When I think of festivals, the first thing that comes to mind is a house full of people with fun, laughter and then sweets! Every festival has a traditional sweet associated with it and pongal festival is no exception.
Today, I am going to share with you a delicious sweet pongal recipe to celebrate pongal festival. Each South Indian state has a different name for the festival and we tamilians call it Pongal (meaning to boil over or overflow).
Traditionally, freshly harvested rice is cooked in milk in a clay pot until it boils over and it is sweetened by the adding jaggery to it. The sweetened pongal is then tempered with ghee and nuts and spiced with aromatic crushed cardamom. There is also a savoury version of this pongal dish where rice and lentils is tempered with cumin and pepper. But both the sweet and savoury version use the same base ingredients and are cooked to the same mushy consistency. They both use a good amount of ghee for the flavour and taste.
Preparation Time : 5 mins
Cooking Time : 35 mins
Total Time : 40 mins
Ingredients :
Raw rice ( pasai arisi ) - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Water - 1 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 cup
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cashew - 10 -12
Raisin - 10
Salt - A pinch
Method :
Fry the dal in a heavy bottom pan, for few seconds then take it off the flame.
Wash the rice and dal mixture. In a heavy bottom pot add milk and water. Bring to the boil.
Add the rice and dal mixture and cook in medium flame. It may take around 15 mins. Make sure that the rice is cooked to a mushy consistency.
Melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup of water and melt it completely. Filter the jaggery water into the cooked rice-dal mixture add a pinch of salt to enhance the taste.
Simmer for 2 minutes or till the jaggery water combines well with the rice-dal mixture.
In a kadai add ghee and fry cashew. Add them to the pongal.
In the same kadai fry grated coconut to golden brown. Add them to the pongal.
Finally add a tsp of ghee to give a glossy texture.
Sakkarai pongal is ready to serve.
Pictorial :
Get ready with your ingredients.
Fry the dal in a heavy bottom pan, for few seconds then take it off the flame.
Wash the rice and dal mixture.
In a heavy bottom pot add milk and water. Bring to the boil.
Add the rice and dal mixture and cook in medium flame. It may take around 15 mins. Make sure that the rice is cooked to a mushy consistency.
Melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup of water and melt it completely. Filter the jaggery water into the cooked rice-dal mixture add a pinch of salt to enhance the taste.
Simmer for 2 minutes or till the jaggery water combines well with the rice-dal mixture.
In a kadai add ghee and fry cashew. In the same kadai fry grated coconut to golden brown. Finally, add fried cashew, grated coconut and a tsp of ghee to give a glossy texture.
Sakkarai pongal is ready to serve.
Notes :
Moong dal should never be roasted for longer than seconds. This makes moong dal to never turn to mushy consistency.
Cashews and raisins can be added for more flavour.
Cardamom and dry ginger powder enhances the flavour. This is added at the last before adding switching off the flame.