P.S.: There are different ways of cooking Pongal, I am posting here the way I do!
Ingredients:
1. Rice - 1 cup
2. Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
3. Curry Leaves - few leaves
4. Jeera(cumin seeds) - 2 tbl spns
5. Black Pepper(whole) - 2 tbl spns
4. Ginger - few pieces
5. Cashew - few pieces
6. Ghee - amount required to fry
7. Salt - to taste
Tips: Always keep all the ingredients you need before cooking that way you can be cool and relaxed while cooking. I used to initially mess up things as I would never "be prepared" for cooking! :)
Steps:
1. Some people fry rice and moong dal before cooking. I dont prefer this. But if interested you can! so my first step is mix both rice and moong dal in rice cooker.
2. Usually for 1 cup rice, we add 3 cups of water. But since we want pongal to be little watery, we add 4 cups of water(my mom's tip).
3. For 1/4 cup moong dal add 1 cup water. So totally 5 cups of water to be added with rice and dal. Add the required salt into it and mix well.
4. Close the cooker and keep it on the stove. Ok, for those using rice cooker, no worries, just turn on the cook button. For those using induction stove, make sure you heat it in 7 or 8.
5. While the dal&rice is being cooked, take a pan/kadai and pour the ghee.
6. Add jeera & pepper initially and saute them for 1 or 2 minutes.
7. Then add ginger and cashew and fry them for few mintues. Make sure the cashew does not turn brown.
8. Add the curry leaves.
9. Once the rice&dal is done, pour the ingredients in the pan into the cooked dal&rice. Mix them well in such a way that they are evenly spread.
Few other things to keep eye on -
1. Make sure salt is distributed evenly in the pongal.
2. Add a little water towards the end if required to make it more liquidish.
3. More the ghee, more the taste. But also more the fat. So your call!
Super, so we are good to cook Pongal... :) Here is a pic of Pongal that I made...
