Panchamirtham

Panchamirtham is a prasadam offered in temples all over Tamil Nadu. Palani panchamirtham is very famous. Last week for a pooja I had to prepare panchamirtham to distribute amog 5 children. But I have never tried it at home. Whoever I asked told me to add 5 types of fruits with honey and brown sugar. No body knew the exact proportion for the ingredients. A friend of hubby knew the proportion as he usually prepares panchamirtham in a temple. He wrote down the recipe and I was shocked by the number of bananas mentioned in the recipe. 2000 bananas went into the panchamirtham. He has also mentioned that the given quantity is for 300 bottles of the prasadam. As I needed around 7 – 8 bottles, I reduced the amount of bananas to 40 and calculated the other ingredients.
    My hubby helped me a lot in the preparation. While I measured out the ingredients and added them, he mashed the mixture continuously for 30 minutes. Though we used potato masher to make it easy, it was a painful job to mash a large bowl full of panchamirtham. 
     The bananas must be ripe otherwise you will get the raw taste in the panchamirtham. You need malai vazhaipazham for the preparation. If you don’t get that variety, you can go for other varieties. You need to change the number of bananas used according to the size of the banana as the variety mentioned in the recipe is smaller compared to other varieties. I did little changes to the recipe and the result was great. This method of preparation will ensure that the panchamirtham does not spoil even after a month. I went to a temple and I got 5 kids with whom I shared this delicious prasadam.

Ingredients:
Malai Vazhai Pazham / Small Bananas-40
Brown Sugar / Nattu Sakkarai-800gm
Honey / Then-100gm
Rock Sugar / Diamond Kalkandu-200gm
Seedless Dates-200gm (Finely chopped)
Golden Raisins / Ular Drakshai-100gm
Dates Syrup-250ml
Ghee-100gm
Saffron / Kunkuma poo-a pinch


Procedure:
1. Remove skin of bananas and slice them.
2. Place all the bananas in a large vessel and mash them using masher. The traditional way is to use your hand for mashing. But to make things easier I used the potato masher and got great results.
3. When the bananas are mashed to a pulp, add the brown sugar and mash them again.
4. Add the remaining ingredients one by one while continuously mashing the whole mixture.
5. When all the ingredients are incorporated together, cover the panchamirtham and keep it aside for 12-15hours.
6. Transfer to air tight jars and use.