Sweet Pongal

‘Sweet Pongal’ is a very good ‘Nivedyam’. It is offered to the God at the time of festivals and some special occasions.

After coming back from India I have cleaned my pooja mandir. Whenever we clean the pooja mandir we will offer some sweet to the God. In this occasion I made this.

Sweet Pongal can be made with milk and without milk too. I like the ‘sweet pongal’ which Babitha makes the most. Whenever a festival comes she makes this and distributes this as prasadam to all of us. I used to wait for that.

My Mom makes this with milk.

Note: Whatever we offer to the God it should not be too hot. Wait till the vapours go off completely.

Learnt From: My friend Babitha.

Serves: 8 people. (Can adjust for 10 people)

Ingredients:

Raw-Rice --- 1 Rice Cooker Cup (120 ml)
Yellow Moong dal --- ¼ th Rice Cooker Cup (40 ml)
Grated Jaggery --- 1 Rice Cooker Cup (tightly)
Ghee --- ½ - ¾ th Rice Cooker Cup
Cardamom Powder --- ¼ th tsp
Shredded Coconut or Coconut pieces --- ½ Rice Cooker Cup
Cashews --- a few
Raisens --- a few

Process:

Fry ¼ th cup of yellow moong dal in an open pan till the colour changes. (This step is optional. This is to take off the stickiness from the dal.)

Wash a cup of raw-rice and ¼ th cup of raw or fried yellow moong dal with water. If you have fried the yellow moong dal wash the rice separately.

Add 3 cups of water (trice the qtty of rice) and pressure cook it for 3 whistles.

Wait till the pressure goes away. Remove the lid.

In the mean while, grate 1 cup of jaggery. (tightly pack the cup with jaggery)

Add 2 cups of water to the grated jaggery. Micro-wave it for 2 minutes. Mix well to melt the jaggery.

Add pressure cooked rice and dal to a pan. Add 3 cups of water to it. Mix well and cook it for a while.

Add melted jaggery water to the rice. Cook it nicely till the dal mashes completely.

In the meanwhile, fry cashews, raisins & coconut in ½ cup of ghee.

Just before turning off the heat add this fried ones and ¼ tsp of cardamom powder to the rice.

Mix well.