Ven Pongal

Ven pongal is a comforting food, which is very easy to prepare. Since this includes both rice and dal, it is very nutritious and an alternate way to make kids eat rice and dal. To make it more impressive, we can pair it up with sakkarai pongal. When prepared traditionally on pongal festival, milk is added to this dish. I have mentioned only the simple way of preparing without milk.

Ven Pongal Recipe

Serves  :  3 - 4 people

Ingredients

• Raw rice  -  1 cup
• Moong dal  -  1/2 cup
• Water  -   4.5 to 5 cups
• Salt  -  as required
• Curry leaves  -  little
• Cumin seeds  -  1/2 tsp
• Black pepper -  whole or powdered
• Ginger  -  a small piece, grated
• Green chilly  -  1 or 2, based on the pepper quantity used
• Ghee  -   2 to 3 tbsp
• Cashews  -  4 to 5 (optional)

Method

• Dry roast moong dal in a kadai till a nice aroma arises. Do it in low flame, else it will get burnt.
• Take rice and roasted moong dal in a cooker container and wash it well.
• Add the required water to this and pressure cook for minimum 8 to 10 whistles. This can be pressure cooked for more whistles than the normal rice, since it has to be mushy.
• In a pan, add little ghee and roast cashews till golden. Keep it aside.
• In the same pan, add the remaining ghee and the add the items for tempering -  cumin seeds, curry leaves, whole black pepper or pepper powder, grated ginger and chillies.
• Once the pressure is released in the cooker, mash the rice and dal mixture well with a ladle.
• Add the cashews and tempered items to this along with required salt and mix well. Add more ghee if required.
• Serve hot with chutney or tiffin sambar(gothsu).

Notes

• Dry roasting moong dal helps in providing a nice flavour to the pongal.
• The water quantity and the number of whistles can be adjusted according to the quality of rice used. The proportion given here is 1:3 (rice+moong dal:water). For 1.5 cups of rice and dal mixture, 4.5 to 5 cups of water is added.
• Mash rice and dal immediately after cooking, so that the texture is perfect.
• When preparing for kids, chillies and whole pepper can be avoided and only pepper powder can be added.
• I usually do not use chillies or whole pepper when I prepare this dish. I use only homemade pepper jeera powder(around 1.5 tsp) for the given quantity of rice and dal. 
• If using chillies and whole pepper adjust the quantity according to the spice level.