Sakkarai Pongal, sweet rice pudding made with rice, moong dal, milk, jaggery and perfumed with cardamom and nutmeg.
History of Pongal
Pongal is one of the major harvest festivals celebrated in Tamil Nadu. In other parts of India, celebrated as Makara sankaranthi ,Lohri, Maghi etc.
Houses are cleaned and rangoli or kolam are neatly drawn in front of house and in a new clay pot, rice is cooked and offered to God for Pongal. There are sweet version sarkarai pongal and savory version venpongal is made during this festival.
How to make this sweet ?
You need following ingredients
Rice : Any raw rice ( long grain, extra long grain will work, basmati won't work here)
Moong dal: use split moong dal.
Jaggery : Sweetener used in this recipe is jaggery
Milk : Whole milk will best you can use 2 % milk too.
Ghee : Ghee adds extra flavor to the Pongal
Dry fruits and nuts : Raisins and cashew nuts are used here.
Spices : Cardamom and nutmeg is used in the recipe.
Instructions
First roast the moong dal until it is golden brown.
In sauce pot add water and milk 
Then rice and moong dal.
After rice and moong dal cooked add jaggery water
For this you need melt jaggery in little water and strain for impurities.
Finally add spices and ghee roasted cashew nuts and raisins
Variations
This is sweet version there savory version one Venpongal. made without adding sweetener but with pepper .
Points to remember while make this delicious treat?
Wash the rice really well .
Toast the moong dal only until it turns golden brown not too much
only add rice and moong dal in milk and water mixture when it is completely boiled .
Add jaggery only after everything cooked well. Otherwise it won't cook properly.
Adding ghee roasted nuts and raisins only in the final stage.
Sakkarai Pongal : Sweet Rice pudding
Ingredients
- ½ cup Raw rice
- 4 tbsp. Spilt moong dal
- ½ cup Jaggery
- 1 cup Milk
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp. Water
- 2 tablespoon Cashew nuts
- 2 tablespoon Raisins
- 2 tablespoon Ghee
- ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon Cardamom
Instructions
- In a small skillet roast 4 tablespoon of spilt moong dal until they are golden brown in color and gives off a nice aroma in about 7 minutes.
- Wash rice thoroughly and keep aside.
- In a saucepot, boil milk and water. As milk starts boiling, add rice and dal and cook until the rice is cooked. If using pressure cooker cook until you get 4 whistles.
- In small pot melt jaggery with 2 tablespoon of water and using a strainer, remove the impurities if any present. Add filtered jaggery to cooked rice-dal mixture and cook until everything combined.
- Add cardamom and nutmeg powder to the rice-dal-jaggery mixture and mix well. Switch off the flame.
- In another pan heat ghee and roast cashew, and raisin until cashew gets browned and raisins puffed up.
- Add this to the rice-dal-jaggery mixture and combine well.
- Enjoy warm,
Video
Nutrition
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Raquel says
This tasty dessert was warm and comforting!
Sushma Mallya says
Happy pongal...pongal looks yummy and loved the dry fruits on top
prasu says
Happy Pongal dear..............sweet pongal looks very delicious.
Priya says
Happy pongal wishes to u & ur family Swathi...Sweet pongal looks damn delicious..
Rachana Kothari says
Happy Pongal:) and the sweet pongal looks delicious.