Making Pongal..

Today I am going to share the recipe for making pongal. Why pongal? It’s not even Pongal time! Oh well, I was a bit sick last week and the only think I landed up making was pongal and pepper rasam, to beat the fever and cold! Recipe for pepper rasam will follow soon, for now pongal it is! 

Ingredients:

1 cup rice

½ cup moong dal

¼ cup toor dal

50gms peppercorn

1 spoon jeera

A pinch of turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Ghee, if you like

Cashew(optional)

Add the rice and dal together and rinse them thoroughly to remove any dirt. Add 3 to 3 ½ cups of water in the bowl. Pressure cooker them for 7-8 whistles. How many whistles depends a lot on the cooker that you use. So, the rule of thumb is to keep it for 2-3 more whistles than what you would while cooking regular rice.

Once the steam is out, transfer the contents to a cooking pan/tawa. Add a pinch of turmeric and mix well. Meanwhile, add the jeera to the pongal. As you stir, ground some peppercorns and add them. It is always better to add ground pepper corns than pepper powder as it gives a better flavor. Add salt to taste.

Finally, heat some ghee in a separate pan and add the cashews. Once they turn golden brown, you can add it to the pongal and stir. Note: if you are cooking pongal because you fell sick (like Yours Truly), avoid the ghee and cashews. Your aim is to get well soon and not gobble up high fat ghee ;-)