Sakkarai pongal recipe or sweet pongal recipe: we don’t celebrate pongal festival back in Kerala. This should explain why I am posting this traditional pongal festival recipe in March. I mean, how off the mark can you get? About 2 months, that’s how much.
But like I said, we don’t celebrate pongal, and by that I mean my family. TH’s family definitely does, but nothing elaborate. Mostly it involves making ven pongal the savory kind and this sweet version, sakkarai pongal.
My mom makes sweet pongal as and when she feels like it. Usually, when we need a quick dessert for guests, sakkarai pongal gets made. Admittedly, its not my favourite sweet but recently I had this tremendous craving that was quite inexplicable so I made a teeny weeny bit (TH hates it) and had it all by myself at around 10pm in the night, which explains the very not-nice picture.
It came out pretty nice though. I’d never realised sakkarai pongal was this easy to make!
Sakkarai Pongal Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw rice
- 1/4 cup moong dal paasi paruppu
- 3/4 cup grated jaggery adjust to taste
- 1 cup full fat milk + 1/2 cup water or 1.5 cups low fat milk
- A few cashew nuts I used almonds
- A few raisins
- 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp ghee
- 3 cardamom pods crushed well
Instructions
- Traditionally, sakkarai pongal is made by simmering the rice and dal in the milk until soft but who has that kind of time these days? Definitely not me. So bring out your pressure cooker.
- Wash the rice and dal together.
- Add the milk + water and pressure cook for 3-4 whistles or 15 minutes. We want the rice + dal to turn nice and mushy.
- Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp ghee and roast the cashew nuts (or almonds) and the raisins until golden brown (the raisins will become plump).
- Remove from fire and sprinkle cardamom powde on top. Give it a mix and set aside.
- Once the pressure leaves the cooker, open gently and while the rice and dal mixture is still hot, mix in the grated jaggery, roasted nuts, and raisins.
- If the pongal is too thick at this stage, add some boiled milk by the tablespoons.
- If the mixture is too loose, keep on a low fire and mix continuously until desired consistency is achieved.
- Mix in one more tbsp of ghee and serve warm. I also like it cold from the fridge the next day.
Note:
You can add some grated coconut to the pongal along with the jaggery if you’d like some bite to the sakkarai pongal.
For Sakkarai Pongal recipe in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, etc please use the Google Translate button in the sidebar.
hey nags.. ur sakkarai pongal came out so well.. thanks for the receipe.. the idea of adding grated coconut made it tastier!! my li'l one had asked me to make it after having it from a temple 🙂
dhanya
Oh my.. I was looking for Sakkarai Pongal recipe and stumbled upon your food blog. The pic looks divine… drooool… gonna make me some this weekend! Thanks heaps!
Syama
now, i was asked to make a pie here (which i completely had no idea!) and all i did was bought crust and filled it with your recipe of sakkarai pongal… he he he.. named it rice pie!! 😛 thanks for the recipe!! 🙂
That's one of the most creative recipes I have every come across!! Kudos 😀