Sweet Pongal | Sakkarai Pongal | Vella Pongal | Pongal Recipes

Pongal, is a festival celebrated at the end of harvest in Tamil Nadu and can also be termed Indian thanksgiving festival. Sweet pongal recipe is prepared during this festival time in every Hindu Tamilian homes. It is a sweet rice pudding kinda recipe which is prepared with jaggery and raw rice and flavored with cardamom and ghee. It is so tasty that even a person who doesn't have sweet tooth would love this. Cardamom, ghee and jaggery blends well and gives a super delicious and rich aroma that will invite anyone to the kitchen even when you are half way preparing it. 

When I was a kid I remember neighbors bringing banana leafs or small plates filled with some sweet pongal, some paruppu vadas and few sugarcane sticks as edible gifts for us on Pongal. I would taste each sweet pongal recipe and pick out the best to have it as breakfast. I remember one neighbor adding a small piece of ginger, it really makes  a difference and the pongal would be so flavorful. Some would have added some edible camphor to give the pongal a nice flavor and aroma, some would have added more ghee and some less.  But everyone's pongal would make a real feast to my tummy on that particular day. And when festive days were gone I would still crave for this sweet pongal and ask mom to make some for me. Even now I make it occasionally to enjoy it. I usually make it in pressure cooker to reduce cooking time, but the ones made in the pots are the most tastiest and also has good texture. So as pongal festival is nearing thought of posting this lip-smacking recipe. I use milk as some people authentically do to enhance the flavor of pongal, just a little milk will give some creaminess to the recipe. Always add the jaggery and rice in the ratio 2:1 to get the perfect sweetness and flavor. Now lets see how to make this yummilicious pongal recipe. 

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4 to 5 people
Total Preparation Time - 45 minutes to 1 hour

1. Raw rice - 200 grams (1½ cup)
2. Split skinned green gram / Moong dal / Paasi paruppu - 25 grams (1/8 cup) 
3. Boiled milk - 100 ml (1/4 cup)
4. Water - 900 ml (6 cups)
5. Grated coconut - A handful (optional)
6. Jaggery / Vellam - 500 grams 
7. Cashews - 5 to 10 
8. Raisins - Few 
9. Cardamom powder - 1 tsp (or 4 pods)
10. Salt - a small pinch (optional)
11. Ghee / Clarified butter - 2 to 3 spoons (Add more if you wish)

PREPARATION METHOD 

 

• Wash rice twice in water and set aside. 
• To a pan add moong dal and place on flame. Roast until you get a nice flavor (takes a minute), then remove from flame and set aside. 
• To a pot or large sauce pan pour milk (100 ml) and water (900 ml) mix well and place the pot on flame. 

• When the milk and water mixture starts boiling add raw rice, split (or crushed) cardamom pods and moong dal and cook until it gets mushy. If water is not enough add some more water and cook until the rice turns mushy. (This may take 30 minutes or more depending on the rice).

• Meanwhile to another sauce pan or pot add the crushed jaggery (I did not crush it, but melting jaggery without crushing will take time) add some water and place on flame. Use a wooden rod or ladle and press against each jaggery cube and mix well until it dissolves well. When jaggery gets dissolved completely remove from flame (do not keep too long in flame) and strain using a small pored strainer to remove sand or any dust particles from it. 

 

• Then add this jaggery syrup to the well cooked rice mixture and stir well. If it becomes watery cook for some more time on low flame until the water content reduces. Cook on low flame and keep stirring occasionally to avoid the bottom from sticking to the pan and getting burnt. 

• Simultaneously take a pan add ghee to it and place on flame (do not wait until the ghee turns smoky hot, this will burn your cashews), add the cashews and saute until it turns slightly brown, then add the raisins and wait until it puffs up, remove from flame. Add this roasted cashew and raisins along with ghee into the cooked rice and mix well. 

• When the mixture gets blended well and water content reduces add the grated coconut and stir well then remove from flame. 
• Serve!!

TIP 1: Adding split skinned green gram (paasi paruppu) is purely optional. 

TIP 2: You can add 250 grams of jaggery and 250 grams of rock candy (kalkandu) in place of 500 grams of jaggery. 

TIP 3: Adding milk is purely optional and the amount of ghee can be increased upto 5 spoons or even more to get a nice aroma. 

TIP 4: You can replace cardamom pods with 1 tsp of cardamom powder.  But I prefer using whole pods.

TIP 5: I haven't added grated coconut as I don't like adding coconut to pongal. Also it does not stay for more than a day, when you don't add coconut it stays longer. Also you can cut small tiny bits of coconut fry it along with cashews until golden brown and add it to the pongal.

TIP 6: Jaggery is melted into syrup to strain and remove dust particles from it. So do the melting part without fail, but do not keep the jaggery too much in flame it will become too thick and will not be in syrupy consistency. In such case add some more water and place on flame and stir well until it turns watery. 

TIP 7: The rice should be cooked until it is very mushy only then you will get the perfect pongal texture. So add some more water in case the rice does not get cooked well. I had to add another cup of water to make the rice get cooked more mushy. Rice differs and so the time to cook it also differs.

Sweet and lip-smacking pongal is now ready!! Serve either chilled as dessert or hot as breakfast!!
Am sure you will love it!!