Sakkara Pongal
Belates pongal wishes to all…I celebrated mine with the taste of sweetness…here is the recipe for chakkara (tamil for sugar) pongal
Preparation time
45 mins
Serving
Serves 6
Ingredients
Rice – 4 cups
Jaggery – 200gms
Milk – 1.5 pints
Moong Dal – 1/2 cup (optional)
Saffron – couple of strands
Cashews – 10 finely chopped
Raisins – 10
Ghee – 7-8 tsp
Water
Preparation Steps
1) In a pan add 200gms of jaggery and 200ml of water. (Break the jaggery into smaller pieces before tossing it into the pan). Wait till it becomes gooey. Take care to ensure its still liquidy and does not become a paste. Usually this takes 10-15 mins. Ensure you set the gas at low.
2) In another pan as a parallel activty, roast rice and moong dal with ghee
3) After 2 mins of roasting, add milk (1 pint) and cook the rice with milk until it gets crunchy. Add a spoon for ghee every 10 mins. Do this for about 30 mins again the gas should be set at low
4) Now add the jaggery to the rice pan. Constantly stir while adding the jaggery. Stiring ensures you blend the flavours
5) Add another 1/2 pint of milk and stir till the rice is now completely cooked. Add saffron
6)Fry cashews and raisins in ghee. Ensure you add the raisings after the cashews as raisins tend to cook faster. Take off the gas when golden brown
7) Garnish the dish with cashews and you have a winning dish there…yum!
