Chakara Pongal

On the auspicious day of Pongal, celebrated as the "Harvest Festival" in Tamil Nadu, Chakara Pongal is a must-make dish for the festival. My husband is a big fan of any dish made with vellam(Jaggery) and as this is one easy-to-make food, I can make it in a jiffy. Here is the recipe for all the Jaggery lovers.

Preparation Time:20 mins ( rice and dal cooking time)

Cooking Time:20 mins

Ingredients:

• Jaggery - 2 big pieces or 8 small pieces (We get jaggery here in a box with about 16 pieces or so)
• Rice - 1 cup
• Moong Dal - 1/3 cup
• Ghee - as needed
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Cashews and Raisins - As needed

Procedure:

1. First wash the rice with water and keep it for 15 mins. Same with Moong dal too.
2. Pour water to the ratio of 2:1 rice and 1:1/3 ratio for moong dal.
3. Keep it in a pressure cook and electric cooker and let it get done.
4. While its near to getting done, boil water(1 cup) in a vessel. When it is boiling add Jaggery pieces and melt it. The jaggery should dissolve completely in the water and become of string consistency.
5. When the rice is done, mash it, and when the jaggery is also of the right texture, mix the rice-dal to the jaggery liquid.
6. Mix thoroughly. Add ghee to this as needed to get a better texture and taste.
7. Heat ghee in a small vessel, add cashews and raisins to this. When it tempers, add them to the final pongal.

Tips:

• For those calorie conscious people, you can use brown sugar instead of jaggery too .