venpongal

Pongal is the most popular south Indian tiffin dish. Pongal festival is an important harvest festival of southern India. Agriculture is mainly based on rain, cattle and sun. As a token of gratitude, farmers celebrate harvest festival called as thai thirunaal on the first of tamil month. Families gather and share their joy by offering rice and milk as pongal to the sun God. Venpongal is cooked with rice and lentils with a nice blend of spices and ghee.

Ingredients

• Rice 1 cup
• Moong dal 1/4 cup
• Water 5 cups
• Asafoetida 1/2 tsp
• Green chillies 3 nos
• Ginger 1 inch
• Black Pepper 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds 1 tbsp
• Curry Leaves 1 twig
• Mustard seeds 1 tsp
• Cashew nuts 10 nos
• Ghee 4 tbsp
• Salt to taste

Method

• Wash rice and dal together in water and drain thoroughly.
• Now, add 1 tbsp of ghee in a pressure pan and roast the rice and dal mixture well. so that the ghee coats the rice and dal well.
• Add 5 cups of water to it and allow it to pressure cook until you get a mashed consistency of the rice and dal.
• Heat ghee in a pan and roast cashew nuts in it and keep them aside.
• Add mustards to the ghee and allow it to splutter.
• fry cumin seeds, Black peppers, ginger, green chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves and salt to it.
• Now add this to the cooked rice and dal mixture and mix well.
• Garnish it with roasted cashew nuts.
• Serve it with sambar or coconut chutney.