Khara Pongal

 

  

I spent the first 8 years of my life in a small town on the south eastern coasts of Tamilnadu. We lived less than a kilometer off the shore and the sounds of the waves crashing onto the beach was as implicit as our own breathing. My family spent the weekends having picnics on the beach, with me and my brother wandering off to collect shells and other odd items on the beach while the sun sank into the horizon ahead of us. We would then open up the simple dinner of sweet and savory pongal mom would have packed for all of us and eat it amidst the twinkling stars peeping out of the darkening skies and the swaying palm trees.   

While we moved to Hyderabad when I was young enough to take these sights and scenes for granted,  now sometimes I sorely wish I could go back one last time to breathe in the entire scenery and the mentally capture my childhood spent on those coastlines.  

So when mom came to visit me, I immediately asked her to make the savory pongal or khara pongal as we call it. As we went about making it, all those memories of the picnics on the beach became our conversation over breakfast.  

Try this recipe out! 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup moong dal 

1/2 cup rice 

1 tablespoon ghee 

Cumin seeds 

6-8 pepper kernels 

Curry leaves 

2-3 green chillies 

1 tablespoon desiccated coconut - roasted for 1-2 min 

a handful of cashew nuts - dry roasted  

1 cup water 

salt to taste 

In a pan on a low flame, roast the dal till it starts turning orange - brown. Add the washed rice into it, add 2 cups of water and pressure cook it till done (3-4 whistles).  

Using a mortar, hand grind the cumin seeds and the pepper corns till roughly pounded. In a big round bottomed pan, heat the ghee. Add the cumin pepper corn powder, then add the chopped chillies, curry leaves, coconut and cashews. Also add salt according to taste. Then add the cooked moong dal and rice mixture. Also add some water to mix all the ingredients. lower the flame and cook with the lid closed for 2-3 min till the pongal thickens.  

Serve hot with onion/tomato chutney.