Pongal and Coconut Chutney

Pongal is a popular South Indian breakfast dish which is easy to prepare and yummy in taste.It is an essential weekend breakfast item for us when we are too lazy to make elaborate breakfast.Pongal can be made either sweet(usually for festivals) or spicy.This recipe is for spicy pongal as we don't think we can handle so much sugar in the morning!  Spicy pongal is usually accompanied with Sambhar or coconut chutney. We also made a quick coconut chutney.The preparation time for Pongal is about 10-15 minutes and for chutney about 5 minutes. It is essential to have a pressure cooker to make this dish as the rice and moong dal have to be mashed up really well.


What you need for Pongal:

• Rice - 1 cup
• Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
• Tumeric powder - 1/2 tbsp
• Cumin / Jeera seeds - 1 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
• Ginger - 1 small piece ( crushed)
• Hing or Asafoetida - a pinch
• Cashew (split)- as many as you like
• Curry leaves - a few leaves
• Green Chilli - 2 
• Pepper Corn - according to your spice level
• Pepper powder - if the pepper corns are not spicy enough
• Ghee - depending whether you are on diet or not ;-)

The preparation method:

• Wash the moong dal and rice thoroughly.If you have enough time , dry roast the rice and dal together.
• Add about 3-4 cups of water to the rice and moong dal in a pressure cooker.The ideal ratio of water to dal&rice is about 3:1. Add a  little turmeric, a tbsp of ghee and salt to taste.
• Pressure cook this mix for about 2-3 whistles.
• Now it is time to make the tempering or tadka.Add some oil to a pan.Once the oil is sufficiently heated , add mustard seed.Once the mustard seeds start to splutter , it is time to add the cumin seeds , crushed ginger , chilli, cashew ,pepper corns,curry leaves and small pinch of hing or Asafoetida. Fry this mixture for a minute or so ensuring it does not get burnt.
• Now open the pressure cooker once all the steam has been released. Add a little water if the contents are little dry.Mash the contents well if not already well mashed.The objective is to ensure individual rice grains and dal are not visible.
• Transfer the tadka to the pressure cooker. Mix well. Add some more ghee if you want the pongal to slide your throat and add to your body fat.Once you are happy with the salt and spice level (add pepper powder to make it more spicy) , transfer the yummy pongal to the serving plate.
• Viola ! Yummy pongal is ready for your eating pleasure. We are not done yet. We still have make the coconut chutney.

What you need for Coconut chutney:

• Coconut (of course) - 10-12 pieces of fresh coconut.You could also use grated coconut.
• Split roasted gram / pottu kadala - 2-3 tbsps
• Green chilli - 2
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
• Red chilli - 1 or 2 depending on spice level.
• Curry leaves - a few leaves

The preparation method:

• Grind the coconut , split roasted gram , green chilli and salt together. Add water depending the desired consistency level.A good coconut chutney should have a tight consistency(not watery).
• Add some oil to a pan.Once the oil is sufficiently heated , add mustard seed.Once the mustard seeds start to splutter(so that the mustard seeds don't leave a bitter taste) , add red chilli and curry leaves.Fry this for a minute making sure the contents are not burnt.
• Transfer this tempered contents to the grinded mixture.
• That's all ! Our coconut chutney is ready to served with our pongal.

Our pongal and chutney looked like this: