Brown rice sweet pongal / Sivapu arisi sakkarai pongal /Sweet recipes

When i bought pot for making  sweet pongal for the tamil festival "Pongal" , i got a pack of   brown rice. I kept it idle for a long time. Then suddenly  idea strikes, why not to try sweet pongal with brown rice? Sweet pongal means sakkarai pongal in tamil.  

  Brown rice is more nutritious than white rice. Brown rice and white rice have similar amounts of calories and carbohydrates. The main differences between the two forms of rice lie in processing and nutritional content.

When only the outermost layer of a grain of rice (the husk) is removed, brown rice is produced. To produce white rice, the next layers underneath the husk is removed. Several vitamins and dietary minerals are lost in this removal and the subseqent removal process.  (Source: Wikipedia). So include this brown rice in your menu. Try this and have a tasty and healthy traditional sweet. This is a special post. I will tell why this is special, at the end of the post.

Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

Brown rice - 1/2 cup

Water -  2 and 1/2 cups

Moong dal - 2-3 tbsp

Jaggery 1/2 cup heaped

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Salt - a pinch

Cashews - 10 nos

Raisins - 20 nos

Cardamom powder -  1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Soak the rice for half an hour . In a pressure cooker, heat a tbsp of ghee and add moong dal till nice aroma wafts.

2. Drain the rice and add it to the roasted moong dal. Then add  2 and 1/2 cups of water and pressure cook it for 4-5 whistles.

3.  Take cashews and raisins. Heat another tbsp of ghee in a tadka pan and add cashews. Fry it till golden yellow colour.

4. Then add raisins and fry it  till it puffs up.

5. Take jaggery in a pan and add water till imersing level. Allow it to boil. No need to wait for string consistency.  Boiling is enough.

6.  After  4-5 whistles. Switch off the stove . Once pressure subsides , Open the lid of pressure cooker and mash it. Now strain the jaggery syrup and add it to the mashed rice and dal mixture.

7. Now cook pongal in the medium flame for 5 minutes.  If your pongal is thick and dry, add 1/4 cup milk / water at this stage. You can also add tbsp of ghee while cooking pongal if you prefer. Finally add cardamom powder and switch off the stove.

Now our pongal is ready...

Garnish it with roasted cashews and raisins.

As i said you earlier, this is a special post. This is dedicated for a special person MY MOTHER Mrs. Chitra pandian.

I wish you a Happy mother's day amma. Love you so much :)

Notes:

• If your rice is new , then rice to water ratio is 1:4. If yor rice is old Then rice to water ratio is 1:5.
• The colour of pongal depends upon the quality of jaggery. Use pagu / urandai vellam.
• You can also add 1 clove and pinch of grated nutmeg  while roating cashews and raisins. In that case add nutmeg after switching off the flame as it may get burnt easily.
• You can also  add a pinch of edible camphor while adding cardamom powder. Don't add more than the mentioned amount.
• After pressure cooking , if you find your pongal is very thick and dry, then add required amount of milk/ water.
• After cooling down it gets thick . So switch it off accordingly.

Happy mother's day and happy weekend :)