Pongalo Pongal!

It is harvest time in India. A year of hard work has paid off in a golden harvest of rice. This is the rice that will keep the entire village fed for the next year. The paddy is harvested, hulled and stored with great care. And the entire village celebrates. So do the towns and big cities. It is Pongal time!

A time for abundance. A time when joy permeates. A time for celebration. A time to cook newly harvested rice with newly harvested sugar cane that has been made into jaggery – Pongal! The very word “Pongal” means to overflow in abundance.

In India, this is my favorite time of the year. The weather is cool’er’ and the urchins on the street are happier. The kids roll the old bicycle tire with a stick for entertainment and generally run around begging for bits of sugar cane to chew on. In return, they’ll run small errands for the teenage boys – pass the love note to the pretty girl next door with compliments from the “anna” (elder brother) who gave them the bit of sugar cane in exchange. The pretty girl takes the note, reads it, casts a sidelong glance and a shy smile at the pimpled teen boy while briskly shooing off the urchin to hide her embarrassment. Love is in the air! Joy is in the air. And Pongal is upon us.

This year, I decided to make Pongal with brown rice. I am guessing that in the ancient days they used to make Pongal with brown rice before the rich made it fashionable to eat refined white rice. My husband and I love the texture of brown rice. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it is an unrefined carbohydrate and known to be better for health than eating white rice. All in all, it is a happy addiction.

Here is my recipe – shout “Pongalo Pongal” as you make this, so the Gods shower you and your family with wealth, prosperity and good health.

Here is what you need:
1/3 cup split yellow moong dal
2/3 cup brown rice
1 1/2 cups powdered jaggery (available at any self-respecting Indian grocery store)
2 1/2 + 1 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk or 2% milk

To garnish:
3 tbsp butter
25 cashews chopped
25 golden raisins
1 tsp cardamom powder

Here is how you make this:

Heat a pan on medium to low heat and toast the moong dal until light brown and aromatic. Remove from stove and now toast the rice for about 5 minutes on a low setting. Remove from stove. Place the rice and dal together in a dish. Add 2 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil or pressure cook. Cook until tender and set aside.

In another pan, place the jaggery and 1 cup water and bring to a roiling boil until the jaggery melts and become syrupy. Now add the cooked rice and moong dal and 1/2 cup milk. Simmer.

Heat butter in a pan until melted and bring it to a boil. Now take off the stove and cool a bit for about 5 minutes. Place it back on the stove on medium heat and add the chopped cashews. Fry until golden brown. Remove from the pan with a slotted ladle. Now add the golden raisins in the same melted butter and fry for just about 20-30 seconds until they puff up. Remove the pan and pour the melted butter and golden raisins on the simmered Pongal.

Add the powdered cardamom and mix well. Garnish with fried cashews.

7 or 9 Vegetable Stew – Thiruvadarai Kootu

Back in the days before the world became global, and the local produce store carried vegetables from all over the world regardless of season, we used to eat seasonally and locally grown vegetables. In Southern India, with its arid conditions, it was wonder if you managed to get 7 or 9 different kinds of vegetables on the same day.

This was the time of the year when it was at all possible with vegetables growing in prolific variety during the winter months. That is the reason the 7 / 9 vegetable stew was such a specialty. And that was why it was made on Thiruvadarai day along with Thiruvadarai Kali and offered to Lord Nataraja

Continuing on my series of festival recipes and reader recipes, here is the Thiruvadarai Kootu recipe from my aunt Chandra. You can make this stew with 7 or 9 different kinds of vegetables. The kinds of vegetables used in this stew are yellow and white pumpkin, green beans, colocasia or taro root, elephant yam, potato, sweet potato, cluster beans, carrots, peas, fresh lima beans, zucchini, okra and eggplant.

Most of the tubers and roots in this list contain complex carbohydrates that help keep weight and blood sugar under control and protect against cardiovascular diseases.

Even though the recipe below is slightly complicated, it is well worth trying. The tantalizing tastes that are evoked by the Thiruvadarai meal is simply beyond description. The sweet in the Kali, the textures of different vegetables, the tartness in the tamarind and the spices that go into making the stew, all contribute to an immensely satisfying and healthy meal.

