Sarkkarai Pongal

If there is one dish that has probably survived without much change for centuries, it must be Pongal – Tamil food can’t get any more authentic than that. The cooking method might have changed over time, but the dish itself has undergone only little change.

The finished product depends on the quality of the main ingredients used, rice and Jaggery. Par boiled rice is generally consumed in TamilNadu, it always intrigues me as to why par boiled rice isn’t used for making Pongal. I am sure there must be some significance. I make Sarkkarai Pongal for most festivals including Saraswathi Poojai as it is simple to make and delicious to eat. Hence decided to enter it for the RCI Tamilnadu festival food event. This recipe of mine is influenced by reading various tips from this place, a wonderful site for discussing food. So here goes my recipe

• Rice – 1 cup
• Jaggery – 1 cup (Oh yes I have a sweet tooth)
• Cardamom – 2 (roughly smashed)
• Ghee/butter – 1 spoon
• Milk – 1 cup
• Cashew nut/raisins/thinly sliced coconut strips – as per taste

Pressure cook the rice with 1 cup milk and 2 cups water. Once cooked mash it with a spoon as much as you can. In a thick bottom pan place the jaggery and ½ cup water on slow flame to melt it. Skim away any impurities that may come on the top. There are different varieties of jaggery and many people consider achu vellam the best. I use a combination of achu vellam and karupati (this gives a nice brown colour to the Pongal). After skimming away the top layer, add the cooked rice and stir well till all the water in the mixture is absorbed into the rice and the rice reaches a thick consistency. In a small pan heat the butter or ghee and add the cashew nuts, raisins and/or the coconut strips. When the cashew is golden brown and the raisins swell add this garnish to the rice and mix well. Finish off by adding some crushed cardamom. Some like to finish off with a generous amount of butter. There you have it, a dish favoured by all Gods!

P.S - a handful of moong dal is generally added to the rice in the cooker. I have found that moong flares my younger troops eczema and so I haven't included it in the recipe. I feel it doesn't make a big difference to the taste.

Ghee Rice

Ghee rice as the name suggests is a very rich concoction and meant for special occasions. My mother who doesn’t believe in coconut milk has never cooked it. When at school my friends talked about ghee rice, I always thought that it meant white rice mixed with ghee. I can’t remember when I first tasted the actual Ghee rice or when I cooked it first or where I got this recipe from. But this is a pretty standard recipe, mildly flavored by spices and needless to say a little unfriendly around the hips.

Without much ado here is the recipe,

• Onion – 1 thinly sliced
• Green chillies – 5
• Cardamom – 2
• Cloves - 2
• Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
• Bay leaf – 1
• Ginger-garlic paste – 1 Tbsp
• Cashewnuts – 10 (optional)
• Basmati rice – 2 cups
• Ghee or butter – 50 gms
• Coconut milk – 1 cup
• Mixed chopped vegetables – 1 cup (carrot, peas and potato)

Heat the butter or ghee in a pan and add the spices. In recent years I use sunflower oil or Olive oil. Then add the onions and Chillies and fry until it is soft (don’t brown them). Then add the ginger and garlic paste and fry till the raw smell disappears. To this add the cashew nuts and the vegetables. Any vegetable can be added, to make it look nice include green and red colour vegetables like peas, beans, broccoli, carrot. I tend to add frozen vegetables, saves time on cutting the veggies. Saute them for a few minutes and then add the washed rice and fry it briefly in the ghee mixture. For 2 cups of rice, 4 cups of liquid is required. Add one cup of coconut milk (The tinned ones are very good) and add 3 cups of water. The general rule is to add one fourth of coconut milk and three fourths water. When the water starts boiling reduce the fire to the least possible level and close with a lid and cook until done. For 2 cups of rice, it generally takes 20 mins to cook thru. When done mix the rice gently with a fork or the back of a wooden spoon. Server hot with a raita and enjoy all the praise from the guests. If I use frozen veggies and coconut milk from a can, this rice gets ready in 30 minutes.

Arisi Parupu Satham (Rice with lentils)

This is another of my one-pot dishes which is quick, easy, delicious and comforting. The origin of this dish can be traced back to the regions surrounding Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. It reflects the attitude of people from that region – simple, no-nonsense, straight forward and down-to-earth.

