Pongal

This is a breakfast receipe. In south India, this is a famous breakfast dish along with Idly and Dosai. This is how I make Pongal. Most of you may know the ingredients and the method for making pongal. This is for the new cooks. The main ingredients are as follow..

Ingredients:-

1. Rice - 1 cup (measuring cup)
2. Moong dal - 1/2 dal (measuring cup)
3. Ginger - a small piece
4. Pepper - 1 tbsp
5. cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
6. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
7. Asafoetida powder - one pinch
8. Salt to taste
9. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
   
10. Cashews - 6 or 7
11. curry leaves - 1- to 15 leaves
12. Oil - 2 tbsp
13. Ghee - 1 tbsp

First wash the rice and Moong Dal and soak it in water for 10 mts. In the mean time, we can finish our seasoning. Take a seasoning pan, preheat the oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters, add pepper+cumin seeds+cashews+curry leaves+curry leaves+ginger and asafoetida powder in the oil and fry it for a minute. Do not burn it. Now take a pressure pan, put the rice and dal in it and pour water in the ratio of 1:5 (Pongal should not be like fried rice so we can add 5 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. Now add the mustard, pepper etc mix to the rice and add the turmeric powder and salt to it. Pressure cook this upto 5 to 6 full whistles. After pressure is released, open the pan and pour the 1 tbsp ghee in it and again close the pan for few mts. Now Pongal is ready to serve. Serve it hot with Tomato godhsu or coconut chutney.

Note: We can also grind the raw pepper and cumin seeds before adding it with mustard seeds. In that case, it will easy for the kids to eat pepper. Try this and lemme know your comments