There's more to payasam than rice, milk and jaggery; you can easily incorporate many other ingredients as well. This pumpkin payasam would render the payasam the desired sweetness and creamy density.
Ingredients
1 kg ripe pumpkin
2 coconuts
100gm chouvvari (sabudana/tapioca sago)
100gm ghee
750gm melted and filtered jaggery
Chopped coconut, as required for garnishing
Raisins, cashew nuts and sesame seeds, as required
1½ tsp cumin seeds
4 cardamom pods
Preparation
Clean the pumpkin off its skin and seeds, chop into pieces and boil it in the pressure cooker with half glass water.
Get one glass of thick coconut milk, a second glass of thinner milk, and then a third glass of thin milk from the coconut
Boil the chouvari
Take a pan and heat 50gm ghee in it. Add the boiled pumpkin to this and sauté well
In a while, add the chouvvari and melted jaggery that has been filtered. Mix well
Add the third milk from the coconut and when it starts to boil, add the second milk
When that boils, add the first glass of thick coconut milk
When you see the bubbles, turn off the stove before it boils
Take a pan and heat ghee in it. Add some coconut pieces and fry well
Add raisins, cashew nuts, and sesame seeds to this, and sauté well
Sprinkle powdered cardamom and cumin seeds over the payasam
