Savory and Sweet Pongal with rice and mung dal

Savory and Sweet Pongal

Ingredients:

Ponni Raw rice(can substitute with any variety of raw rice)
Mung Dal(skinned and halfed mung bean)

For savory pongal - Turmeric(haldi) powder, salt, ghee, broken cashews, curry leaves(kadi patta)whole black pepper and cumin(jeera) seeds

For sweet pongal - Ghee, Jaggery(gur), Cardamom(elaichi), broken cashews and Indian golden raisins

Directions:

1. Measure out 1 cup ponni raw rice and 3/4th cup of mung dal in a microwaveable container. 
2. Wash well and add 5 cups of water this will be used for both sweet and savory pongals.
3. Cook in the microwave(typically for 1500-1700 watt MW- 7 mins power2 to soak and 20mins power 8). 
4. Separate half or a third of the cooked quantity in another container for the sweet pongal.

 For savory pongal

1. Add salt as needed and half a tsp of turmeric(haldi) powder to the cooked mixture and mix well
2. Sprinkled 3-4 tsp of water and cook for an additional 3 mins on high. 
3. Roast broken cashews in ghee and add..
4. Also sauté slightly crushed whole black pepper and jeera(not powdered) in ghee with some curry leaves(kadi patta)  and add..
5. Mix well and cook for an additional minute or two on high 
6. Tip - Consistancy should be soft like kichdi not separate like for pulao.

For sweet pongal

1. Add 3-4 tsp of milk to the cooked mixture kept aside and cook additional 3 mins on high for the milk to be absorbed.  
2. In a kadai(deep wide pan) take required amount of jaggery(gur) and add a small amount of water(less than quarter cup). 
3. Heat on a low flame to melt.  Make sure there are no pieces of unmelted jaggary.
4. Add in the precooked mixture and stir well,
5. Add one or two tsp of ghee as desired and stir well.
6. Continue to cook on a low flame until all the liquid is absorbed and the ghee glistens. 
7. Sauté broken cashews and the golden raisins in ghee and mix in
8. Finally sprinkle some elaichi(cardamom) powder on top.

The above was my dysfunctional style of cooking the traditional pongal(my mom's) recipes to celebrate the festival of Pongal on Jan 14th 2013.