When it is gloomy, cold and raining, it is time to reach for my pot. Oh shush, I am speaking of my Instant Pot!
Pongal
When I was growing up in my village, during the winter months of December/January, if we went to the temple early in the morning, the priest would serve us a hot cup of Pongal. Ever since then, I have always associated winter mornings to the taste of a good Pongal. Over the years, I have ever so slowly perfected my own homemade Pongal. Recently, I have updated my recipe to make this cooking very simple using an Instant Pot.
For my non-South Indian friends, Pongal is the South Indian equivalent to a spicy western porridge. It has become a national breakfast food in India, and a very popular dish in the South. You can make this recipe a vegan dish by simply substituting the butter with a suitable vegetable oil. It is gluten free if you avoid the hing.
Here is my recipe. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Print Recipe
Pongal
Pongal is the South Indian equivalent to a spicy western porridge. It has become a national breakfast food in India, and a very popular dish in the South. You can make this recipe a vegan dish by simply substituting the butter with a suitable vegetable oil. It is gluten free if you avoid the hing.
Put moong dhal in a small pot on medium heat and dry roast until it is hot to touch. Do not over roast it. Make sure you turn the moong dhal over constantly so as to make the roasting uniform.
Plug in the Instant pot, press ‘sauté’ and ‘adjust’ to change the digital display to ‘more.’ This is the high setting for sauté. In the Instant Pot inner pot, add the butter. Once it is melted, add hing, add finely chopped ginger, sauté for 2-3 seconds, then add pepper (best if you have freshly ground pepper) and cumin seeds. Add salt. Add the green chilie. If you want to add more flavor, add a bit of ground cumin powder. Adjust the ‘sauté’ temperature down if needed. Sauté for another 1 min. You can add fresh curry leaves. Make sure nothing burns or stick to the bottom of inner pot. Add roasted moong dhal and the rice.
Add three cups of water. The amount of water you add would vary based on the rice you use. I use Thai Jasmin rice for my cooking. Adjust as needed.
On manual, under high pressure, with vent sealed, cook for 8 min. Let it cool down naturally.
Open the lid, add the Cashew nuts, and thoroughly mix.
This dish was developed purely out of necessity as a utilitarian dish in our villages when they had plenty of milk and yogurt without much of a distribution or refrigeration system. Typically, when yogurt was getting old, they needed to utilize it rather urgently. The result was a superb, and yet a simple dish. By design, they used only sour yogurt that gave the dish its characteristic taste and its lingering tang. However, the biggest problem is that when the yogurt is heated, it curdles and separates as the denatured milk protein starts to separate from the liquid (whey). This can be prevented using a combination of slow (low heat) cooking, a high fat yogurt, and by adding some starch. The Instant Pot (IP) is fantastic for low heat cooking and this recipe is guaranteed to keep the yogurt intact!
Wash and soak the ingredients for grinding (without the coconut) for at least an hour. Grind them into a paste and add the shredded coconut and grind them all together for a few more seconds. Set the paste aside.
Plug in the IP, press ‘sauté’ and ‘adjust’ to change the digital display to ‘more.’ This is the high setting for sauté.
Pour the contents (except the curry leaves) of the dry spices into the IP Inner Pot (put the spices in one small area of the pan). Pour the vegetable oil over the spices (just enough to soak the spices plus a little more).
When you first hear the sound of the mustard seed "popping," add the curry leaves. Add the cut chayote into the inner pot, add salt and add ¼ cup of water to moisten the mixture. Cook the vegetable until it is partially cooked (until it is just starting to get soft) and press ‘cancel’ to shut down the heating. Turn on the IP to ‘slow cooking’ high and set the time for 30 minutes.
Add the paste and three cups of water and mix them well with the other contents of the pot. Finally, add the yogurt and gently stir all of the contents well once. Close the IP and ensure the steam release to the venting position. Periodically check to see if the chayote is cooking well.
Once the time runs out, press ‘cancel’ and unplug the IP.
This recipe is for making rice in an Instant Pot. The ratio of rice to water is given for Jasmine Rice. Water amount changes and it depends on the type of rice used.
