Thursday, October 25, 2007

Pongal

Pongal is a very important festival for the south Indians. You can learn all about pongal here. Actually, I made this in eleventh hour for the RCI event: Festival foods hosted by Viji who is the owner of a great blog Vcuisine.

I have posted 2 types of pongal here. Sakkarai pongal and ven pongal. My sakkarai pongal does not have that deep color as I used the light colored jaggery . Usually, I get the dark brown jaggery but I couldn't find it in the store this time.

Sakkarai Pongal:

Ingredients:
Raw rice- 1/2 cup
split moong dal- 1/4 cup
water- 2 cups
milk- 1/2 cup
jaggery- 3/4th cup elachi- 2 (crushed)
cashews- 4 (broken)
raisins- 7 or 8
coconut scrapings- 1 tbsp
ghee- 1 tbsp

Procedure:
Wash rice and dal together. Add water,milk and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Meanwhile, melt jaggery with little water and allow to cool. When the pressure is off, open cooker and mash the pongal. Add jaggery syrup to pongal according to your taste level. Heat ghee in a pan and fry elachi, cashews, raisins and coconut scrapings. Fry them and add to pongal. Steaming hot sweet pongal is ready.

Ven Pongal:
Ingredients:
Raw rice- 1 cup
split moong dal- 1/2 cup
water- 3 1/2
milk- 1 cup
salt - as reqd
cashews- 5 (broken)
jeera seeds- 1 tsp
peppercorns- 1 tsp
ginger- 2 " (crushed a little)
curry leaves- few

Procedure:
Wash rice and dal together and pressure cook it for 1 whistle with milk, salt and water. When the pressure goes off, mash the pongal. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashews, jeera-pepper mixture, ginger and curry leaves. Add this to pongal and mix well. Serve it with sambar and coconut chutney.

Here a plate for all of you to enjoy. See you gals. Have a great weekend!!!

36 comments:

Raks said...

Both are my favourites...and looks great...I will add asafoetida too in ven pongal...except that i too use the same ingredients...Nice entry kribha:))
I am going to tag you in MEME -Fantastic four...Yhanx in advance for ur meme..!!

Sia said...

slurppppppppppppppp.... i love spicy pongal and it was served for breakfast at my hostel bk in b'lore. i dont remember when was the last time i had it. gonna cook this very soon.

Rajitha said...

ooh! kribha...all that looks soo yummy...i think i may make pongal soon...

Swaroopa said...

hey nvr tried veg pongal. wanna try urs. pics look tempting...

FH said...

Sweet and savory with sambhar, can't beat that!:))

Laavanya said...

Both look very good Kribha.. :)

Bharathy said...

My husbands favourites...Masal pal down there too!!..If he ever sees your blog..will make me try all your recipes..;)..waht shall I do..??
..and kribha..raji has tagged you..waiting for the meme :)

TBC said...

I will take sakkarai pongal:-)

Richa said...

wow, u made both the pongals, yum!
u r most welcome sweetie, i'm glad to be able to point u towards the chironji link :)

Swaruchy said...

Ven Pongal is my fav...Am up for it anytime Kribha dear....Both the platters look DeLiCiOuS :-))

Tee said...

Both the pongals look delicious! :)

Rina said...

Kiribu, lovely combo. Yummy!!!

Lissie said...

i love both the dishes! the picture looks so inviting.. :))

Chef Jeena said...

Hey Kribha I love these recipe they look fabulous. :)

Sharmi said...

Kribha, this is a beautiful entry for RCI. I can settle down with the sweet one:)

Pravs said...

Both the dishes looks so yummy!

Viji said...

Kribha, have no words to appreciate your goodies. They are so perfect for this event. The Kozukattais I admire so much. Soooo perfect. Tell him that :). The pongals and AP celebrations are noteworthy. Thanks Kribha for your support and interest. Take care and have a good day. Viji

NB: No over work at all. My pleasure dear :)

zlamushka said...

Hey Kribha,

my first time here. Lovely posts, I love the dal porridge with curry leaves. Yum, would like a bowl...

I am hosting my own event A Spoonful of Christmas dedicated to foods as gifts. Have a look to see if you can come up with something :-)

Finla said...

Nice entry. Love both of them. Yeah it is really difficult to get the darker jaggery here too.

Manju said...

i love both!!! fantastic..

DEEPA said...

awesome one's ..both are yummy ..i wish to have this early in the mrg ....man it is mouth watering ...too good lady ....

Seema said...

Both my Favourite dishes...Perfect combo & a glass of fresh filter cofee to go along.. what a perfect meal!

Roopa said...

wow one of my favorite :) both look delicious !

Kribha said...

Hi Raks,
Thanks dear. Actually, you know what? I add hing too. But I forgot to include it while writing. Thanks for reminding. Ah...You've tagged me. That's ok. Luckily I've been tagged for the same twice already. Will gladly to it for you too.

