Prasad
Updated Oct. 31, 2024
- Total Time
- 40 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1cup whole milk
- 1(12-ounce) can evaporated milk
- 1cup sugar
- 2teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger (from a 1-inch piece)
- 1teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1cinnamon stick
- 1teaspoon Caribbean mixed essence or vanilla extract
- 1½cups ghee
- 1cup golden raisins
- 2cups quick-cooking farina (such as Cream of Wheat)
- 1cup coarsely grated fresh or fresh frozen coconut (see Tip)
- ½cup coarsely chopped raw almonds
- ½cup roasted and salted cashews
- 10 to 12roasted chickpeas (available in Indian markets; see Tip)
Preparation
- Step 1
In a medium saucepan, combine the whole milk, evaporated milk, sugar, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon stick and mixed essence or vanilla. Bring to just a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Step 2
Melt the ghee in a large, deep frying pan over medium-low heat. Add ½ cup of the raisins and fry until they plump, about 15 seconds. Add the farina ¼ cup at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon constantly, until it becomes light brown, 5 to 7 minutes over medium-low heat. Stir in the coconut and cook until just warmed, 1 to 2 minutes more.
- Step 3
Remove the cinnamon stick from the milk mixture and discard. Using a wooden spoon, add the milk mixture ½ cup at a time to the farina mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the liquid is completely absorbed and semi-moist clumps form, 5 to 7 minutes. (The texture should be tender but hold together well when pinched into clumps.) Remove the mixture from the heat and scrape into a large bowl.
- Step 4
Add the almonds, cashews and the remaining ½ cup golden raisins to the farina mixture and mix very well. Serve equal portions in small bowls or small brown paper bags, garnished with 2 or 3 roasted chickpeas.
- You can find frozen grated coconut in many Indian or Caribbean markets. You can also work with a whole coconut, which isn’t difficult but takes a little finesse. Using a paring knife or metal skewer, find the softest of the three “eyes” at the top of one of the long ends of the coconut. Pierce this eye and then shake out the coconut water into a bowl. Clutch the coconut in your hand. Next, using a hammer or the back of a cleaver, tap firmly around the middle of the coconut, moving the coconut as you need to to cover the whole circumference until the coconut splits. (If you place it on a table or hard surface, the force will be transferred rather than absorbed by the coconut.) Use a paring knife to help pry the coconut meat away from the shell. Finally, grate the coconut meat using the large holes of a box grater.
- Roasted chickpeas are sold by the bag in Indian markets, but you can easily make your own by toasting cooked chickpeas in a dry frying pan over medium heat until golden brown.
Private Notes
Comments
Readers, please note: the term "prasad" carries religious significance for Hindus, ie its not a neutral word like "omelet", but more like "communion wafer". Prasad is the food you symbolically offer up to a Hindu deity to be blessed, and then share and ingest with the other worshippers. Culturally, if someone offers you Prasad you must never refuse it, and should only use your right hand to receive and eat it. Hope that helps avoid any embarrassment.
Prasad is a general term for any food offered to God in a devotional sentiment. It is then shared with devotees. It is consecrated food. The Communion wafer in Catholicism could also be considered prasad. This recipe is for a sweet that can be used as prasadam.
To break a coconut: hold it over the sink, hit it hard with a regular sized hammer at its equator and it should break in half easily. If you want the coconut water that’s inside, just put a tumbler in the sink to catch it. There’s no need to go through the piercing the eyes business. Indian grocery stores that cater to the South Indian community usually carry coconut breakers, coconut graters, and tools for cutting wedges out of split coconuts.
This dish can be made with sooji which comes in different coarseness from very fine to coarse ,sold in Indian and Pakistani store. If made with the fine blend the “ the sooji ka halwa” as it is called by south Asians who are not of the Hindu faith has a very velvety texture and is eaten as a breakfast dish with puri ( fried bread).
The other commenters point out that this is typically offered to deities in Hindu religious ceremonies. These ceremonies are sometimes hours long and if you’re part of it then you’re sitting on the floor with smoky fires burning close to your face so you’re inhaling that in a hot place. Many times you would have faster so you’re hungry. After that ordeal you’re served a bag of this and it’s like the greatest thing you’ve ever eaten in your life. You try to buddy up to the people serving them up to try to score a second bag. Sometimes you somehow get a hold of some bags from a poojah you didn’t even attend and it’s like str
I grew up on this: NO cooked chickpeas, cashews or mixed essence: use cardamom powder & rehydrated raw chickpeas—soak overnight. At pujas, holidays or celebrations, it was served with grated coconut, uncooked rehydrated chickpeas, a prune, a small banana & a piece of rote—a sweet paratha. It’s always dusted with toasted farina/cream of wheat. The interplay of flavours and textures is otherworldly, food fit for the gods, indeed!