Mahanandi

Images of Pittsburgh on this Super Bowl Weekend.

Heinz Stadium (Steelers Home) – On a Regatta Day

Cathedral of Learning – University of Pittsburgh

Downtown Pittsburgh on a beautiful sunny day…………….Sri Venkateswara Temple, Pittsburgh

Very detailed and well written article about the condition of Pittsburgh for burgh fans by Charles McCollester from Monthly Review.

Excerpt:

“Pittsburgh is little known or appreciated nationally despite the important role that the city played in the rise of U.S. global power. Pittsburgh’s birth occurred at the cutting edge of imperial French and British expansion into the heartland of the continent. The city’s rapid decline coincided with the recent assumption of global imperial power by the United States. In between these two eruptions of global imperial realities into southwest Pennsylvania flows a story of collective work, struggle, and skill that arguably created the most productive region on the earth between 1880 and 1950 considering both diversity and volume of production.”

“Plant-closing activists in the 1980s used to refer to what was happening to Pittsburgh and other manufacturing centers as “breaking America’s backbone.” Now the once muscular city lies on the operating table surrounded by ideologues with knives, its public services and union contracts are of being eviscerated. While the black and gold faithful from coast to coast sport colors in salute to their team, Pittsburgh itself is being gutted economically without anesthesia or mercy.”

“The glory that is Pittsburgh today derives from its stunning beauty and historic character, its people and its memories. Sitting in a natural amphitheater carved by the three rivers, its hillsides green and leafy, its rivers once again filling with fish, its neighborhoods a crazy quilt of accommodation with its convoluted geography, the town has character and complexity. Pittsburgh has always been a proud place despite the often bitter labor relations that played a significant role in its history. What has remained true is an intense loyalty to this rooted locale: its neighborhoods and hollows, its forgotten corners and “seldom seens,” its churches, teams, taverns, schools, and unions. A loyalty from the heart beats in the Pittsburgh Nation, at home and away, waving the ‘terrible towel’ of memory.”

Eye catching and good looking, the 3 bell pepper curry is a flavorful, quick side dish to make.

1.Take one each of red, yellow and green bell peppers, cut each one into half. Remove the seeds inside and slice them thin lengthwise.

2.Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil in a wide pan. Toast pinch of each mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic (popu).

3.Add and cook bell peppers, covered for about 5 minutes on medium-low.

4.Remove the lid; add pinch of turmeric, a tablespoon of spicy dalia powder (pappula podi) and salt to taste. Cook/saute them for another 5 minutes openly, on high heat, stirring often.

Serve hot with rice and dal or with chapatis.

Celebrating Steelers Superbowl Sunday with 3 Bell pepper curry.

Ilva of Lucullian Delights who started the meme “2006 Food Challenges” (or “This year I dare”), and Winslow of Seven kinds of Soy Sauce, they both tagged me, to share 5 things I want to do for 2006, food wise. So here they are…

Blogwise:
1 Blog about Idly, Dosa and Vada, the delicious breakfasts of India, before my blogs one-year anniversary, in beautiful images.
2 Prepare and blog about traditional Indian sweets like ‘laddu’, ‘jangiri’ etc.,
3 I so want to prepare and blog about my favorite cake “German Chocolate Fudge Cake” and also, I don’t know why, but I’m very drawn to this American style, artery clogging, disgustingly decadent sweet “Krispy Crème Donut Pudding”. First, I’ve to find people to feed it. 🙂

Personally:
4 Going minimal on every Wednesday – Reducing the food consumption gradually to a full day fasting. I call it, my ‘Yogi diet on Wednesdays’. I was doing this before I went to India last year, started it again last week; it takes some time to get along with the hunger pains.:)
5 Continue food blogging to improve my skills and knowledge.

Thanks Ilva and Winslow for tagging me to share my ideas for 2006. I’d like to tag Priya of Sugar and Spice, to share her food ideas for 2006 with us.

