PONGAL ( RICE COOKED WITH SPLIT GREEN GRAM )

Serves 2-3 people.

Ingredients:

plain raw rice - 200 gms (approx-1teacup)

Split green gram - 1/4 cup

Asafoetida powder - a pinch

Tempering :

Ghee+ cooking oil - 4-5 Tbsp ( if u r calorie conscious can reduce ghee and add more cooking oil )

Whole pepper corns - 1 Tbsp

Cumin seeds - 2 Tsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Finely chopped ginger - 2 Tsp

Green chillies - 2 (slit length wise)

METHOD :

Dry roast the split green gram in a pan slightly till it gives a good aroma on low flame. Make sure it does not turn brown. Now wash the rice along with roasted split green gram for 2-3 times. Add water to the rice and split green gram mixture ( the ratio is for rice add water as 1:3 and for split green gram it is 1:1) add 3 and 1/4 cups of water and asafoetida powder and pressure cook it till it gives 5 whistles.

Now for tempering add oil+ghee mixture to a pan and when it becomes hot put the peppercorns, cumin seeds, chopped ginger and green chillies one by one and fry till ginger slightly changes colour. You can add salt as per taste in the tempering or you can add it along with the rice before pressure cooking. ( I noticed if I add salt with rice before pressure cooking the rice does not cook properly so I add it in the tempering).

After the pressure drops open the lid and add the tempering to the rice mixture and and mix nicely. The rice should be mashed nicely with the help of a round ladle. Serve hot with sambar, chutney.

P.S This is a very healthy dish and in South India this is a special dish served in all special occasions like marriages, parties, and in festivals like diwali and pongal. If you don't like to have whole pepper corns you can ground pepper corns along with cumin seeds in a mixer to a coarse powder and add it to the tempering.

Happy Pongal To All "An Important Festival For Tamilians"

The picture above was taken during a family ceremony at our home. This is how hindus worship God.


The above picture is my salwar which I bought for pongal.


The picture below is called rangoli made by me for dipawali.


Yes It is time for pongal an important festival for the people of Tamil Nadu in India. What is Pongal ? Pongal is a festival for farmers to thank God for the bountiful harvest of the year. In Tamil Nadu before most of the people did farming as their main occupation. So for years people of Tamil Nadu celebrate January 14th as pongal to thank God. In Tamil year January 14th is the starting of a tamil month called thai and this month is considered as a very auspicious month for marriages, house warming and many other special occasions.
Pongal is celebrated for four days. The first day is Bohi where people throw away or burn old things at home. The second day is pongal where people wake up before sunrise take a bath , wear new clothes and in front of their homes they make rangoli also called kolam where they draw beautiful designs on the street with grounded lime stone. Then they keep mud pot in the middle of the rangoli with turmeric, beetle leaves, sugar cane, plantain and many more offerings to the God, Sun on the sides of the pot and boil the milk in the mud pot. The milk should boil and flow out of the mud pot and that is considered very auspicious and that is pongal means "something over flowing or cooking".
The third day is maatu pongal which means festival for cows. People decorate cows and worship them as they help to plough the fields while farming. The fourth day is kaanum pongal where people make variety of delicious food at home and go for picnics and have food there. These are the customs they follow in villages even now.
Now coming to our generation, for us pongal means holiday. Lolz holiday for schools, offices but not for us home makers :( Living in pigeon cage apartments if we cook or boil milk in front of our apartments for sure we will get lot of abuses and warning from the apartment community. So what do we do get up before sunrise ????? how does the sun look like when it rises ???? no ways!! for us the day starts and the sun rises at 9am in the morning. Then take a bath , pray and then make some sweets specially sarkarai pongal a special sweet rice made of jaggery and then start watching special programmes on Television. That is all we can do living in apartments and that too very far off from Tamil Nadu in Noida a place near New Delhi. But one thing we follow even now? we buy new dresses for pongal elders should be proud of us at least we are following this tradition :)) But what do we do we are also helpless just imagine can we celebrate maattu pongal festival for cows in apartments ??:)
I still remember my childhood days where we go to my grand parents village to celebrate Pongal. It was a very nice experience where all cousins meet and have lot of fun. The custom is youngsters should get the blessing of elders and in return they give money for us and we collect nice pocket money by getting the blessings of grand parents, parents, uncle and aunts. Where ever we see elders we run to them to get blessings lolz ;) But this generation is missing all that fun which is very sad. My mom has 6 sisters and a brother and my dad 5 brothers and a sister then imagine the No of cousins we have :) we have lot of fun when we meet in special occasions and in vacations . Really missing the good old days.To know more about pongal visit here