Ven pongal- South Indian Festive rice!

One of the 28 states, Tamilnadu has historically been an agricultural state for India- It is also the leading producer of agricultural products in India (source- Wikipedia). Come January, the whole state gets ready to celebrate "Pongal" also known as harvest festival! The idea is to thank god for the bounty harvest and is celebrated at harvest time.

When you talk about Pongal festival, you definitely gotta talk about the food delicacies prepared- sakarai pongal and ven pongal! These are rice based dishes and come in sweet (sakarai pongal) and salty flavors (ven pongal). Ven pongal is not just prepared for the festivities- It is a popular dish in many south Indian homes and is often served as breakfast/tiffin. It is rich in flavor and takes minimal effort. Rice cooked with lentils and combined with pepper, cumin seeds and curry leaves provides the flavors. Highlight of this dish?cashewnuts sauteed in butter/ghee simply catapults this dish to a different height! Don't believe me? Check out-

Ingredients-

1 cup rice
1/2 cup moong dal (yellow lentils)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole black pepper seeds
1/2 tsp grated ginger
dash of asafoetida powder
chopped curry leaves (4 to 5)
2-3 tbsp ghee or butter (generally you work with ghee for this dish- but I had to substitute cooking butter)
Salt (according to taste)
oil to saute spices

Preparation-

Step 1 is to cook the rice with lentils- Wash the uncooked rice and keep it separate. Dry roast the lentils on a pan before mixing to your rice-Cook the rice with roasted lentils by adding 3-4 cups of water and salt according to your taste. Once cooked, keep it aside. Coarsely crush the peppercorns and cumin seeds. In a frying pan, add oil and saute ginger. Add the crushed pepper and cumin seeds with curry leaves. Mix in a dash of asafoetida powder and saute for a couple of seconds. Remove from heat and set it aside. In a separate pan, fry the cashew nuts in 1 tbsp of ghee/butter till they are crisp. Add the roasted spices and cashew nuts to you cooked rice and ensure that the spices have blended well. Mix in the remaining butter/ghee to your rice and serve!

What is ghee? Ghee is clarified butter and works great with the above dish- The nuts and ghee accentuates the flavor of pepper and cumin to make it a wonderful dish!

Happy Pongal to all! Sending this recipe to an event hosted by a fellow blogger- Pongal fest event

Tamarind fever

This is one recipe I was keen on making for such a long time. My mom makes great tamarind rice- though I got the recipe, I never got around to make it. You get instant tamarind powder mix at shops that can be added to your rice and the dish will be ready within 5 minutes. The joy of making a gravy from scratch and mixing with rice is lost in this fast paced world...In reality, I was cleaning my book shelf and found a notebook with some recipes from mom. The first recipe was tamarind gravy and I made it as my mom would make it- The best part is this gravy can be kept up to two weeks and I am enjoying some smashing tamarind rice whenever I feel like it- Enjoy!

Ingredients- Gravy

Tamarind paste (3 tsp)- dilute them in a bit of water
mustard seeds
yellow split peas (chana dal- 1tsp)
dry red chilli pieces- 2
salt
sesame seeds- 2 tbsp
groundnut- 3 tbsp
corriander seeds- 2 tbsp
paprika powder 1/2 tsp

Preparation -

In a wok, add some oil. Once the oil is hot throw in some mustard seeds and allow them to sputter. Add the yellow split peas, red chilli pieces and 1 tbsp of groundnuts. Fry for 1 minute and then add around 4 glasses of water to this. Add the diluted tamarind paste, 1/2 tsp paprika powder and salt (according to taste). Allow this tamarind water to boil. In a separate pan, fry the sesame seeds till light brown (in a bit of oil ) and set it aside. Fry the groundnuts and corriander seeds separately and keep it aside. In a mixer, grind the sesame seeds, groundnuts and corriander seeds to a fine powder. Once the tamarind water reduces to half, add this powder and stir it for few minutes. Keep it on a low flame and allow the mixture to thicken. Keep simmering the mixture till it becomes a good rich liquid gravy.

Now for the tamarind rice- Add the gravy to cooked rice...Simple! Vary the proportion of the gravy to your rice according to your taste-