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Photo: K. Ananthan

The right mix Sugar and spice this season

The joyous occasion offers an array of other goodies including sugarcane and new attire. 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 varieties of rice in their list including Kalkandu satham and lemon rice.

K. Muppathal, a 65-year-old housewife 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. 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). 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.

Here is a Pongal special recipe:

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.

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