Pongal is a harvest festival in South India, celebrated around the second week of January. It often coincides with the festival of Makar Sankranti & Lohri festivals of the north. Pongal denotes prosperity & abundance and is celebrated by the local community with lot of festivities & making wonderful recipes. Pongal is one such breakfast recipe made with the new or fresh harvested rice, which cooks in a jiffy. This dish is very easy to make. Just boil the rice & lentils to its right consistency & then add the seasoning. Clarified butter is an absolute essential for making this dish, nothing else tastes better 🙂 There are mainly 2 kinds of pongal, one is the sweet kind, here I have made the ven pongal or the savoury kind. Ven means white & so this dish omits the use of turmeric, which otherwise is a popular ingredient in most Indian dishes. But some people like to add a little turmeric too, make it according to your own taste & enjoy!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Dry roast the moong dal & rice in a pan for a couple of minutes. Then add a tsp. of ghee & mix well for another minute or so.
- Bring about 5 cups of water in a pressure cooker to a boil. Add salt, chopped ginger & green chillies. Now add in the roasted rice & dal to the cooker & let it cook for about 3 to 4 whistles. Let the pressure cooker cool completely.
- Now heat the remaining ghee in a small pan and fry the cashews for a minute. Then add cumin, asafoetida & curry leaves.
- Open the pressure cooker & check the pongal consistency. If you need, add a cup of hot water & put it on low heat. Add the seasonings (contents of the small pan) to the pongal and mix well. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes & serve warm.
Notes
This dish is traditionally with coconut chutney or eggplant/brinjal gothsu.