Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Pongal-O-Pongal!!!

Pongal or Makara Sankarathi is a harvest festival celebrated by the Tamilians and the in certain parts of north India. This festival is celebrated for three consecutive days in South India – Bhogi, Sankaranthi and Kannum Pongal.
The main dish of this festival is the Sakkarai Pongal done on the second day of the festival. Apart from this, each region makes varieties of sweet and spicy dishes to celebrate with friends and family.
Sakkarai Pongal
Ingredients
Rice – 1 cup
Moong dal (split) – 3 tbsp
Milk – 4 cups
Melted Jaggery – 1 ½ cups (or to taste)
Ghee – 4 tbsp
Cashews – 2 tbsp
Raisins – 2tbsp
Method
Take a heavy bottomed vessel and heat the milk. Keep stirring and once the milk starts to boil, add the rice and dal. Keep stirring continuously to avoid the milk from spilling over. This may take a few minutes. Cook until the rice is well cooked and the milk is absorbed.
Add jaggery to the rice and mix well. Add a tbsp. of ghee and let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
In a pan, heat the remaining ghee and roast the cashews and raisins.
Once the rice and jaggery have blended in nicely, remove from stove and garnish with the roasted cashews and raisins.
Serve this sweet dish hot with some vada or just by itself.

11 comments:

  1. Awesome recipe…truly Delicious..Bookmarked

    Aarthi
    http://yummytummy-aarthi.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely yummy pongal. Both are maintain very attractive blog.If you have time plz come in my blog and give ur heartiest comment.
    http://cuisinedelights.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much Chandrani. Will definitely visit your blog. Keep visiting and leaving comments :-)

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  4. Same festival is celebrated in so many unique ways in our country. We have the bhogi and sankrant festival but it goes on till Rath sapathami. We have haldi kumkum for married girls and this is the only festival where we wear black clothes and distribute Tilgul basically a sesame seeds and jaggery sweet. This recipe looks yummy, have saved it and try it soon.
    Love Ash

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Ashwini and Julie. I guess Kerala is one of the states that does not celebrate Pongal! But who does not love festival specials :-)

    ReplyDelete

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