Wheat and Coconut Milk Hot Drink | Gothambu Kachiyathu

I struggled so much to come up with a short English title for this post and even then the "Wheat and Coconut Milk Hot Drink" does not justify the characters present in "Gothambu Kachiyathu". So let me explain it in long sentences... 🙂

Gothambu is the Malayalam word for wheat and Kachiyathu means tempered. Now, this doesn't do justice to the other main characters that make this drink drinkable. 🙂 Actually, this is a three-milk hot drink; wheat milk, dairy milk and coconut milk, while coconut milk is entirely optional. Tres Milk Hot Drink would have been a fancy title for this very popular staple Malabar drink 😛

My mom makes Gothambu Kachiyathu or similar hot drinks like Badam milk, Thari Kachiyathu (semolina based) etc. as a mid-day breakie, especially when we are the only two at home. It is also usually prepared during Ramadan because it has all the good things like grain and milk which will keep you full for a long time.

Nowadays, this kind of warm drink is my lunch option on weekdays when I am too lazy to cook just for me. I am not sure if you have noticed, but I have begun to consciously eat and not skip any meals as I learned skipping meals is one of the factors causing my weight gain. I said one of the factors... I have to address the rest. I know.

Just like my Thari Kachiyathu recipe, this one and a few other Malabar sweet dishes call for the addition of fried shallots along with the nuts and raisins. The fried shallots impart a very unique flavour to these hot drinks that I highly recommend trying even though my partner kinda detested the onions in this drink.

The preparation hardly takes time if you have a good food processor or mixie. Grind, grind and grind to extract the maximum milk out of wheat and grated coconut. Next, stand by the pot and keep stirring continuously until it boils and then it is done in no time. If you miss stirring in the beginning stage, the milk mixture curdles and causes lumps..we don't need that. Finish it off with the ghee-fried cashews and raisins.

Wheat and Coconut Milk Hot Drink  | Gothambu Kachiyathu

¼ cup skinned whole white wheat or crushed grain (Jareesh), soaked overnight*

1 cup grated coconut or ¾ cup desiccated coconut soaked in ¼ cup water for 5 to 10 minutes

1 cup milk

1 to 2 cups water (depending on desired thickness)

Third stage: 
1 cup milk again
a pinch of salt to taste

⅓ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon cardamom powder

1 tablespoon ghee

5 whole cashews, split

1 tablespoon raisins

2 to 3 tiny shallots, chopped finely (optional but recommended)

*If using Jareesh, I noticed it required more milk and water than the skinned whole wheat.

METHOD

First stage:

1. Drain the soaked wheat and add it to a mixie along with the grated coconut and milk
2. Grind the mixture until smooth
3. Take a cooking pot or a non-stick pot and hold a large sieve and pass the ground mixture through the sieve. Push down the mixture until all the milk is extracted.

1. Put the residue back into the mixie and add water grind again
2. Run it once again through the sieve and collect all the remaining milk into the same pot and discard residue.

1. Stir in the last set of milk and place the pot on a low-medium heat
2. Keep stirring without taking off your hands and wait for it to boil
3. Add salt, sugar and cardamom powder and gently cook for a few more minutes until it reaches your desired consistency.

You can boil the mixture further to make it thicker like pudding or add more water or milk to make it thinner.

Gothambu Kachiyathu sets as it cools and would be like pudding if refrigerated.Temper:

1. Heat ghee in a separate small pan or kadai and add the cashews and fry till golden. Remove each cashew and add it to the hot drink
2. Next, fry the raisins till it puffs up and add them to the pot.
3. Lastly, add the chopped shallots and fry until golden brown. Add it to the hot wheat milk drink along with the tempered ghee.
4. Stir well and close the lid for the flavours to infuse
5. Serve in a bowl or mug or tumbler
6. Refrigerate the remaining if any.

During summer, I prefer mine thick and cold so that I can scoop and have instead of drinking. Just makes me feel like I ate something. 🙂 and in winters a warm bowl of Gothambu Kachiyathu is so comforting!I made a bowl of this wheat and coconut milk hot drink for my next-door neighbour who loved it and seems they had my Gothambu Kachiyathu for dinner 🙂