சக்கரைப்பொங்கல் Fast and Tasty Chakkara Pongal

Dear friends,

Wishing all a happy and prosperous Pongal ,

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 200 gm

Moong dal - 2 Tbsp

Water - 3 cups

Milk - 1 to 1.5 cups

Jaggery - 250 gm

Cardamom - 7

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Cashew , Raisin - handful

Method:

Rinse the rice and dal together.

Pressure cook them together with 3 cups of water.

In Instant pot , touch the pressure cook button and set to 5 mins.

If cooking in stove top pressure cooker, after one whistle comes , lower the heat and cook for 5 mins.

Switch off.

After the pressure is settled down, open the lid and mash the rice + dal using a spatula.

Add milk 1- 1.5 cups.

Mix well.

Start heating the cooker by setting it to 'saute' mode in Instant pot or 'sim' in stove.

Add jaggery pieces to a vessel, add 1 cup water and let it dissolve,

Add the jaggery solution to rice (discard the residue at bottom).

If the jaggery is pure (without sand), we can directly add it to cooker (see video).

Set presure to 1 min in Instant pot or cook in low flame with lid on for 5 mins. Let the jaggery melt.

Open lid after pressure settles down.

In a separate pan, heat 3 tbsp ghee. Fry the cashew, raisin add to rice.

Powder the cardamom and add this to rice.

Mix well.

Saute for 5 mins and switch off.

Sarkarai pongal in Instant pot is ready !

Pongal Groceries

 Advance pongal wishes to all ! I thought of sharing a list of groceries generally Tamil people use during Pongal. Hope this is useful for you all !

Enjoy well !

Pongal. (venn pongal)

Pongal also known as venn pongal (white pongal) is an authentic meal of India. Often it is served as a breakfast in Indian marriages. Mostly people prefer to have ulunthu vadai ,Idly-sambar and coconut chutney as side dish for pongal.

(you can see my menu card for their recipes too.)

Ingredients :
Raw Rice (pacha arisi or briyani rice) - 1 cup
Moong dal (green gram dhal) - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp
Ginger-1 inch piece (chopped)
salt - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Pepper corns -2 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig.
Asafoetida / hing -1/4 tsp
clarified Butter/Ghee/ butter- 4 tbsp
Water- 4 cups
milk - 1/2 cup (optional)
Cashews- 10 numbers.


Methods :
Heat a Pan .Dry roast rice and dhal, till we get a nice aroma of dhal.
Wash them .Add salt and water .
Keep it in a pressure cooker and allow 4 whistles.
(If you are cooking in a pan, cover it and have a look often. Because the dhal will rise up and overflow when hot.)
After cooking the rice and dhal tenderly, mash them mildly.(not like a paste, but gently.)
Heat a frying pan. Add the ghee.
Add Cumin , Ginger ,cashews, hing and whole pepper.
Immediately after the cashews turn golden in color, add them to pongal .
Serve hot.

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot with coconut cutney, Idly-sambar, ulunthu(black gram) vadai.
Serves 3 people.
It can be served as both breakfast or dinner.

Note:
Always keep the pongal in a tight lided vessel to retain moisture.
If it gets hard, don't shy to add little milk and reheat before serving.