Sakkarai Pongal (in pressure cooker)Recipe

Todays post is sakkarai pongal I know that everybody is familiar with this dish and this being pongal time all would have got enough of it but still I want to have a note of it in my little space.Hope every one would have had a great time with family and friends,especially in Tamil Nadu kids are having a whale of time enjoying their pongal holidays.In our house we have the custom of making sakkarai pongal and vadai on the day of pongal.I usually follow the short cut method of pressure cooking which is easy and time saving.Traditionally this pongal is prepared in a new earthern pot.Usually everyone adds only few spoons of moongdhal to the pongal but we use rice and dhal in the ratio 2:1,Amma does it that way so I follow the same ratio.

Sakkarai pongal is a favorite among kids and it is a whole meal by itself with carbs , protein ,vitamins and minerals. Moong dhal is easy to digest and attributes to the protein component. Jaggery is rich in iron,vitamins and minerals. Jaggery is said to have properties that aid digestion of food.A small piece of jaggery after a heavy meal helps in digestion.A friend of mine suggested that I include recipes that make up a healthy breakfast for kids.This pongal also comes under that category,it is a one pot meal and also loved by children,so mothers need not go around the kid to feed the breakfast.Now to the recipe.

Sakkarai Pongal Recipe- Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong Dhal - 1/2 cup(yellow,split)
Jaggery- 1 1/2 cup(grated)
Cashew - 10
Raisins - 10
Elaichi - 3 nos
Ghee - 4 tbsp
Salt - a pinch

Method:

1. Wash and pressure cook the rice and dhal together in 3 cups of water with a pinch of salt for three whistles(please adjust according to your cooker).
2. Now in a pan heat jaggery with the crushed elaichis in 3 tbspn of water till the all jaggery melts and you get a thick syrup.Strain this syrup into another bowl.
3. Once the rice ,dhal mixture is ready mash it well and add the jaggery syrup to the cooker ,mix well and cook till the jaggery and rice mix come to a boil add 2 tbsps of ghee and keep stirring else the pongal may get burnt.Heat 2 tbsps ghee in a pan ,fry the cashews and raisins and add it to the pongal.Serve hot.It tastes equally yummy even at room temperature.

My Notes:

• You can increase or reduce the amount of jaggery as per taste.
• The colour of the pongal depends on the jaggery used ,paagu vellam gives good color.
• You can decrease the amount of water if you don't want your pongal to be gooey .
• The use of cashews and raisins is optional and can be omitted if you don't like it.
• A pinch of salt is added to the rice dhal mixture to avoid/reduce spill over,moongdhal has this quality. A tip from a chef was to add a pinch of salt to any sweet dish to enhance the taste.
• You can reduce the amont of ghee but this sure compromises on the taste.