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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Chakkarai pongal or Sarkkarai pongal (sweet Rice)

This Rice is the queen of pongal.The idea of making this pongal on the first day of Thai month, was to make a sweet first out of the newly harvested rice. Now time has changed. Agriculture is no more the main occupation of many. But we continue to celebrate the function with some raw rice we get in the store.To our future generations we should try to explain the importance of this function to the farmer and the agriculturists
In those days pongal was kept outside the house in the open for sun God. Now in our system of living we can’t do that and we have ended up in making pongal in the pressure cooker in our kitchen. Till today, I have managed to make pongal on the pongal day in the pongal panai in the dining room keeping the gas stove down .But in this method there is a risk of pongal getting burnt if we are not careful. So I advice the younger generation to make it in the cooker itself which is a safe and sure method
Ingredients
Raw rice-1 cup
Grated jaggerry-1 cup
Broken green gram-handful (pasiparuppu)
Ghee 3 table spoons
Cashews-10
Raisins-handful
Powdered cardamom-1 teaspoon
Procedure
Wash the rice and pasiparuppu and cook in the pressure cooker with 3 cups of water in medium fire for 10 minutes. Meantime dissolve the jaggerry in a cup of water in the stove. Strain it using a stainless steel strainer .Keep it back in the stove and bring the mixture to a boil for 2 minutes. After the pressure goes open the cooker. Smash the rice nicely with a flat ladle. Slowly pour the jaggerry water into the cooker mixing well .Switch on the stove now and in low fire mix everything nicely. Switch off the stove in 2 minutes. Remember the pongal will solidify once it cools. If you want you can add little milk also instead of water while cooking rice.
In a small frying pan, in a tablespoon of ghee fry the cashews after breaking it into small pieces in low fire. Add this also into the cooker. Fry the raisins also and along with that ghee add everything into the pongal. Add the cardamom powder and a tablespoon of ghee and mix well. Your pongal is ready .While serving you can use the remaining 1 tablespoon of ghee

17 comments:

gtyuk said...

Happy Pongal to you and to all at home!!!

sakkarai pongal is my favourite too, we do it similarly too;

I regret not being in my mother country for celebrating this outside in the vaasal with all the colourful decorations around the man paanai, , amidst the fragrance of the fresh flowers, ginger and manjal, kuungumam etc..... I miss it so much here...

I'll have to content with a cooker too , hihihi :)

Unknown said...

Aachi,

Thank you so much for posting this. I was hoping you would :) Happy Pongal to you and your family. Your recipes have been such a help to me, I cannot thank you enough.

Devi

Unknown said...

Aachi,

Thank you so much for posting this. I was hoping you would :) Happy Pongal to you and your family. Your recipes have been such a help to me, I cannot thank you enough.

Devi

FH said...

Happy Pongal Solai, sweet Pongal sounds good.

Unknown said...

Happy Pongal Solai True Chettinad

I visit your website quite often and have prepared some of the special dishes
To my surprise , I just came to know about Chadramouli chettinadu Mansion - in kairali by Lakshmi Nair -in youtube
that you are his daughter
No wonder your cooking and interest has proved it too.


Thankyou for sharing your dishes to us.

Cham said...

How r u Aunty?
We never made in vasal but I ve seen my neighb till doing with new Ponga pannai!
We prepare in stove! Happy Pongal to u and ur family!

Cham said...

Happy to hear u re coming US! If u plan a visit in CA- U re the MOST welcome to my home :) We didn't have any long vaca planned this year!
Hugs,
Cham.

Devasena Hariharan said...

Hi, New to ur blog. My sis tried ur meal maker kolambu and said it was excellent and gave me the link.

You have very good blog.

Kannu said...

hi.. i ended up in ur blog through google search for thakkali thoku.. great recipes... i admire ur blog a lot.. very unique dishes... tried ur saiva eeral fry.. tasty... :)

chitra said...

hello achi,
can u post the recepie for kesari.........waiting for the perfect recepie.

chitra said...

hello achi,
can u post the recepie for kesari,.................waiting for the perfect recepie..

Unknown said...

Dear AACHI,

HAPPY NEW YEAR,

GREAT BLOG, keep updating, Can I please have Sarkkarai Pongal in Pongal Panai method. Thank you in advance.

Kartika Adaikalavan said...

hi aunty,
ponggal nalvazhtukkal..! this year's ponggal has been quite a challenge as it took us almost an hour plus for it to boil over properly!=(

we used semi skimmed milk as we have been in the last 2 years. Finally we kept adding water and milk alternately towards the end just so that it would boil over!

what could i have done to make the milk boil over quickly and does the starch water help in the boiling process?

Many thanks for your time!

Solai Chidambaram said...

Karthika,nice question.In the early days i too used to suffer to make the pal ponguthal fast.i will tell you the trick now.This year the good time was from 7.30 to 8.30.I started only at 8.I too was little tense because I wanted the paal to pongufy before 8.30.
I never use milk for making pongal on pongal day in pongal panai
Previous day,I will grind pacharisi 1 cup for kolam.
After putting kolam,I will keep that in fridge.
before starting to make pongal wash the rice for ven pongal and sakkarai pongal once.Then wash again with 4 cups of water and keep aside
Mix some kola mavu that is stored into this water.
In pongal panai add just 3 to 4 cups of water and boil.if you use too much water it is going to take much time.If you want to be further fast,half close the panai in the beginning for some time.
when it starts boiling tilt the panai little in the good side ie,kizhakku patha mathiri.Tilting will help the paal to split fast from the paanai.
I hope this trick will help you next time atleast.

Skl said...

Hello aunty,
Happy pongal to you and family,
thank you for this awesome recipe,turned out great,added little milk while cooking and added a little at end after switching off,was very delicious,thanks a ton,skl

eyton shalom said...

Vanakkam Achi,

Very nice recipes, thank you.

I had the best pongal of my life in KKN prepared by our "servant" Lakkuman, who, perhaps because of his poverty, spared no expense to make the best pongal.

I lived also on AR st for parts of 3 years in 1977 and 84 in the house owned by SAA Ramaiah Chettiar which was our ashram. Daily i used to cycle past your house on AR st, past the Ganesha and Naga under that wonderful Neem tree by the tank to the left of Raja's house.

I used to buy my spices from Palani Appa store, and my veggies from the store on the road or at the Santhai.. Daily i used to get milk from the "pal depot" which was simply a middle man in a vacant yard...5 a.m. or it was all gone. .Kanadukathan and Chettinadu was so very quiet then, its hard to imagine hotels and tourists now, but the world has changed as we old people like to point out.

Wonder if you will give recipe for Green gram Payasam?

Poi Varukeerain

es

Solai Chidambaram said...

Very nice to hear from you about kanadukathan and your ever green memories of that wonderful village now a big tourist attraction. Surely i will post the recipe of Green gram paayasam soon another simple chettinad delicacy.