Sweet Pongal ( Chekkara Pongali )

Sweet Pongal is a popular dish made on the festival of Pongal or Makar Sankranti. Sweet pongal when served on a banana leaf is just heavenly. Hmmm.... Nevertheless, it tastes equally good otherwise.

It is easy to make with not too many ingredients. Here's the recipe :


Ingredients:

• Sona Masuri rice - 1 cup
• Moong Dal ( pesara pappu ) - 1/2 cup
• Jaggery - 1 cup ( adjust to taste )
• Ghee ( clarified butter ) - 1/4 cup
• Cashew Nuts - 4-5
• Raisins - 1 tbsp
• Cardamom Powder - 2 pinches
• Milk - 2 cups ( for cooking rice )
• Water - 2 cups ( for cooking rice )
• Evaporated Milk - 1 small can ( 12 fl oz )
• Water - 1 cup ( for melting jaggery )

Directions: 

• Roast moong dal in very little ghee, say just a teaspoonful ghee, on medium heat. Keep stirring continuously till they just start to slightly change color. ( you can even dry roast it ) Do not brown them. Remove and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add one more tsp of ghee and roast cashew nuts and raisins till cashews turn slightly golden and raisins puff up .
• In a pressure cooker or electric rice cooker, cook rice in milk and water. The cooked  rice should be soft and mushy.
• Grate or powder the jaggery.
• In a separate pot, melt jaggery in a cup of water on a medium heat. Let this syrup cool. Strain this syrup to remove dirt particles ( if any ). Transfer it back to the same pot.
• Add cooked rice and dal to the jaggery syrup and cook on low- medium heat.
• Add the  evaporated milk , remaining ghee, roasted cashew nuts and raisins and also cardamom powder. Give it a good mix.
• Simmer and cook it covered for around 10-15 minutes . Pongal thickens a lot on cooling , so you can turn off the heat when it still is in pouring consitency.
• Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving this heavenly sweet dish. 

Tip:  Jaggery can be replaced with white or brown sugar.
(If you use the dark jaggery, the color of pongal is darker and that is how I like it. I used the light colored jaggery , hence the color is lighter in the picture. )