Chakkarai Pongal (pongal special)

The Tamil Month "Thai" was born just after 9 am on Jan 14 2009. This day is celebrated as Thai Pongal in southern India. We celebrated Pongal by making Chakkarai Pongal(dessert), Ven Pongal/Sambhar (entrees) and Masal Vadai(appetizers). Although it was a tiresome process to make all these dishes after coming back from work, we ended the day with a scrumptious meal ;)

Chakkarai Pongal
Ingredients

Milk (Paal)- 1/2 cup
Raw Rice (arisi) - 1/2 cup
Channa Dhall (kadala paruppu) - 1 tbsp
Moong dhall (payatham paruppu) - 1 tbsp
Broken Jaggery (Udacha Vellam) - 1 cup (i.e twice the amount of raw rice)
Melted Butter/Ghee (Nei) - 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder (yelakkai podi) - 1/4 teaspoon
Raisins (kaanja drakshai) - 1 - 2 teaspoons
Unsalted Raw whole Cashew nuts (munthiri kottai) - about 10 whole cashews broken into 4 pieces each


Dry fry channaa dhall and moong dhall separately. Add it to the raw rice and wash it well with water and drain it off. Heat the milk in a small saucepan and add the rice/dhall to it. Add about 2-3 cups of water filling the saucepan a little over half full. Do not stir the milk. Wait till the milk boils over and remove the saucepan off the heat.

Pongal in Tamil means "boiling over or spill over". The tradition is to shout "Pongalo Pongal" when the milk boils over.

Empty out the contents of the saucepan to a bowl. If the rice is not fully cooked, cook it in pressure cooker one more time.

Heat about 2-3 teaspoons of ghee and fry the cashew nuts and raisins.

Heat 1/4 cup of water in the sauce pan and add the broken jaggery to it. Keep stirring the jaggery till it completely dissolves and forms a light "Paagu"(like caramel, but not very thick). Heat for 2-3 more minutes. Add the cooked rice, all the melted butter/ghee, fried cashews, raisins, cardamom powder and mix well. Cook for 5 more minutes with frequent stirring.
Chakkarai Pongal is ready to be served.

Serving size: 2

I will be writing the recipes for Ven Pongal and Masal Vadai in the next few days.