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Sutta Panampazha Payasam

The roasted panampazham or fruit of the toddy palm tree is a village delight in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and West Bengal and the payasam is a delicacy. Here we roast the fruit on an open fire and make the classic payasam with the smoky-sweet fruit pulp. It is an extraordinary, and extraordinarily special dessert.
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Equipment

  • A kummiti aduppu (charcoal stove), man-aduppu (mud stove) or other outdoor, wood-fired stove. A barbecue grill works, as does a roti-grill for an indoor gas stove, though that may make a mess with the drippings.

Ingredients
  

  • 2 large, ripe toddy palm fruits
  • 1 liter whole or full-fat milk
  • ¼ cup of aromatic rice [jeeraga samba, gobindo bhog, ambe mohar work well]
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ½ cup freshly grated coconut
  • 3-4 cardamom pods, peeled and powdered
  • A generous pinch of grated nutmeg

Instructions
 

Roast the panampazham, extract the pulp

  • If you have a kumitti aduppu or man aduppu or other small wood-fired stove, light it up, and place the whole panampazhams on top. If you don’t have an outdoor wood stove, you can do this on a large burner of a regular cooking stove indoors, preferably with a roti grill, but it’s messy—beware.
  • Turn the panampazham periodically until the outer layers are charring just slightly, and evenly all over the body of the fruit. Remove and set aside.
  • Use the blunt edge of a kitchen knife to extract the pulp. This is a long process, so make yourself comfortable, put on some music, and roll up your sleeves as you comb the pulp out of the fibres of the panampazham until the individual seeds look like troll dolls.
  • Each panampazham has 3 seeds, and together they will give you maybe a ½ cup of pulp. With two roasted fruits you should have about a cup of roasted pulp.

Make the payasam

  • Soak the rice in water for at least a half hour.
  • Bring the milk to a boil on the stovetop. Slowly add the soaked (and drained) rice. Mix well and keep a wooden ladle in the milk as it continues to boil, to prevent it from boiling over.
  • Stir frequently until the rice is well cooked, breaking apart, and the milk has reduced in volume by about half.
  • Add the sugar, and boil again, stirring frequently to prevent any catching and burning at the bottom of the vessel.
  • When the boil changes from a watery one to a bit of a “mud pot” boil, turn off the flame. Allow to cool.
  • After the payasam has cooled to just warmer than room temperature, add 1 cup of the panampazham pulp, the fresh coconut, powdered cardamom and freshly grated nutmeg. Whisk together well.
  • If your milk splits even after all this care—don’t worry, whisk well, and enjoy the slightly different texture of the resulting payasam.
  • Serve at room temperature or chilled. Be sure not to re-heat or the milk in the payasam will split for sure or split more!