Pigeon Pea (Toor Dal) Pongal

The dish Pongal is made from the first harvest of rice and coincides with the Tamil New year of Pongal which falls in the middle of January each year. The festival is also referred to as Thai pongal and is a multi-day Hindu harvest festival of South India. It is observed at the start of the month Tai according to the Tamil solar calendar and is dedicated to the sun god Surya, and corresponds to Makar Sankranti, the harvest festival under many regional names celebrated throughout India. The three days of the Pongal festival are called Bhogi Pongal, Surya Pongal and Maattu Pongal.

According to tradition, the festival marks the end of winter solstice, and the start of the sun’s six- month-long journey northwards (the Uttaraayanam) when the sun enters the zodiac Makara (Capricorn). The festival is named after the ceremonial “Pongal”, which means “to boil, overflow” and refers to the traditional dish prepared from the new harvest of rice boiled in milk with jaggery (raw sugar). To mark the festival, the pongal sweet dish is prepared, first offered to the gods and goddesses (goddess Pongal), followed sometimes with an offering to cows, and then shared by the family. Festive celebrations include decorating cows and their horns, ritual bathing and processions. It is traditionally an occasion for decorating rice-powder based kolam artworks, offering prayers in the home, temples, getting together with family and friends, and exchanging gifts to renew social bonds of solidarity.

Pongal is one of the most important festivals celebrated by Tamil people in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in India, Sri Lanka and the Tamil diaspora worldwide, including those in Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Pongal celebrates the harvest, the cooking transforms the gift of agriculture into nourishment for the gods and the community. The blessing of abundance by Goddess Pongal (Uma, Parvati) is symbolically marked by the dish “boiling over”.

The festival’s most significant practice is the preparation of the traditional “pongal” dish. It utilizes freshly harvested rice, and is prepared by boiling it in milk and raw cane sugar (jaggery). Sometimes additional ingredients are added to the sweet dish, such as: cardamom, raisins, Green gram (split), and cashew nuts. Other ingredients include coconut and ghee (clarified butter from cow milk). Along with the sweet version of the Pongal dish, some prepare other versions such as salty and savoury (venpongal).

The cooking is done in sunlight, usually in a porch or courtyard, as the dish is dedicated to the Sun god, Surya. Relatives and friends are invited, and the standard greeting on the Pongal day typically is, “has the rice boiled” The cooking is done in a clay pot that is garlanded with leaves or flowers, sometimes tied with a piece of turmeric root or marked with pattern artwork called kolam. It is either cooked at home, or in community gatherings such as in temples or village open spaces. It is the ritual dish, along with many other courses prepared from seasonal foods for all present. It is traditionally offered to the gods and goddesses first, followed sometimes by cows, then to friends and family gathered. This tradition is a means to renew social bonds. Portions of the sweet pongal dish (sakkara pongal) are distributed as the prasadam in Hindu temples.

Basic ingredient includes freshly harvested rice, jaggery, milk, moong dal (split green gram) which will be enhanced with ghee, dry fruits, cardamom, etc. during the festival. However, as a breakfast food, any rice could be used along with moong dal for its preparation.

Ingredients:

Pure Water – 1¾ padi

Toor Dal – ¼ padi

Ghee – ½ palam

Turmeric Powder – veesam 3/16 r.e

Small Rice – ½ padi

Cumin Seeds – 1/8 palam

Pepper – ¼ palam

Powdered Salt – ½ palam

Ginger – ½ palam

Ghee – 3¾ palam

Asafoetida – veesam 1/16 r.e

Grated Coconut – 2 palam

Method:

1. Boil water in a pot that can hold 4 padis of water. Add pigeon pea, ghee and turmeric in the boiling water and close the lid. Soak rice for ½ hour, wash and drain the water. After the dal is cooked, add the rice, stir and close the lid. After the rice is 3/4th cooked, add pepper,
cumin seeds, powdered salt and ginger pieces one by one to the Pongal. Add ghee and mix well. Dissolve asafoetida in water and mix it with the pongal.

2. Grated Coconut can be added and the Pongal can be cooked on slow flame for 5 minutes and then removed from the stove. Instead of coconuts, 5 palam of cashew nuts can be de-skinned, fried in ghee and added.

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