So its Pongal today, the harvest festival - one of the very important festivals especially in South India. Sitting here in the US, I do miss home and all the festivities that go with Pongal. This day is also celebrated as Makar Sankranti in the rest of the country and is marked by fun, good food, friends and family and the hope for a bountiful year ahead. So here are the Pongal dishes we make at home.
We make two types of Pongal: Venn Pongal - a savoury variety and Sakkarai Pongal - a sweet dish. Traditionally, pongal is cooked in a clay or brass pot (vengala paanai/pot) that is decorated with flowers and is used specifically for this purpose. These are accompanied by aviyal and vadai.
Pongal
The basic preparation for both the varieties is the same. This is my variation of pongal where I use more daal than usual because I like the taste and consistency.
Ingredients:
New rice (any variety) - 2 cups
Moong daal - half cup
Tuver daal - half cup
Milk - 4 tbsp
Water - 5 cups
Method:
1. Wash the rice and daals together a few times. Add the washed rice/daal mixture, 4 cups of water, and the milk to the decorated pot. If you don't have a pot handy (like me :)) use any large stockpot.
2. Put this on the stove and bring to boil. Traditionally when making pongal on the festival day the stove is cleaned, rangoli applied to it, the pot is decorated with tilak/kumkum, and flowers and the food is cooked outside. The exact Sankranti time is noted and the pot is put on the stove a few minutes before this time to allow the water is to boil over. At the moment the water boils over, the family gets together in front of the stove and bangs steel plates and shouts 'Pongal-o-pongal' and a prayer is offered to the Sun God.
3. Once the water boils over, the pot can be covered and left to simmer or if you're impatient like me, transfer the mix to a pressure cooker and cook on medium for 3 whistles.
VennPongal ingredients:
Half cup ghee
Half cup or more of cashew nuts
2 tsps black pepper
Few curry leaves
Salt to taste
Jeera - 2 tsp for tempering
1. Once the cooker cools down, take out a third of the cooked rice for sweet or sakkarai pongal.
2. While the cooker cools, chop up half a cup of cashew nuts...more if you like it and fry them in the ghee. Add the curry leaves and jeera when the cashews turn golden and remove from heat.
3. Add salt and coarsely crushed black pepper to the remaining rice mixture. Add the hot ghee and cashews and mix well. Serve piping hot with aviyal.
Sakkarai/sweet pongal ingredients:
Jaggery - half cup
Brown sugar - quarter cup
Cashews - half cup
Raisins - quarter cup
Ghee - quarter cup
Cardamom/elaichi powder - half tsp
Water - 3/4 cup
1. Heat the water and melt the jaggery and brown sugar in it till they dissolve completely.
2. Add the rice, cardamom powder and mix thoroughly ensuring that all the rice is thoroughly mashed.
3. Fry the cashews in ghee till golden, add the raisins and fry for a few seconds. Add this to the rice/jaggery mixture and stir till thoroughly incorporated. Enjoy hot.
We make two types of Pongal: Venn Pongal - a savoury variety and Sakkarai Pongal - a sweet dish. Traditionally, pongal is cooked in a clay or brass pot (vengala paanai/pot) that is decorated with flowers and is used specifically for this purpose. These are accompanied by aviyal and vadai.
Pongal
The basic preparation for both the varieties is the same. This is my variation of pongal where I use more daal than usual because I like the taste and consistency.
Ingredients:
New rice (any variety) - 2 cups
Moong daal - half cup
Tuver daal - half cup
Milk - 4 tbsp
Water - 5 cups
Method:
1. Wash the rice and daals together a few times. Add the washed rice/daal mixture, 4 cups of water, and the milk to the decorated pot. If you don't have a pot handy (like me :)) use any large stockpot.
2. Put this on the stove and bring to boil. Traditionally when making pongal on the festival day the stove is cleaned, rangoli applied to it, the pot is decorated with tilak/kumkum, and flowers and the food is cooked outside. The exact Sankranti time is noted and the pot is put on the stove a few minutes before this time to allow the water is to boil over. At the moment the water boils over, the family gets together in front of the stove and bangs steel plates and shouts 'Pongal-o-pongal' and a prayer is offered to the Sun God.
3. Once the water boils over, the pot can be covered and left to simmer or if you're impatient like me, transfer the mix to a pressure cooker and cook on medium for 3 whistles.
VennPongal ingredients:
Half cup ghee
Half cup or more of cashew nuts
2 tsps black pepper
Few curry leaves
Salt to taste
Jeera - 2 tsp for tempering
1. Once the cooker cools down, take out a third of the cooked rice for sweet or sakkarai pongal.
2. While the cooker cools, chop up half a cup of cashew nuts...more if you like it and fry them in the ghee. Add the curry leaves and jeera when the cashews turn golden and remove from heat.
3. Add salt and coarsely crushed black pepper to the remaining rice mixture. Add the hot ghee and cashews and mix well. Serve piping hot with aviyal.
Sakkarai/sweet pongal ingredients:
Jaggery - half cup
Brown sugar - quarter cup
Cashews - half cup
Raisins - quarter cup
Ghee - quarter cup
Cardamom/elaichi powder - half tsp
Water - 3/4 cup
1. Heat the water and melt the jaggery and brown sugar in it till they dissolve completely.
2. Add the rice, cardamom powder and mix thoroughly ensuring that all the rice is thoroughly mashed.
3. Fry the cashews in ghee till golden, add the raisins and fry for a few seconds. Add this to the rice/jaggery mixture and stir till thoroughly incorporated. Enjoy hot.
