Here is a festive pongal recipe for the annual Sankranti celebrations, when the kharif crop is harvested and the sun makes the shift into the Makara and eventually we start having longer brighter days. During this time of the year, in almost all Indian states, seasonal produce is harvested in a full rhythm and children will fly kites so hard and for so long they’ll remember the experiences and recount them to their own children fondly. Mothers supply snacks and white sesame laddoos, as sesame is warming for the season and calcium absorption capacity of our bodies is at a maximum.
The eponymous pongal offering is always made with new rice, which, because it’s just been harvested, cooks more easily and quickly than aged grain. A more elaborate preparation calls for the use of roasted moong dal, which adds its own depth of flavor, nutrition, and creaminess. But pongal is rarely made with black rice, as these usually slightly glutinous grains remain chewy to the end and take long to cook. When a crowd is gathered around an elaborately decorated Pongal-panal [pongal pot], and the frothy-thickening cooking liquid is rises and spills over the sides–everyone shouts, “Pongal-O-Pongal!” and nobody really wants to wait another hour for the dish to be ready!
Yet, pongal made with karuppu kavuni or “Burma black” as the rice is known in Karnataka, owing to its origins in Burma, and brought here in the hands of the Nattukottai Chettiyar traders of Chettinad traders–this rice has a flavor so unique, it offers a very pleasant variation to the usual pongal.
This recipe was published by Shalikuta in The Hindu in January 2020. Text by Deepa Reddy, photos by Pratiba Bhat.
Karuppu Kavuni Pongal
Ingredients
- 1 cup of Karuppu Kavuni, or other black rice
- 1/3 cup of moong dal
- 2 cups of jaggery
- 1 cup of ghee, or as suits your taste
- Flavoring: screw pine/ pandan leaves or bay leaves, cardamom or edible camphor. Can also use cloves, nutmeg and saffron.
- Garnish: a mix of cashews, raisins, freshly grated coconut
Instructions
Preparation and Roasting:
- Soak the rice for a few hours (for njavara) and up to overnight (for karuppu kavuni). Then wash it well and spread it on a cloth to dry. Odia meetha khichdi calls for the addition of turmeric prior to drying for 2-3 hours.
- Follow by either dry-roasting the rice or using a little ghee. Roasting the rice enhances the grain flavor, though you can skip this step.
- Roast the dal with or without a little ghee, until golden brown.
Cooking:
- Cover the rice and dal with about 3 portions of water and slow cook until both are soft.
- Much of the regional and local variation in making Pongal occurs here, in the use of just water to cook, a combination of milk and water, or just milk. The taste and texture of the resulting Pongal varies, as a result.
- Flavoring leaves such as Indian Bay [Tamalapatra] or Screw Pine/Pandan used in the cooking water are other variations from eastern India.
- Prepare the Jaggery paakam or syrup:
- Powder or crush the jaggery and heat with a little water in a heavy saucepan to dissolve and boil to 1-string consistency
- Add this to the cooked rice-dal mixture
- Pour on most of the ghee, reserving a few spoonfuls to roast cashews and raisins. Mix well.
Flavoring and finishing:
- Add crushed cardamom or a small amount of edible camphor.
- In the remaining ghee, lightly fry the cashews and then the raisins until they plump. Pour this along with the ghee onto the hot pongal.
- Add the freshly grated coconut last, as a final garnish.
