Ven Pongal

Tamil rice and split moong cooked to softness and finished with ghee, black pepper, cumin, and curry leaf

Origin: Tamil Nadu, South India

From the journey of Curry Leaf.

Pongal means to boil over, and the word names a festival, a moment, and two dishes. The Tamil harvest festival of the same name is held in mid-January, and its central act is cooking rice and milk in a new pot outdoors until it boils over the rim, which is taken as the sign of abundance for the coming year. The sweet version made that day, sakkarai pongal, is jaggery, rice, and ghee. Ven pongal is the savoury one, white rather than sweet, and it is eaten year-round as the standard Tamil breakfast. What it is, technically, is rice and split moong dal cooked together far past the point a pilau would stop, with plenty of water, until the grains have collapsed into something soft and slightly porridge-like. That softness is the point and is deliberate; a firm pongal has been undercooked. Everything else comes from the finish. Ghee is heated with whole black pepper, cumin, cashews, ginger, and a large handful of curry leaves, and poured over at the end. The pepper is whole and coarsely cracked rather than ground, so a bite of it arrives now and then, and the whole dish is built around that intermittent heat against the plain rice. It is temple food as much as breakfast food, distributed as prasadam at Tamil temples, and it is the dish most often served to someone who is unwell.

Ingredients

Base

  • 200 g raw short-grain rice
  • 80 g split yellow moong dal
  • 1.2 litres water
  • 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste

Tempering

  • 60 g ghee
  • 1.5 tsp whole black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
  • 1.5 tsp cumin seeds
  • 30 g cashew nuts
  • 1 piece fresh ginger, 3 cm, finely chopped
  • 2 sprigs fresh curry leaves
  • 0.25 tsp asafoetida
  • 2 whole green chillies, slit, optional

Method

  1. Dry-roast the moong dal in a pan over a medium heat for three to four minutes until it smells nutty and turns a shade darker.
  2. Rinse the rice and the roasted dal together in two changes of water.
  3. Put them in a heavy pan with the water and the salt, bring to the boil, then simmer uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Mash lightly with the back of the spoon as it cooks so the grains break down. It should end up soft, thick, and just spoonable.
  5. Meanwhile, heat the ghee in a small pan and fry the cashews until golden, then lift them out.
  6. Add the cracked peppercorns and cumin to the ghee and let them sizzle for thirty seconds until fragrant.
  7. Add the ginger, asafoetida, green chillies if using, and finally the curry leaves, which will spit and crisp within seconds.
  8. Pour the whole tempering, ghee and all, over the pongal and stir it through with the fried cashews.
  9. Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambar.

Notes

Short-grain rice such as sona masoori or ponni gives the right softness. Basmati stays too separate and gives a dish that is technically correct and wrong in the mouth. Roasting the moong dal is worth the four minutes every single time. Ghee is not optional and not substitutable here. The dish is rice, dal, pepper, and ghee, and there is nowhere for a poor fat to hide. It is best eaten immediately. Reheated it needs loosening with hot water and a fresh spoonful of ghee. Serve with coconut chutney, sambar, and gothsu, the tamarind and aubergine relish, which is the classic Tamil trio.

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