Appe Payasa – A Karnataka Delicacy

Appe Payasa – A Karnataka delicacy! An ultra creamy and lip smacking kheer prepared with milk and bite-sized crisp appe. At the end, chopped nuts are added for the extra crunchiness to the kheer. Serve appe kheer warmly!

Are you an extrovert? I would say I am not. People who know me would get surprised if I say so, but that’s the truth. Yes, I am social and would speak instantly without any hesitation and get along with others but I have never felt comfortable without any inhibitions. I carry a sense of fear though others enjoy my company. I am not so during my school days but then my experience during my undergraduate changed my perspective entirely. I trust people easily and share whatever I feel. Back then, I never knew that people who say as your friend also bitch you in the back. When I share myself with you, it translates directly as I trust you and considers you as my confidant. It’s not for broadcasting it across the whole bunch and nag me. May be, I haven’t met such types back in school. I had a specific gang of girls from my childhood days and we were together in thick and thin of life. And what we know is only assignments, exams, group studies, marks, chit-chats about our favorite heroes and movies. They are my confidants even today. One fine evening in my third semester, I found her, whom I consider as my bestie then, was making fun with others about some serious stuff which I believed and shared with her. I was in absolute shock and couldn’t overcome the saddening situation. How could she be such low to me? I have a serious issue that I couldn’t tolerate such people and could barely act as if I love them. Thus came the end of her chapter and moved on. I had never revealed or questioned her. I believe there is no value in trying to change such people unless they realize the meaning of trust and change themselves. That was my first experience and it didn’t stop with her.

Yet another habit which shocked me was people bitching about their friends to others. I had always thought those girls were an epitome of friendship and thought they were singing “Mustafa Mustafa” every day.  But, when one of them gossiped about the other to me, I was taken back. What am I supposed to react? Such experiences changed my perspective and I was cautious in trusting others and calling them as my friends. But, I had gained invaluable friendship during my graduation who still checks about me and my life.  How do you react when you come across such ones? Do you trust others easily?

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”   I am so glad I have few such souls who believe in me and trust me wholeheartedly. If you ask me as why am I pouring my heart out, I have thought about my college days from the morning. One of my classmates pinged me in WhatsApp for an inquiry about visa procedures. I haven’t interacted much with her and hardly know about her. Out of the blue, she messaged me “hi” and started bombarding a set of questions. She never cared to reply to my question about her and her life. At first, I was excited but then I found that she pinged only to acquire the needed information and never had an excitement of talking to a classmate who studied with her 8 years back. I know it sounds silly but then the world is full of such ones. And sadly, we need to survive among them without losing our core values of valuing and respecting fellow beings and their emotions. After such irritating experience, I wanted to gobble on some delicious desserts, especially Indian. And this appe payasa fulfilled my wish and made my evening a pleasant one.

Appe Payasa or appe kheer is an authentic recipe from the regions of Karnataka and is prepared using small bite sized appe, biscuits made of maida or rava. Appe is crispy biscuits prepared commonly with chiroti rava or fine sooji. One can take the liberty of preparing the biscuits with maida too. Appe is usually prepared as small pooris and later broken into small bite-sized biscuits. Else, you can prepare small biscuits straight away. The crispy biscuits are later soaked in the creamy milk. Appi kheer is an ultra creamy and lip smacking kheer prepared with milk, appe and finally nuts are added to it to add crunchiness to it. Prepare once and I am sure you will fall in love with its creamy texture and its delicious taste.

Ingredients:

For Appe:

• 1 cup Fine Rava/ Maida
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Ghee
• ½ cup Water for the dough
• Oil for deep frying

For Payasa:

• 4 cups Full Fat Milk
• ½ Cup Sugar
• ½ teaspoon Nutmeg Powder
• ½ teaspoon Cardamom Powder
• Pinch of Saffron
• 2 Tablespoon Chopped Nuts like Pista, Cashews, and Almonds

Method:

• In a pan, add milk and boil over medium flame. Cook until the milk reduces to its half.
• In a bowl, add rava, ghee and mix them together. Add water little by little to knead into a dough. Leave the dough. Let it rest for an hour.
• After the resting time, take a handful of the dough and roll into a flat circle of 1 mm thickness. Cut them into small squares or into your desired shape. Instead of this step, you can roll the dough into small circle similar to pooris.
• In a small kadai, add oil and heat it over medium flame. Once the oil is hot, add bite sized dough and fry till they become golden and crispy.
• Place the fried appe in a paper towel and drain the excess oil. Repeat the same for the remaining rolled dough.
• Now, once the milk becomes thick, add fried appe to the milk and cook until appe are cooked. The cooked appe will float on the top and will be soft.
• Now, slowly add sugar to the payasa and cook until the sugar dissolves completely into it.
• Season with cardamom and nutmeg powder to the payasa.
• In a small bowl, mix saffron with a tablespoon of warm water. Pour the saffron water on top of the payasa.
• Once the payasa becomes thick, switch off the flame. One can adjust the consistency of the payasa according to their wish. If the payasa looks thick, add warm milk to the kheer.
• Add the chopped almonds, fried cashews, and pistachios to the kheer.
• Serve appe payasam warmly.

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The Kheer was deliciously delicious with crisp fried appe and chopped nuts. The kheer was so creamy and it just slides in through the throat. Each spoon is a real bliss of rich nutty kheer.

If you are looking for other types of kheer, then do check out these recipes – Utthatthi payasa and Vermicelli Kheer.

If you try the recipe, do let me know how they tasted in comments. If you like space, do like and follow my profile at here – Facebook, Google

Yours Truly,

Karthi