Food with Sherin

Pineapple sago payasam by aunty L and chocolate brownies by aunty P were the star attractions of 'mathrujyothis' sunday sale in Nirmala Bhavan church on of the yester years, this was before my med school days. If you are wondering what is mathrujyothis, I will tell u. It is a church and diocese linked organisation by the mums in church through which the church did many charitable works. The sunday sale was a yearly event when each mum would make something, food or otherwise, and sell it, with the profit to go to the above said charitable activities.

Recently I started craving for the 'famous' pineapple sago payasam. I did whip up mango-sago pudding with mango pulp a while ago but it was no where near the payasam I had in mind. I will post the recipe another day.

Presented here is my version of pineapple-sago payasam.  It tasted yummm.

Ingredients

Pineapple canned - 500g (drained weight - 350g)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Sago / chawari / Sabudana- 100g
Water - 1 L
Ghee - 1 tsp
Milk - 500ml
Condensed milk - 1 tin /397g

Method

• Heat ghee in a pressure cooker and saute sago in it. Do not let brown.
• Add a litre of water, close the lid. Do not put the weight. We need to steam and not pressure cook.
• After first let-out-of-steam, get the flame down and cook for 10 minutes. Turn the hob off.
• Once steam fully escapes, open the lid and wash and drain sago in cold running water.
• In another pan, cook pineapple pieces in enough water. Once cooked add the sugar and let the mooisture evaporate. stirring constantly.
• Boil milk in a pan and add condensed milk to it. Mix in the cooked sago breaking lumps if any.
• You can either chill both mixtures separate and mix on serving, or mix milk-sago well with pineapple and chill.
• You can garnish with fried cashew and raisins / chopped almonds / saffron strands or anything at all the catches ur fancy. I like it plain.

Enjoy!

On popular request:

• Use a heavy bottomed pan.
• Add  sago only when the water is on a rolling boil. 
• For 1 cup sago bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil.
• Add sago and let simmer on medium flame.
• Keep stirring well to avoid sago sticking to the bottom and sides of the pot.
• After around 15 minutes of cooking when you can still see white spots at the center of each sago, turn off the flame, cover with a lid and let stand covered for around 10 minutes. 
• At the end of 10 minute,s open the lid to a jelly-like and translucent sago with no white cores.
• Strain and wash sago under running water to get rid of any excess starch. Now transfer to a bowl and add a tsp of water to avoid them sticking together. Allow to cool and drain again before finally adding to your favourite dessert.

• Depending on the size and quality you might need to soak your sago for 15-20 minutes (smaller variety) or overnight (the large pearled variety). Some quick cooking variety don't need soaking at all. You would need to test your sago to know which category they fall under.
• Never soak overnight or attempt to wash sago before cooking if using quick cook variety or else they will fully disintegrate. Believe me, I have done that!