How to make pongal/ rice with lentils and pepper-pongal

There are two varieties of pongal, namely, sakarai pongal (sweet pongal) and ven pongal (spicy pongal). The rice boiled with milk and jaggery during the Pongal festival is also called pongal.

Ingredients

Rice: 1.5 cups
Moong dhal- 3/4 cup
Salt- To taste
Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp
Asafoetoda – 1/4 tsp
Grated Ginger- 1 inch piece
Crushed peppercorns- 3/4 tsp or whole peppercorns – 15
Curry Leaves- 5
Ghee- 3 tbsp
Red Chili- 2
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Cashew nuts- 2 tsp

How to make rice with lentils and pepper-pongal




Wash the rice and dhal together and drain. In a pan or deep pot, add ghee and slightly fry the rice-dhal mixture.

Add salt, turmeric powder, pepper powder and pour 6 cups water(1 part rice: 3 parts water) to the pan and partially cover and cook. If you are using slow cooker, just make sure that you add a cup of extra water while cooking.

When the rice is cooked throughly with dhal, mash them together. Pongal has to be slightly runny and it will thicken as it sits, so the softer it is, the better. Mash the rice smoothly so that it is almost like the texture of mashed potatoes.

In another pan, heat ghee and add asafoetida and add cumin seeds,curry leaves, ginger, red chilies and cashew nuts in the same order. Pour this over the pongal.