Ven Aval Pongal/ Flattened Rice Pongal

Pongal is a very famous South Indian delicacy, made with rice, moong dal & tempered with spices like pepper, cumin ! S is crazy about this & when i was i Chennai, i have seen my friends dig this too.. They love Pongal, chutney for breakfast.. Its quite a heavy dish, leaves you fuller & is nutritious too.. but i could never really understand their fascination for this dish...

We would make Pongal on the day of Pongal Festival ( celebration of the harvest season) and amma would make another variation with dal and brinjal sambhar, which i loved..but the usual pongal was a big bore!! I belong to the category of people who take an instant liking or disliking to an item by the look of it :D..i know its bad, i am closing my options for tasty 'healthy' food, but then..:).But in the case of pongal.. the story is different.. i have reasons.. reasons why i don't like it so much..I don't like peppercorns...Ya..I don't mind them in their powdered form, or if its just 1-2..but to have so many in a dish..hmmm

..So, every time i had pongal, i would land up removing them and would find it extremely annoying to have stop, remove them & continue eating.. thats a different story, that i would get scolded for being so fussy and not eating pepper which is good for health...and another excuse, i would come up with was that it was way to heavy, thanks to rice..She would give me an ugly stare, coz she knew i am a rice lover :D..

Married to a pongal lover, i had no option but to make it occasionally! To suit both are tastes, i started replacing rice with Aval/Flattened rice & use pepper powder..so now both of us are happy and the best part is nobody can even make out its not rice :)

Ingredients
1. Aval/Flattened Rice - 2-1/2 cups
2. Moong dal - 1/2 cup
3. Jeera/Cumin - 1tbsp
4. Pepper powder/Pepper corns - 1tsp
5. Ghee - 1-1/2 tbsp
6. Salt - to taste
7. Water - 2 cups
8. Cashewnuts - 10 


Preparation Time!!
1.Take flattened rice in a colander and run it in water and then soak the poha in a bowl of water


2. Now, take moog dal in a bowl. Pressure cook it with 1-1/2 cup - 2 cups water, a pinch of turmeric & a drop of oil to 3or 4 whistles..Once it cools, mash it and put it in a heavy bottomed pan

3. The flattened rice, would have absorbed the water and would be moist. Add this to the mashed moong dal and mix well. Add 2 cups of water and let it cook till the flattened rice blends well with dal(takes around 10-12 minutes).

Stir occasionally, as it has a tendency to stick to the base of the vessel


4. To this add cumin, pepper powder & salt and mix well

5. In a small pan, take 1tbsp of ghee & roast the cashews in that till turns light brown and keep ready


6. To the pongal, add 1 tsp of ghee and the roasted cashews along with ghee & mix well..The ghee gives a nice distinct taste to the pongal

Serve hot & we enjoy this with Thakkali Chaas/Tomato Chaas, more than chutney..


Pointers

1. Adjust the water as per the consistency you desire

2. Many of them lightly sauté the peppercorns, jeera in ghee..My MIL doesn't do it & add it raw and i do the same too..

3. You can substitute the Aval/Flattened rice with Rice.. then the proportion changes..

For 1 cup of rice..use 1/2 cup Moong dal.. Mix rice, dal & add 4 cups of water & pressure cook it for 3 whistles..then, follow from Step 4

Sending this to Priya's Heathy Diet : Breakfast hosted by Roshini & Sending this to Gayatri's WTML hosted by Jayanthi


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