Friday, January 2, 2009

Ven Pongal and an Award

Hema (Adlaks) has passed me the inspiration award. Thank you hema, for thinking of me. I feel very happy and honored to receive it from you.


Now, to the ven pongal recipe. I love it for the simplicity. I wanted to send it for Rice Mela, but somehow missed it. We make this on the 1st day of Margazhi (a tamil month) and also for Pongal. I make some variation to it by adding vegetables to it while cooking the rice and daal. Makes it a one pot dish for kids and it's nutritious too. It's so easy to sneak vegetables like cauliflower or brocolli and my kids don't even find it. They don't touch these two vegetables otherwise :)

Ingredients :
Rice - 1 cup
Moong daal - 1/2 cup (or little more)
Black pepper - 1/2 spoon
Cumin seeds - 1 spoon
Chopped vegetables - 1 cup (optional) - Picture is without vegetables.
Cashews - a handful





Method :
Wash and cook rice and daal together in Pressure cooker.
In a pan, heat some oil (traditionally ghee is used :)) add crushed pepper and cumin seeds.
I grind the pepper as my kids and husband dont like to bite into pepper.
Fry for a minute. Add cashews and fry till they are golden brown. Add to the cooked rice and add salt to taste and mix well. Forkids, i add ghee just before serving.

Tastes yum with Gotsu or Sambar, Chutney or Puli inji.

As i mentioned earlier, i add chopped cauliflower and broccoli and call it CAB rice and my first kid thinks it's a funny name and eats it without any fuss. He asked me what CAB stands for and i said i just came up with a funny name and didn't mention the word Broccoli to him :D
The other vegetables that i add are peas and carrot.

18 comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Tasty pongal, love to have them with coconut chutney, my all time fav.. happy 2009 to u n ur family Vibaas!!

Raks said...

Pongal looks so soft and good! Great combo when combined with gosthu!

Adlak's tiny world said...

pongal with gosthu always sounds yum vidhya... thanks for posting my award. Its my pleasure to hornor u....

Anonymous said...

Vibaas,I truly loved your blog and thanks for coming at my place.The most enjoyable label here is "Kids Approved"..I have a 3 & 8 months yr old daughter.you can imagine then.am adding you.have a happy 2009 !!

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

pongal and gotsu. what a combo? i love it. i also add little milk while cooking rice and dhal. gives a creamy texture.

Preety said...

i always crave for south indian food..never tried pongal but looks delicious..Happy New year

Jeyashris Kitchen said...

pongal is a all time favourite dish in my family. especially my son loves it like anything. adding vegetables is a nice idea. will try using that.

Jaishree Iyer said...

Pongal looks so soft good and tasty!
Happy New year vibaas!

Pavani said...

Happy new year...n congrats on ur award

Vibaas said...

Ann, thanks for your lovely comment. I feel very happy.

Mahi, just recently i got this tip from my friend. She said she cooks rice with milk when she makes curd rice and it sounds really yummy and creamy. Will try it next time.

Thx jeyashri, jaishree, preety and Pavani.

Vibaas said...

Thx Priya, Raks and Hema.

Deepa Hari said...

Thank you Vibaas for stopping by....Nice pongal...One of my favourites...esp. like them with kotsu, coconut chutney and vadas....never tried the veg. version.

Wish you a very Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Deepa.

Vikis Kitchen said...

Lovely pongal and its my all time favorite. Great with ulunthu vadai and sambar:) . Ur gotsu looks inviting.
Happy New Year dear.

Vibaas said...

Thx Deepa and Viki.

LifenSpice said...

Hi, I love pongal! that's very innovative to add veggies in there.the kids wouldn't even know:)
btw, hows ur little boy?is he still blogging?

LifenSpice said...

hey,i have added u to my blog roll..chk out. happy blogging:)

Vibaas said...

Thanks Keerthana. My little boy updated his blog yday after a long gap. Pls. check it out :)

Anonymous said...

Nice to see your recipes.. hope to come back to check more.. :)

LinkWithin Related Stories Widget for Blogs