I got hooked on grits, a type of coarse meal, and product of stone grind, dried corn. In looks, grits are similar to rice ravva (the kind we use for rice upma), coarse sand like and grainy. The texture, smell and taste of grits is really something and quite addictive. Do you know the taste of dried corn kernels (before popcorn), grits taste almost like that.

I keep the preparation of this particular upma very simple; don’t like to add lots of vegetables, like I do for couscous/cracked wheat. Just the basic upma ingredients and some roasted nuts-either cashews or peanuts, that’s about it. Just enough for my Wednesday’s yogi (minimal) diet.

Recipe:

2 cups of grits (I used Quick Cooking Grits)
4 cups of water
1 onion, 2 green chillies & a small piece of ginger – all finely chopped
Salt to taste
A fistful of roasted cashews or peanuts

For popu or tadka –
1 tablespoon of ghee
1 tsp each-mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, chana dal & curry leaves

In a large pan, heat ghee. First add and sauté popu/tadka ingredients, then the finely chopped onion, green chillies and ginger. When they are golden, add water and stir in the salt. Cover and bring to a boil. Remove the cover, slowly add hominy grits, stirring continuously. Reduce heat, cover and cook for 15 minutes longer, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. Serve hot with chutney.

Hominy Grits Upma with Amla chutney ~ My Wednesday’s Yogi Diet

Why didn’t I think of this idea before? That is what I thought, when I read the post “Avocado Parathas” by GM of ‘The spice is right’ food blog.

I know that avocado is nature’s ghee/butter. And just like them, ripe avocado is full of fat and has no significant taste to speak of. Avocado’s mashed pulp easily mixes with all kinds of ingredients and helps to make their flavors stand out. I had to give it a try.

Yesterday, I tried the recipe. The result – very smooth, tasty chapatis, the kind we know from India and dream of making it here in US. Smooth, silky flesh of ripe avocados when mixed with chapati flour, magic happened. All the fat in avocado made the flour softer, very pliable, easy to handle and chapatis off the griddle (tava), remained soft even after 6 hours. In this cold, winter weather, that’s a miracle, if you ask me.

Recipe:
for 10 to 12 chapatis

2 cups of durum wheat flour
(I used Golden Temple brand wheat flour, available in Indian grocery shops)
1 very ripe avocado (more about avocado-here)
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup of warm water
I also added 1/4 tsp of red chilli-garlic powder for a little bit of hotness

Preparation:

Avocado: Take a ripe avocado; cut it into half, going around the pit (seed) in the middle. Twist and separate two halves. Stab the knife into the pit; pull it out, the pit will come out easily. Scoop the flesh of avocado using a spoon, from each half. Take it into a small cup; mash it to a smooth paste, using your fingers or with a spoon.

Flour: Take flour in a big vessel. Sprinkle in salt and red chilli-garlic powder, and mix the flour. Then add the avocado paste to the flour and mix thoroughly. Now gradually adding water, make firm dough. Make sure that dough is not too soft or too hard. Knead the dough for two minutes. Cover and set it aside to rest for about 15 to 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare a curry for avocado chapatis. I made Brussels sprouts-potato curry.

Rolling out Chapatis:
Knead and rollout the dough into a cylindrical long roll on a wood board. Take small lime sized portions and using hands, shape each into a smooth ball shape.
Take the dough ball on a clean wood board, sprinkle some flour on it and around. Using a rolling pin, press/roll out the dough into a big thin round. You can fry it on a hot griddle or to get more flaky layers, what I usually do is, fold the rolled out round twice, to get a triangle shape (see the photo above) then roll into a big, thin triangle.

Cooking chapatis:
Heat a cast-iron griddle/tava, when it is hot, place the chapati and cook it on each side until golden. While the chapati is cooking on hot tava, I roll out another chapati for frying. I usually make 6 chapatis for the two of us for a meal, takes about 15 to 20 minutes maximum.

Serve hot with curry or dal.

Avocado Chapatis with Brussels Sprouts-potato Curry

Thank you GM for sharing this recipe. It’s really is a very neat and clever idea that I am going to apply quite regularly from now on. Who wouldn’t love soft chapatis anyway?

