as it cools. Aravana payasam is ready.
Video
Notes
- Rice should be completely cooked before adding jaggery. Boiling in jaggery turns it bit firm so it turns a bit chewy.
- If you are making as a prasadam, make sure to use Kerala raw rice variety.
- Do not use long grain rice, short grain rice is traditionally used.
- You can use other raw rice variety (like seeraga samba or any tiny grain rice variety) if you do not get Kerala rice.
- I added more cashews than mention but I thought it should be added lesser as it affects the looks and texture too much.
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