TranslatePongal is both a dish and a celebration. The savoury ven pongal — rice and moong dal cooked to a soft mash with pepper, cumin, ginger, curry leaves and a great deal of ghee — is the definitive Tamil breakfast, served with sambar, coconut chutney and often a vada. The sweet chakkarai pongal, made with jaggery, is cooked in clay pots during the January harvest festival that shares its name.
Type
Vegetarian
Meal occasion
Breakfast; the sweet version at Pongal festival and temple offerings
Region
Statewide
Key ingredients
Raw rice, moong dal, ghee, black pepper, cumin, ginger, cashew
Moong dal is roasted until fragrant, then cooked with rice and plenty of water until both break down completely. Ghee is heated with whole black pepper, cumin, chopped ginger, curry leaves and cashews, and the tempering is folded through.
The texture is soft and porridge-like, the flavour buttery and warmly peppery. Sweet pongal replaces the pepper tempering with melted jaggery, cardamom, coconut and raisins.
During the Pongal festival in mid-January, sweet pongal is cooked outdoors in a new clay pot with the first harvest rice. When the milk boils over, families call out "Pongalo Pongal" — the overflow is taken as a sign of abundance for the coming year. The dish is then offered to the sun god before being shared.
Any traditional tiffin room serves ven pongal in the morning, usually with sambar, chutney and a medhu vadai. Temple prasadam counters at Srirangam, Palani, Tirunelveli and many Perumal temples serve outstanding sweet pongal. In January, village celebrations across the Cauvery delta cook it in the open.
