Wash the rice and soak it in water for 10 minutes. Pressure cook the rice with a little more than double amount water.

You should slightly overcook it. When you press a rice bead between your thumb and index finger it should easily get smashed.

Add jaggery* to a sauce pan. Melt it to a thick sauce by stirring with a little water on a low flame. There shouldn't be any lumps in it.

Bring to boil and switch off.

You could strain it through a sieve to get rid of any stones in the jaggery.

Transfer the cooked rice and jaggery sauce to a pan. Add a tablespoon or two of ghee** and mix well.

Reduce on a medium flame while stirring frequently. Cook until most of the water content is reduced and the rice gets sticky and coming off from sides of the pan.

Now add the thin coconut milk*** (2nd extract), mix well, and reduce on a medium flame.

If you want your pradhaman to be really thick, reduce till it's almost dry.

In the meantime heat some ghee in a pan and fry the coconut chips.

When they start turning brown add the cashews and raisins. Fry for one more minute to golden brown, switch off and keep it aside.

It's difficult to grind cardamom in small quantities. Grind cardamom with some sugar in a mixer.

You wouldn't need all this cardamom**** for our pradhaman.

By now the pradhaman in the pan would have reduced to your required consistency. Now add the thick coconut milk (1st extract), stir well, and cook for a couple more minutes.

You don't have to bring this to boil. Switch off, garnish with the fried coconut chips, cashew, raisins, and a dusting of the cardamom-sugar powder.

Serve hot. Ideally, pradhaman should be served on the same banana leaf towards the end of the Onam sadya. Alternatively, you could serve it in mugs/glasses as well.