“What Kind of Food Are You?” – I tried the fun quiz of 5 questions. I expected Indian, but I don’t think the quiz has Indian food in its list of responses. The answer was ‘Italian food’, and I was satisfied. Like Indian, I think of Italian as another no-nonsense, honest kind of food. Though here in US, a little bit over glorified. What? Have you been watching food TV (US) lately? It should be renamed ‘Italian Food TV’ with its 24-hour Italian this and Italian that programming, and its star-cooks falling over themselves proclaiming their Italian heritage. Sometimes I wonder, why am I paying money for this channel on cable, is this a foodtv or a propaganda machine for Italian cuisine. It would be understandable if majority of Americans are Italians or Italian decent, but that is not the case and further, the minority (here the minority status is determined by the skin color) means non-whites, are climbing up to almost 40%. More and more, it looks like American Food TV has decided to disregard diversity and showcase only one cuisine at the expense of others. What a sad, sad thinking!

Well, I am glad to contribute one more recipe of pasta to IMBB #22, the mother of all events and most popular one in food blogosphere, this month hosted by lovely Amy of ‘Cooking with Amy’ fame. Even though I think of my contribution an original, I am sure there is someone, somewhere already written down this version of pasta sauce. Thousands of dedicated Italian cooks, cookbooks and hundreds of fabulous food bloggers, recipe sites – millions of pasta recipes, it got to be there, somewhere. No… then I am happy to cook up millionth one recipe of pasta.:)

Recipe:

Pasta: I used spaghetti, Hodgson Mills brand, whole wheat with flax seed and organic variety. Like pulao/pilaf taste depends on basmati rice, a good pasta dish needs quality pasta. So I do spend few extra bucks on a fine variety. Hodgson Mill brand without a doubt, quality products.
One fistful of spaghetti for one person – that is the measurement I use for spaghetti.

For Sauce:
1 cup of peanuts – roasted and skins removed
3 red bell peppers – deseeded, cut into big chunks
4 dried red chillies and 4 garlic cloves – halved
3 ripe, juicy tomatoes – chopped into big chunks
1 small red onion – chopped into big chunks
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tsp of each-cumin, salt and powdered jaggery/sugar
I prefer to have sauce, lots of it with my pasta, so the above quantities.

Preparation:

Pasta Sauce: Roast the bell peppers, dried red chillies, tomato, onion, garlic and cumin in 1 tsp of olive oil, until they all are brown and golden. Let them cool down to room temperature.

In a food processor, first add roasted peanuts and make a fine powder of them. To it, add the roasted veggies and half teaspoon of salt. Add half cup of water and grind them into smooth paste.

In a big wide pan, heat olive oil and add the peanut-veggie paste. Add one cup of water, jaggery and salt to taste. Mix and cook covered for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat.

Pasta: While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta al dente, usually for about 5 to 8 minutes. Drain the pasta into a colander, immediately add it to the sauce. Mix it thoroughly with pasta sauce. Cook, uncovered for about 2 minutes on low heat and serve.

The sauce can be made earlier and just before mealtime, pasta can be cooked and added. One thing I learned about pasta is, it has to be served hot, to get the best taste.

Pasta in chilli-red bell pepper-peanut sauce: sweet, spicy, savory and smoky – A range of delicious flavors, all blended well together for a wholesome, hearty, filling meal ~ Our Sunday dinner and my entry to IMBB Event.

Recipe Source: My Own Creation
Tagged with: IMBB # 22 + Noodle

When I invited my friends to celebrate Sankranthi festival, in addition to the traditional ‘sweet pongal’, I also prepared cashew walnut laddu. Low in sugar calories, high in nut energy! Cashews and walnuts are first roasted and powdered, then cooked in milk-sugar kova till they all came together into solid fudge like consistency. Cooling further solidifies the mixture and then small portions are taken and shaped into rounds -‘laddus‘ or cut into squares-‘burfis‘. I like the round shape, so I always go with round laddus. Very convenient to hold and eat, children particularly love laddus.

