Ada Pradhaman is one of the favorite desserts in Kerala served after a sumptuous lunch during festivals such as Onam and Vishu. Its also one of the highly traditional desserts of Kerala cuisine similar to Pal Ada Payasam, Paripppu payasam, Kootu payasam etc.

INGREDIENTS:
  • Rice Ada – 200 gms (Cooked rice flakes dried) Here we have used Double horse Rice Ada
  • Jaggery – ½ kg – chopped / grated / sliced
  • Ghee – 3 table spoons
  • Coconuts – 3 full, grated
  • Cardamom – 5-6 nos.
  • Coconut slices – 25 to 30 nos.
  • Cashew nuts- 30 nos
  • Raisins- 30 nos.
PREPARATION METHOD:
EXTRACTION OF COCONUT MILK:
  1. Step 1 – Take the grated coconut and grind it in the mixie. DONOT MIX WATER. Take the ground coconut and squeeze it with your hands to extract the milk out of it. This is called the first coconut milk. You will get approx. 300 ml of this. Keep it aside.
  2. Step 2 – Once the first milk is extracted, add around 100ml of water into the ground coconut and grind it again in the mixie. Now take the ground coconut and squeeze it with your hands again to extract milk. This is the second milk and this will be dilute compared to the first milk.
    The second milk would be approx. 700 ml. Keep aside
  3. Step 3 – Once the second milk is extracted, add around 200ml of water into the ground coconut and grind it thoroughly in the mixie. Now take the ground coconut and squeeze it with your hands again to extract milk. This is the third milk and this will be dilute compared to the first milk.
    The third milk would be approx. 1 litre. Keep aside
PREPARATION OF PAYASAM:
  1. Take a frying pan and pour 2 tablespoons ghee into the it. Put the Ada into the pan and saute in low flame till the ada turns light brown. Keep it aside.
  2. Take a reasonably big pan (around 5 litres capacity) or Uruli. Put the chopped/grated Jaggery into it and allow it to melt by adding around 300 ml of water into it.
    Now, cook the Jaggery until it turns slightly thick and turns dark brownish. While cooking, keep stirring it in such a way that it doesnot stick to the bottom of the pan so as to avoid it getting burnt. Cook in low flame.
    In order to identify whether the Jaggery is cooked, check if it flows like honey. The moment it start flowing like honey, it has got cooked.
  3. Next add the rice ada into the cooked Jaggery and mix well. Next add third coconut milk. Cook about for 15 minutes in low flame stirring continuously until the mix turns thick.
    Once it turns thick, add the second milk into it and stir continuously. This needs to be done till the Ada gets almost cooked. We need to check intermittently whether the ada is getting almost cooked so that it does not get over cooked in the heat of the pradhaman. Always cook in low flame.
    Once the ada is almost cooked, add the first coconut milk (the thick one), cardamom powder and switch off the flame. Keep stirring so as to avoid later formation at the top.
SEASONING:
  1. Take a small frying pan and pour 2 teaspoons of ghee into it.
  2. Add coconut slices and fry until it turns golden brown.
  3. Next add the cashew nuts and sauté till the cashew nuts also turns brownish.
  4. Next add the raisins and sauté till they enlarge and become like grapes.
  5. Add these into the Ada Pradaman. Ada pradaman is ready… We get around 2 litres of Ada Pradhaman.
NOTES AND TIPS:
  • I have cooked this in a normal steel vessel, however, if you have an Uruli, it will add to the taste of this dish.
  • Also, the ada used here is the ready made one , however, we can make Rice ada at home too, which should ideally be a little big bigger than the one that we get from market.