Jevvarisi Payasam is a sweet dish made with sago or tapioca pearls, sweeteners, milk, cardamoms, cashews, and raisins. This Sago Kheer is a simple recipe that can be made in no time during festivals or occasions.
Even before I talk about the recipe or the choice for today, I have a confession to make. I have never made Jevvarasi payasam in my life though it is one of my favorites.
I have to say, I have made it several times and failed miserably. Usually, I either cook the jevvarasi too much to make it all dissolve or curdle the milk, and most of the time, I do both.
My amma, patti, attais, friends, and fellow bloggers have given many suggestions to make it right, but I just could not. When I was choosing a recipe for the alphabet J, I was sort of stuck on making something with jevvarisi.
Even though it is a highly processed ingredient, I like a few things made out of it like jevvarisi vadam, jevvarisi upma, jevvarisi vadai, and most importantly this payasam. The only thing I have successfully made before with amma's help is the jevvarisi vadam. We both made the vadam 3 years back when she had come here.
I was thinking of making it, but the weather is still quite cold. I will definitely be making it this summer though to make the best out of Oklahoma’s hot summer. But for now, I had to choose some other recipe.
The jevvarisi vadai and upma are more Maharashtrian origin and are made commonly during fasting days. Jevvarisi payasam is something I ate growing up and I used to love it. Even now when I go to India, I ask my patti or attai to make this sago kheer, as I have never made it here.
I had to make this payasam work this time and hence I chose the vegan (almost vegan) route and used coconut milk. I am a little comfortable with coconut milk because I know that I won’t curdle it as quickly as regular milk.
Since I was using coconut milk, I chose to add jaggery instead of sugar. It was a wonderful choice and I love the earthy flavor of jaggery along with the coconut milk. Unfortunately, because of my failures, my kids have not developed a liking for this payasam and they were not too keen on the texture of this payasam.
My other recipes from this series -
A - Athirasam
B - Badam Burfi
E - Ellu Urundai
F - Fruit Kesari
G - Godhumai Rava Pidi Kozhukattai
I - Inji Marappa
Preparation time – 10 minutes
Cooking time – 40 minutes
Difficulty level – easy
Ingredients to make Jevvarisi Payasam – Serves 4
- Jevvarasi / Sago / Sabudana – ½ cup
- Jaggery – ½ cup
- Coconut – ¾ cup (grated) or about 2 cups of coconut milk
- Cashews and raisins – few
- Nei / ghee – 2 tsp
- Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp
Procedure to make Sago Kheer –
- To make coconut milk – In the blender, add the coconut and ¾ cup of water and grind well. Strain the coconut in a fine mesh strainer. This will be the first milk / thick coconut milk. Now return the ground/squeezed coconut to the blender and add about ¾ cup of water again. Grind it well and strain it once more. This will be the second milk / thin coconut milk.
- Add the ghee to a heavy bottom pan and fry the cashews and raisins until golden brown. Remove them on a plate.
- In the same pan, add the jevvarasi / sago and fry it for about 2 to 3 minutes until it puffs up slightly.
- Add the jaggery and about ½ cup of water in a pan and make syrup. Strain
the jaggery if there is an impurity and keep it ready. It is not important
for the syrup to thicken.
- In the meantime, boil about 1 ½ cups of water to a rolling boil. Slowly add this boiling water to the fried sago and mix.
- Cook the jevvarasi on medium flame until it is very soft and appears transparent on the edges. By experience, if I let the sago become entirely translucent, it becomes very mushy and loses shape. So I cook it only until it becomes transparent on the edges.
- Now add the jaggery syrup to the cooked sago and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Turn the flame to low and add the second/thin coconut milk. Boil the payasam for about 5 minutes.
- Now add the cardamom powder and the first/thick coconut milk. Simmer for one more minute and turn off the flame. Garnish the Sago kheer with the fried cashews and raisins and serve.
Notes and Observation
- Cooking the sago is a challenge. I have many times cooked it too much and made it into a mushy mass rather than having pearls. This time, I made sure I cooked it only until it becomes transparent along the edges. So it cooked further with the jaggery and coconut milk and came to the right consistency at the end.
- I am very scared to use regular milk with jevvarasi as I have always curdled the payasam (I have tried for years using many techniques). The fear of curdling is low when using coconut milk. Just make sure you always cook on low flame after adding the coconut milk and do not boil long after adding the first milk.
- This is a vegan version of the payasam. Instead of frying the cashews and the raisins in the ghee, use coconut oil.
More Festival Recipes
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Recipe
Thengai Paal Jevvarisi Payasam/Sago Kheer With Cocunut Milk
Ingredients
- ½ cup Jevvarasi / Sago / Sabudana
- ½ cup Jaggery
- ¾ cup Coconut grated or about 2 cups of coconut milk
- 2 tablespoon Cashews and raisins
- 2 tsp Nei / ghee
- ¼ tsp Cardamom powder
Instructions
- To make coconut milk – In the blender, add the coconut and ¾ cup of water and grind well. Strain the coconut in a fine mesh strainer. This will be the first milk / thick coconut milk. Now return the ground/squeezed coconut to the blender and add about ¾ cup of water again. Grind it well and strain once more. This will be the second milk / thin coconut milk.
- In a heavy bottom pan, add the ghee and fry the cashews and raisins until golden brown. Remove them on a plate.
- In the same pan, add the jevvarasi / sago and fry it for about 2 to 3 minutes until it puffs up slightly.
- Add the jaggery and about ½ cup of water in a pan and make syrup. Strain the jiggery if there is impurity and keep it ready. It is not important for the syrup to thicken.
- In the meantime, boil about 1 ½ cups of water to a rolling boil. Slowly add this boiling water to the fried sago and mix.
- Cook the jevvarasi in medium flame until it is very soft and appears transparent on the edges. By experience if I let the sago become translucent entirely, it becomes very mushy and loses the shape. So I cook it only until it start to become transparent on the edges.
- Now add the jaggery syrup to the cooked sago and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Turn the flame to low and add the second / thin coconut milk. Boil the payasam for about 5 minutes.
- Now add the cardamom powder and the first / thick coconut milk. Simmer for one more minute and turn off the flame. Garnish with the fried cashews and raisins and serve.
Prema Almeida says
Hi, thanks for the recipe. Turned out absolutely delicious. SInce I do not like it mushy, I washed the sago pearls to remove some starch, drained it well and then followed your recipe. I used dairy milk, boiled separately and added it slowly to the jaggery syrup while taking it off the flame. Did not curdle. And yes, using coconut jaggery give it a unique flavour. Cheers!
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
Thank you so much for your feedback. I am so happy that you liked it.
Chef Mireille says
I love the thick consistency of this kheer. Sometimes I dont like kheer's when they are too watery.
Padma Veeranki says
This is completely my kind of dessert...never tired of any payasam!! Javvarisi Payasam looks absolutely divit....I just want to grab a bowl off the screen immediately...Yummy share 😋
Swati says
This looks so delicious and perfectly made.. you are right cooking sabudana even for kheer is a tricky thing just like sabudana khichdi.. many times had it at a South Indian Temple while we were in Mumbai.will surely try it!!
Mayuri Patel says
This is one dessert I make often especially when the family is fasting on Ekadashi. Would love to try out this version with coconut milk and jaggery. Looks really tempting.
Vandana says
I love this dessert. I am from North India but grew up celebrating festivals from all over India as my father was in defence services. We used to get this in Prashad during Ayyappa puja and we used to eagerly wait for it. Will try it at home now.
Shobha Keshwani says
Payasam looks so delicious. We Sindhis also make it but with sugar and milk.