Pressure Cooker Sakkarai Pongal

Bowl of Instant Pot dump and cook Sakkarai Pongal.

Pressure Cooker Sakkarai Pongal

Pressure cooker sakkarai pongal is a one pot, dump and cook, sweet rice & moong dal recipe. It is a traditional recipe prepared during Sankranti and also during festivals.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Indian Cuisine, South Indian Cuisine

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 16

Pressure Release 12

Total Time 33

Servings

Calories 456kcal

Author Usha Rao

Equipment

Electric pressure cooker like an Instant Pot
Frying Pan (optional)
Oven safe bowl (2 cups size)

Ingredients

½ cup Rice I used basmati rice
¼ Moong Dal
3 tablespoon Ghee (clarified butter) or Unsalted Butter
1 ¼ cup Water
1 cup Milk
1 cup grated or chopped Jaggery (5 cubes and adjust sweetness to taste)
10 Whole Cashews, broken into pieces
8-10 Raisins
¼ teaspoon Cardamom Seeds, powdered

Instructions

Wash rice and moong dal several times and keep aside.
In Instant Pot (IP), add 1 tablespoon of ghee, pour milk, 1 cup water and washed rice moong dal.
Place the trivet in the pot on rice dal mixture.
Take jaggery in a 2 cup glass, steel or oven safe bowl. I used a pyrex bowl. Pour ¼ cup water in the bowl, cover with a steel plate or aluminum foil and place it on trivet.
Close IP lid, set the vent to sealing, cook on manual/pressure cook, high pressure for 6 minutes. It will take about 10-12 minutes for the pressure to build up and then going to cook for additional 6 minutes.
Once done, let pressure release naturally. This will take about 12 – 15 minutes.
While pongal is cooking, on stovetop heat a small pan with 2 tablespoon of ghee, roast cashews and raisins until golden brown. Though this step is against OPOS way of cooking, I wanted to roasted cashews and raisins before adding to pongal.
Open IP lid, remove the bowl of jaggery syrup and the trivet from IP container. Stir jaggery syrup, strain the syrup for impurities and pour it over pongal (cooked rice moong dal).
Pour ghee cashews raisins over pongal. Throw in cardamom powder and mix well.
Consistency of pongal at this stage is going to be a bit liquidy. That is fine and it will thicken as it cools.
Pongal is ready to serve.

Notes

Suggestions:

Pressure Cooker – When cooking in pressure cooker, cook for 6 – 8 whistles. Keep an eye on the cooker as there might be some spillage.
Non OPOS Recipe – Dry roast moong dal on stove top. Turn off the flame and add rice to same pan. Let the rice roast in hot pan. Let rice and dal cool. Wash rice dal and add to IP. Add milk water and ghee, cook in IP as mentioned in the recipe. In a separate pan / pot mix jaggery with ¼ cup water and cook on low flame until jaggery melts. Follow rest of the recipe as as mentioned above.

Note:

Color of sakkarai pongal depends on the color of jaggery. Darker the jaggery, darker the color of Pongal would be. The jaggery used here is light amber and hence the color seen in the photos.
Sakkarai pongal solidifies once cooled becomes a lump. Re-heat it for few seconds to minutes, before serving. For a small bowl, re-heat for 30 seconds and longer for large quantity.
Nutritional information is approximate.

Nutrition