Recipe:

Half gallon- Whole milk
2 cups-sugar (3 cups if you like the laddus on the sweeter side)
1 cup – cashews
1 cup – walnuts

Preparation:

Milk and Sugar: In a thick bottomed big pot, bring milk to boil. Add sugar. Stirring occasionally, simmer the milk-sugar mixture until it gets thick and is reduced to about one fourths of the original quantity. It takes at least 45 minutes to one hour.:) Do this on medium heat. Avoid high heat and take care not to scald the milk.

Cashews and Walnuts: Meanwhile, lightly roast cashews and walnuts separately in an iron skillet. Let them cool down to room temperature. Separate 10 pieces from each and chop them into small pieces. With the remaining ones – make fine powder of them in a food processor/mixer.

Milk and sugar simmering………………..Thickened milk and sugar kova after one hour on the stove

Kova into Laddu: Add this fine powder to the thickened milk-sugar kova and cook for 15 minutes, stirring continuously, until the mixture is firm. Sprinkle chopped chunks of cashews and walnuts that were kept aside. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes until the mixture is almost crumbly and comes away easily from the sides of pan.

Take a spoonful of mixture and press it with your hands into a ball. If it holds shape, then mixture is ready for cooling. Turn off the heat. Spoon the mixture into a greased square or round pan. Level it with a spatula and let it cool for at least 4 to 5 hours. Cut into squares for burfis or take a spoonful of mixture, shape it with your hands into a round ball for laddus. Store the laddus in glass jar. They will stay fresh for upto one week.

(This recipe makes 15 medium sized laddus.)

One medium sized cashew-walnut laddu, my entry to ‘Sugar-Low Friday’ event hosted by lovely Sam of Beck & Posh.

By the time my friends left, I had only four laddus remaining out of 20. Two for me and two for Vijay, enough for us. This is how I do my ‘Sugar – Low’, by portion control. In my view, this is also one of the ways to lower the sugar consumption.

Tagged with: SHF # 15

In old times, the marriage feast in our areas always included brinjal-ginger curry. Considered a classic both in taste and aroma, brinjal-ginger curry brings out the best of both ingredients.

Recipe:

10 round brinjals – (purple or greenish-white)
1×1 inch fresh ginger
4 green chillies
4 sprigs of fresh cilantro
½ tsp of salt and turmeric each
For popu: 1 tsp each – mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, curry leaves and 2-3 pieces of dried red chillies

Preparation:

Brinjal: Wash and cut brinjal into bite sized pieces. Take water in a vessel; add 1 tsp of salt and mix. Add the cut brinjal pieces to this salted water. This is again an old-time tip, to prevent discoloration and onset of sourness in cut brinjals.

Ginger: Scrape the skin and wash. Finely chop ginger, green chillies and coriander. Add pinch of salt, make a smooth paste in a mortar or using a blender, without adding any water.

Curry: Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil in a wide pan. Add all the popu ingredients listed above and toast them till the seeds start to splutter. Take cut brinjal pieces from water, fistful each time, add them to the spluttering popu ingredients. Stir in the ginger paste and turmeric. Mix them all together, reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover with a lid and cook, stirring only once for about 10 minutes. When the curry starts to smell incredible, pieces turn to soft, sprinkle salt, mix and turn off the heat. Serve with rice and dal.

Brinjal-Ginger Curry, rice, tomato dal and little bit of ghee – savoring the tasty stroll in Andhra food heaven.

note to readers: Add salt at the end (so that brinjals can cook fast) and the recipe works only with fresh green chillies, don’t substitute with red chilli powder.

When I first made cranberry jam, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it turned out. One wintry day, on a whim, I cooked up cranberries with orange juice and added some jaggery – viola, a spectacularly delicious tartly, tangy and sweet jam in a beautiful shade of Burmese ruby.

Tart cranberries and tangy oranges, in brilliant red and orange colors, dazzled me with promises of healthy glow and much needed Vitamin C. Who would think that, these two beautiful looking tarts taste that good when combined. Adding another tartly, sweet ingredient – jaggery, completed and complemented those two – making the end result, a tasty jam/preserve to enjoy.

