Venn Pongal

Venn means white (or pure/pristine) in Tamil. Venn Pongal translates to White Pongal. It is a simple savory dish made from rice and dhal, and seasoned with cumin and pepper-corns in fragrant ghee. Most commonly had during breakfast/brunch, Venn Pongal is yet another classic South-Indian food. 

Ingredients (serves 2)

1. 1 cup of raw white rice
2. ¼ cup of moong dhal / payatham paruppu
3. ½ - 1 teaspoon of black pepper corns (subject to your preference)
4. 1.5 teaspoons of cumin seeds
5. 1 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger
6. few broken cashew nuts to garnish (1/2 - 1 teaspoon)
7. 2 teaspoons of ghee
8. a few curry leaves
9. 4.25 - 5 cups of water; the ratio of rice + dhal : water is 1:4.5 (it depends on the type of rice, and how mushy you like your pongal. I added 4.5 cups of water total, and my pongal can still afford to be just a bit more mushy. The new rice we bought has been messing up my measurements a tiddly bit).
10. Salt - 3/4 teaspoon (or to taste)

Preparation

1. Dry roast the rice and moong dhal on medium heat for 5-6 minutes until the grains are warm to the touch.
2. Add water and salt to the slightly roasted rice and dhal and cook until the rice/dhal is fully cooked and the water is completely absorbed.
3. When the rice cooks, prepare the garnish. Dry roast the pepper-corns and cumin seeds on medium heat until the pepper corn begins to pop slightly (about 6-10 mins). Grind the roasted pepper and cumin to a fine powder.
4. Heat a couple of teaspoons of ghee on low-medium heat. When hot, roast the cashews till they begin to turn a golden brown. Next, add the ginger and fry for a minute. Finally, add the curry leaves and the ground pepper-cumin powder and fry a minute with the heat switched off.
5. Fluff up the cooked rice. Add the garnish to the rice/dhal and mix well (do this when the rice is hot). Serve with sambar, rasam, gothsu, or chutney.

Venn Pongal will be slightly mushier than regular steamed rice. So, adjust your rice/dhal : water ratio based on how much water you add for cooking rice. The rule of thumb is - add ½ - 1 cup to the former measure.

I personally don’t like whole pepper-corns sneaking between bites of pongal. I end up removing them from the pongal as I eat. So, I grind it along with cumin so that the spices uniformly mix in the pongal. But, most people just fry the cumin seeds and pepper-corns in ghee (along with the rest of the garnish) and don’t make a powder. So, experiment and adopt a version that works for you!

Sakkarai Pongal

On this day of Pongal or Makara Shankranthi, we prepare a sweet rice pudding called Sakkarai Pongal (Sakkarai meaning sweet or sugar). Sakkarai Pongal is made in a traditional heavy brass pot that is decorated with turmeric shoots and sugarcane leaves. It is offered to the Sun God with prayers for a good year (especially for a good year of bountiful harvests).

This recipe comes from my mother. 

Poornam Poli - Attempt 1

Today is the South-Indian festival of Bhogi. It is the day before Makara Sankranthi (also known as Pongal in Tamil Nadu), which is a harvest festival that occurs approximately 20 days after the Winter solstice. Bhogi is an important day for farmers and those whose professions revolve around agriculture. Since cows, bulls, and oxes used to help with most of the heavy labor involved in ploughing and tilling land, they are given a deserved day-off today. They are given a luxurious bath/scrub, their horns are painted in bright colors, new bells are tied around their necks, and they are paraded through the village/town/neighborhood to collect some gratuity from people. In cities, Bhogi is the day when people do their annual “spring cleaning”. Old things are discarded (and sometimes burnt), and houses are cleaned, dusted, and freshly painted. The tradition of burning old things started to contribute to the already high air-pollution in cities, so this little custom is not as practised these days. Still, most towns and cities will have a thick cloud of smoke and fog in the early morning hours of Bhogi.

Since most of our ancestors’ livelihood depended on agriculture and farming, our families still honor this festival in our own little way. A sweet, and a savory dish are prepared and symbolically offered as a thank-you to the Sun God. Every farmer rejoices the Sun and prays for the winter months to end soon. And we join them too - who doesn’t want the winter months to end sooner?

