Swweeeet!
- Chef Man
- Jan 14, 2017
- 3 min read
"Knock knock"... She asked.
I followed up with the ritual question, "Knock Knock Who?".
"Gal".
"uh.. Gal Who..?"
"Pongal"
I added, "Pongal-o pongal"
I got up early and was gazing up the dark ceiling (It was 4:30 AM). "Cultures and Traditions are passed on generations after generations. How they evolve constantly is something that cannot be stopped. I cannot fathom it. But I stride along." I remember the time when my mom used to cook sakarai pongal on this day to welcome another year of bountiful harvest, thank the nature and farmers. I have strong taste buds and the taste of her pongal still lingers on as I look past 3+ decades. "How did she make it?" I had already tried pongal 10 years ago and it flopped big time (I will tell the story later) - no kidding! I got out of the bed @ 6:00, still thinking... My little taster chef was up
"It is pongal today and we shall cook the Sakkarai pongal.", I said. "I know what we did last pongal with Thathi and Thatha!", she exclaimed. OK.. time to get the ingredients sorted - not a timed recipe -mind you - Ghost of the past failure was still haunting me and excitedly nervous.
This is not a traditional pongal recipe. As you might have noticed from my previous blogs, my recipes go out of the traditional way to make something new. Evolution is part of the life cycle.
1. 1 cup of rice cooked in 1 cup of milk and 1.5 cups of water ( I used Basmati for a different flavor - Cooked in Rice Cooker)
2. 1.5 cups of Vellam Katti (Jaggery) in boil water (2 Cups) and keep stirring in low flame for about 5-10 minutes.
3. Once the rice is cooked, mash the rice and add it to the molten jaggery.
4. Keep mixing it in medium flame
5. Melt the butter on another pan and raisins, cashews and 2 cardamoms.
6. Add it rice-jaggery mixture and keep stirring it for about 2-3 minutes
7. Ready to eat - Before that, as the pongal tradition goes, thank the earth, nature and farmers for providing such yummy ingredients and dig in!
The little one loved it! The knock joke is in the air and the one you see on top was conjured on the go during the cooking process. The traditional recipe has additional ingredients - lentils and coconut cooked in an earthen pot. I skipped it to deviate from traditions. Some recipe, recommend the use of achchu vellam. I don't, because the flavor and color vastly distorts taste buds and eyes.
I took some to work, shared with friends. They all were being nice to me and said "This is the best pongal I have ever tasted" - came from a South Indian friend! And those who got to taste my pongal, leave feedback please on the FB page... lol!
It took about 35 minutes to cook it - but worth every minute you spend! Go ahead - treat yourself and make this recipe. Share your pics and experience too - lets start a conversation!
Tip - The more the butter, the better! So better butter your butter better :)
Happy Pongal!!!
Ingredients' pics :)
* Yes, I ran out of raisins and I stole from the little one's food cupboard :D
Yours Cookingly,
Chef man