Sarkarai Pongal, a traditional sweet rice made during the festival of Pongal, harvest festival of Tamilnadu.
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The Pongal Festival
Pongal, the harvest festival celebrated in Tamilnadu. The 4-day festival, celebrated by South-Indians, all over the globe, usually falls on January 14, almost every year. Pongal also marks the solar equinox, beginning of summer days, when the sun travels northward, marking the beginning of summer months.
THE FOOD
With every festival , there is certain kind of food involved. With Pongal being the harvest festival, the food is made with freshly harvested crop and vegetables. Cooking on Pongal day involves lot of locally grown, country vegetables. This also promotes local food and eating seasonal food, which nourishes our body for the season.
How to make Sarkarai Pongal
Sarkarai pongal means sweet rice, made with rice and dal, sweetened with jaggery. Jaggery is known as Nattu Sarkarai/country sugar, that’s why the name sarkarai pongal.
Take rice and dal, dry roast until golden. Cook the roasted rice and dal with milk and water. Rice and dal signifies abundance, cooking it with milk, brings out the richness in the dish. If vegan, you can opt for any plant-based milk or just use water instead.
Add melted and strained jaggery to soft cooked rice-dal. Flavor the pongal with cardamom and edible camphor. Garnish it with ghee roasted cashewnuts. Thats it sarakarai pongal is ready. Offer the pongal to the sun god, thank him for the food and enjoy it with your friends and family.
If you are looking for alternate grain to rice to cook pongal, millets would be a great choice. I have a Thinai Sarkarai Pongal recipe in the blog, you can also check this Broken wheat Sarkarai Pongal.
Sarakarai Pongal | Sweet Rice Recipe | Sweet Pongal Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup raw rice
- ¼ cup moong dal
- 1&½ cup milk
- 1&½ cup water
- ½ cup powdered jaggery
- 4 tablespoon ghee
- Cashews and raisins for garish
Instructions
- In a Heavy-bottom Pan, roast rice and dal together. It gives out a nice aroma while roasting.
- Once done, add milk and water, and simmer the flame. Let the Rice and dal get cooked well. to a mushy state. If vegan, use plant-based milk or just use water entirely
- Melt jaggery in ¼ cup water and strain for impurities. Add the jaggery and mix well.
- When the jaggery mixes well with rice and dal, add ghee and mix well. Once the all the liquid is absorbed. Take it off the flame.
- In another pan, add some ghee and roast cashews and raisins and add it to the pongal. Serve it warm.
To make it in Pressure Cooker
- To make the recipe in the pressure cooker. Just mix rice and dal. Add the required liquid(milk-water mixture) to it and pressure cook for 5-6 whistles.
- Let the pressure come down on its own. Melt jaggery in water and strain for impurities. Now take the cooked rice-dal back to stove, add jaggery water to it.
- Let the jaggery mix well with the rice-dal mixture. Add ghee to the pongal. Once all the liquid is absorbed, take it off the stove.
- In another pan, add some ghee and roast cashews and raisins and add it to the pongal. Serve it warm.
Serve this delicious sarkarai pongal warm. Sarkarai pongal can also be made as a dessert for other occassions in the family. They are a great make-ahead dessert.
Other Pongal Festival Recipes
If you have tried this recipe and like it, give it a star rating or let me know in the comments below. You could also share it with me on Instagram using #icampinmmykitchen and tagging me @priyasrinivasan.
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An old post from September 2010, updated with new pictures and content for better engagement.
Priya Suresh
Congrats Priya on ur blog anniversary..excellent looking sweet pongal..keep rocking gal..
Torviewtoronto
lovely steps looks delicious one of my favourite
http://torviewtoronto.blogspot.com/2010/09/festive-rice-event.html
Krishnaveni
congrats Priya, sweet pongal looks delicious
Jayanthy Kumaran
Looks absolutely mouth watering..nice clicks..
Tasty Appetite
Jeyashris Kitchen
nice step wise explanations,we make it in a different way.
Raks
Wow,all time favorite,yummy!
lata raja
Forever i drool…with sarkarai pongal….yours truly conforms to what Sri Andal said…the pongal will drip ghee until the elbows and I love to have it thus!
Jaleela Kamal
yummy sakkarai pongal
Gloria
I love rice pudding so this sounds intriguing for sure. I will have to hunt down some of the ingredients. Can’t wait to give it a try. The perfect comfort food dessert.
Marisa Franca
This year I promised myself I’d try new recipes with exciting new ingredients. I’ve never had sweet rice before so I was happy to try something new. I didn’t know how Hubby would take going from savory rice to sweet. We both loved the recipe! We made it yesterday for our Indian meal tonight. The sweet rice is delicious. This is a recipe I’ll definitely repeat.
Gail Montero
I’m all about desserts made with rice so this delicious sarkarai pongal is right up my alley!
Natalie
I never tried this dish but I love rice puddings so I know I’m going to love it. I just saved the recipe. I’m excited to try this soon.