Sunday, September 28, 2008

Rava Pongal


Thanks so much for all your lovely comments and wishes you had left in my previous post. I'm doing fine. Yet, I know I'm late for my next post :) But, it was not because of mere laziness or procrastination, but actually I had to travel out of town for official reasons and my kitchen was "officially" closed last week. Though I had some marvelous food during that time, I sure was missing home food and I'm so glad to be back home and enjoy my favorite comfort food.

There's nothing like having the time to sit down and have a good breakfast. I wish I had the time to have a relaxed breakfast every morning. But so far its been just a big daydream for me. My mornings are typically - "take a bite, do this; take another bite, do that" type of mornings. I actually sometimes skip breakfast to avoid morning rush. I hope someday I'll get into the routine of calm and relaxed mornings, may be a BIG hope! But to recompense this, I prefer to have a relaxed breakfast atleast in the weekends. I mostly prepare a proper traditional breakfast atleast for one morning in the weekend, and also often we go out for breakfast too. My day starts fresh when I chit-chat with a cup of coffee and good breakfast.

This weekend we enjoyed our favorite breakfast - Pongal with chutney and sambar. To me, one of the intimidating tasks of getting married is making the food your spouse grew up with. Mom cooks pongal for a little extra time so that the rice and dal are blended well, but my mother-in-law makes a version that's similar to pulav consistency. I like both versions, but prefer mom's way of making pongal, may be because thats the one I loved and grew up with. And my hubby prefers his mom's version, probably for the same reason. I learnt making his mom's version in a hard way. I still remember a day after we landed in the US, and while I was still almost zero in cooking, my hubby once wanted me to cook his mom's version of pongal. He had no idea of what he was getting into :) I made it and it was a disaster. It came out too stiff and no where close to pongal. I managed by adding more water and re-cooking it, but still the consistency was messed up. Well, after a lot of practice I can now say that I'm far better in making pongal, both versions.

Rava pongal is a totally new version of pongal to me. The recipe for this is from a booklet that came with a rava packet! Its interesting to me when these tiny pamphlets have some really delicious recipes and also very unique recipes that are not popular in other cookbooks. I made this the first time this weekend and just loved it. It came out pretty good and I'm sure I will try this often from now on. Goes well with chutney/sambar.


Ingredients:

  • Rava - 1 cup
  • Moong dal (pasi paruppu) - 1/2 cup
  • Milk - 1/2 cup
  • Cashew nuts - 10
  • Pepper corns -1 tsp
  • Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
  • Ginger - 1 inch (minced)
  • Ghee - 1 tbsp
  • Oil - 2 tbsp
  • Curry leaves - a few
Procedure:
  • Pressure cook the dal, strain and save the stock and set aside the dal.
  • Roast the rava in a tsp of ghee and set aside.
  • In the same pan, add the remaining ghee and oil and season with pepper corns and cumin seeds.
  • Then add the cashews, ginger and curry leaves and fry until cashews turn golden brown.
  • Add two and half cups of the following mixture - water, milk, the strained water from dal.
  • Add salt and let the mixture boil. Then add the roasted rava and stir in medium heat until the rava is well cooked and reaches a semi solid consistency.
  • Now add the cooked dal, mix and cover in low heat for 5 mins.
  • Add some ghee on the top and mix well.
Serve hot with coconut chutney, sambar.

24 comments:

Unknown said...

ooh wow rava pongal looks so delicious I love to have that with mango pickle

Uma said...

rava pongal is new to me too! Looks so delicious and perfect Sujatha!

Deepthi Shankar said...

pongal is my favorite too .. i too face similar difficulties when it comes to food preferances .. i havent tasted rava pongal though ..

jayasree said...

Pongal looks delicious.. I too make rava pongal this way.

Unknown said...

Nice entry... looks delicious... Fantastic tiffin... thxs for sharing...

ST said...

Rava pongal is new to me looks very very tasty and delicious....

Laavanya said...

I've had rava pongal just once before and quite liked it. My mom makes a drier version of pongal too and my husband doesn't like the mushy one either :)
There is nothing like home cooked food esp. after a biz trip.

Unknown said...

Hey sujatha...rava pongal is so tempting and what a con incidence..my next post in draft in pongal(rice though)...

Cham said...

I like mushier too :)Long time didn't made any rava pongal, looks absolutely delicious :)

Usha said...

Loved the idea of making pongal with rava..enjoyed your post too...I agree that sometimes things are so different in each home with regard to food...it does make for some interesting times though :)

Sangeeth said...

recently i came across this recipe in someother website too...i luv this idea of making pongal with rawa.Thanks for sharing

raaji said...

rava pongal sounds real healthy...then sure mus try for a day's bfast

anudivya said...

Girl... you missed out the medhu vadai along with the pongal & sambar. Deadly combo. Yours looks very nice. I am glad you have come from stiff to this gorgeous looking plate of pongal!

Shreya said...

rava pongal is new to me too! looks delicious with the chutney:-)

Purva Desai said...

Rava Pongal looks really tempting....I ve never tasted but I am sure it must ve tasted tasty

Deepthi Shankar said...

Hey I tried your Apple Dal ... It turned out just soooper .. I tweaked a lil here n there but was just perfect ...Thank you for sharing the recipe, sujata .. iam definitely making it again ..

Sujatha said...

Thanks everyone for your encouraging words..

Ramya - Looking forward to your pongal recipe :)

Divya, You are right.. Pongal with Medu vadai would be the ultimate combination.. :) I missed it this time, but will remember this combo next time.. :)

Deesha - thats so nice to hear that you liked Apple Dal :) Its one of our favourites too.. And thanks so much for letting me know after making it.. :)

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

We make pongal but diddn't know till now, it could be made with rawa too. Looks very good. Shall try it.
Thanks for sending it in to WBB.
Sorry I took so long to acknowledge this, but I made a mistake while typing my email id in the announcement and so never got your mail.:(

Indranee Batabyal said...

Delicious recipe...wish you a very happy Navratri and Durga Puja!

Suganya said...

Hi Sujatha..
This is a very creative recipe. Looks so good. Nice presentation. YUM! Pongal and chutney nice combo...

Madhavi said...

hummm yummyyyy pongal, looks perfect and delicious!!!

Jayashree said...

Looks good. I like rava pongal better than regular pongal.

Varun G said...

Nice post on Pongal. Looking for more on coming days regarding Pongal. Wish u a very Happy Pongal Festival. Want to exchange link with my post.
Regards,
Varun

Unknown said...

Hey too gud..the way u present is amazing...i'm too bad in saying stories like this.in a poetic way.... rava pongal is also looks yummy..tomorrow this is gonna be our breakfast...thanks...do visit my blog jus started 3 days back

http://tastytales.blogspot.com/

thanx..