Nolen Gur diye Sewainer Payesh (Vermicelli Pudding With Date Palm Jaggery)

Date Palm Jaggery/ sugar is a special sweetener made from the juice/sap of date palm trees. The sap is collected by tying a pot with the tree trunk, and later boiled to make date palm sugar or jaggery. You associate the name with Bengal only because of the availability and as this state has been producing sweets of incredible variety and taste with date palm jaggery since time immemorial. The uniqueness and popularity of the flavour of this special jaggery have made it reach places outside Bengal and India. Now available almost at all the places nested by Bongs, I manage to get hold of it from C.R.Park a predominantly Bong inhabited region in Delhi.

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Date Palm Jaggery is available as both syrup and solid. I usually use the solidified form better known as ‘Patali Gur’ for payesh/pudding/kheer. This pudding is most often cooked with rice, but other variants like suji/semolina, sewain/vermicelli prove to be equally delectable.

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Now the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 litre whole milk
• Date palm jaggery according to the sweetness you want
• A fistful of cashew
• A fistful of raisins/kishmish
• A fistful of vermicelli/sewain
• 1 tablespoon ghee/clarified butter

Process:

Step:1

Boil the milk and reduce it to two third. Now in a pan heat ghee and roast the vermicelli until it takes a brownish hue.

Step:2

Throw in the cashews and raisins, stir for a minute.

Step:3

Pour the whole thing (vermicelli, cashew, raisins) into the milk. Let them simmer in the milk until the vermicelli is done.

Step:4

Now add the date palm jaggery broken into small pieces and stir the milk until they are completely dissolved.

Nolen Gur Diye Sewainer Payesh

Step:5

Serve warm or chilled, it will taste divine.