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Pongal is around and so is a nip in the air. And what better can you enjoy other than steamy sweet pongal dripping with ghee and served on a plantain leaf. Leave alone savouring it, the very thought is appetising and enticing enough to wake you up from your morning slumber.

The joyous occasion offers an array of other goodies including sugarcane and new attire.

Pongal is generally considered to be a rural phenomenon.

For, the farmers invoke the Sun God in gratitude for having given a good harvest. Hence, all the farm produces are offered to God on the occasion.

And none can take away the massive feast from the spirit of the festival. Right from a five-course meal to sugarcane, the festival of Pongal always remains close to heart.

Pongal in all forms, sweet or white, will sure be a part of the menu in every household on that day. To add more spice, some do have ‘aviyal’ or variety rice in their list including the ‘Kalkandu satham’ and lemon rice.

K. Muppathal, a 65-year-old housewife of Tiruppalai Village, with unfading enthusiasm says: “People do not make sweets for Pongal as they do for Deepavali. But then, nothing can match the sweet pongal. There are different kinds of sweet pongal preparations with rice and jaggery being the main ingredients. Some add dry ginger, while some mix roasted green gram with rice and jaggery and then cook. Some people also add palm jaggery to the pongal.”

Echoes P.Varalakshmi, a retired school teacher, who insists on pongal to be cooked in a bronze vessel: “It tastes better if you cook pongal with milk. To add more flavour to the dish, you can add cardamom powder, cloves, ‘jathikkai’ (nutmeg), raisins and a pinch of ‘pachakarpooram’ (cinnamonum camphora). What makes you cherish the sweet more is when you add cashew nuts fried in ghee. Some people do add saffron powder to the preparation for colour.”

If grandmothers, mothers, wives, daughters and daughters-in-law keep themselves engaged with pongal making in home kitchens, the hospitality industry too chips in its might. They have made elaborate arrangements to showcase the Tamil culture and hospitality to their foreign guests and even take special care in charting out programmes.

V.Arul Murugan, Assistant Food and Beverages Manager, GRT Regency, says that the hotel plans to attract the kids with a food festival exclusively for them during this period apart from the regular pongal varieties.

Pongal is essentially all about a nice and memorable family get together and outing and enjoying the traditional goodies.

Here is a Pongal special recipe by I. Arumugam, executive chef, GRT Regency:

Coconut 1 and 1/2 Cup

Brinjal 250 gm

Drumstick 1 no

Carrot and Beans 250gms

Potatoes 250gms

Green chilly 10 nos

Onion 1/4kg

Tomato 400gm

Coriander leaves 50gms

Cauliflower 150gms

Curry leaves

Khuskhus 25gms

Turmeric powder 25gms

Chilly powder 25gms

Coriander powder 50gms

Jeera powder 15gms

Soembu powder 30gms

Whole jeera 10gms

Mustard seeds and urud Dal 25gms

Cut all the vegetables into cubes and boil. Heat the Oil; add mustard, urud dal, jeera, soumbu and dry chilli along with curry leaves and split green chilli. Add sliced onions and sauté well, then add tomato and cook well until you get the raw flavour. Add vegetables and coconut and khuskhus paste and continue cooking. Finely add seasoning (read salt) to taste. Kaikari kathambam is ready to eat for eight persons.

T. SARAVANAN

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