SAKKARAI PONGAL

Its coustomary in our house to cook the paal ponggal, sakkarai ponggal and the ponggal kulambu.
All our relatives cook the ponggal kulambu the same way.
We normally do it in our front yard.
This year its a quiet one and cooked in the kitchen.

Here is the sakkarai ponggal.


SAKKARAI PONGGAL

Ingredients:

1 cup raw rice
¼ cup moong dal roasted until you get a good aroma
¼ cup of ghee
3 cups of water
2 cups of milk
1 cup jaggery more if you like
6 cashew nuts roasted in ghee
1 tbs of raisins roasted in ghee
2 cardamom pods crushed

Method;
Wash the rice and the moong dal, soak them for about 30 minutes.
Put the rice and the dal in a thick bottomed pot.
Add the milk and the water. On a low fire cook the rice and dal.
You have to keep on stirring in between so that it does burn.
(Or you can cook it in a pressure cooker for 4 whistles)
The rice and dal have to be cooked well, then mash it .

Put the jaggery in a pan add water to cover it.
Boil in a low flame till it melts, then filter the syrup.
Now boil again for about 5 minutes.

Now add the hot syrup to the hot cooked rice.
Add in the crushed cardamom pods, let them boil .
Keep stirring it, allow them to boil, now add in the ghee little by little.
The mixture must come together, add in the roasted nuts and raisins.
Mix well, and remove. The ponggal will thicken when it gets cold.

Note: The rice will stop cooking once you add the jaggery.
So your rice dal mixture must be well cooked before adding the jaggery. Also do not skimp on ghee and jaggery