Native Indian and Indian ingredients for a western style breakfast of bread and jam – cost is low, recipe is easy, preparation time minimal. Give it a try, if you haven’t already.

I usually make this jam, in small quantity for a week’s worth, but never in big batches like the seasoned jam makers do. So I’m not familiar with the sealing techniques for long-term storage etc., can’t offer any tips about that. My jam never lasted more than a week.

Recipe:

1 bag (12 ounces) of fresh cranberries
2 cups of freshly squeezed orange juice (4 to 6 oranges)
¾ cup of powdered jaggery (½ cup to 1 cup, how sweet your choice, I used ¾ cup)

Rinse the cranberries thoroughly. Pick out the bad ones, that are soft, shriveled or discolored. In a large pot, take orange juice and jaggery. Cook them until jaggery melts completely. When the juice starts to thicken, stir in the cranberries. Cook for about 15 to 20 minutes on medium heat, stirring in between. Cranberries first pop, then break down completely and turn into thick mush. Turn off the heat when it reaches jam like consistency, it further thickens on cooling. Store in a clean, dry jar.

Cranberry jam on a toasted slice of whole wheat bread ~ our breakfast this week

I was tagged by lovely Rosa of Yummy Yums to list my cold/flu remedies. Like her, it’s been a while, 10 years to be exact, since I got sick. I go through mental up&downs like a normal human being, but physical ailments like common cold/flu, fever etc., nothing, nada, zip. My immune system, like me, seems to be enjoying an early retirement deal. Or overworking? Anyway, the deal is not bad at all.

Home remedies for common cold & flu, that I can think of, like and often prepare-cold or no cold, are- one is tomato rasam, I blogged already and the other is ‘sonti kashayam’. This traditional remedy, an ayurvedic weapon against cold/flu is prepared with dried ginger, black peppercorns and sweetened with jaggery or honey. The resulting concoction is one strong drink that reboots the downgraded systems, starting with GI. Body on fire, is the sensation it gives at first. Then once it settled down there, ginger and peppercorn work their magical powers and make the symptoms of cold/flu disappear.

Recipe:
(For two cups)

1 inch length dried ginger (Sonti) (available in Indian grocery shops)
4 peppercorns (Miriyalu)
1 tsp of powdered jaggery or honey
1 glass of water

Preparation:

First, make a powder of dried ginger and peppercorns using a mortar and pestle. Meanwhile take water in a pot, bring it to a rolling boil. Add the powdered ginger, pepper and jaggery to the water. Cover partially; boil it for at least 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover completely, and let it rest for 5 minutes. After 5 to 10 minutes of rest period, using a filter, pour the drink into a glass. Stir to cool and finish it off in two or three gulps.
Set the body on fire and say goodbye to cold/flu symptoms.

Variation – add tealeaves to make an extra strong tea or plain soda (carbonated water) to make ale.

I like this meme (to spread) and I would love to learn other food bloggers remedies for common cold/flu. So I’m going to tag

Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries
Barrett of Too Many Chefs
Brett of In Praise of Sardines
Doc of Gluttony is no Sin
Heidi of 101 Cookbooks (Thank you Heidi, for ‘Daily Links’)
Kay of Towards a Better Tomorrow
Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness

I’m sure they have some fabulous remedies up their sleeves and I hope they share them with us
.

To Super Bowl, after this game!

Steelers game today at 3pm, EST on CBS.
Steelers flag Image is taken from this site.

Darling Kittaya

Vijay was taking photos for ebay auction last week and this guy walked into the setting, posed for us, adorably.

Ridge gourd, potato and carrot – this is a veggie match, made in an Indian kitchen. Their flavors compliment each other and when combined with some onion, green chillies, coconut, they make a fresh, satisfying side dish.

