I saw this recipe in a tamil magazine a couple of months back.  I was very hesitant to try it because I was wondering how ridge gourd would taste in a sweet dish.  Finally I got the courage and prepared it yesterday.  The experiment was a grand success.  I did not tell my husband what I was preparing.  After it was done I gave him little payasam and asked him how it was.  He told,  “It tastes like any other payasam.  Why do you want to post it in your blog?”  He has a very sensitive nose, so he can guess what’s cooking even with the mildest aroma.  He himself could not believe that it was made with ridge gourd.

Ingredients in the original recipe:
Ridge Gourd, Big – 1
Milk – 4 cups (I used 2% milk)
Water – 1 to 2 cups for cooking the ridge gourd
Sugar – ¼ to ½ cup as per your taste
Cardamom powder – little

Optional:
Condensed Milk – 2 tablespoons
Cashews, raisins for garnishing
Ghee for frying the nuts, 2 teaspoons
Green food color

My variation:
Milk – 2 cups for cooking the ridge gourd (I used skim milk instead of water)
Cashews, whole – 5 (to cook along with the vegetable)

Servings:
For 6 cups of milk used, I got 4 cups (exactly) of ridge gourd payasam.

Procedure:
1.  Wash the ridge gourd under running water and peel the coarse ridges.  Discard it and then peel the skin and save it for grinding chutney.

2.  Cut the gourd into small pieces.  I pressure cooked the gourd, 2 cups of skim milk and 5 cashews for 2 whistles.

3.  While the ridge gourd is cooking, boil the 4 cups of milk in a heavy bottomed vessel.

4.  Wait for the pressure to release and grind the cooked vegetable in a blender.  I used an immersion blender and got a very smooth ridge gourd puree.

5.  Add this puree to the boiling milk and let it cook for another 10 minutes or until you are not able to smell the vegetable.  Keep stirring once in a while so that the bottom of the vessel does not scorch.

6.  Add the condensed milk, sugar and cardamom powder and the food color if you wish.  Let this mixture simmer for a while.

7.  Meanwhile heat the ghee in a small frying pan and fry cashews, raisins and add it to the kheer.

8.  Serve it hot or cold.

My Notes:
1.  The paysam was very delicious.  At first I added ¼ cup of sugar but felt that it was not sweet enough.  So I added another ¼ cup, but this made the payasam very swweeeeeeeet.  I will reduce the quantity of sugar  the next time (more than ¼ cup but little less than ½ cup) .

2.  In case you choose to cook the vegetable with water, just remove the cooked vegetables alone and blend it.  Reserve the liquid for some soup or stew.  If you use milk, you can blend everything together.

3.  The author of the original recipe has also given recipes for potato, chayote squash (chow chow), cabbage, cauliflower, green peas, bottle gourd and red pumpkin kheer in the same method.  I have prepared the red pumpkin kheer a couple of times and it tastes very good too.  I have not yet tried the other vegetables.

4.  I also prepare chutney with the ridge gourd peel and chow chow peel always.  Yesterday morning I prepared chow chow kootu (daal), so I had reserved those peels too.  So I prepared a chutney with the peels of both the vegetables.  I know that many of you do it already.  Those who are not aware of the recipe, if you are interested I will post it here.  Let me know.

I came across the recipe for Paneer Kheer/Paneer Payasam in a Tamil Magazine.  The original recipe required for pressure cooking paneer, so I modified it.  It was a hit with my husband the first time itself, in spite of the fact that he is not a big fan of paneer.  The kheer tasted like Basundhi, because of the the grated paneer.  So I modified my recipe again, by increasing the quantity of paneer so that it would have the exact texture of Basundi.  This is my mother-in-law’s favorite too, so she asked me to make this for Ugadi.  This time I made another modification, I used Evaporated Milk instead of regular milk.  Wow! It was the best ever. 

Ingredients:
1. Evaporated Milk – 2 cans (I used 1 can of whole milk and another can of 2% milk. You can use regular milk also, around 5 cups, whole milk preferably)
2. Paneer – I used 3/4th of a 400 gm pack. (If you want basundhi like texture you need 3/4ths or else change it according to your taste)
3. Sweetened Milk – 1/2 can (or as per your taste)
4. Sugar – couple teaspoons to mix it with the grated paneer.
5. MTR Badam (Almond) Mix – This is optional. (updated: a couple of teaspoons is enough) The original recipe only called for sugar to be mixed with the paneer, I thought mixing the badam mix would give a rich flavor.  If you don’t have that in hand you can always use saffron strands and the other regular garnishing and flavoring like cardamom powder, pistachios etc.

Procedure:
1. Grate 200 gm of paneer (half of the pack), add sugar and the Badam powder and mix everything thoroughly.
2. In a heavy bottomed vessel (this one is very important) add both the cans of milk and let it boil.  The color of evaporated milk was so good, I strongly feel that Pal (Milk) Payasam would taste excellent if made with evaporated milk instead of regular milk.
3. Once it starts boiling add half the can of sweetened condensed milk and let it boil.
4. After a couple of minutes add the grated paneer and let it cook together with the milk.  After sometime the paneer would have dissolved, not entirely though.  You can either stop at this stage for paneer kheer or continue to take it to the next level.
5. If you decide to go with basundhi, grate the remaining paneer (depending upon how much you want or the texture you want. I used another 1/4th) directly into the vessel and let it simmer for just 3-5 minutes. Switch off the heat and it will thicken by itself and it will have the exact texture of basundhi and will taste exactly like basundhi.  I had the pistachios and almond mixture I prepared for baklava, so I mixed that one too.  Needless to say it was very very very delicious!

Update:
If you decide to make basundi, you can add 3/4ths of the paneer straight away while the condensed milk mixture is boiling. I asked my friend to try this method and she told me that it came out very well. Keep it on the stove for another 3-5 minutes and turn it off. The kheer will start to thicken and you will get the basundi texture.