Sakkarai Pongal | Sweet Pongal in Pressure Cooker | Pongal Recipe

Thai Pongal is the most popular harvest festival in Tamilnadu and it's celebrated for four days. Day before Pongal is known as Bhogi, on that morning people discard the unwanted things(a week or 10 days before pongal, most of the people in South Tamilnadu used to white wash their house and keep aside the old belongings to use on Bhogi Festival) in the households by firing and in the evening they decorate the entire house & front yard with kolam by using limestone & kaavi(red brick stone powder). 

On the day of pongal, before sunrise, clay stove & the brass vessel which is used  to make pongal are decorated with sandalwood & kumkum and placed in frontyard.The dried palm leaves(which is only available just before few days of pongal) are used for firing.Freshly harvested rice is used to make pongal and the brass vessel is filled with the rice washed water and cooked till it overflows the vessel.When it overflows, people screams "Pongalo Pongal" and then add the rice and make as ven pongal or sakkarai pongal as per their family tradition.
In our home, we make ven pongal at frontyard and then we make sakkarai pongal for lunch along with 7 varieties of side dish & sambar. Traditionally sakkarai pongal is made in open pot and it takes really long time to cook,so make the process simple, here i used pressure cooker and tried to recreate the exact taste of open pot method.I have seen many recipes of sakkarai pongal made with rice and dal,but in our family,we don't use dal in sakkarai pongal. So here's my method of  making sakkarai pongal in pressure cooker.

Happy Pongal to all.

Sakkarai Pongal

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 30 mins | Serves : 4 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Raw Rice - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Water - 11/2 cup
Cardamom(Crushed) - 2
Ghee - 3 to 4 tbsp
Cashew(broken) - 1/2 tsp
Coconut bits - 1 tbsp

Procedure

First heat the pressure cooker with 1 cup of water,let it bring to boil,then add the washed and drained rice.Cover the pressure cooker with lid and put on weight & cook it for 3 whistle.Let the steam released by itself from the pressure cooker,open it and add the 1/2 cup of jaggery and the remaining 1/2 cup of water and cook it for 2 more whistle.Once all the steam is released from the pressure cooker, open it and mash it with laddle and add the remaining 1/4 cup of jaggery and let the jaggery melt completely.In the mean time, in another pan, add the 2 tsp of ghee and melt it ,then add the cashews and coconut bits.Fry till both cashews and coconut bits becomes golden brown and then add it into the sakkarai pongal along with cardamom.Mix it well and let it be in medium flame for 10 mins,add the remaining ghee in regular intervals & stir.That's it. Tasty Sakkarai Pongal is ready.Drizzle some ghee while serving.

Notes:

• While cooking in open pot,jagggery is added to the pongal once the rice is 80% cooked and the rice should cooked in jaggery syrup for atleast  20%, so to recreate that, i pressure cook the rice twice here.
• We love the coconuts bits in sakkarai pongal, so i added more than the cashews.
• If you have edible camphor, you can use a mustard size of it.
• You can add more or less ghee as per your preference,but atleast 3 tbsp of ghee is required for the above mentioned quantity.
• As we don't use dal in this recipe, this sakkarai pongal will stay fresh for 2 days at room temperature and more in refrigerator.
• If you keep it in refrigerator, microwave it for fews seconds before serving.It tastes almost like  freshly made.