Pongal rice | Milk pongal

Happy pongal to all. Pongal is a thanksgiving festival celebrated in south India at the end of harvest. The word Pongal in tamil refers boiling over of milk and rice. They thank sun god for the rice and good harvest every year.

Each family has their own tradition to prepare this. Many of them do sakkarai pongal and veggies. In our family we usually don't do sakkarai pongal on that day. We cook this milk pongal serve with cooked dal, grated jaggery and ghee. We usually prepare different types of veggies as side. The leftovers (veggies and sambar) are then used to prepare sunda kuzhambu (coming soon) - which is specialty for this occasion.

Before marriage, we used to celebrate pongal in our grandparents home which is always memorable. We cousins have lots of fun playing dice, running and hiding behind the poles, laughing, shouting, fighting,......those memories are always sweet.

Ingredients:

• Raw rice - 1 cup
• Water - 2 cups
• Milk - 2 cups
• Salt - a pinch

Method:

Soak the rice for 30 minutes. Boil the water and milk in a pot. Add salt.

 When the milk raises up, simmer and add rice. Close with lid and let it cook till soft.

Serve with a tsp of cooked dal, a dollop of ghee and jaggery. It taste so divine....... Can be served with regular sambhar and curd too.

Note:

• If it is a new(fresh harvested) rice, no need to soak it. It gets ready in few minutes.
• If the rice is old, I would suggest the pressure cooker method. Do till 5 steps of picture and pressure cook it.