Sarkarai Pongal

      Pongal is a traditional dish made of the tamils. It can be made either sweet or savoury. The sweet edition is the SarkaraiPongal  and savoury is the Ven Pongal. This recipe is the sweet one. Pongal can be completely cooked in milk or you can use both water and milk. The secret to the taste is the richness and the silky texture. Sarkarai Pongal is made during many auspicious occasions by the tamils.

 INGREDIENTS :

 Raw rice    - 1cup

 Moong Dal -1/4 cup

 Palm Sugar -cup

 Milk             -1cup

 Water          -4 cups

 Cashews     - 1Tblsp

 Raisins         - 1Tblsp

 Coconut       -1Tblsp

 Nutmeg         -1/4 Tsp

 Cardamom    - 2

 Ghee              - 4 Tblsp 

METHOD :

    Dry roast the moong dal in a pan until it starts to give out the flavor and keep aside. In a pan or preferrably pressure cooker heat a tablespoon of ghee and fry the cashew pieces, raisins and coconut seperately and keep aside. Heat the milk and water with a pinch of salt in the same pan while you clean the rice and and moong dal.Add the cleaned rice and dal

to the water. Bring it to a brisk boil and close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook on medium high heat for five whistles. When you open the pan you should see a mushy mixture which is kind of watery. If not cooked enough you want to cook them a little more.

  Meantime take the grated palm sugar along with a tablespoon of water and melt it. Once the rice is cooked and the pressure subsides, open the lid and pour the strained sugar syrup to the cooked rice and dal mix and give it a nice stir and cook for about few mins until they come together, make sure the water evaporates but the mix doesn't get dried out. Add a tablespoon or two of ghee, mix well and now add the roasted cashews, raisins and coconut pieces and stir them along with a table spoon of ghee. Finally sprinkle the nutmeg powder and split cardamom. And pour a tablespoon of ghee over this. The yummy, gooey, ghee-laden pongal is ready.

   A versatile dish can be served as breakfast,an evening snack or dessert.

 Few things which might help you are you can always use dark brown sugar if you don't have palm sugar. You can also use coconut cream instead of milk. I prefer to add half cup of coconut cream to water instead of milk and finally add half cup thick coconut cream aftet adding the sugar syrup. This gives a rich taste to your pongal.