Ulundu Pongal Recipe

 Last weekend went out so busy with Sruti at home and I didn’t even think for a second about the blog. And even today, I have been doing so many tasks that I completely forgot about today’s post. Today is the final day of Alagar in Madurai. We went in search of Alagar before he leaves Madurai to Alagar Kovil. If you couldn’t understand head or tail about what I am saying, then here is a short intro ( this is just what I know). April is the month of Chithirai Thiruvizha in Madurai. Goddess Meenakshi gets married to Lord Sundareshwarar and whole Madurai celebrates it. Alagar, brother of Meenakshi comes to Madurai from Alagar Kovil to attend her marriage. There are two parts of Madurai one on each side of Vaigai river. The first celebrations of marriage takes place on the side of Meenakshi Amman temple. But after marriage, there is another great celebration of Alagar coming to Madurai and he tries crossing the river. But he comes to know that the marriage is done, and he returns back to his place without entering Madurai. I am not very good at explaining these festivals but whole Madurai on this side of the river are excited for Alagar’s visit. After three days, giving darshan to Madurai people, he returns home. Today was that day, and we had tough time locating him (he keeps on going to many streets in different areas and it is very tough to locate the exact place he is at any given time). Finally, when I saw him, I just couldn’t control my tears. He is so beautiful just as his name.

There is no special intros I can give for this dish. Ulundu saadam is famous in Kongunadu cuisine, but this pongal, I am not very sure of. I saw it in a recipe book. But with many failures with recipes from the books, I just took the general idea and used my recipe for pongal and combined them both. This is so much like the ven pongal we make. The only difference is that urad dhal is swapped for moong dhal. The pongal was good but it had a softer texture due to the urad dhal used. Hubby didn’t entertain the idea of urad dhal in his pongal, but Sruti loved it. So his request was to make it only for Sruti and spare him next time. This post is part of the A-Z Tamil Cuisine recipe marathon I am doing thois month. We are already at the Alphabet U and only five more days to complete this month long blogging successfully.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

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Ulundu Pongal Recipe

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Ingredients

  

Ingredients

• Ponni Raw Rice - 2 Cups
• Urad Dhal -1/2 cup
• Cashew-20 broken to small pcs
• Cumin Seeds-1 tsp
• Ghee-3 tbs
• Black pepper-2 tbs
• Water-6 cups

Instructions

 

Procedure

• Mix rice and dhal, wash it and filter the water.
• Allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes.
• Bring water to boil. Add salt.
• Add the rice and cook on medium flame until the rice has absorbed 90% of water.
• Heat ghee in a separate pan, add cashew. When it is golden brown add pepper. When it splutters add cumin and curry leaves.
• Add it to the rice, cover and cook on low flame for 5 more minutes.
• Serve hot after 10 minutes with sambar and chutney.