Every time I visit India, one of my mandatory stops is at my sister's friend Jayashree's house. Why? She makes the best sweet pongal and puliyogare that I have ever eaten. The sakkarai pongal is absolutely divine. I got this recipe from her so I could share it with you all. When she makes the sweet, she uses 3/4 cup of ghee, so I have modified it to use only 3 tablespoons. It still tastes amazing, so it's an excellent compromise on taste and health.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup rice I used sona masoori rice
- ¼ cup moong dal
- 1¼ to 1½ cup Jaggery
- ¼ cup shredded dry coconut
- 2 TBSP cahsew pieces
- 2 TBSP raisins
- 3 to 4 cardamoms crushed into powder
- 3 to 4 TBSP ghee You can add more than 4 TBSP ghee
- 3 + 1/2 cup water to cook dal and for jaggery syrup
Instructions
- Wash and pressure cook moong dal and rice with 3 cups of water on medium heat (2 whistles). Once the cooker is safe enough open, mash the dal and rice with a spoon and keep it aside.
- Heat around 2 to 3 tsp ghee in a small pan and fry cashews and raisins separately until cashews are golden brown and all raisins puffs up . Transfer it to a small bowl and keep it ready.
- Melt the jaggery with 1/2 cup water on medium heat in a thick bottom pan. Once it melts strain the syrup through a clean cotton cloth to remove impurities.
Wash the pan and keep it back on the stove with the cleaned syrup. Let it boil until it reaches string consistency.
- Now add the mashed dal and rice along with the ghee, mix well. Let it cook on low heat for 5 minutes stirring in between to avoid burning.
- Add dried coconut mix and let it cook for a minute.
( If you are adding more ghee, add and let it cook for a minutes every time you add ghee.)
- Turn off the heat and add cardamom powder, fried cashews and raisins, mix well.
- Enjoy hot Sakkarai Pongal / huggi with ghee!
Notes
Jayashree's original recipe calls for 3/4 to 1 cup ghee .
color of the pongal depends on the color of the jaggery
