chakkara pongal recipe

Ingredients

½ cup rice
⅓ to ½ cup moong dal / pesara pappu
½ cup powdered or grated jaggery or palm sugar
⅛ tsp. green cardamom powder
Small Pinch of edible camphor / pacha karpooram (optional)
2 to 3 tbsps. Ghee (you can reduce it to 1)
1 tbsp. raisins
1 to 2 tbsps. Cashews broken
1 to 2 cloves (optional)
few chopped coconut pieces sliced or chopped (optional)

Instructions

Add moong dal / pesara pappu to a heavy bottom pan or pressure cooker and roast it till they turn fragrant
Add rice to the same pan and wash them at least twice.
Pour 2 ¼ cups of water. Cook till soft either in the pressure cooker for 2 whistles or in the pot.
Pour ¼ cup water to grated jaggery. On a low flame stir and melt it. Keep this aside.
When the pressure from the cooker is down, remove the lid and mash the rice.
Filter jaggery syrup to the cooked rice dal
Add green cardamom powder. Mix and cook on a medium flame till the jaggery syrup blends well with rice. It should begin to bubble up well. Off the stove
Heat a pan with ghee, add coconut pieces and fry them till they turn aromatic. Add them to the rice. To the pan, add cashews, clove and fry till golden, off the stove and add raisins, camphor. Mix this with the rice.