Paruthi Paal, or Cottonseed Milk
A warm, spiced, healing energy drink, made famously on street corners in Madurai from an agricultural byproduct--cottonseed!
Ingredients
- 200-250 g paruthi kottai or cottonseed (yields 1 liter of milk)
- 2 tablespoons raw rice, soaked and ground to a paste (or substitute with rice flour+1/2 cup water)
- 1 cup karupetti or palm jaggery dissolved in a little water to form a syrup
- ½ teaspoon powdered dry ginger or chukka
- 1 teaspoon powdered chitthirathai or dry lesser galangal
- 2-3 cardamom pods, powdered
- Coconut milk extracted from 1 whole grated coconut
Instructions
The previous night:
- Rinse the cottonseed well several times and soak in water
The next morning:
- Rinse again, and pick out as many empty seeds as possible. Bugs tend to get to these, and you’ll find more than a few empty husks.
- Transfer to a blender, add fresh clean water to cover and blend. Add more water if needed.
- Extract the milk by straining over a cheesecloth. Use a spoon, and squeeze the cheesecloth with your hands.
- Add more water and blend again to extract the “second milk.”
- Now strain all the milk once more—trust me, it’s needed to get out all the husk bits remaining.
- Transfer the milk to a heavy-bottomed pan, and bring to a simmer.
- Once bubbles form, add the jaggery syrup. Mix well.
- Follow with the ½ cup rice paste and stir constantly as this thickens the paruthi paal. Bring to a rolling boil, but keep stirring.
- Add the spice mixture (saving a pinch or two to garnish), give it all a good stir, and switch off the flame. Transfer to a copper vessel, if you can, to store.
To serve:
- Fill a glass halfway with the hot parutthi paal and top with room temperature coconut milk.
- If you have any spice powder left-over, sprinkle on top. Garnish with freshly grated coconut.
- The paruthi paal without coconut milk stores well in the fridge for 2-3 days. Add coconut milk only when you wish to serve, or it will spoil much faster than that.