Sunday 18 January 2015

Ven Pongal
Ingredients
Raw rice - 1 cup
Moongdal / Pasiparuppu - 1/4 cup
Water - 3 cups
Ginger ( finely chopped) - 1/2" piece
Salt to taste
Ghee - 2 tbsp + Oil - 4 tbsp
Cashew nuts - 10 numbers
Whole black pepper - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Chettinad Pongal
Method
1. Wash dal and rice together and pressure cook along with chopped ginger, 3 cups water and required salt for 12 mins. Once pressure is released, mash cooked dal and rice with back of a ladle. 
2. In a small pan add both ghee and oil, fry cashewnuts in hot oil until golden brown and set aside. In the same oil temper cumin seeds, pepper corns and curry leaves. Add this tempering to the mashed rice in the cooker and mix well.
Serve hot Ven Pongal with
Sambar
Coconut chutney


Ghee Pongal
Chef's tip
1. Always use this proportion for 1 cup rice it's 1/4 cup moongdal follow this golden rule. Don't use more Moongdal as the pongal will become sticky or don't use more rice then pongal will taste like steamed white rice.
2. The next rule is don't use more water, when you cook rice and dal in excess water either excess water will stay below the cooker or pongal will be tasteless like porridge water( Kanji Thanni). So always follow 1:2 ratio( for one cup rice+dal, 2 cups water) plus 1/2 cup more.

3. Pongal consumes lot of oil, don't be stringent using oil, 6 tbsp ( ghee + oil) might look more but when added to cooked mashed rice, it will be well absorbed and soft pongal texture will be achieved this is a restaurant secret.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Texture looks great... How many whistles are needed? Plz clarify....

Mythreyi Dilip said...

Thank you Sathya. I have a 7 liter Pressure cooker, at first I kept cooker on high heat and after 1st whistle I simmered heat to low and cooked for 15 mins.