PONGAL RECIPES

Pongal celebrated through the first four days of the Tamil Month of Thai (Mid
January to Mid February), is a popular harvest festival in Tamil Nadu. The word
Pongal, which literally means 'boiling over', refers to rice cooked in milk and jaggery.
The preparations for the Pongal festival are quite elaborate. Pongal or sweet rice is the
main preparation of the festival.

Pongal is prepared in new big earthen pots called 'Pongal Panai' in the open and
allowed to boil over signifying prosperity and bountifulness of crops. Sweet rice is
cooked in a new earthenware pot in the same place where the puja is to be performed.
Fresh turmeric is tied round the pot. A delicious concoction of rice, moong dal,
jaggery and milk is boiled in the pot on an open fire. As the Pongal is being cooked, it
boils over. The boiling over and spilling out of the contents of the pot is the
auspicious sign that the family waits for. The ready Pongal is garnished with cashew
nuts and raisins fried in ghee. The whole preparation is usually done on a
predetermined time which is considered auspicious. The preparation is offered to the
Gods along with vegetables and lentils, newly harvested sugarcane and bananas. Later
the family sits down to a ritual meal. The ingredients of this preparation have some
symbolic meaning attached to each. Rice and milk are signs of prosperity, sugarcane
for happiness, while turmeric augurs the good things to come.

It is a festival honouring and giving thanks to the gods - especially the Sun God and
Indra, the lord of the rains and the cattle for the plentiful paddy crops in the field
during the mild winter months in South India. Two varieties of Pongal- the salty one
known as 'ven pongal' and the sweet one known as 'Sarkkarai pongal' are prepared on
the second day.

Besides the preparation of Pongal or the special sweet rice, the festival of Pongal is
also the time to prepare some of the mouth-watering Tamil delicacies like Sakkarai
Pongal, Payasam, Aval Payasam, Dal Payasam and Murukku. Here are some of the
recipes that are easy to prepare yet deliciously tasty.

Sakkarai Pongal

Ingredients (Serves 5)

Raw rice:- 200 gm

Moong dal 25 gm

Jaggery 375 gm

Grated coconut 50 gm

Ghee 150 gm

Cashew nut 20 gm
Raisins 20 gm

Cardamom powder ½ tsp

Honey (optional) 15 ml

Method--

Cook moong dal and cleaned rice, till half done. Drain the excess water and keep
them aside. Now, dissolve jaggery in water and heat it separately. Pour the jaggery to
cooked mixture. Roast cashew nuts, raisins, and grated coconut in ghee. Add this to
the mixture and stir well. Also, add some extra ghee while serving.

Fry cashew nuts and raisins in ghee and keep aside. In a cooking pan, heat 100 ml of
water and the grated or broken jaggery. Allow the jaggery to melt and form thick
syrup and be mixed with the water properly. Add the rice, moong dal and grated
coconut into the syrup and stir well to mix them up. Add honey, raisins and roasted
cashew nuts and the remaining ghee. Cook the entire content for 10 minutes. Remove
from flame and sprinkle powdered cardamom. Serve hot.

Vermicelli Payasam

Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

Vermicelli (Saemiya) 200 gm

Sugar 300 gm

Cashew nuts 20 nuts

Raisin 10 nos

Smashed Cardamom 4 seeds

Milk 250 ml

Ghee 2 tsp

Vanilla essence few drops

Method--

Fry cashew nuts and raisin in ghee until golden brown. Then fry the vermicelli in a
pan till it changes color. Boil the milk and separate the cream from it. Now add little
water, sugar and cook the semiya in it. After a while add cardamom and few drops of
vanilla essence in the mixture. Keep on stirring the mixture to prevent the formation
of lumps. Garnish the preparation with cashew nuts and raisins.
Boil milk in a bowl and add the vermicelli to it while stirring well. Cook for about 10-
15 minutes over a medium flame. Add sugar and stir well to mix the sugar with the
content. Continue it until the sugar gets dissolved completely. Add cardamom and
fried cashew nuts to it. Add the few drops of vanilla essence for an added flavor.

Aval Payasam

Ingredients (Serves 2)

Milk 1 litre

Aval (rice flakes) ¼ cup

Sugar 1 cup

Cardamom powder ½ tsp

Cashew nuts few

Raisins few

Method--

Boil milk in a pan. Add the Aval or rice flakes into the boiling milk. Stir constantly
until the quantity reduces to one-half. Add sugar and the powdered cardamom into the
consistency and stir well. Add the cashew nuts (preferably roasted) and the raisins and
serve it hot.

Dal Payasam

Ingredients (Serves 2)

Moong dal 1 cup

Powdered jaggery 1 cup

Gram dal 1 spoon

Cardamom

Cashew Nuts

Method--

Cook moong dal and gram dal in plain water in a pressure cooker. Mix jaggery in a
little water and bring to boil. Add the cooked dal mixture and let it cook for a while so
that the entire ingredients mix well. Then take it out from flame and add cardamom
powder. Garnish the cooked dal payasam with cashew nuts (preferably roasted in
ghee) and serve hot or cold.

Murukku

Ingredients (Serves as snack)

Raw rice 4 cups

White gram half cup

White sesame seeds 25 gm

Cumin seeds 25 gm

Asafoetida powder 2 tablespoons

Butter 100 gm

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method--

Wash and clean the rice. Allow it to dry. When it gets dried completely, grind to make
it powdery. Fry the gram. Grind it in the same way and keep it aside. Mix the
powdered rice, powdered gram, white sesame seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida powder,
butter and salt together. Take a little of this mixture and add water to make a dough-
like consistency. Now twist and roll this dough to make Jalebi-like circular shapes of
the Murukku (chakkli). Heat the oil in a pan. Test how hot it is by dropping a pinch of
dough into it. If the drop springs to the top with bubbles all around it, then the oil is
just ready to fry the Murukku. Deep-fry the Murukku gently into the hot oil and fry
golden brown. Take out from the pan when it is done and drain it in a newspaper to
discard the excess oil in it. When it becomes a little cold but still crisp, store them in
an airtight container and savour it with hot tea or coffee.