Ven Pongal, Tiffin Sambar & Thenghai Thayir Pachadi from Tamil Nadu

For the fifth day of Indian States, I have a common Tamil breakfast, pongal. There are two versions of pongal; ven pongal the savory version and sakkarai pongal the sweet version. Ven pongal is one of the common breakfast items in Tamil Nadu, besides idli, dosa and vada. It is prepared by cooking together rice and moong dal and then seasoning with oil or ghee (clarified butter).

Ven pongal is usually served with sambar and coconut chutney. For today’s mini thali, I have pongal with tiffin sambar and coconut chutney. Though pongal is a common breakfast, it can also be eaten for lunch or dinner. I made it for my lunch. I do make pongal once in awhile as a one pot meal for myself but my version is slightly different than this. Or should I say, I use to make something I thought was ven pongal 🙂 by adding even cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. Now I know my mutated version is not actually ven pongal. I took the pictures after lunch and by then my pongal became slightly dry. It was not dry when I made it and when it was hot.

Tiffin Sambar recipe here
Thenghai Thayir Pachadi recipe here on sunday

Source: Sharmis Passions
Total Time: 30 minutes
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Rice
• ¼ cup Moong Dal
• 4 cups Water
• 5 whole Cashew Nuts, broken into 2-3 pieces
• 2 tbsp. unsalted Butter or Ghee
• 1 tsp. Salt

Tempering:

• 2-3 tsp. Oil
• 2 Green Chilies
• ½ tsp. Black Peppercorns
• 1 – 1 ½ tsp. Ginger, finely chopped
• 3-4 Curry Leaves
• ⅛ tsp. Hing ~ asafetida
• Pinch of turmeric

Preparation:

• Dry roast moong dal until light brown. Keep aside.
• Wash rice and moong dal, cook them together in a pressure cooker with 4 cups of water for 4 whistles, until rice and dal are soft and mushy.
• Let the pressure release naturally.
• Take some butter in a pan and roast cashews until golden brown. Remove from butter and keep aside.
• In the same pan add oil and add tempering ingredients except turmeric.. Fry for few minutes until green chilies change color and ginger is lightly roasted.
• Add turmeric powder and remove from fire.
• When the pressure releases, open the cooker, add tempering and cashews. Give a good stir.
• Add remaining butter, stir and serve hot with sambar & chutney.

This day in 2013 – Vegetable Muffins
This day in 2014: Jamaican Chicken Curry

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 56