Sakkarai Pongal - Sweet pongal with jaggery

Sakkarai pongal is a traditional dish prepared with rice, moong dal and jaggery. Usually on the day of pongal, it is prepared using milk in a traditional brass pot(vengala paanai). Here I've given the recipe without using milk and by using pressure cooker method. This is an easy to prepare neivedhyam dish during festivals and occasions. I prepared this on friday since it was the 1st day of the tamil month aadi and also the 1st friday of aadi and served with ven pongal.

Sakkarai Pongal Recipe

Serves  :  3 - 4 people

Ingredients

• Raw rice  -  1/2 cup
• Moong dal  -  1/4 cup
• Jaggery  -  1 cup
• Water  -  3 cups
• Ghee  -   3 tbsp
• Cardamom powder/Instant badam mix  -  a pinch
• Cashews  -  7-8
• Raisins  -  1/2 tbsp

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 and raisins till golden. Keep it aside.
• In the same pan, take jaggery and add water till immersing level and heat it up. Once it is dissolved, strain to remove impurities.
• Heat the syrup again and once it starts to boil and becomes slightly thick, add the mashed rice+ dal mixture and mix well in low to medium flame.
• Add the cardamom powder and the remaining ghee along with the fried cashews and raisins.
• Mix well. Cook for 5 minutes till everything blends well.
• Serve hot.

Notes

• Dry roasting moong dal helps in providing a nice flavour to the pongal.
• Mash rice and dal immediately after cooking, so that the texture is perfect.
• When I prepared the dish, I used only 3/4 cup of jaggery but found that the sweetness was less. Hence I've mentioned as 1 cup in the ingredients. Also the colour of the pongal depends on the type of jaggery used.
• My mother-in-law uses edible camphor(pachai karpuram) for this pongal. You can add it as well along with the jaggery syrup. Just add a very tiny pinch as otherwise it will spoil the taste of the dish.
• The pongal thickens once cooled down. So switch off accordingly.
• If it has thickened while serving, add little ghee and boiled milk/hot water and serve.