Sweet Pongal

Pongal is a very popular south Indian dish made with rice. There are various varieties of pongal like sweet pongal (made with sugar / jaggery or sometimes with both) and ven pongal made with mixed spices. Hope you had already seen the ven pogal preparation process in my blog so now lets see how to prepare sweet pongal with jaggery.

Sweet Pongal

Ingredients Serve -4

• Moong dal – ½ glass
• Rice – ½ glass
• Water – 3 & 1/4 glass
• Jaggary powder – ½ cup
• Cardamom – 3
• Kaju – 10
• Kishmish -10
• Ghee – 8tspn

The following picture shows the step by step process for Sweet Pongal:

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 Method:

1. Wash and soak moong dhal and rice for 15 min.
2. Take a pressure cooker, add moong dal, rice & 3 glass of water. Close with lid and cook for 3 vessels in medium flame. (figure 1 & 2)
3. Take a small pan add ¼ glass water,  jaggery and cook until jaggery gets fully melts. (figure 3 & 4)
4. Mean while, open the lid slowly and smash the mixture well. (figure 5)
5. Now transfer melted jaggery into dhal mixture which has been prepared in step 4 and mix well without lumps. (figure 6)
6. Take a pan, heat ghee and add kaju, kishmish. Roast them until color changes to golden brown.(figure 7)
7.  Transfer them along with ghee, cardamom into the dhal mixture and mix well. (figure 8)
8. Serve in a bowl. (figure 9)

Tasty & yummy sweet pongal is ready to serve !

Additional Tips:-

• In step 3, smash the mixture well or else when we add jaggary syrup into it then rice will become as separate grain.

Potato Curry

Here is our next curry recipe - Potato curry. The main ingredients in this recipe are potato and tamarind juice. You should try this recipe atleast once to enjoy the taste of potato which is cooked along with tamarind juice. 

Potatoes contain a wealth of health benefits like ability to improve digestion, reduce cholesterol levels, boost heart health, protect from polyps, prevent cancer, manage diabetes, strengthen the immune system, reduce signs of aging, protect the skin.

This recipe tastes best when served with rice or chapati. Let's begin the process.

Potato Curry

Ingredients: Serve- 4

• Potato  - 4(medium size)
• Oil – 8tspn
• Mustard seeds – 1/2tspn
• Urad dhal -1/2tspn
• Cumin seeds – 1/2tspn
• Garlic pieces - 5
• Curry leafs – as required
• Coriander leaves –as required
• Onion- 1 (large size)
• Tomato- 2 (small size)
• Tamarind Juice – 2 glass
• Turmeric powder- 1/4tspn
• Red chili powder - 4tspn (adjust to taste)
• Salt - 3tspn(adjust to taste)

The following picture shows the step by step process for Potato Curry:

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Method:

1. Remove the potato skin & cut it as medium size pieces. Tansfer into bowl add water and 1/4tspn salt. Keep aside.
2. Take 2 glass of tamarind juice in a bowl, ensure that juice is little thick shown in the figure.(figure 1)
3. In tamarind juice smash 1 tomato with hand and then add turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt. Taste the juice, if you feel like the taste is not as expected then add necessary ingredients to suit your taste and mix well. (figure 2)
4. Take a big pan heat oil in medium flame, add 1tspn mustard seeds wait for crackle and then add 1tspn urad dhal, cumin seeds, garlic pieces ,few curry leaves. Saute for few seconds. (figure 3)
5. Add onion and continue sauteing until onions become soft. (figure 4)
6. Add tomato and saute until tomatoes are smashed. (figure 5)
7. Add potato pieces and saute for 8 minutes in medium flame. (figure 6)
8. Now add Tamarind juice prepared in step 3 and mix well. Close the pan with lid and cook until potatoes gets cooked well. It’s take the time around 15- 20 minutes.(figure 7 & 8)
9. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve in bowl. (figure 9)

Potato Curry is ready to serve !

Additional Tips:-

• In step7, please ensure you saute the potatoes for 5-8 minutes so that it will cook soon.