Buffalo-Milk Pāyasa
उत्तार्य नागरं चूर्णं क्षिप्त्वा दर्व्या विघट्टयेत् । श्यामाककङ्गुनीवारगन्धशालिसुतण्डुलैः ॥ ७३ ॥ सरवेष्टिकसेवाकैर्दिवसैर्लघुविस्तृतैः । चिरप्रसूतमहिषीपयसा पायसं पचेत् ॥ ७४ ॥ पायसं लेहने योग्यं स्वादुगन्धं मनोहरम् । गोधूमाः क्षालिता शुभ्राः शोषिता रविरश्मिभिः ॥ ७५ ॥
With the fine grains of barnyard millet, foxtail millet, wild rice, and fragrant śāli, and with sara, veṣṭika, and sevāka, spread out thin over some days, he should cook a pāyasa in the milk of a buffalo that calved long ago. The pāyasa is fit for licking, sweet-smelling, and delightful.
This recipe itself calls for nothing but rice and milk. Later in the chapter, pāyasa is named among the dishes served with sugar and ghee, and the chapter’s other sweet milk dishes are generally spiced with cardamom too — so sugar goes in at the end, ghee is left for drizzling at the table, and the cardamom is optional. While the text calls for the milk of a buffalo that calved long before, and therefore high in milk fats and solids, that is hard to find where I live. I’ve therefore used whole cow’s milk with a little cream to approximate it.
Ingredients
- 100 g fragrant short-grain rice, or 80 g millet
- 1 L whole milk
- 100 ml double cream (omit if you have buffalo milk)
- 75 g sugar
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom (optional)
- Ghee, for drizzling (optional)
Method
- Rinse the grain. Combine it with the milk and cream in a heavy saucepan.
- Bring slowly to a simmer, then cook over very low heat for 45–60 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping the base, until the grain is completely tender and the pudding is thick enough to mound softly on a spoon.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the sugar, and the cardamom if using.
- Serve warm or chilled, with ghee for drizzling at the table.