Sakkarai Pongal

This was made on Pongal. I wanted to make Pongal, but not the authentic way, which is difficult if you dont know the correct measures. This recipe below suited fine and I tried it. The result was surprising, delicious Pongal, which all of us liked a lot.

 

Ingredients:
Rice - 3 cups
Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
Brown Sugar - 3 cups
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Water - 9 cups
Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
Cashews - 2 tbsp
Raisins - 1/2 cup

Steps:
1. Wash and pressure cook the rice and dal.(9 cups water).
2. In a pan, add 1 -1/2  cups of water and brown sugar.
3. Keep stirring until you get one string consistency. To check this, take a drop of the syrup between your thumb and finger, press and release the fingers, you'll see a single string of the syrup. If you dont see any string, stir the syrup for some more time.
4. Once the single string consistency is achieved, add the cooked rice and dal in this syrup and mix well.
5. Keep the flame low and mix well for 2-4 minutes.
6. Fry the raisins and cashews in the ghee and pour this on the pongal.
7. Add more ghee if required and remove from heat.
Serve hot.

Note:
You can use jaggery instead of brown sugar.Make sure to strain the syrup before mixing the rice and dal.
Fry the raisins and cashews separately.

Puran Poli/Obbattu/Holige

Festivals remind us of family, friends, fun and food... Im a born foodie and enjoy cooking especially on festive occasions. This year I prepared Puran Poli, Urad vadai, Sakkarai Pongal and murukku for Pongal.
Puran Poli is a must in all the festivals celebrated in Maharashtra. This recipe is not an authentic one, but nevertheless outstanding. I saw a video on youtube for this, by an elderly lady. Her name is not mentioned in the video. But I would like  to give the credit to her, cos otherwise I would not have made these. I have not used nutmeg powder and made some few changes.

Ingredients:
Puran(Filling) :
Dal - 2 cups
Brown Sugar - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp

Dough:
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Maida/All purpose flour - 2 tbsp
Besan/gram flour - 2 tbsp
Oil - 6 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Steps:
1. Wash and soak the dal for 2 hours in 4 cups of water.
2. In a pan add all the flours and using little water knead the dough. Knead it well. Cover it and let it rest for 30 minutes.
4. Take a plate, add oil, salt and 2 tbsp water and knead the dough again. It will become a bit gooey and after sometime, the dough will become very soft. Cover it and keep aside.
5. Pressure cook the rice for 1 whistle.
6. Remove excess water from the dal. Let it cool.
7. Add sugar and brown sugar/jaggery in the dal and mix well. Blend it in a mixer/blender to a fine paste.
8. In a microwave, cook the mixture for 5 minutes on high, remove, mix well and again microwave on high for another 3 minutes. The dal will be cooked. Cook the mixture in a non-stick pan if you dont want to microwave.
9. Tie a muslin cloth to the rolling board. Make round balls of dough and puran. Fill the puran in the dough and roll it using little rice flour.
Note:  I tied a handkerchief to the rolling board, it was very easy to roll the polis. 
10. Cook the polis carefully on a skillet on both the sides.
Serve hot with ghee, amti or milk.