Ven Pongal is a traditional breakfast or tiffin dish served mainly in Tamil Nadu. It is a delicious mix of Cheru paruppu (split moong dal) and rice. I have tasted many a different variety of Ven Pongal ranging from gooey kind, to the not so watery kind, but the best of which I liked is my mom's style of preparing Ven Pongal which is different from the traditional method. I am posting the same here.
Ingredients
Rice --- 1 cup
Moong Dal split -- 1/4 cup
Ghee -- 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Black Pepper -- 1 tsp
Jeeragam (Cumin) 1/2 tsp
For Garnish
Ghee -- 1 tsp
Cashew Nuts (split) -- 5-8 pieces
Raisins --5-6
Method
- In a pressure cooker cook the rice and moong dal separately. For cooking rice add 3.5 cups of water for 1 cup of rice and for cooking moong dal for 1/4 cup add 1 cup of water.
- While the rice and daal are cooking in a kadai take a tsp of ghee and roast the black pepper and cumin until the cumin turns brown. After it cools, crush it using a pestle.
- Once the rice and daal is cooked remove from cooker after the steam has gone. Take the cooked rice in a bowl and let it cool for a 10 minutes. While the rice is still warm add the cooked daal, ghee, the crushed mixture and salt and mix well taking care not to break the rice too much.
- Roast the cashews and raisins in ghee until the cashews turn golden brown. Pour this over the rice mixture and Ven Pongal is ready.
