Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated by worshiping Sun & earth to show our gratitude for the entire year’s harvests. On this day we all follow the traditional method of cooking rice in pot(s) decorated with ginger sprouts or turmeric sprouts rather than cooking in modern electric cooker or pressure cooker. It is considered auspicious to have boiled over while making pongal (meaning spilling over) which is otherwise impossible.

This tradition is still being followed rigorously every year to signify prosperity & abundance. However you may refer my pongal recipes prepared in pressure cooker for ven pongal using millets and sweet pongal.

Although our relatives prepare various pongal to serve for lunch, I prefer to make ven pongal & sweet pongal on this day. I feel it is convenient for me to serve ven pongal for breakfast and sweet pongal for lunch.

First let us look into the recipe for ven pongal: I used fresh turmeric in here instead of turmeric powder for their amazing anti-inflammatory properties.

It has a wonderful aroma but tastes slightly bitter. Since this is the time we get fresh turmeric I like to use them in as many recipes as possible in this season. You may also find my other recipe using fresh turmeric here.

Time Taken: 30 min.

Yields : 2½ cups

Ingredients:

1. Raw rice (pacharisi) – 1 cup
2. Green gram lentils (paasi paruppu) – ½ cup
3. Water – 2 Litres
4. Salt – 1½ tsp

For tempering #1 :

1. Any neutral oil (or ghee) – 2 tbsp (30 ml) (I used saffola oil)
2. Pepper – 1 tsp
3. Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
4. Fresh ginger – a thumb sized
5. Fresh turmeric – 2 pieces (each 1 inch)

For tempering #2 :

1. Ghee – 2 tsp
2. Cashewnuts – 12-15 Nos.
3. Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

Cooking Method:

• Heat a pan in low flame and  roast lentils until they get heated up.
• Wash rice & roasted lentil and discard the water.
• Again rinse them in 2 Litres of water & keep them immersed in the same water.
• Heat a cooking pot, pour rinsing water in to the pot and bring it to a boil in high flame.
• When the water begins to boil over, reduce the flame to low.
• Pour frothy foamy water out using a ladle.
• Add rice & lentil into the boiling water and cook in medium flame.
• Meanwhile prepare the tempering #1 as shown below and pour into the pot.
• Now cook the rice-lentil mixture (in low flame) covered allowing it get infused with those spices.
• When the mixture turned mushy, add salt and mix well.
• Prepare the tempering #2 and mix with pongal.
• Remove from heat and transfer ven pongal to a hot casserole immediately.
• Serve hot with coconut chutney & sambar.

Now the recipe for sweet pongal:

Time Taken: 30 min.

Yields : 2¼ cups

Ingredients:

1. Raw rice (pacharisi) – 1 cup
2. Powdered cane jaggery (vellam) – 1 cup
3. Water – 1½ Litre
4. Milk – 1 cup
5. Cardamom – 2 Nos.
6. Edible camphor (pachaikarpooram) – a small piece

For tempering:

1. Ghee – 1 tbsp
2. Cashew nuts – 10 Nos.
3. Raisins – 20 Nos.

Cooking Method:

• Wash rice and discard the water.
• Now rinse again using 1½ litres of water and keep the rice immersed in the same water.
• Pour rice-rinsing water & milk (1 cup) into the cooking pot and bring it to a boil in high flame.
• When the milk begins to boil over, reduce the flame to low.
• Add rice and cook until mushy in medium flame.
• Mash rice well with the back of a ladle.
• Add powdered jaggery and cook in low flame until coagulated.
• Add powdered cardamom seeds & edible camphor and mix well.
• Prepare the tempering as shown in “gif” and add into the pot.
• Mix well and remove from heat.
• Transfer hot sweet pongal to a hot casserole immediately.
• Pour hot ghee over sakkarai pongal before serving, if you don’t mind calories !

Our typical breakfast platter on Pongal day consists of idli, medhu vadai, ven pongal, sweet pongal, coconut chutney & sambar.

Our traditional spread for lunch comprises kadamba sambar, avial, red pumpkin sweet poriyal, appalam, medhu vadai, sweet pongal and buttermilk.