Paala Talikalu-Talikala Payasam

As I write this post I am recollecting very fond memories of my childhood.Back in the day every woman that got married and moved away from her parents had an elder neighbor lady helping her out getting upto speed with cooking and house chores.My mom had one such aunt living in our downstairs apartment and I spent most of my time with her sitting by her side while she cooked and prayed watching her and telling her all my stories.That aunt used to make this dish during Indian festivals like Janmashtami, Varalakshmi puja and now it makes me nostalgic with all those memories.

This dish is like a sweet noodle soup, where we make rice flour noodles and cook them in a milk-jaggery concoction garnished with nuts and coconut.

Preparation time	30 minutes
Serves	6
Serving Size	1/6 recipe
Calories Per Serving	Approximately 205 per serving
Difficulty	Difficult

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rice flour
2 tablespoons tapioca pearls(sago/sabudana) soaked overnight in water
2 teaspoon cashew nuts
2 teaspoon raisins
2 teaspoons ghee
2 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of cardamom powder
1/4 cup + 2 teaspoon grated jaggery
pinch of salt
2 teaspoon fresh grated coconut

Procedure:
1.Heat half cup of milk in a pan, dissolve 2 teaspoons jaggery.Take the rice flour and salt in a bowl and mix well.Now add the milk little by little, mixing well to form a dough.Keep aside for 10 minutes.

2.In a pan take the ghee and roast the cashews and raisins separately until golden brown and keep aside.

3.In a pan bring 2 cups of water to a boil.Now place the rice flour into the chakli press fitted with a wide holed plate and pipe/press the dough into boiling water.Let cook for 5 minutes and turn off the flame and drain the water.

4.In another pan bring the remaining milk to a boil.Add the tapioca pearls and the rice noodles to the milk and let cook for about 5 more minutes.Do not overstir or you will turn the noodles to mush, it is normal to break the noodles a little.

5.After the tapioca and the noodle is cooked turn down the heat to simmer and add the jaggery and sugar and mix gently to dissolve.Top off with nuts and coconut.

Tips:
This recipe is much starchier than the traditional payasam, I used the starch from the tapioca to make the dish thicken, if you are not using tapioca, pipe the rice noodles directly into the milk to the milk takes the starch from the rice noodles.
Do not add jaggery or sugar before the noodles or tapioca is cooked.
You can also add semolina(rava) or soaked chana dal or soaked khas khas to this dish as per your taste.