Ven Pongal (Restaurant Style)

Ingredients

Rice – 500g (We can either use “Ponni Raw Rice” or “Pongal Raw Rice” or just Raw rice)
Moong dal – 250 grams
Cashew – 50 grams
Cumin – 1/4 tbsp
Curry leaves – few
Ghee – 100 ml
Ginger – small piece (1 inch long)
Oil – 1 tbsp
Whole Pepper – 1 tbsp
Salt – 1 tbsp
Water – 2.5 litres

Things to be done before we start cooking

Take 500 grams of rice and then rinse and wash it. Then soak it for 1 hour.
Take 250 grams of yellow moong dal, rinse and wash it, let it soak for 15 minutes.
Take ginger – 1 inch long, peel the skin and chop it into small pieces.

Steps to Prepare

1 Place a 3-litre capacity vessel on the stove – turn the flame to HIGH MODE. 2 Put the rice, after draining off the water (soaking for 1 hour) into the vessel. Then, pour in 1.5 litres of water. And pour in 1 tablespoon of oil. 3 Place another vessel (3 litre capacity) on the small burner. Turn on the flame to HIGH MODE. 4 Put in the moong dal (250 grams) into this vessel. Then pour in 750 ml of water. And pour in 1 tablespoon of oil. 5 For both vessels, please note that the flame is in HIGH MODE, hence the water will come to a boiling state in 4 to 5 minutes. 6 Once the water starts boiling, we can turn the flame to LOW MODE. Leave the rice and dal to get cooked in LOW flame for the next 30 minutes. 7 After 30 minutes of cooking in low flame, turn off the flame in both burners.

Then with the help of a spoon take a little of rice and check if it got cooked. The rice should become a paste when we crush it with our fingers.
If we feel rice needs a little more time to cook, we can pour in a little more of water, turn flame to low mode and leave it to cook for next 5 to 10 minutes.

8 Lets turn to the vessel with cooked dal. With the help of a spoon try to stir and crush the dal to a paste. 9 Try to remove a little of rice from the middle of vessel and place it on the side, to make like a well. Then pour the dal into that small well. 10 Now, let’s add 1 tablespoon of salt and stir to mix ‘rice + dal + salt’ well. 11 Take another pan, place on the burner with HIGH flame. 12 Pour in 100 ml of ghee (or oil – 100 ml). Let the ghee (or oil) get little hot. Once ghee gets hot, we need to turn flame to low mode. 13 Add –

Ginger – small pieces (1-inch-long ginger, chopped)
Whole pepper – 1 tablespoon
Cumin – 1/4 tablespoon

Let the contents fry for 10 seconds. 14 Now add few leaves of curry leaf. And 50 grams of cashew nut. Stir till cashew nuts turn light brown. Then turn off the flame. 15 Lift the pan and pour the ghee along with pepper, ginger, cashew nut and cumin directly into the vessel carrying cooked rice and dal. Then stir and mix well. That’s all folks, our Ven Pongal is ready and it can be served with sambar and chutney as side dishes.