Hi Sia,
I've not been in a hostel for a long time. Just one year. But I also remember the piping hot pongal served there. That was the only food I liked there. Hope you make it soon. Enjoy!

Hi Rajitha,
Glad you liked it. Initially I had no idea of making this. As I reached the deadline I wanted to do something quick and easy. Hence I came up with this. Do try it soon and enjoy it.

Hi Swaroopa,
Glad you liked it dear. Actually , the dish is ven pongal. 'ven' pongal means 'white' pongal. There is veg pongal too. I'll try to post it sometime. Thanks for your nice comment.

Hi Asha,
Sure dear. It's indeed a great combination.

Hi Laavanya,
happy to hear that you liked it.

Kribha said...

Hi Bharathy,
That's so sweet of you to write it. My hubby loves masala paal too. Do try it sometime. Yes dear, Raji, Asha and laavanya have tagged me. Will do it soon.Sorry to keep you waiting.

Hi TBC,
So, you also have a sweet-tooth like me. My fav is sweet pongal too.

Hi Richa,
Thanks dear. I did it both b'coz of the RCI event. Normally I would do only ven pongal. My hubby was making fun of me that this is the only way he gets to eat good food.:))

Hi Sirisha,
ven pongal is my hubby's fav too. Glad you liked it. Also, thanks for your reply in suggesting the brand of milk powder you use. Really appreciate it.

Hi Tee,
A warm welcome to you dear. Just now checked your blog. Wish I had the same type of jaggery you used for aval sakkarai pongal. Nice to know you.

Kribha said...

Hi Rina,
Nice to have you here. Thanks for leaving a comment and help me discover yours. will keep in touch.

Hi Lissie,
Thank you dear. Happy to know that you liked them.

Hi Jeena,
Glad you liked it dear. Do try it sometime. It's so easy and good.

Hi Sharmi,
Thanks dear. You are like me. I like the sweet one too.

Hi Pravs,
Happy to know that you liked my version.

Kribha said...

Hi Vijika,
Anytime for you. I'm happy that you liked it. I only wish that I could have done more.My hubby tto was happy to see your comment. Glad to see your enthu in working for the round-up. Will wait for it.

Hi zlamushka,
A warm welcome to you dear. Glad to know that you liked the dal porridege. I did check out your blog for the event. will try to come up with something before the deadline. Thanks for letting me know about it.

Hi HC,
Happy to know that you liked it too. Yes dear, the dark jaggery is hard to find here. I used to get it earlier. Now the store dosen't carry it anymore.:-(

Hi Super Chef,
Thanks dear for your kind words.

Hi Deepa,
That's so sweet of you. I also prefer to have it in the mornings. But this time I did it for dinner.

Hi Kini,
I'm so glad to have you here. Thanks for helping me discover yours. Sure, pongal and coffee is a perfect combo.I love it too.

Hi Roopa,
Thanks for your kind comment. Glad you liked it.

Pooja Na(i)rayan said...

My husband recently had ven pongal for first time and loved it. SO i was desperately looking for recipe. glad u posted one. I love it esp with lots of ghee.

Kumudha said...

Kribha,
The pongal looks so delicious!

Thanks for your comment about the vegan chocolates in my blog.
For years, even I assumed that milk was very nutritious. After coming across websites such as www.peta.com , I learnt about the horrible facts about milk and meat.
If possible read the book -The China Study. http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html
Visit http://www.drweil.com/drw/ecs/index.html and put "milk" in the search box, for intersting facts and articles about milk.

Suma Gandlur said...

Both the versions are my favorite. I didn't know milk is used in the spicier version. Next time, I will try your way.

swapna susarla said...

Hi Kribha
The pongal(s) look so yummy!!!

sagari said...

i tryed to make sweet pongal lot of times but never successeded
i this this time i will
with your recipe

Kribha said...

Hi Mocha,
Glad to have you here. I too love pongal with lots of ghee. Happy that you liked the recipe. Hope you give it a try.

Hi Kumudha,
Thankyou dear for that lovely comment and info. Things had been a little hectic for the past few days. That's why I couldn't reply on time.Sorry about that. Thanks again for the info. Will check it out soon.

Hi Suma,
I don't add milk all the time for the ven pongal. Sometimes to make it extra-rich I do it so.

Hi Swapna,
Thanks dear. Happy that you liked it.

Hi Sagari,
Glad that you liked the recipe. Hope you give it a try.

KK said...

oh my my impressed with your recipes and the presentation..its looking really awesome n mouth watering..u r sure an amazing cook.keep the good work up gal :)

Kribha said...

Hi Sudha,
Thousands and thousands of apologies for my late reply. I'm so glad that you enjoyed the recipes and also thanks for your compliments. Please keep visiting. I'd love you to have you more often. :-)

Kribha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.