Pongal

The pongal I am going to display is not the traditional one, this is not made as soft as it is made during the festivals, I normally make it for my husband who is a big pongal fan and not until 3 times I made it, only then I learnt it the perfect right way to do. So, this is basically very simple and easy and if you prefer it to be soft, you could increase the amount of water as well as the time it gets cooked in the pressure cooker.

Ingredients

1 cup rice
1/2 cup mung dal
2 green chilly
1 clove (lavang)
2 tbsp cashews
2 tbsp pepper (Miryalu)
pinch of asafoetida (Hing)
salt (accordingly)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp chopped ginger
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp ghee

Method:

1.Firstly, Soak 1 cup of rice and 1/2 cup of mung dal together for about half an hour. This is not mandatory, you could directly use them for cooking if you don't have time.

2.In a pressure cooker, Add 1/2 tsp oil and 1 tsp ghee and add the mustard seeds, cashews, hing pepper, ginger and green chillies.

3.Let them fry, Some people prefer adding onions and ginger-garlic, I use it when I have just some coconut chutney or curd rice as a side dish and don't have any other curry. well, this is optional, its upto you if you want to add, you could!

4.Now, after they are fried for a while, add the mixture of rice and mung dal and about 3-31/2 cups of water, add salt accordingly and pressure cook it for more than 3 whistles.
Note: If you like it real soft, you can increase the water as well as the number of whistles.

This is great when eaten with coconut chutney and I like it with curds as well.