Sweet Pongal

                                             "Happy Pongal to all my Blog readers"

 Pongal is a special festival which is celebrated in all the parts of south India on 14th January of each year. This festival is celebrated for four days, each day signifying its importance. The celebrations are done in praise of Sun God for providing good harvest thus blessing with prosperity and growth of lands and people.  On this day People prepare 'Pongal', which is a mixed combination of lentil and rice cooked in sugar juice or jaggery. They cook it in  an earthen pot and let it overflow during its cooking which resembles the symbol of prosperity. Lot of events and dances are held during this festival. for more details check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Pongal.

I had prepared "Sweet Pongal" which is specially prepared for the Pongal festival

SWEET PONGAL

Ingredients:
1 cup rice(preferably Basmati)
1/2 cup split green gram(Yellow moong daal)
2 cups crumbled jaggery
2.5 cups milk
4 tablespoon ghee
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut
2 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder(jai ful)
Method:
Wash ans soak rice for 1/2 hour.
Dry roast the daal till it slightly changes its colour.

Dry roasting the daal

Drain the water of rice. In a pressure cooker, add daal and rice with milk, and cook it for 15 minutes on lower heat or till the rice and daal boils and cooks properly.

cooking daal and rice 

 Add a table spoon of ghee into this mixture. With the help of  a spoon mix them well.

rice and daal mix after cooking

In a kadahi(wok) dry roast the grated coconut on  medium flame for about 5 minutes. Keep it aside.

Roasting grated coconut

In same kadahi, heat a tablespoon of ghee and roast the cashew nuts and raisins for a minute. Keep them
aside too.

roasting dry fruits

Heat the kadahi  and add the rice lentil mixture.
To this add the coconut and dry fruits along with cardamom powder. Mix well.

Now add the crumbled jaggery and stir well so that it melts and blends well with the other ingredients.

Adding jaggery

saute for few minutes till it gets a little dry. Finally garnish with saffron strands.

"Sweet Pongal" is ready for the occasion of Pongal.!!

Optional notes:
For this day Salty pongal is also prepared which in North India is called "Moong Daal khichdi"(rice and split green gram porridge.).The only difference is of the tarka(tempering) which is of  curry leaves, green chili, whole black pepper, mustard seeds and asafeotida.
In case pressure cooker is not available, boil the milk in a heavy base pan and cook the rice and lentil into it till they are nicely boiled and cooked.