VenPongal / South Indian Khichri / Steamed rice with lentils

A popular breakfast/dinner option is the Ven Pongal. "Ven" means white. Mildly spiced (according taste preference) it is served with Coconut (White) Chutney and Sambhar. Pongal - Vadai - Sambhar is one of the commonly sought out combination at restaurants. No restaurant menu card in Tamil Nadu is completing without pongal. Each restaurant have their own way of preparation, the recipe below is the way most of the families in Tamil Nadu make pongal at home. Ven pongal is not only famous in restaurants, but it is very popular in many temples in south India. Pongal is commonly referred to savory pudding made with beautiful combination of lentils and rice tempered with spices and nuts sautéed in Hot Ghee. This is very easy to prepare and the taste is filling and yummy.
Here is the easy to cook and ready to serve recipe for you…:)

Ingredients For Pongal :

To go the Cooker

Raw rice / Sona Masoori rice – 1 cup
Split Moong Dal – ½ cup
Water – 4 (1/4 )cups
Hing – 2 pinch
Salt - As required

Seasoning
Ghee – 3 tablespoons
Cashew nuts – 10 to 15 broken
Ginger – 2 teaspoons finely minced
Curry leaves – One string
Whole pepper corns – 15 to 20
Cumin seeds – 3 teaspoon

Procedure:

Wash the rice and dal. Then measure water and mix the dal and rice. Add salt and hing powder. Now cook this mixture in rice cooker or in normal pressure cooker.
In a separate pan add ghee and let it heat. Followed by whole pepper corns then cumin seeds, ( you even crush the pepper & cumin seeds coarsely) when the cumin seeds turns light brown color add the minced ginger fry for few seconds then add cashew nuts, hing powder and let the cashews fry and finally add the curry leaves and let it splutter then remove from the heat and add it to the cooked pongal and mix it well.