This is the kind of veg-medley I love to make when I’m short on time. A pleasing, sweet-spicy taste that pairs well with rice and dal or with chapatis and corn tortillas. Tasty and flexible, lot of curry in less time – what more one could want in a recipe?

Recipe:

2 fresh looking ridge gourds (turai, beera kaya): First peel/or scrape the ridges on outside, wash the veggie, then cut it into bite sized pieces.
1 medium sized potato and carrot – peeled, then cut into bite sized cubes
1 onion – finely chopped
5 green chillies and 1 tbs of coconut powder – made into smooth paste
Salt to taste and pinch of turmeric
1 fistful of fresh or dried peas – I used dried peas (soaked overnight in water)
Popu ingredients – 1 tsp each of mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic and curry leaves

It’s just like regular curry preparation, only thing you have to keep in mind is – first cook potatoes and carrots, add ridge gourd later, as it cooks faster, compared to potatoes and carrots.

Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil in a big pan. Add popu ingredients. When they start to splutter, add onions, saute for few minutes. Stir in peas, potatoes and carrots. Cover and cook them in their own moisture, for about 10 minutes on medium heat.

When they are little bit softened, stir in ridge gourd pieces, salt, turmeric and green chilli-coconut paste. Cover again and cook them, stirring in-between, till they reach the texture/softness you desire.

Serve hot with chapati/paratha or with rice and dal combination.

Ridge gourd curry and paratha ~ Our lunch.

I bought a quite few amlas (usiri kayalu, Indian Gooseberry) at Toronto and I couldn’t resist making a small batch of pickle with them, following a recipe from Malathi Chandur’s cookbook – “Vantalu-Pindi Vantalu“. The pickle turned out to be hot, spicy good.

Recipe:
For 15 amlas

15 clean, fresh looking, blemish free amlas (usiri kayalu)
½ cup peanut oil
¼ cup of salt and red chilli powder
¼ cup of mustard seeds – roasted & finely powdered (aava pindi)
½ tsp of asafoetida (inguva)

Preparation:

First wash the amlas and dry them using clean cloth, without any sign of moisture.

Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add the amlas and sauté them till they turn light brown. Remove and let them cool down to room temperature.

Heat the remaining oil in another pan to a smoking point. Remove it from heat, let it cool down to room temperature.

Add salt, red chilli powder, mustard powder and asafoetida to the roasted amlas. Mix them all with a clean, dry spoon. Pour and stir in the heated (now at room temperature) oil. Mix them all together, again with a clean dry spoon. Cover tightly and let it stew at least for two weeks. The more you wait, the tasty the pickle becomes and the normal waiting period is one month. I couldn’t wait that long.:)

Just before serving, do the popu or tadka. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, fry red chilies, cumin and mustard seeds until they splutter, then add garlic flakes and remove from the heat. Add it to the pickle, mix thoroughly and serve with rice and dal.

Amla Pickle (Usiri kaya Uragaya) – spicy and sour like mango pickle and quite tasty in this cold winter weather.

Recipe Source: Malathi Chandur’s Cookbook “Vantalu-Pindi Vantalu“

Sankranthi:

Harvest festival Sankranthi is all about celebrating rice in our part of world. Particularly in South India, rice plays an important role as the main cultivated grain and as nourishing food that people subsist on every day of their life. It’s no wonder that there is a festival dedicated to the almighty rice. Equally worshipped are the man’s best partner, the kind-hearted cow, and the elements – sun, earth and water. They make rice cultivation a success, and also add a magic touch to the rice, making the rice a cherished, beloved food of the people.

Sona Masuri Rice – Grown and Imported from Andhra Pradesh, India

Sweet Pongal (Tiyya Pongali):

This famous south Indian, Sankranthi sweet is traditionally made with freshly harvested rice. Very simple to make but spectacular in taste, the ordinary rice becomes mouthwateringly extraordinary in sweet pongal. The rice soaks up the milk, absorbs the jaggery, picks up the cardamom scent and takes up the generously added moong dal, cashews and golden raisins. And in this new avatar, becomes an offering to the Gods (naivedyam, we call it), and also simply irresistible to all who try it.

