Pongal

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice - 1 cup
• Green gram dhal (Paasi paruppu) - 1/4 cup
• Oil - 3 tbsp
• Salt - to taste 
• Ghee - 3 tbsp
• Cashew nuts - 10
• Pepper - 2 tsp
• Jeera - 2 tsp
• Green chilli - 1
• Ginger - 1/2" piece
• Curry leaves

Method:

Wash and clean rice and dhal. In a cooker pour 5 glasses of water for 1 glass of rice and the dhal. and cook it. Add the oil and salt when it starts boiling. Cook well till all the rice is cooked and water is absorbed. Keep stirring it. 

Blend pepper and jeera coarsely. In a kadai heat ghee fry the cashew nuts, drain and keep aside. In the remaining ghee add the whole pepper, chopped green chillies, ginger, crushed pepper and jeera and curry leaves. Sauté for a minute and mix it into the pongal. Add the fried cashew nuts also with it.

Note: You can also pressure cook the pongal but the rice will be whole and not mashed. People who do not like to chew on ginger when you cook the rice and dhal drop in a whole piece of ginger and take it out after it is cooked. Pongal is a heavy dish and the ginger helps in easy digestion. And if you don't add whole pepper just add crushed pepper alone.