Ven Pongal Recipe

Ven pongal is a very popular and famous breakfast of Tamil Nadu . It is a very simple and an easy recipe which can be done in a jiffy. It tastes great with coconut chutney, sambar and arachuvitta sambar. Now that Pongal falls on the 15th of this month, many will be preparing both sakkarai pongal and ven pongal. I have already posted the recipe for sakkarai pongal, so here I am with the Ven pongal recipe. I have earlier posted a quick sambar recipe which goes well with pongal, idli, vadai and dosa. Today I am sharing another sambar recipe which also goes well with ven pongal .They both are made for each other.

Ven Pongal Recipe

Ingredient needed

Raw rice - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
(green gram dal-the split yellow variety-pasi parupu)
Water -5 cups

Ginger - 1 inch piece finely chopped
Whole black pepper -1 1/2 tsp
Cumin/jeera seeds -1 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - little
Oil -1/4 cup
Ghee - 2 1/2 tbsp
Salt as required
Cashew nuts - 5-7

Preparation

Dry roast rice and dal separately till it becomes slightly hot. Do not fry till dal changes color.

Wash and pressure cook rice+dal together with 5 cups of water, adding salt and a tsp of oil. I have used old rice, if you are using new rice, add 4 cups of water.The quantity of water differs according to the type of rice used.The point to be noted is - the rice should be cooked in such a way that it should be mushy. Mash it well and keep it aside. Check for salt. If needed, add and mix it well.

Roast cashew nuts in a little ghee and keep it aside.

Slightly crush half of pepper and jeera - or grind half of it in the blender just for a second.You can even add as such but I prefer to crush half of it slightly and add the remaining as such.

Method

Heat ghee + oil in a pan/kadai , add pepper + jeera , saute for a few minutes, then add finely chopped ginger and curry leaves.

Add the above to the mashed rice and mix well.

Garnish with cashew nuts and serve hot with sambar or coconut chutney.

Sambar for Pongal

This is a very simple and quick sambar which goes well with pongal.

Ingredients needed

Onion -2
Tomato -2
Moong dal - 1/4 cup

Vegetables - 1 medium sized brinjal, 1 potato and 1 carrot.
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Salt as required
Oil -2 tsp

For the seasoning

Hing/asafoetida-1/4 tsp
Mustard -1 tsp
Urad dal -3/4 tsp
Curry leaves -little

Preparation

Chop all the vegetables including onion and tomato finely. Wash and peel the skin of carrot and potato and then chop finely.

Take a pressure pan, add chopped carrots, potato, brinjal, moong dal and pressure cook for 3 whistles.Keep aside.

Method

Heat 2 tsps of oil in a pan, add the ingredients mentioned under seasoning in the same order.

Then add finely chopped onions, saute till it becomes transparent, now add the tomatoes and cook till tomatoes become mushy.

Add sambar powder, pressure cooked vegetables + dal mix, needed salt, 1 cup of water and boil for 5-10 minutes.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

This sambar should be watery, so adjust water accordingly.

Serve Ven pongal hot with sambar.

Source: http://www.padhuskitchen.com/2011/01/ven-pongal-ven-pongal-with-sambar.html