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As requested by therattle and others, I am posting here a how-to for Pongal. People had been discussing risotto, and therattle mentioned that he'd yet to have one that gave him much of a reason to keep eating it. I know that he likes my kind of food, so I asked him if he's had pongal yet, and he replied in the affirmative, but that he'd also like a recipe so that he can recreate it at home. Cool. I write this as a South Indian man, for whom pongal is the ultimate in comfort food. In the USA, you've got dishes like Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and various casseroles topped with cheese and tater tots or whatnot (I know very little about Lutheran cuisine, so I'm taking a wild guess here), and people turn to those foods when they want a little bit of warm hug from inside their tummy. It's stodgy, it's creamy, it's pretty starchy, and whenever you see someone serving up a batch of it, you are definitely going to attack that before you hit up anything else. For me, and a lot of Southern Indians, pongal hits that exact spot: creamy, comforting, stodgy, starchy. It's got a million variations, from sweet to savoury. It's got a million different ways to make it. It involves a lot of very strongly held opinions about how to make it properly. But, at the end of the day, it's essentially a peasant dish that's meant to be filling, while still getting a little bit of beans. It's served in temples. It's offered to babies as one of (if not the) first solid foods that they eat. I loved the smell of the frying spices when my mom would make a pot of pongal. She never cared how much you took, because it's so so so cheap to make, and you start off with what seems like not a lot of dry material, and it winds up making a huge quantity. It's especially nice on cold days or rainy days. My version is a pretty simple version, and I'm not including the fancy additions that you'd see in a temple. It's going to be vegan, because that's how my mom made it, since butter etc is expensive, but people do indeed use dairy products in there. There are 2 major components. The rice, and the daal. 1. The Rice For South Indians, the rice of choice is usually Ponni rice, which is a varietal grown in Tamil Nadu. It's a long grain rice that has pretty smol little grains. If the typical long grain or Basmati rice uses like 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water (in the open pan method), Ponni rice does 1 cup of rice to 3 cups of water. For softer rice, you'll see folk use 4 cup of water, and it absorbs it all. However, I realise that Ponni rice isn't available outside of Indian grocery stores that have a really large rice aisle. That's OK. We can substitute. DO NOT USE BASMATI RICE FOR PONGAL. Yes, it's an Indian rice, but pongal is not meant to be fluffy and separate grains. It's meant to be soft mushy grains of rice. Basmati rice is a very dry product, and if you use it for pongal, you get the Northie abomination called kichidi. They like to think it's the same dish as Pongal is, but they're wrong. They add all kind of weird stuff to it that I'd rather leave unsaid for now. Sushi rice, long grain white rice (the regular long grain white rice that you get at the store that's priced lower than all the other types of rice), and jasmine rice all work in pongal. If you can't find Ponni rice, I'd suggest that you get the cheapest long grain white rice that you can get that IS NOT BASMATI. I REPEAT. DON'T USE BASMATI. 2. Daal. Traditionally, pongal is made with mung daal. It's a small hulled daal that's yellow in colour. Again, it won't really be found outside of a good Indian grocery store. If you can't find it, I've found that red lentils do a nighty fine substitution without changing much of the steps of cooking. You CAN use yellow split peas, but you'll really need to cook them about 3/4 of the way through before you add the rice. They take a long time to cook. Aside from that, tuvar daal also works. However, if you have access to tuvar daal, just buy some moong daal. It cooks up real quick, and doesn't cause much fuss. The Cooking Process It is traditional to make the pongal in a clay pot over a fire, and wait for it to boil over. Pongal translates to boiling over. However, I don't have a clay pot, and even if I did, I don't want to clean up the mess that the boiling over will make. I do mine on the stove. You can use an instant pot for pongal, and there are several recipes for it, but I don't care for the cleanup that using an instant pot leaves behind. Pongal is a very mess making dish if you don't keep it at a low simmer. Bear in mind that I've been making pongal for such a long time that these measurements are going to be a bit vague. Why? Because every batch of rice is different. Every variety takes a different amount of water and different cooking time. Each batch of moong daal is different. The stuff I bought from the store yesterday is going to be fresher (and cook faster) than the stuff I bought last year in the pre-Divali sale. However, this is a very rough amount. The quantities seem tiny, because this sucker cooks up BIG. The Recipe - Instructions in italics are optional, but I do them every time, because I like the taste. Measure out 1/2 cup of moong daal, and roast it over a medium low flame until it smells toasty. You want to do the roasting step in a large, deep pot. A wok works just fine for this, but you want it to be a big doom wok. Otherwise, use a 1 gallon or larger cooking pot. Set aside the roasted moong daal. This works perfectly fine with raw moong daal, but the roasted gives a very nice flavour. If you have an electric kettle, fill it up and set it to boil. You're going to need the hot water. If you don't then it's all going to take a little longer, but it's fine. Measure out 1 cup of rice, and wash it very very well. You want the water to run clear. When your rice is well rinsed, set it aside. Into the pot where you've got the moong daal, set the daal to boil over highest heat. Add like 1/4 tsp of turmeric (more or less). You will need at least 5 cups of water for the 1/2 cup of daal. Why? A bunch of the water is going to evaporate, and you still haven't added the rice. Also, the moong daal is going to release starch, and thicken the liquid. You don't want this to catch on the bottom of the pot. And it will catch, even in a nonstick. When the moong daal is about 1/2 cooked (so the individual pieces are still firm, but can be squished between your fingers), add the rice, and add an extra cup of boiling water. Also, add a generous bit of salt. Bring everything up to a rushing boil, and then drop the heat down to a simmer. Cover the lid, but leave it cracked open with a wooden spoon laid vertically over the pot. If you cover it tightly, this will overflow onto your stove, and leave a giant mess. Yes, even over low heat. SET A TIMER for 15 minutes. While this is simmering away, prepare your tarka. This will get stirred through when the pongal is cooked and not before. Why? Because you want the spices to be whole, and have some crunch to them. Take like 1/2 tsp of whole black peppercorns, and grind them in a mortar and pestle. This is the only source of heat in the recipe, so pre-ground black pepper will not do. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, figure out some other way to grind the black pepper as coarsely as you dare. Some people even just use the black pepper in whole peppercorns, but I hate that. Don't do it. Grate a piece of ginger to yield about 1 TB of freshly grated ginger. You can also chop it up into a brunoise if you have the knife skills for it. However, don't peel the ginger. You want the skin for this one. Take about 1 stalk's worth of curry leaves, and tear them into small-ish pieces. You can indeed chop them, but all the grandmas will give you the side eye for being precious about curry leaves. In a small pot, add about 3 - 5 TB of neutral flavoured cooking oil. I prefer peanut or coconut oil, but you can use canola, corn, or sunflower if you don't have peanut oil. Some people will use Indian sesame oil, but I don't care for it in pongal. Heat the oil over highest heat. Wait until a little bit of smoke comes up from the surface of the oil. Add like 1/2 tsp of whole cumin seeds. No, you can't use powder. It has to be whole seeds. Fry over high heat, stirring constantly, until very fragrant. This should take like 6 - 15 seconds if your oil is actually hot enough. Add the crushed black pepper, some asafoetida (like 1/4 tsp or so), and stir until the black pepper is fragrant. Cooking the pepper in oil is a very very important, crucial step in pongal making. Whether you're using whole peppercorns or ground, the pepper has to be fried in oil. This should take like 2 - 5 seconds. Add the curry leaves, jump back (because it's going to SPLATTER ALL OVER YOU), and quickly stir it all together. Then immediately add the ginger. Stir until fragrant. Once all those spices are together, set aside. Set the kettle on to boil more water. Check on your pot of rice and daal once your 15 minute timer has rung. You might need to add more boiling water. How do you know if you need to add water? If the rice and daal are not cooked all the way through, and there is no water keeping everything loose in texture. If they are indeed cooked, but the water is all gone, you'll need to add more water. If the rice and daal are sticking to the bottom, you'll need to add more water. Basically, you'll probably need to add additional water at least once in the cooking process. Stir the rice and daal together, and taste for salt. It should have a salty taste. If it feels a little bland, by all means, add some extra salt while you add a bit of extra water. Set the timer for another 15 minutes, and leave to simmer away. Come back like halfway through to give the rice and daal a good stir. Check the consistency of the rice and daal at the end of this 2nd 15 minutes. The rice should be cooked all the way through by now, and the daal should be going from cooked through to mushy. This is good. You're probably not done yet, and you likely need more water. That's fine. Add the extra water, and stir well, checking to make sure that it's not getting stuck to the bottom. It's probably sticking to the bottom, and you probably need water. It's fine. Add it, stir, breaking up the clumps on the bottom, and make sure things are relatively homogenous. Set a time for another 15 minutes. Come back when the timer rings. NOW look at the whole thing. It should be mushy. The rice should be mushy. The daal should be falling apart. The whole thing should have come together and thickened up. Add your tarka mixture, being careful to scrape out every last bit of it, because this stuff is packed with flavour. Rinse with a bit of water if you like. Stir through the rice and daal thoroughly. Taste for seasoning. Does it need more salt? Add it. Does it need more pepper? Grind it up and add it. Either way, it's done. I've had pongal cook up in as little as 30 minutes, and a batch that I made last night take about 2 hours in cooking time. Like I said, it varies wildly, even though I'm the one making it every time, and I generally use the same ingredients. Variations/Additions [*]Fried peanuts go great when stirred in with the tarka. So do fried cashews. [*]Fresh or frozen grated coconut can be added in with the daal and rice to cook together. [*]This is frequently served with a side of coconut chatni: https://spicechronicles.com/classic-south-indian-coconut-chutney-and-that-one-essential-ingredient/#sthash.wN6hna07.dpbs
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May 30, 2023 00:27
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| # ? May 3, 2024 16:33 |
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Good timing: Gita just posted a pongal video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMh_kaMOK_w
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May 30, 2023 14:29
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Echoing 'good timing', this is great! We've been talking about, and looking forward to, making pongal for a couple of weeks now. But we're doing so much work on our house that all our books - including recipe books - are in piles. That includes your The Alternative Vegan so I was going to have to accept a poor substitute. Now I won't have to. Because of said house gutting, we also only have one hob to cook on at the moment. So, short of having to put the pongal to one side briefly while we make the tarka, this is ideal. Thanks for posting!
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May 31, 2023 08:49
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I've had kichidi, but don't think I've had pongal. This is despite having been to a restaurant called Pongal (I had the dosa, which were amazing). I know I have moong dal, I just need to pick up some curry leaves and fresh ginger and I should be able to try making this.
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Jul 28, 2023 10:45
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