I do this on lazy rainy days, when there are lots of better things do outside the kitchen without compromising the meal. Strangely my mother never made this at home and I learnt it from one of best friend and slightly adapted to suit my taste buds.

1. Rice – 3 cups
2. Lentils – 1 cup (after some trial and error, I found 3:1 ratio works well).
3. Mixed Vegetables – 1 cup ( frozen veggies are a quick way to add flavor to the rice)
4. Onion – 1 sliced
5. Tomato – 1 quartered
6. Garlic – 1 sliced
7. Sambhar powder – 1Tbsp (optional)
8. Curry leaves – a twig
9. Mustard seeds -1 tsp
10. Urad dal (split black lentils) – 1 tsp
11. Channa dal (split yellow lentils) – 1 tsp
12. Dried red Chillies – 3
13. Salt – as required
14. Oil – 2 Tbsp
15. turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Purists don’t add the vegetables and Sambhar powder for this rice. But I find this as an easy way of getting some veggies into the kids system. Wash and rinse the rice and lentils. Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and add the mustard seeds and after they pop add the urad dal and channa dal. The channa dal gives a nice bite to the rice. When they start browning add the curry leaves and the red chillies. When the red chillies start turning colour, add the onions and tomatoes and garlic. When the onions are soft add the vegetables and then the sambhar powder and salt. Mix in the rice and lentils and add 7 cups of water (6 for the rice and 1 for the lentil) and close the cooker with the lid and put the weight on. I generally cook for 2 whistles, this may vary depending on your cooker size and make. The end texture is a bit mushy (texture similar to bisibele bath or risotto). But S doesn’t like the mushy texture and so I reduce the water level by one cup and the rice will come out with their grains separate (like briyani). With some chips and yogurt at the side to give contrasting textures the rice is a bliss on those rainy evenings.

Fried Rice

The secrets behind making a good fried rice are
good quality soy sauce,
hot wok/pan and
cold rice.
Equipped with the above you can't go wrong. It is one of my favorite recipes. It is quick, easy and very flexible. There is no fixed ingredients except soy sauce and you can make it with any veggie, meat, seafood and adjust it according to your taste buds - spicy, bland or some where in between. I do it as a quick lunch when I am in need of some self-pampering and when there is left over rice. So today it was a combination of both, self-pampering plus left over rice. You can use any vegetable you like. The ones I used today happened to be in my fridge. Don’t let the long explanation put you off, with the vegetables prepared it take 5 minutes to cook.
This is how I made it today.

1. Celery – 2 stalks thinly sliced (how else can I get celery into my battalion’s food cycle)
2. Pepper – 1 cut into strips
3. Carrots – 1 medium size cut into strips
4. Chilli – 4 chopped
5. Spring onion – 2 plus 1 more for garnishing
6. Pepper – 1 Tbsp freshly ground
7. Soy sauce – 2Tbsp (I use 1Tbsp for each person)
8. Ginger – ½ inch cut into strips or chopped
9. Garlic – 1 chopped finely
10. Rice – 2 cups cooked and cold. Any kind of rice is suitable, I have used Basmati, Ponni and Thai Jasmine rice with equal success.
11. Eggs – 2 optional
12. Prawns – 4 optional

Heat the wok till its nice and hot. Pour about 2 Tbsps of oil and when the oil is hot add the ginger and garlic. Fry for half a minute (don’t let it brown) and then add the veggies and stir fry. If using prawns add in the prawns and cook till it turns orange. Add the soy sauce (I am quite liberal with soy sauce) and cook it till the liquid is reduced. Add the cold rice and some salt (the soy sauce is salty and hence reduce the salt level). Stir it with the veggies and prawns.

Now about adding eggs. There are two stages at which you can add eggs. You can add them along with the veggies and scramble them. This way you can see bits of scrambled egg in your fried rice. The other method is to beat the eggs in a bowl and add them to the rice. This way the rice will be coated with the egg and when you stir fry the rice, the rice will be covered with tiny white and yellow speckles which look nice. Ever since we found that one of my squad has more cholesterol than is normally required, I tend to cut down the egg. If I do it just for me I add the egg to the rice.

Once the rice is fried, remove from fire and garnish it with spring onions and black pepper. The whole stir frying process takes about five minutes. If you have some left over rice and if you want a hearty meal under 10 mins then this is the recipe. You can use frozen veggies instead of preparing the vegetables yourself. To describe the dish in one sentence – What more could you want from life.