Simplicity: A Natural Sweetener
Jan 15th, 2008 by ashwin
On this auspicious day, everything is a little sweeter than normal on the Indian subcontinent. The country — and especially the agricultural state of Tamil Nadu — celebrates the final day of Pongal, a feast commemorating the end of harvest season. Sort of like a candied, vegetarian Thanksgiving. 
In true Indian fashion, everything during Pongal is sugar-coated. Soft-handed men who have never touched a hoe cheer for the fruits born of a fertile land. Cows low their massaged Pongal blessings adorned in jewelry and lathered in rouge. Sugarcanes drug grown women into youthfulness.
And, more recently, pongal and halva – traditional treats found in villages several kilometers and several generations away — are bubbling under the roofs of newly erected hotels and shopping centers.
According to a NDTV interview with Chef Shekar of Club Mahindra in Chennai, even upscale urban restaurants ”want to create an awareness among people about the culture, food habits and customs of the people living in villages.”
It stuck me today: the country that suffers the largest economic gap in the world still mixes together basic sugar and butter and rice… and can savor every last spoonful of simplicity.
Sweet Pongal Recipe (Courtesy of Indian Food Kitchen)
Ingredients
- Raw Rice - 2 cups
- Jaggery (cane sugar) - 2 cups
- Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 1 1/2 cups
- Green Cardamom - 6 (powdered)
- Cashewnuts - 12 (fried in ghee) and cut into small pieces
- White raisins - (12-15 (fried in ghee)
Method:
- Clean and wash the rice well, add 5 cups of water and pressure cook. Keep Jaggery in a medium frying pan, add 1 cup of water and boil. When it melts, strain through a strainer to remove the dirt.
- Replace and boil again. When it becomes slightly thick, add the cooked rice and stir continuously till it becomes thick. Start adding Ghee now and then, stirring continuously.
- When it starts leaving the sides of the pan and the ghee starts oozing out, put powdered cardamom and stir well. Add Cashewnuts and raisins fried in ghee. Coconut scrapings can be added at the end before serving.
