VEN PONGAL & KALYANA GOTHSU

This is a typical wedding breakfast combo. The soft, creamy Ven Pongal sliding inside our throats, well dipped into the Kalyana Gothsu......without these two, there is no wedding,  I can surely say. And, even though Ven Pongal appears to be quite an easy dish, if some small techniques are followed, it will never ever let us down.  And here is yet another Inseparable Combo....

Ingredients

Raw rice - 1 cup

Split mung dhal - 1/4 cup

Water - 4 cups

Milk - 2 cups

Salt to taste

For seasoning

A handful of cashews, broken

Ghee - 4-5tbsps

Black pepper - 1tsp

Jeera - 1tsp

Finely chopped ginger - 1 tsp

Fresh curry leaves

Recipe Cuisine: South Indian; Category: Breakfast

Prep time: 5mts; Cooking time: 20 mts

Serves 3

Rice and dhal, washed and soaked in water for 30 minutes. Then to be pressure cooked for 15 minutes, with 4 cups water.

Above mentioned seasonings; black pepper and jeera powdered.

The cooked rice-dhal mixture, add salt, and 2 cups milk. Adding milk is to lend Pongal a white and creamy texture. Since rice-dhal mixture is solid and milk is liquid, mix gently, merging them up slowly, little by little. Otherwise, the hot mixture might splash on your hands and leave a scar.

                                                                   Both well blended.

First, in 1 tbsp ghee, fry the broken cashews to golden colour and 

drop upon the Ven Pongal.

Now, add 2 more tbsps ghee, and add all the seasonings...and....

                                                        Pour this also on top of the Pongal.

Mix it up well, and add the balance ghee too. Please don't be stingy in this. Without the necessary                                    ghee, Pongal will be like glue, sticking to your mouth.

Then, store in a casserole and keep it steaming hot, retaining the full flavours. See!! now it has drunk up all the ghee...Pongal must have been thirsty!!.

Pour a lavish, generous helping of Kalya Gothsu (recipe to follow) and devour this delicious Inseparable Combo breakfast.

Categories: Festival Delicacies, Inseparable Combos, South Indian Breakfasts, Tiffin Varieties