South Indian Ven Pongal

Pongal doesn't need heavy cooking, but if you do it the right way, u can always earn appreciation for it. It was one of the dishes i cooked for my son's 1st birthday and everyone who ate it really loved it.

Ingredients you'll need:

Jeera Rice or Raw Rice - 1 cup or  200 gms (Jeera rice gives good smell to the pongal and flavours it more)
Unpolished Moong Dal - 3 tbsp 
Salt - 1 tbsp
Peppercorns - 3 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 3 tsp
Ghee - 5 tbsp
Cashewnuts - 3 tbsp (broken by hand)
Curry leaves & Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Procedure:

1. Cook the rice and the dhal together in a pressure cooker for 15 mins by adding 4 cups of water and salt to it (for 1 cup of rice use 4 cups of water i.e 1:4 ratio). The rice should cook to the level of mashed up consistency.

2. Heat Ghee in a separate pan, add peppercorns, cumin seeds, cashewnuts, curry leaves and coriander leaves. Add this to the cooked rice and dhal and mix really well.

3. Serve it hot for best results.

Tips & Notes :

1. The more ghee you add, the more taste the pongal would gain, for that don't add toooo much of ghee.

2. If you are using a gas stove, please switch of the stove while adding curry leaves to the hot oil, it may bring flames in the oil if the curry leaves are added to hot oil while the flame is on.