Ven Pongal

High on nutrition, this dish is often considered as a quickie tiffin or breakfast. It needs minimum seasoning, and yet is quite flavorful, thanks to ghee and pepper. For this you need

Serves - 2 people

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of rice

1 cup moong daal

salt

pepper powder

7-8 pods of whole pepper

2 tbp ghee

8-10 pieces of broken cashewnuts(broken into halves).

cumin seeds

a few sprigs of curry leaves

5 cups of water

METHOD

1) Take a vessel. Add rice and moong daal. Now wash it well in water.

2) Take a pressure cooker. Add washed rice, moong daal and 5 cups of water. Add salt and cover it with a lid. Cook upto 2 or 3 whistles ( depends upon pressure cooker though). Once you remove the pan, the cooked rice and moong dal must be slightly mashed up.

3) Take another pan. Fry broken cashewnuts in 1 tsp ghee. Keep the fried cashews aside.

4) In the same frying pan, add the remaining ghee. Add some cumin seeds. Add whole pepper, curry  leaves and once they begin to crackle, add the cooked rice and moong daal. Mix it well. At this point of time you can check for salt. You may even add some more ghee if you want to.

5) Stir it for half a  minute and remove from fire. You may sprinkle just a bit (not too much) of pepper powder on top and serve hot with chutney, sambar or Gojju.