Here is what you need:
5 – 7 cups chopped vegetables
1 cup tuvar dal (yellow lentils)
2 cups + 1 cup water
1 tsp tamarind paste (available in any Indian grocery store)

For the masala:
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp bengal gram dal (split yellow peas)
4-5 dry red chilis
1/2 tsp asofoetida powder (available in any Indian grocery store)
2 tbsp coconut powder
1 tbsp olive oil

For garnish:
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp bengal gram dal (split yellow peas)
1/2 tsp urad dal (split and peeled black lentils)
1/2 tsp asofoetida powder
2 stalks curry leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt

Here is how you make this:
Steam the vegetables. Some of the root vegetables like colocasia, yam, potato and sweet potato need to be cooked separately because they take longer to cook. Cook the eggplant, peas, carrots and pumpkins together. Add 2 cups water to the Tuvar dal and cook until soft and well done. Mash with a spoon. Dissolve the tamarind paste in cup water and set aside.

For the masala: Heat olive oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds. Brown for 10 seconds. Now add the coriander seeds, red chili and bengal gram dal. Roast for 1 minute or until lightly brown. Now add the asofoetida powder and coconut powder. Roast for another 30 seconds. Take the masala mix off the stove and cool. Place in a blender with enough water to make a thick paste. Grind to a fine paste.

Mix the tamarind water and the vegetables and bring to a boil. Now add the prepared masala paste, salt and cooked tuvar dal. Bring to a roiling boil and take off the stove.

To garnish: Heat olive oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, add the spices in this order: Mustard seeds first and wait for them to crackle. Now cumin seeds, bengal gram dal, urad dal, asofoetida and curry leaves. Stir fry until curry leaves are crisp. Pour over the prepared kootu. Serve hot with Thiruvadarai Kali.

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Sweet Rice dessert – Thiruvadarai Kali

Hindus are probably neck-to-neck with the Greeks when it comes to worship. We love variety. So we designate a special God for every aspect of our lives – food, knowledge, wealth, beauty… In the interest of abundance, we also use the multiplier effect of reincarnation by having each God incarnate multiple times into different avatars. We end up with an exponential number of Gods, whose birthdays we celebrate unfailingly each year .  This is the way we keep God and spirituality in our daily lives. There is not a single month in a year when there is no celebratory event revolving around one of the Gods.  Each celebration involves cooking the God’s favorite food and distributing it to family, friends and people around. What a win-win! The Gods are happy and so are we!

This past Saturday was the birthday of Lord Nataraja, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. As Lord Nataraja, Shiva does the ‘Tandava’ or the divine dance of creation and destruction. This dancing God’s birthday is known as Thiruvadarai and tradionally arrives just before Pongal, the harvest festival.

I love the sweet rice dish that is made on this one day each year – it is called Kali – pronounced “ca-lhi”. Because my mother makes it so well, I have never attempted to learn how to make it until now. This year, my mother is visiting India but as luck would have it, my aunt and uncle are visiting their son and daugher-in-law in the US and my aunt too, is a cook non-pareil. She made the Thiruvadarai Kali on Saturday and invited me over so I didn’t miss my favorite dish this year too! I can definitely recommend this recipe. It tasted just fantastic. Kali is traditionally served with a “Kootu” or 7 vegetable stew. Picture shows Kali served with Kootu. I will post the Kootu recipe in another post.

This is the first of my series of posting recipes from my readers. This is also the first of my series of festival recipes. Here is my aunt Chandra’s, Kali recipe.

Here is what you need:
1 cup raw rice (she used white rice, but I will try this with brown rice and post that recipe too)
2 cups powdered jaggery (available in any Indian grocery store)
2 cups water
10 cashews (roasted in melted butter or ghee)
1 tsp cardomom powder
2 tsp ghee (melted butter)
1 tbsp coconut powder (available in any Indian grocery store)

Here is how you make this:
Heat a pan and toast the rice on a low flame until light brown. Remove from the stove and cool. Place the cooled toasted rice in a blender and powder coarsely to the consistency of semolina. Dissolve jaggery in water. Add the dissolved jaggery to the powdered rice and cook over medium heat until all the water is evaporated and the rice is cooked.

Add cardomom powder, coconut powder and ghee and mix well. Garnish with roasted cashews and serve warm.