Pongal / Ven-Pongal

              There is a small hotel in Sowcarpet area in Chennai named "Krishna Prasad". The line for dosa, idli and pongal on Sundays reach the end of the street.. North Indians in Sowcarpet lineup for parcel. My family also fell for the pongal from that hotel. We die for that pongal and Katti chutney because no where else it tastes sooooooo good.  Infact this time when I went for my vacation, my dad woke up early on Sunday morning and rushed to buy that pongal for me. 

              My mom never gets this recipe right, she always ends up making it like parippu sadam.  After my marriage, my MIL taught me to prepare pongal. And when I taught my mom the same, she was so happy that she is getting it perfect now :). This is a very healthy dish for kids too.

             

Ingredients:

Raw Rice / Pacharisi - 1 cup (i use biriyani rice / sonamasoori rice - both works well)

Moong dal - 1/4 cup

Ginger - 1 Inch sized (finely chopped)

Curry leaves - 5 no's

Cashew nut - 10 no's

Whole pepper corn - 1-1/2 teaspoon

Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon

Ghee - 1 tablespoon

Oil - 1-1/2 teaspoon

Asafoetida - 1/2 teaspoon

Water - 3 cups

Method:

• Wash rice and dal(until clear water runs) and soak them for 10 minutes.

• Heat oil and ghee together, add ginger and saute for few seconds.

• Add Curry leaves, Cashewnut, Pepper corn, Cumin seeds, Asafoetida and saute till cashew roasts.

• Now add water with salt and let the water boil.

• Add rice, mix well, check for salt and let it boil again.

• Once water starts boiling after adding rice, close the cooker and pressure cook upto 3 whistles.

• Open the cooker when the pressure is down and mix well(Mash them with back side of your laddle if it doesn't look mashed)

• One pot meal - Pongal is ready to serve with hot Sambar or Chutney.

Note:

• We can dry roast rice and dal and then add to pressure cooker when water boils.
• Water requirement is 1:2(for 1 cup rice its 2 cups of water), and then always add 1 extra cup for any number of rice measurements you take.
• We can use ghee / oil depending on your choice.
• We can also roast cashew in the end and add that finally after pongal is cooked.
• We can adjust water requirement according to the cooking consistency of rice used as it varies.

Am Happy to link this to Hasna's event...