A popular Bhogi sweet is Poli. I have watched my mother make it plenty of times, but this is the first time I tried it out, thanks to my mother-in-law’s recipe. There are a few versions of Poli. This version is prepared by stuffing a sweet filling of jaggery and cooked lentils into a dough made of all-purpose flour. The stuffed dough is pressed thin and then baked/cooked with generous drizzles of ghee (clarified butter). After today’s attempt, I realize that Poli is definitely yet another dish that requires skill and practice to make it soft and tender! But the ingredients are simple, and the individual steps are easy.

Ingredients (yields 8 small polis)

1. ½ cup of Bengal gram dhal / kadala paruppu
2. ¾ cup of powdered jaggery (the ratio of bengal gram dhal : jaggery is 1: 1.5)
3. 1 tablespoon grated coconut
4. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
5. 1.5 cups all-purpose flour (maida)
6. ½  teaspoon turmeric
7. ¼  teaspoon salt
8. Sesame oil - about 9 to 10 teaspoons
9. Ghee - as needed (approximately 6-8 teaspoons)
10. Water - as needed (approximately ¾ - 1 cup)
11. A banana leaf or a plastic sheet to form the Polis

Preparation

1. Preparing the stuffing
1. Rinse the Bengal-gram dhal in water. With enough water to cover them, cook the pulses until they are almost cooked. The dhal should remain whole, but when pressed with a spoon or your finger, it should get squashed.
2. Drain all the remaining water from the cooked dhal. Add jaggery and coconut to the cooked dhal and stir over medium-high heat until the jaggery dissolves. When the jaggery syrup starts bubbling, wait for 5-7 minutes, stirring the mixture continuously. When the mixture begins to thicken, switch off the heat and remove from heat. Let the mixture cool completely. As the mixture cools, the jaggery will thicken more. The cooled mixture will look as shown in the picture below
3. Grind the cooled mixture to make a paste. Do not add any water. Mix a spoon of cardamom powder into the paste and mix well.

Cooled poornam filling before it is ground.

This is the sweet filling.

2. To make the dough, mix all-purpose flour, salt, and turmeric powder, and knead together with a few teaspoons of sesame oil and ghee (2-3 spoons each), along with approximately ¾ -1 cup of water. Knead the dough well. The dough will be squishy and moist. Cover the dough, drizzle a spoon of sesame oil over it, and let it rest for 1 hour (and up to 3 hours).
3. When the dough is rested, start the poli preparation. Grease the banana leaf/plastic sheet (a ziplock bag will work fine) with a spoon of sesame oil. Take a small ball of dough and press it using the tips of your fingers, moving along the dough in outward motions starting from the center. When the dough is pressed out half-way, place a ball of the jaggery-dhal stuffing in the center. Pull the sides of the dough to close around the stuffing (as shown in the pictures). The dough will be stretchy and rubbery, making it easier to pull around the stuffing. Periodically dip your fingers in a small bowl of sesame oil and continue pressing out the stuffed dough into a thin circle. This step requires some practice. Don’t worry if the polis don’t shape into a circle, or if they tear a smidge in a few places (like mine did!). Just make sure not to unevenly press out the dough, for it will not cook evenly. Press the dough as thin as possible, without tearing the poli too much.
4. Now comes the tricky step. Reverse the leaf/plastic sheet onto your palm such that the poli touches your palm. Gently peel out the sheet/leaf to retrieve the pressed poli.Transfer the poli onto a hot skillet (cast-iron would be ideal). To ensure the poli peels out easily, be sure to liberally grease the leaf/sheet with sesame oil.
5. Cook the Poli on low-medium heat. Spoon a bit of ghee around the corners of the poli, and coat some on top of either sides of the poli. This helps it to be soft and aromatic. Cook the poli on both sides for about 2 -3 minutes each. Using the spatula, periodically press on the poli to help it cook evenly.
6. When cooked, the yellow color of the poli dough will turn golden. Transfer cooked Poli to a plate. Repeat steps 3-5 until the dough finishes.

Poli making steps - stuff, press, cook.

Polis definitely do turn out much better if they are slathered with ghee during the cooking phase. But even otherwise, sparing amounts of ghee will go a long way in softening the polis. Polis can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days. They are best consumed on the day they are made (especially if they don’t have as much ghee to prolong their soft texture). This dish is usually had on its own.

