Sarkara Pongal & Banana Pongal....Happy Pongal everyone!

Happy Pongal and Makar Sankranthi to all who celebrate (although it may be a belated wish now) :-)
In the south of India, Pongal/Makara Sankranti is a harvest festival. Some of the items made with the newly harvested rice is various kinds of Pongal. Know more about the festival Pongal from here.

The special recipe I tried today for Pongal is Sweet Pongal ;-) Infact all the other lovely blogs out there (who posted some yummy Pongal recipes) literally made me crave insanely to have some sweet Pongal today. So all day in office today, I waited to get back home and immediately jump into making some Sweet Pongal.

And the result was instant success, Appu and I couldn't stop licking our spoons. Manish came home late and was so happy to get some yummy Pongal waiting for him and he finished the whole thing :-)
I made a simple Sarkara Pongal (prepared with Jaggery) and divided it and added some mashed banana into one half and made Banana Pongal too :-) The banana pongal was an instant hit with Appu, who ate a full bowl happily!

My pics are not so great as I took it when it was really dark outside, but this recipe is for keeps for sure!! It was super duper easy and everything was prepared within half an hour.

Sarkara Pongal

Sarkara Pongal Recipe
Recipe Source: Rak's Kitchen

You'll need
Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - 2-3 tblsp
Jaggery - 1/2 cup (I used 5 cubes)
Water - 2 & 1/2 cups
Ghee - 3 tblsp
Salt - a pinch
Whole Cardamom (Elaichi) - 4
Dry Ginger powder - 1/4 tsp
Cashews - About 5-8 (halved)
Raisins - 1-2 tblsp
Oil/Ghee - for frying the nuts

Directions
1. In a pressure cooker, add 1 tblsp Ghee and roast the moong dal until mild brown and fragrant.
2. Wash the rice, and add the rice with 21/2 cups water into the cooker, cover and cook for 5-6 whistles. Turn off the heat and let it stand until cooled down. Once cooled open the cooker and mash the rice well.
3. Powder the jaggery and add it to a saucepan with just enough water to cover the jaggery and heat it until all the jaggery melts.
4. Crush the whole Cardamom pods. Add the crushed Elaichi and Ginger powder to the melted jaggery. Heat it again until the spices gets mixed well.
5. Strain the melted jaggery and add it to the mashed rice. Mix well and cook again on medium flame for 2-3 minutes adding the remaining 2 tblsp ghee little at a time. (If the pongal starts becoming too dry add some water or milk)
6. Lastly fry the Raisins and Cashew Nuts in some ghee or oil and add it to the Sarkara Pongal. Enjoy sweet and delicious Pongal warm!

If you have been following me on Facebook, you might have known of my basket filled with 9 over-ripe banana's :-)

I had asked for suggestions to my lovely readers as to what I should do with them. I got several lovely ideas , even a hair care technique. Check out the suggestions here.
Last Sunday I used 2 of them to make Oatmeal Banana Pancakes (i'll post it soon). And today I used another one to make Banana Pongal with half of the Sarkara Pongal I prepared above....and it was so so good!

Banana Pongal

Banana Pongal Recipe
Prepare Sarkara Pongal as described above. Mash 1 large ripe Banana with a fork and add about 5-6 heaped tablespoons of Sarakara pongal to it and mix well. Garnish with nuts and raisins.

The Banana Pongal was so creamy and sweet and my little guy simply loved it. As you can see he gobbled down spoonfuls and asks for more ;-)

So I hope you all will enjoy some delicious pongal by trying this out! See you all soon...

-Manju