Ingredients
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1 cup Red Rice
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1/2 cup Mung Beans
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1 1/2 cup of water
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1/2 cup of coconut milk
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pinch of salt
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250g of jaggery grated
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4-5 green cardamon pods (broken)
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pinch of ground cloves
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1/4 inch cinnamon stick (broken into small pieces)
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1/2 cup freshly grated coconut or desiccated coconut
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3 tbs Ghee
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100g raw cashews (split into 2)
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100g sultanas
Directions
Thai Pongal takes me back to my childhood in Sri Lanka, where I used to celebrate as a kid. It is a multi-day Hindu harvest festival of South India and is celebrated around Sri Lanka, particularly in the Tamil community. It is observed at the start of the month “Thai” (means January in Tamil) according to the Tamil solar calendar and this is typically on January 14.
Pongal welcomes new beginnings.
Pongal is especially made for the Thai Pongal Day! Super delicious, sweet, fragrant, and can be served as a dessert too! This is how my Mum taught me how to make Pongal, there are so many ways of making this delicious dish.
Directions
- Add 1/2 cup of mung beans to a frying pan and dry roast on very low heat for 5 minutes or until the mung beans are a slightly golden colour.
Remove from the heat and set aside until required. - Wash the red rice a couple of times with cold water and add 1 1/2 cup of cold water to a saucepan and place the red rice in the pan with a pinch of salt.
- Cook the rice until the water is evaporated and the rice is partially cooked. Then add the coconut milk onto the saucepan with rice, then add the grated jaggery & mix well.
- Cook until the rice is sticky and cooked through
- Grind the mung beans or use a mortar and pestle to break the mung beans into small pieces and remove the skin from the mung beans, as much as you can.
- Add the mung beans to the rice along with cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon, and freshly grated coconut and mix well.
- If you require a little bit more coconut milk, you can add another 1/4 cup.
- Heat up the Ghee in a frying pan and roast the cashews in the Ghee. Once the cashews are golden colour then add the sultanas and fry them for another 2 minutes.
- Pour the Ghee along with the cashews and sultanas into the rice. Mix well and serve on a banana leaf.