My polis are nowhere near perfect. I surely need more practice to knead the dough to the right consistency and to get them to be super soft and perfectly formed. I will be re-attempting and re-visiting this again.

Thiruvathirai Kali

Kali is a slightly sweet dish that is made during the festive day of Thiruvaathirai - the day when Goddess Parvati supposedly reunited with God Shiva. Kali and a special sambar (composed of 5,7, or 11 different vegetables) are prepared on this day. These two dishes are simple and satisfying.

Ingredients for Kalli (serves 3)

1. 1 cup of uncooked white rice
2. 2.5 cups of water
3. 1.5 cups of jaggery or brown sugar
4. a tablespoon of grated coconut
5. a tablespoon/ladle of cooked thoor dhal (yellow lentils)
6. 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder
7. a pinch of saffron
8. 1 teaspoon of ghee (clarified butter)
9. a few cashews and raisins to garnish

Preparation

1. Dry roast the rice till it starts browning slightly with an orangish-pinkish hue. With a spatula, constantly keep stirring the rice around in the pan so that all the grains roast evenly. Transfer the roasted rice to a cool dish and allow it to cool completely.
2. Grind the cooled, roasted rice till its finely broken and almost smooth. It should feel like fine sooji (rava) to touch. So, essentially grind the rice until it's 80-90% smooth and powdery. Measure 1 cup of this ground rice to prepare the Kalli. Usually, the volume of whole rice is almost the same as the volume of ground rice.
3. Bring 2.5 cups of water to a boil. Add jaggery to the water and stir on medium heat until the jaggery is completely dissolved.
4. Add coconut, saffron and cooked dhal to the boiling jaggery water.
5. Now, slowly add the ground rice to the water, constantly stirring to ensure the rice dissolves without any lumps. Continue heating/cooking on medium heat until the rice thickens slightly and begins to bubble (about 5-10 minutes)
6. Cook/steam the rice until the Kali comes together (until the ground rice cooks completely and there is no water). One can either steam this by immersing the smaller vessel containing the kali into a bigger pot filled with a cup or two of water, or cook it in a pressure cooker for a couple of whistles. Steaming the kali would take 15-20 minutes on high heat. The cooked kali is crumbly, yet slightly moist - exactly like rava kesari.
7. Garnish the kali with cardamom powder, cashews and raisins roasted in ghee.(Alternatively, you can add the cardamom powder to the cooking rice too)

Kali (sans raisins and saffron) and sambar from last year. Sambar recipe is coming up...

Kali is mildly sweet, and is meant to be had with the spicy, multi-vegetable sambar. If you'd like to prepare this as a dessert, you may have to add an extra cup of jaggery/brown sugar. 

Thiruvathirai sambar (that's made to accompany Kali) is prepared in the exact same way as arachu vitta sambar, except we add at least 5 or 7 (or 9) different types of vegetables to the sambar. Sweet potato and carrots are commonly added to this sambar to bring a subtle sweetness. I very frequently make this kind of sambar because it is packed with vegetables and lentils, and is so flavorful!

Mulled Cider

What better way to bring in the new year than by sipping some warm, spicy cider and reflecting on the year gone by. This is an easy and fast drink to concoct, and it is very soothing and warm on a cold winter evening.

Ingredients (subject to your preferences. I just put together spices that I thought would go well)

1. 1/2 gallon of (organic) apple cider (serves 5-6)
2. 2 teaspoons of honey
3. 1 teaspoon of orange zest
4. 1/2 teaspoon of whole cloves
5. 1/2 teaspoon of whole cardamom pods, slightly crushed
6. 2 cinnamon sticks
7. 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
8. 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
9. 1/4 teaspoon allspice

Preparation

1. Pour the apple cider into a big enough sauce pan. Add honey, and heat the cider on medium-high heat until the honey is dissolved. 
2. Combine all the spices in the cider and simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes.

Take mulled cider off the heat and pour it through a strainer to remove the whole spices. Serve.

 

I personally don't like to load the cider with a lot of powdered spices, especially with ground cinnamon, although cinnamon is touted as a classic holiday spice. So, it's entirely dependent on your preferences to adjust the spices and the measurements.