Hot and spicy Oats pepper Pongal

ஓட்ஸ் மிளகு பொங்கல் . Spicy oats for breakfast is always welcomed in many houses. I prepare this quick and easy breakfast for us often. I cooked the old fashioned oats and green gram in Instant pot. After releasing the pressure I would garnish it with spices as usual like how we do the ordinary ven pongal. But we can make it using any kind of oats and we can do the tempering before pressure cooking too. Anyways the pongal tastes amazing. Here is my version of the oats Pongal recipe. 

Hot and spicy Oats pepper Pongal with coconut chutney

Oats pongal made in Instant pot

Ingredients: (2 servings)
Oats - 1 1/4 cup
pink / white salt - 1/2 tsp (to taste)
(we can use rolled oats, quick or old fashioned or steel cut oats)
Moong dal - 1/4 cup
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
asafoetida (hing) - a pinch
ghee - 1 tsp (or sesame oil)
black pepper - 1 tsp
crushed black pepper - 1 tsp
curry leaf - 1 sprig
cumin - 1/2 tsp
cashew nuts -3 (break into tiny pieces)
ginger - 1 inch 

Method:

Pressure cook together green gram (moong dal), oats, 2 cups water, salt, turmeric powder, hing in instant pot (electric cooker) for 2 minutes. Or in regular pressure cooker for 2 whistles.

To temper: In a small wok, heat 1 tsp ghee. Add whole black pepper , cumin, cashew and wait till cashew turns golden. Then add minced ginger, curry leaf. Pour it over the cooked items and give it a stir.

Sprinkle crushed black pepper for taste. Enjoy piping hot pepper oats pongal with coconut chutney or sambar.

Hot and spicy pepper pongal is ready !

Serving suggestion:

Serve as breakfast or any meal.

Makes 2 generous servings.

Instant pot (electric cooker) version:

Start the recipe with tempering. Then add water and all the items mentioned for pressure cooking.

Pongal gets cooked in 2 min pressure cook setting.

Calories:

Oats (quaker old fashioned) 1/2 c - 150 cal

ghee 1 tsp - 90 cal

moong dal 1/4 c - 120 cal

1 cashew - 9 cal

total (approx) = 612 /2 = 300 to 320 cal per person approximately.

Instant pot electric pressure cooker recipes - Venn Pongal

Instant Pot Ultra (electric pressure cooker) is a new addition to my kitchen.  Hubby lovingly bought this for me during 'Thanksgiving'. I love it very much. It is very cute and 'smart'.
As a typical South Indian, I have been used to my whistles of  my 'prestige pressure cookers'.  I think most of us would have the same kind of childhood memories, with us all getting up by the whistles of our mom's pressure cooker or a milk cooker. But this electric pressure cooker won't make any such noises (even while we release the pressure manually). It has so many options like 'rice, beans, soup etc' . The best thing about this cooker is , one need not know much about 'cooking timings'. For example, in ordinary cooker one has to memorize 'how many whistles or how much minutes' to cook a dal or rice. . Here one need not know the pressure cooking timing for cooking anything, as everything is 'preset' or 'in its memory'. We can alter it temporarily if needed too.  Soon I will give a honest review and comparison of this electric cooker with ordinary pressure cooker. You are invited to join me in exploring many Indian recipes with Instant pot.

Ven pongal I made in the Instant pot electric pressure cooker.

To maximize the Kohl's cash offer....we stacked up a pyrex container set too :)

My 6 qt Instant pot ultra , 10 in 1, Programmable pressure cooker

Rice and dal

I set the time to 14 mins as this is a mixture of rice and moong dal.

We can latch the lid like this also.

Ven pongal with vadai and sambar.

Ingredients : (for 2 people)
Raw Rice (pacha arisi or briyani rice) - 3/4 cup
Moong dal (green gram dhal) - 1/4 cup  tbsp 
Ginger-1 inch piece (chopped)
salt - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Pepper corns -1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig.
Asafoetida / hing -a pinch
clarified Butter/Ghee/ butter- 1 tbsp
Water- 3 cups (water = 2 times the number of cup of rice + 1 cup)
milk - 1/2 cup  
Cashews- 5 numbers.

Methods :
Rinse the rice and dal together. Add salt and water .
Keep it in a Instant pot pressure cooker. Plug in. The panel will start glowing. 
Select the rice option by rotating the control knob. Press it once to lock the setting.
Again rotate the knob to alter the time if needed. I set it to 14 minutes. But 10 minutes would be enough.
Set to high pressure. Press start.
It will go on preheating for few minutes. Then the pressure will start building and we can see it in the control panel.
The float valve will rise once it reached a whistling stage. But there won't be any whistle sound.
After the cooking is finished it will automatically switch off the pressure cooking and will begin to release pressure naturally. It may take 15 minutes to get the pressure released naturally. But we can manually release the pressure by carefully pressing the release valve.
After releasing the pressure open the lid and proceed with 'tadka' or tempering and garnish the pongal.

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 2 people.
It can be served as both breakfast or dinner.

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Here is a beautiful scene I clicked in my neighborhood Asian grocery store during Chinese New Year February 5 th 2019. Happy Chinese New year dear all !

Happy Chinese New Year : decorations in a nearby Asian grocery store.

Red banana (செவ்வாழைப்பழம் ) I bought from Asian store. mmm...tastes just like Indian red banana. 

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.