Chakkara Pongal (ponkal) is a jaggery sweet rice dish, typically prepared on Southern Indian states on the auspicious occasion of Pongal (Makara Ponkal –in Kerala) festival. The traditional specialty is that the dish is made from newly harvested rice and is offered to sun god on early morning. Of the multiple variant of this dish I have used the preparation with moong daal along with raw rice and jaggery.
Ingredients
- Raw rice : 1 cup
- Moong dal : 2 Tbl sp.
- Jaggery : 1 ½ cup
- Water : 5 cups
- Grated Coconut : 2 Tbl sp.
- Nuts ,raisins
- Ghee : 3 Tbl sp.
Method
- Dissolve the jaggery with one cup of water and strain it to remove any dirt.
- Dry roast the moong dal about 2 minutes in a medium flame .
- Wash the rice and dal .
- In a pressure cooker add the rice and dal along with the coconut and 4 cups of water.
- Cook it until 4- 5 whistles/ until smushy.
- In a pan/ kadai add 1.5 Tbsp of ghee and fry the nuts and raisins.
- Boil the jaggery syrup and let it get the bubble and then add the cooked rice .
- Add the 1.5 Tbl sp. of ghee and mix it well.
- Add the fried nuts along with the left over ghee.
- Add the cardamom powder and switch off the stove .
