4 January, 2018

SWEET PONGAL/ಸಿಹಿ ಪೊಂಗಲ್

The best sweet relished during the harvest festival…shankranthi, one of the winter special jaggery infused sweet dish as well, though made through out the year for breakfast or lunch.

There are many variations in making Pongal though everybody use the same set of ingredients. The pongal which we get as Prasada in temples is the most awesome one… it has entirely different taste and flavor always, as they put loads of ghee into it.

My recipe is different from what my mother used to make. She used to cook roasted rice and lentil in milk & water mixture, whereas I cook it raw using only water, and I use a kind of powder, which I use in many sweet dishes, ie… CCN powder (equal amount of Cloves, Cardamom and Nutmeg are powdered together) and that’s how the the taste differ…. but both tastes awesome in their own way.

In Tamilnadu most of them make Pongal using sugar (Sakkarai Pongal) where as in Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka Jaggery is used. As I said earlier, it can be cooked using only water or only milk or mixture of both. In the same method, pongal is made using beaten rice as well.

The most special and nutrient dense Pongal recipe here is Menthyada sihi huggi/pongal ie … sprouted fenugreek seeds sweet huggi/Pongal in which, I have put home made sprouted fenugreek seeds. You should definitely go through the recipe once at least I think.

The quantity of ingredients mentioned below are enough to serve for 4 people. Go ahead and make this yummy winter special, south Indian traditional dish and enjoy with your family. Do not forget to provide me with your valuable feedback.

By the way you can also check the recipes of Huggi – gojju one of the dhanurmasa special dish and the most unusual hitakavare sihi huggi recipe, which is a unique one in its own way.

Ingredients : measuring cup used – 250 ml

Rice – 1/4 cup
Green gram lentil/hesarubele – 1/4 cup
Water – 1&1/2 cups
Milk – 1/2 cup
Jaggery – 3/4 cup or tightly packed 1/2 cup
Water – around 1/4 cup to dissolve the jaggery
Saffron strands – 1/4 tsp

Others :

Ghee – 2 tbsp (adjust) (actually lot of ghee is used in its preparation, but I use only this much)
Cloves – 4
Cashew nuts – 10 to 15
Raisins – 1 tbsp (optional)
Grated dry coconut – 1/2 cup
CCN powder – 1/2 tsp
Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp

PROCEDURE :

Boil water + milk in a cooker along with saffron strands, add in rinsed rice and lentil and cook it till one whistle, allow it to get cooled

Dissolve jaggery completely and pass it through a strainer and keep it aside
Heat 2 tbsp of ghee in a pan, add in cloves, cashew nuts, raisins (if using), fry them, add in strained jaggery water and allow it to boil till it becomes little thick