Khara Pongal Recipe

Pongal is the most simplest and easiest breakfast recipe. I do not prefer to eat pongal in hotels as they mostly use dalda. Making pongal at home is a breeze. It has just 2 steps. Cook rice and dal and then do the seasoning. Though I have posted ven pongal with easy sambar recipe here, I wanted to do a step wise recipe for beginners.Today we will learn the Tamil style of preparing khara pongal recipe.

How to make Ven Pongal (khara pongal)

Prep time - under 10 mins
Cook time -under 20 mins
Serves - 1

Ingredients needed

Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Split yellow moong dal (pasi paruppu) -1/4 cup
Cashew nuts -6-7
Salt needed

For the seasoning

Ginger finely chopped - 1 tsp
Cumin/ Jeera seeds - 1 tsp
Whole black pepper - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 1 1/2 tbsp tbsp
Curry leaves - few

Preparation

Fry moong dal and rice separately until it is hot to touch. Do not over fry it.

Fry cashew nuts in a tsp of ghee and keep it aside.

Method 

Mix both rice and dal, pressure cook adding salt, 2 1/2 - 3 cups of water for 4-5 whistles.(I used old rice, so added 3 cups of water). The rice has to be cooked in such a way that it should be mushy.

Open the cooker once the pressure subsides and mash the contents well.(You can cook rice directly in the cooker also or as I have done)

Heat oil + ghee, add finely chopped ginger, saute for 2-3 seconds, then add pepper, jeera seeds, curry leaves and pour it over the rice + dal mix. Add fried cashew nuts and mix everything well. Alternatively you can add rice+dal mix to the seasoning as I have done and mix well in low flame for 2 minutes. Switch off and serve hot with sambar or gothsu or coconut chutney.