PONGAL RICE

On my recent arrivals to Ipoh, my grandmother surprised me with the all time classic Indian dessert, pongal rice. Pongal is a sweet rice pudding which is popular in Tamil Nadu and other South Indian states and the term simply means to boil over or spill over. It is made from rice (main ingredient), milk and jaggery which is an 'unrefined non-centrifugal whole cane sugar'. The jaggery gives the pongal a brown color to it. However, there has been many variations of the classic pongal rice. Some prefer adding coconut to their pongal rice, where as some like adding a little spice by using pepper and moong daals. So you see, pongal rice is not always sweet, it can be savory. 

Pongal rice is often made on the Pongal festival, also known as the harvest festival which is dedicated to the Sun God, Surya. On this festive day, a usual Tamilian's home will be adorned with banana and mango leaves and the floors will be embellished with ornate patterns drawn using rice flour. The peak of this festival however is the ritual itself. All family members present will gather around a clay pot which the pongal rice is cooked in and wait for it to boil and spill over. When it does, together they will shout out, 'Pongalo pongal'. At the end of the rituals, family members get to enjoy the pongal they had successfully made as a piece of offering to the Sun God. Pongal rice can also be obtained in temples during non-festive days.

A one hour trip to the temple resulted in my grandma bringing home packets and packets of pongal rice. I was lucky enough to grab the last packet as my vulture-like brothers attacked it the minute we arrived. For me, i see pongal rice (other than being an offering to the deity), a dessert. Desserts are usually sweet delicacies we indulge in to complete our meal or to just satisfy sweet cravings. Hence, pongal rice is a dessert because it is sweet and not to mention delicious. 

The last packet of pongal rice i managed to grab and it was DELICIOUS!

I find pongal rice that are made and offered in the temple are more delicious than the ones made at home. There's just this satisfied feeling of eating temple food because you know it's blessed. As superficial as it may sound, it's true. I certainly enjoyed my experience of eating temple-made pongal rice thoroughly. 

The sweet rice with chunks of cashew nuts and raisins was a mouth full sugary goodness. The texture of the rice is extremely soft, there's almost no chewing except for when the cashews and the raisins come in. The cashew nuts gives the soft rice pudding an extra texture. It's fun mixing something really soft and something crunchy at the same time. You can eat it by itself or if it was me, i like to spread it something we call, 'vaadai', which is a doughnut or a round disc shaped dough made from dal, lentils, gram flour or potatoes. It gives that extra taste to the whole dish.

Well, before i make you or myself hungry any further, i am going to stop here. My dessert experience has been nothing but sweet! But always remember, sometimes too much sweet can be sour! Keep the sugar levels on control and you can indulge whenever and whatever you like. 

Shajni Nair

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