Khara Pongal / Ven Pongal
Khara Pongal recipe / Ven Pongal is a very tasty and easy South Indian dish made with rice and moong dal and tempered with few spices
Ingredients
- 1 cup Rice
- 1/2 cup Green gram / split moong dal
- 1/2 tsp Ghee
- 1/2 tsp Haldi / Turmeric
- Salt to taste
To Temper
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1-2 tbsp Ghee
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds /Jeera
- 1 tsp Pepper,, coarsely crushed
- 2-3 tbsp dry Coconut / Kopra, , finely chopped ( optional )
- few Cashews, , optional
- 1/4 tsp Hing / Asafoetida
- 1 tsp Ginger, grated
- 3-4 nos Green Chilli, , finely chopped
- few Curry Leaves
- 1-2 nos Red Chilli, , broken
- 1/2 tsp Haldi /turmeric
Instructions
- To begin with take moong dal and add to a pressure cooker.Dry roast them for 2-3 mins , let it get aromatic
- add rice and fry for another 2-3 mins
- Later , Wash the rice and dal nicely in water 2-3 times. Drain water and add around water in the proportion of 1: 4 . Add turmeric and 1/2 tsp Ghee , mix well. Close the cooker and pressure cook for 3 whistles
- Once pressure releases , open the lid , rice and dal would have cooked really well . Add salt to taste .Mix well .If you combine dal and rice nicely when the mixture is still hot , pongal gets nice creamy and mushy texture.
- Add water and adjust pongal consistency as per your choice , let it boil on low flame.
- By the time it boils , let’s prepare a tempering .
- To a pan add Oil and Ghee . Let they get hot . Once ghee is hot , add Mustard and Cumin seeds . Once mustard splutters , add finely chopped dry coconut , semi crushed Pepper and few Cashews .Dry coconut and cashews are optional . You can skip but adding them enhances taste .saute the tempering till cashews become golden .Later add Asafoetida , grated Ginger.finely chopped Green Chillies , Curry leaves red chilli broken . Saute 1-2 mins . Let green chillies -ginger get nicely roasted . This will make the tempering more flavorful .In the end add Turmeric and mix well . Now our tempering is ready .
- Pour the tempering over the cooked pongal , combine well and boil it just once .Let the pongal take in tempering flavors nicely.
- Creamy , gooey and tasty Ven Pongal is ready to serve . Drizzle ghee over hot hot pongal and serve as such or serve it along with coconut chutney / sambar / tamarind gojju as side dish .