Sorakaya Payasam

It is so versatile as you can see from the different kinds of recipes you can make with it. This is the bottle gourd dessert thats a hit with any crowd. I made this for a PotLuck dinner over the weekend, so thats why you see the proportions are enough to feed a few families  Please adjust as per your needs.

Ingredients:

1/2 Gallon Whole Milk (or about 1.5 litres)

1 can Carnation Sweetened condensed milk(14oz)

1 cup Tapioca/Sago/Sabudana/Saggu Biyyam (soaked in about 2 cups of water)

1/2 cup rice (cooked)
2 Tbsp Sugar

3 Cardamom (de-skinned, powdered)

2 Tbsp Ghee (Clarified butter)

1 small Bottle Gourd/Dudhi/Lauki (finely grated)

Blanched Almonds

Golden Raisins

Method:

In a sauce pan, add 1 Tbsp of Ghee, add the grated bottle gourd and saute a little bit for about 5 minutes. And sugar to this and stir. Add the milk and let the vegetable cook in it. Add the cardamom powder After about 5 minutes, add the sago along with the water. Stir frequently to make sure the milk doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Cook on low heat until the bottle gourd and the sago is cooked completely, stirring to make sure the milk layer isn't browning in the bottom of the pan. Takes about 15-20 minutes. Add the condensed milk . Add the cooked rice stir and continue cooking. Simmer to desired consistency. You dont want to make it too thick when its hot. It should be of running consistency when you turn the heat off. After it cools, it becomes much thicker but it should still be of a flowy consistency thats served in bowls. Refrigerate and wait until its cold. I usually make it 12 hours ahead of time to give it enough time to be chilled. Just before you are ready to serve, take a small frying pan, put the remaining ghee, warm it and add the nuts and raisins to it. Add it to the pudding and serve .