Ven Pongal

Growing up, I wasn't very fond of Pongal - mostly because it was only made once a year in my home - typically during the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal. However, the ease of making it and the fact that paired with a good gothsu and chutney, it is a complete meal in itself, has made me rethink my opinion of this humble dish. Though it is considered a breakfast dish, whenever I make it, I make a little extra so that I can carry it in my lunch box.

What you need:
Rice - 1 cup
Split moong dal - 1/2 cup
Water - 5 cups
Ginger -  a small piece, julienned
Peppercorns - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Ghee - 3 tsp
Cashew - a few (optional)
Salt - to taste

Wash the rice and dal well to remove starch. Add water, salt and ginger to it and cook on a medium flame in a pressure cooker until one whistle. Reduce the flame to low and cook for another 5 minutes.
Switch off the flame and set aside. In  a separate kadai, heat ghee. Coarsely crush the pepper and cumin. Toast the cashews in ghee until they turn reddish. Add the curry leaves and crushed spices. Saute and switch off the flame.
Once the pressure settles, open the pressure cooker and mix in the ingredients in the kadai. The pongal should not be too dry. It should be mushy and well cooked. If you feel that it is dry, add some hot water and stir.
Serve hot with chutney.

This is my second post for BM#77 under the theme healthy lunch box recipes.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Sambar idli

For the second week of Blogging Marathon#6, I will be posting one theme a day. Today's theme is Regional Specials. Though there are still several Karnataka dishes that I would like to try out and post, this time, I am sticking to a popular dish from Tamilnadu.
Hotel Saravana Bhavan is famous for its 14 idli. This is nothing but 14 tiny idlis dunked in sambar. Ratna Cafe's sambar idli is something people can't stop talking about once they have tasted it. A saucepan shaped (and sized) container full of their signature sambar in which the idlis soak until you dig into them - is it any wonder people keep going back for more of it?
Today, I have for you, my version of this popular restaurant dish.
For the idli batter:
Par boiled rice - 4 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Methi seeds - 1 tbsp
Salt and water - as needed

Soak the rice and dal separately. Add the methi seeds to the dal while soaking. Refrigerate the dal after soaking for an hour until you are ready to grind the batter. The rice needs to be soaked for 10-12 hours. Grind the dal first along with the cold water in which it has been soaking, until it is creamy. Add the soaked rice to it little by little until you have a smooth, thick batter. Add salt and mix well. Leave this to ferment overnight.

For the sambar:
Onion - 1, chopped fine
Tomato - 1, chopped
Tuar dal - 1/2 cup, cooked with 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder and mashed
Tamarind - extract from a lemon sized ball
coconut - 1/4 cup, grated
Oil - 1 tsp
Dhania/corriander seeds - 2 tsp
Chana dal - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Red chillies - 4 (adjust to taste)
Fry the last four ingredients in a tsp of oil until the dals turn reddish brown. Grind along with the grated coconut, adding sufficient water to make a smooth paste.
Heat a tsp of oil. Saute onions until pink. Add the tamarind extract, ground paste, cooked dal, salt and diced tomatoes. Let it boil until the raw smell goes away (10-15 minutes). Add water if you feel the sambar is too thick. Garnish with curry leaves and corriander leaves. Pour a tempering of mustard seeds(mustard seeds poppped in a tsp of oil) over this.

To make sambar idlis:
To make these the authentic way, you need a special, small sized idli mould. Each depression can hold about a tsp of batter. If you don't have it, the regular idli mould will work, but it looks much better if you make these small in size.
Grease the mould well and pour a tsp of batter into each depression.

Steam for 10-12 minutes until done.
Now take about 8 of these idlis in a small bowl. Pour a generous helping of hot sambar over it There should be enough sambar to cover all the idlis and then some more. Let it soak for about 5 minutes and then serve. If you find that the idlis have absorbed the sambar, pour some more sambar over it just before you serve.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#6 hosted by Srivalli
This goes to Champa who is hosting Kids' Delight -Mini bites, an event started by Srivalli.