Ven Pongal recipe | A2B style soft Kara ghee Pongal
Ven Pongal which is also called ghee Pongal, kara Pongal, and milagu Pongal is a staple breakfast in South India and very popular around the globe under healthy breakfast items.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
To steam cook:
- ½ cup raw rice
- ¼ cup moong dal (split yellow lentil)
- 2 ½ cups water
- 1 inch ginger (optional)
- 1 green chilli
- ½ tsp jeera
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup hot water
To temper:
- 2 tsp ghee
- ½ tsp peppercorns
- ½ tsp jeera
- 1 tbsp cashews
- Few curry leaves
- ¼ tsp hing/asafoetida
Instructions
Preparation:
- To make a soft and tasty Ven Pongal always use 1:2 measurement of rice and yellow moong. Today I used half cup raw rice and a quarter cup moong dal.
- First wash rice and dal separately with enough water.
- Then soak them together in freshwater for at least 20 to 30 minutes.
Recipe to make Ven Pongal:
- In a pressure cooker, take the soaked and drained rice plus dal.
- Add 2.5 to 3 cups of water. Today I have taken half cup rice and quarter cup of lentil hence I used 2.5 cups of water. This means if you are using one measure of rice plus dal use three measures of water.
- Add a piece of peeled ginger, one green chilli and half a teaspoon of jeera seeds.
- Close the cooker with a lid, put on the weight, let the Pongal boil for five full whistles.
- When the pressure drops, open the lid and mash with a ladle immediately when it is still hot.
- Use a cup of hot boiling water if needed while mashing to make a soft and smooth textured Pongal. This is a tip followed in restaurants and I got this idea from my mum. Adding boiling hot water helps to retain the smoothness. Do not add too much of hot water then Pongal may turn like porridge. If you have already added more water while cooking and got liquidy boiled Pongal then skip adding extra hot water.
How to do the seasoning:
- Heat ghee in a Tadka pan and add peppercorns, jeera seeds, curry leaves, cashew nuts, and hing.
- Fry them all to a nice brown color without burning.
- When this seasoning turns aromatic in ghee, pour these contents into the mashed Pongal along with ghee.
- Mix everything together. if you like spicy Khara Pongal then you can Sprinkle few pinches of pepper powder at this stage.
- Serve ven pongal piping hot with tiffin sambar/pongal sambar and chutney.
Video
Notes
Tips/notes: 1. Ven Pongal tends to become dry and hard in texture over the time. So try to make it soft and smooth while steaming with enough water. 2. Do not forget to mash the Pongal while it is still hot. 3. You can use pepper powder in place of peppercorns. This way you may get slightly darker and spicier Pongal. 4. Ven Pongal tastes great when consumed hot. 5. Addition of ghee gives extra silkiness to the Pongal hence do not avoid adding ghee.
Nutrition
Calories: 150kcal
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