Pongal / Sankaranthi Celebration

Wish you all a very Happy Pongal :)

Iniya Pongal Nalvazhthukkal!

Sankaranthi Subhakanchalu :)

The beautiful harvest festival is celebrated in a grand manner all round south India.

As ever our house was filled with festivity too :)

Starting from a thematic kolam in the entrance by me, making of chakkara pongal, paal pongal and pongal kozhambu followed. It is considered auspicious to let the milk over flow and this is when all of us would start saying pongalo pongal :) Finally a small pooja to god was done by mom. :)

I have put down the recipe for Chakkara pongal and Paal pongal along with a lot of details about the festival last year. Check out the post here. :)

Along with the two types of pongal we also make this kozhambu specifically on this day.

This pongal Kozhambu goes really well with paal pongal and is one of the best combination ever.

Ingredients:

Red pumpkin(Parangikai) - 1/4 kg
Sweet potato(Sakarai valli kelangu) - 1/4 kg
Broad beans(Avarai) - 1/4 kg
Field beans(Mochai) - 1/4 kg
Tamarind pulp - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1 tblsp
Green chillies - 2
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Bengal gram dhall(kadali parupu) - 1 tblsp
Black gram dhall(ulutham parupu) - 1 tblsp
Coriander seeds(Dhaniya) - 1 tblsp
Cumin(Jeera) - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek(vendhayam) - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 10
Salt - for taste
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

Method:

Pressure cook sweet potato, broad beans(Avarai) and field beans.

Take a vessel and drop the diced pumpkin and add salt, jaggery, slit green chillies, finely chopped ginger, curry leaves and tamarind paste along with it. Add enough water and cook until the pumpkin becomes soft. Now add the other pressure cooked vegetables to it.

Take a tsp of oil in a pan and roast bengal gram dhall, black gram dhall, coriander seeds, cumin,
pepper, fenugreek and red chillies for just a minute.

Grind all these along with coconut into a smooth paste.

Add this paste to the vessel with cooked vegetables. Allow it to boil for a while stirring it now and then. Finally season with mustard and garnish with coriander leaves.

This is my mom's bommai pongal collection ;)

Written by: Nithya

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