Sakkarai Pongal (Sweet dish with Jaggery, Rice and Lentil)

I was cooking Sakkarai Pongal for my friend's belated birthday treat and decided to write my recipe here on my blog. I remember amma cooking this in vangalapanai, and then later in a normal patharam. During Pongal amma will string/ tie a few manjal (turmeric) root and leaf around the narrow neck of the vengalapanai and we would all shout 'pongalo pongal' when the water and milk comes to boil on top (this was till we were probably 10-12 years).

I prefer payasam to sakkarai pongal, but all my family loves sakkarai pongal and vadai. Here is the recipe -

Rice : 1 cup
split yellow green gram dal: ½ cup
Jaggery: 2 cups
Milk: 1 cup
Ghee : 4 tbsp or more
Cashew nuts : a few
Cardamom powder: 1 tsp

Combine milk with 3 cups of water and heat, so they mix well together. Add rice, dal and milk mixture in a cooker and cook it completely (soft dal) done.

Meantime, melt jaggery in 1 cup of water. Strain for impurities. You can use a tea filter for straining. Mash the cooked rice mixture as much as possible, and then pour jaggery water over it and mix well. Keep the heat to medium to low at all times.

Make sure the all combined mixture is homogeneous, but still has some liquidity in it. Add the ghee is this mixture. Switch off stove.

Heat some ghee, fry the cashews till they are golden brown. Add this to the pongal. Add the cardamom powder after you take the pongal from heat, otherwise the taste of cardamom will change.

Now your thala-thala Sakkarai pongal is ready to eat, and best eaten with hot hot ullundhu vadai. Enjoy!!!!!!!

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