Some Tips:

Jaggery:

I follow the classic recipe and don’t do or like shortcuts. Method is neat and easy and the end result is always like the prasadam offering of temples. Jaggery is the traditional sweetener of sweet pongal and my choice too, simply because sweet pongal tastes better when made with jaggery and not sugar.

Rice:

The rice that I prefer is Sona Masuri. Because this variety is grown and imported from my home state Andhra Pradesh, and is the variety that I grew up on. Grain is thin, medium sized and very lightweight. Available in almost all Indian grocery shops here in US. Little bit pricey, but the taste is worth the money and farmers in my state really can use the money. Support farmers and buy this rice.

Consistency:

Sweet pongal is like a rice-dal porridge, consistency must be gooey thick and sticky. That means, the amount of liquid I usually add for sweet pongal recipe is more than the amount that I normally add to cook plain rice of equal measurements. Also, I always use equal amounts of water and milk for this recipe. Variations are – you can cook the rice-dal entirely in milk or in coconut milk, or if you are lactose intolerant and diet conscious, then in just plain water. Just add more liquid compared to the regular rice preparation.

Rice, Yellow Moong Dal, Cashews, Golden Raisins, Cardamom and Jaggery

Recipe:
For two people

1 cup – Sona Masuri rice
½ cup – yellow moong dal (pesara Pappu)
1 – 1½ cups – jaggery, crushed to fine
¼ cup each – cashews and golden raisins
¼ cup – ghee, melted
4 cardamom pods – skins removed and seeds powdered finely
3 cups each – milk and water (or 2 cups each, if you like a halwa like pongali)

Here is the 3-step method I follow to prepare sweet pongali at our home.

1.Toast and Roast:

Yellow moong dal:
Heat one teaspoon of ghee in an iron skillet. Add and roast yellow moong dal, on medium heat, until the color changes from yellow to pink. Take care not to brown. Slow-roasting freshens up and imparts a sweet smell to yellow moong dal. Remove them to a plate and keep aside.

Cashews and Golden raisins:
In the same skillet, add and heat two teaspoons of ghee. Add and fry the cashews and golden raisins till they turn to light gold. Remove and keep them aside.

Jaggery syrup simmering…………Cooked Rice-Dal Mixture is added to Jaggery Syrup

2.Cook and melt:

Rice, moong dal and milk:

Take rice and roasted moong dal in a pot. Add water and milk. Mix well. Partially cover the pot and cook the rice and dal to tender soft. I use a pressure cooker but an electric rice cooker also works fine. Stove-top slow simmering also produces best tasting pongali.

Jaggery and water:

While the rice is cooking, in another pot, melt jaggery. Add the powdered jaggery and one cup of water. Stir and cook till jaggery melts. Bring the solution to a rolling boil. and reduce the heat and simmer for about five minutes. Turn off the heat. Let the jaggery syrup cool a bit.(Jaggery has to be cooked separately and you can’t add it directly to uncooked rice and milk. Because it prevents the rice from cooking properly and also splits the milk. Please keep this in mind.)

3. Stir and Simmer:

Adding the cooked rice: Add the cooked rice-dal pongal to jaggery syrup. Keep the heat on medium. Stir in the ghee, cashews, golden raisins and cardamom powder. With a strong laddle, stir well to combine all. Cover and simmer until the whole mixture comes together into a sticky, gooey mass. Turn off the heat. Cover and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Sweet pongal thickens further on cooling.

First offer to Gods as naivedyam (if you have this tradition), then serve it your loved ones, near and dear. Don’t forget to drizzle some ghee just before serving.

Heavenly Sweet Pongal

For people hungering for a traditional, naivedyam kind of recipe but don’t have time or energy to make puran poli (bhakshalu), sweet pongal is The one. Speaking from experience, my suggestion is, keep your reservations aside and try it. You’ll be glad and can be proud of yourself for finally making one decent kind of naivedyam. I promise! Follow the recipe and this ancient classic delivers every time. People would ask for a second serving, diet or no diet.