Chakkarai/Sweet Pongal for Blog Hop

Hello Friends,


I don't know where to start. These last couple of weeks or shall I say months have been crazy busy. So, many things happening (nothing bad). Like I was telling this friend of mine, it is an action-packed days, full-to-busy from morning 4:30 am till 10 pm (before I crash in bed).


I guess I am also going through that blogger block or whatever it is called where I don't know what to do or what to post. And, again, I am also not cooking very new and uncooked dishes, so that is also one of the reasons.


Anyways, I want to apologize here to all my readers and my blogger friends whom I follow religiously as I did not get to post or visit anyone in last month or so.


I love Blog Hop event, but unfortunately, could not post my dish on time as I should have. Sorry Saras about it. I was paired with wonderful Saras. While I was going through her blog, this dish caught my eye right away and I knew what to make. I always wanted to try Chakkarai/Sweet Pongal as I love it as a prasadam. For my non South Indian friends who have not heard of this before, let me explain it. It is cooked rice/moong dal mix in milk and then sweetened with Jaggery and loaded with ghee. Have I tempted you enough? :)


Here is the delicious recipe.


Chakkarai/Sweet Pongal

Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Moong Dal - 1/3 cup
Milk - 1.5 cups
Water - 2.5 cups
Powdered Jaggery - 2 cups or to taste
Green Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp
Cashews - pieces, 2 tbsp
Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 3 tbsps
Preparation

• Pressure Cook Rice & Dal till almost mushy with Milk and Water mix (as mentioned above).'
• Meanwhile, heat jaggery with about 1/4 cup water till it melts nicely.
• Pour Jaggery water and 2 tbsp ghee in cooked rice/dal mix (add about 1/4 cup water, if needed).
• Add cardamom powder and mix well.
• In a small non-stick pan, fry cashew pieces to golden brown in 1 tbsp ghee.
• Mix cashews well with the sweet pongal and take it off the heat.

Serving
This is usually made as an offering to God, but we enjoyed it as a delicious dessert. If I were you, I will serve it warm :)


That's all for now. Hope to be back on track. Take care till next post.