Pongal

Ingredients for Pongal:

Raw rice - 250 gms
Green gram dal - 150 gms
Jaggery  - 700 gms, powdered
Milk - 400 ml
Ghee - 4 tbsp
Cashew nuts - 2 tbsp, coarsely crushed
Raisins - 3 tbsp
Cardamom - 3 pods, coursely crushed
Nutmeg - half, powder finely

Method for Pongal:

Clean the rice and wash it thoroughly. Clean the green gram dal and broil it. Wash and pressure cook both rice and dal together in  around 1 liter water with pinch of salt. Pressure cook for around 10 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the jaggery with 250 ml of water and cook on a low fire only till the jaggery dissolves completely. Now strain the mixture. Add this jaggery-water mixture to the cooked dal and rice mixture and mix well. Ensure that the final mixture is in a big sauce pan.

Now add milk to it and cook further till the milk completely dissolves in the mixture. Check that the mixture is nor too dry neither too liquidish.

Heat ghee in a small pan. Add the broken cashew nuts and raisins. Add this in the cooked Pongal. Stir in the cardamom and nutmeg powder. Stir well.

Serve Hot.

Tip:  Pongal cooked with above measurement serves 4 people. The whole preparation time is around 40-45 minutes maximum. As you see, Pongal is a very easy dish and try it out, very tasty too.

Try other Makar Sankranti Sweets:

Til Poli (Maharashtra)

Pinnie (Punjab)

Atta Laddoo (Uttar Pradesh)