Pal Pongal / Vellai Pongal / Milk Pongal

 Happy Sankranti / Pongal / Lohri to those who are celebrating.

And keeping my Sankranti themed dishes this week, here is one more. Paal pongal is one of the pongal versions cooked in Tamil nadu during Sankranti / Pongal festival. It is a pretty much stripped to the basics version where newly harvested rice is cooked in milk until a soft, mushy consistency is reached. A ven pongal without all the spicy and yummy embellishments, if you can call it so. And that is if you are used to cooking ven pongal in milk in the first place. This is cooked on the festival day to substitute the regular rice and can be served with any spicy gravy like the 7 kari kootu, sambhar or even chutney. It is supposedly served along with banana slices, jaggery / ghee when offered as neivedyam to God.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup rice
1/4 cup water
1& 1/4 to 1&1/2 cups milk
A dash of salt

Method:
* Wash rice in two exchanges of water and drain. Add rice, water and 1/4 cup milk to a pressure cook and cook for 5 to 6 whistles.
If using a sauce pan instead of a cooker, cook rice until soft and mushy, adding extra milk if needed and stirring intermittently to avoid scorching.
* When the valve pressure is gone, remove the cooker lid. Mash the rice with the back of the ladle and add the remaining milk and cook until the milk is absorbed well and the rice appears soft. Turn off the stove. Add salt and mix well.

This goes to Blogging marathon #60 under the theme 'Festival of the Month'. Check the link to see what other marathoners are cooking.

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