Hope everyone's festive mode is on to celebrate the upcoming Pongal festival. Wishing you all a very Happy Pongal!!
Sakkarai Pongal is made in different ways using a brass pot in a firewood oven which is the traditional method or in a pressure cooker with gas stove. In my native Pollachi, most people use the traditional method to make Pongal. They used to rinse the raw rice and pour that rinsed water in Pongal Paanai. Rice will be added only after it becomes frothy & falls down. The cooked rice will be served along with Mochai Kulambu, Dal, Veggies, Vadai & Payasam. Celebrating Pongal with the cooker made Pongal no where matches the Pongal celebrated in a traditional way in the villages. Cherishing those memories, I'm posting the recipe of Sakkarai pongal in the pressure cooker method.
Sakkarai Pongal Recipe:
Recipe Cuisine: South Indian | Recipe Category : Sweet
Cook Time : 30-40 mins | Serves : 4
Ingredients:
Raw rice (or Long grained rice) - 1 cup
Moong dhal - 4 Tbsp
Jaggery - 1 cup
Water - 5 cups
Milk -1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Edible camphor (optional) - a pinch
Cashews & Raisins - few
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Method:
1. Soak the rice for 15 minutes.
2. Add a tsp of ghee in the cooker. Fry the cashews & raisins till golden brown & set aside. With the remaining ghee in the cooker, fry the moong dal till a nice aroma comes.
3. Add 5 cups of water to the cooker and add the soaked rice. Let it cook along with the dal till 5 or 6 whistles.
4. Meanwhile make the jaggery syrup. Add little water to the jaggery just to get soaked and heat it till the jaggery gets dissolved. Switch off. No need to check the string consistency.
5. Once the pressure gets released completely and the rice & dal are cooked well, mash it & add the jaggery syrup and milk to it. Stir it for 5 to 10 minutes till you get the semi solid Pongal consistency.
6. Now add the ghee, cardamom powder, a tiny pinch of edible camphor, roasted cashews & raisins. Stir those along with the pongal for 2 minutes and switch off the flame.
Points to be noted:
- If the pongal is too watery, stir it till a semi solid consistency is reached.
- Switch off when it is in a semi solid state. Or it will become hard & dry after sometime. It should be mushy & in a melt in mouth texture.
- Add ghee generously as it gives a rich & divine flavor to the Pongal.
- Adding edible camphor gives the taste of the Pongal prasadam we get in temples:) but it is optional. If you decide to add it, only add a tiny pinch or it will spoil the taste of the Pongal.
- Add the jaggery syrup only when the rice & dal are well cooked.
- Using long grained rice instead of the regular sona masoori makes the pongal softer & fresh even after hours.
