Ven Pogal also known as Pongal, a famous South indian breakfast made from rice, moong dal and some Indian spices. It's a fulfilling dish and having a small amount of pongal keeps you filled for a long time.
During our initial marriage days, ST always avoided pongal for breakfast on working days even though he likes it a lot and when i asked for the reason, he said it would make him so sleepy.
I was puzzled and wondering why?. Because i never had that experience :-)
Later i heard the same comments from many people. Though I'm not a big fan of pongal, occasionally I can have it without any complaints. Since it's a no garlic and no onion recipe, it became one of the famous temple prasadam in South Indian temples.
Rice
Pongal is usually made with raw rice(pacharisi). Raw rice cooks well and gives that mushy texture for the pongal. It's really hard to achieve that texture with parboiled rice. So if you're looking for mushy pongal, I highly recommend using raw rice.
Rice and Dal Ratio
The ratio of rice and dal varies from personal taste and preference. There is no hard and fast rule here. You can use from 1/4 to 1 cup of dal for 1 cup of rice. Adding more dal gives creamy texture and also it makes pongal too heavy. Personally I like to add somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dal for a pongal.
Would you like to recreate a restaurant style pongal? Then I would recommend going with at least 1/2 cup of dal for a cup of rice.
Water
In general, for pongal, the water quantity would be 3 to 4 times more than that of the rice and dal quantity. Again, more water is used to achieve that mushy texture.
Mushy pongal tastes good when it's served hot and it tends to firm when it's cold. Most people (including me ) don't like the mushy pongal texture when it cools down. Hence when I intended to serve immediately , I would add more water to cook the pongal and make it mushy.
When I'm planning to pack this food or serve later, I would reduce the water ratio and make the pongal fluffy like how we make the other kinds of one pot pulao. 
Ps: If you know Tamil, watch this episode of Ramany vs Ramany, one of my favorite series and this whole episode is about pongal & sleep :-). Samuthirakani did a cameo role in this episode.
Ven Pongal
Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 3 or 4
Recipe Category: Breakfast | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Recipe Category: Breakfast | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/3 cup
Water - 3 & 1/2 cups
Cumin Seed - 1 tsp
Pepper Corns - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tsp(finely sliced)
Curry leaves - few
Cashew - 6 to 8
Ghee - 1 & 1/2 to 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/3 cup
Water - 3 & 1/2 cups
Cumin Seed - 1 tsp
Pepper Corns - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tsp(finely sliced)
Curry leaves - few
Cashew - 6 to 8
Ghee - 1 & 1/2 to 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Wash rice and dal well and put it in pressure cooker, add salt and water.
Cover the cooker with lid and put the lid on, cook it for 3 whistle and keep it in low flame for 5 mins.In the mean time, take all the ingredients for tempering.
Heat ghee in a kadai,add cumin seeds, let it splutter, then add cashews.
Once cashew becomes golden brown, add ginger, curry leaves & pepper corns one by one and saute till nice aroma comes.
Add the tempering into pongal. Give a good mix and it's ready to serve.
Tasty & fulfilling Ven Pongal is ready to serve. Serve it with sambar and/or chutney.
- Ven pogal tastes best with sambar.
- Don't reduce the amount of ghee, it gives great taste & flavor to the pongal.
- If prefer, drizzle some ghee while serving
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