47. Maharashtra Pongal🔗

1. Wash rice and yellow or green lentils and drain the water thoroughly. Mix ghee to this. Boil 5 palam ghee in a 4 padi water holding capacity pot and add mustard and asafoetida. Follow the 22nd seasoning.

2. Pour pure water to the seasoning. Dissolve saffron in water and add the rice and dal to it. After it is half done, add powdered salt and crushed pepper to the dish. Add cardamom powder also. Fry cloves and grated copra separately in ghee and add to the dish. Pepper can be soaked overnight, dried in a gunny bag and crushed to remove the skin. Then it can be added to the Pongal.

3. Add cumin seeds along with the cloves and copra. Remove the skin of almonds, slice it and add to the dish. Heat ghee 5 palam in a pan and keep it on slow fire for five minutes. Remove from the fire and add grated coconut. Instead of coconut, de-skinned and sliced cashew nuts can be fried in ghee and added.

1. Heat ghee in a pan and add cut onions, cut garlic, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and cumin seeds. Fry all these except the cumin seeds separately and set aside. Add the cumin seeds and grind it to a fine paste. Fry de-skinned moong dal in the same ghee and remove the rest of the ghee.

2. Wash rice and remove the water and mix the ground masala in this. Take water in a 2 padi water holding capacity pot and when it boils, add the masala, rice, dal mixture in it. When it is almost done, add ginger and salt after removing the skin of ginger.

3. Keep on slow fire for five minutes and remove the Pongal. Add the ghee and mix well again.

1. Wash rice and moong dal and drain the water thoroughly. Powder and fry in ghee cloves, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon and add to the rice and dhal mixture. Add powdered salt also. Add ghee in a pan and fry the rice with the masala. Pour milk in a pot and add the rice when it starts boiling. Boil it on slow fire. When all the milk is absorbed and the rice and dal is cooked well, add ghee again and keep it on.

2. Keep the fire slow . Fried cashewnuts and almonds can be added when the rice is being cooked.

1. Boil pure water in a pot. Wash rice and green gram and drain the water. Put this in the boiling water and cook the dal in it.

2. After the dal is cooked, add the rice to it. Add the greens, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom powder and pepper after frying these ingredients in ghee.

3. Add powdered salt to it. After it is boiled, add ghee and fry the onions in it.

4. Fry until the onions are brown. Add the fried onions to the pongal, stir it and take it out from the fire. 5. Keep it on a live coal without smoke for sometime and serve.

1. Boil the water in a vessel which can hold 5 padi water. Remove the outer skin, bottom and edges of the onion and cut into thin slices.

2. Add the sliced onions into the boiling water and when it has cooked completely add the turmeric powder and the green moong dal and stir it.

3. When the dal has half cooked, clean the rice and drain it. Then add it to the dal.

4. Powder the salt and remove the outer skin of the ginger and grate it into thin pieces.

5. Add the salt and ginger to the rice dal mixture, stir it nicely.

6. Heat the ghee in a vessel and fry the pepper, cumin seed and asafoetida and mix it when the rice and dal gets cooked completely. Stir it nicely and serve.

Note: Since this recipe uses onion which is not sattvic it is not advice to cook.

1. Clean the rice 3 times with water and drain it completely.

2. Heat the ghee in a vessel which can hold 3 padi water. Remove the outer skin, edge and bottom of the onion and cut into thin slices like grated coconut.

3. Fry the onion, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon in ghee till they turn slightly red in colour.

4. Add water and salt to the above tempered mixture. Soak the almonds in hot water for sometime. Then remove the outer red skin and cut into thin slices. Also remove the outer skin of the cashew and fry it. Remove the stalk, dirt from the dry grapes. Clean it with water and drain it completely. Pat dry the grapes with a piece of cloth. Then fry it with a little ghee.

5. Add the grapes, cashew, almonds, bay leaf to the boiling water. Immediately add the drained rice to it,stir it and close it with a lid.

6. When it starts to overflow care should be taken not to drain the water. So keep the flame in low and stir it occasionally.

7. When the rice is 3/4th cooked add the boiled and stir it. Now close the mouth of the vessel using a clean wet cloth. Place a plate on the Cloth.

8. Take some of the hot coal and place the vessel which has the rice mixture and spread some more coal on the plate which is placed on the wet cloth. When the steam starts to come out ensure that all the items are cooked properly and then take it out and serve.

Note: Since this recipe uses onion which is not sattvic it is not advice to cook.

1. Knead rice and yellow or green gram flour with salt and water. Make 8 or 10 balls out of it. Make these balls into flat rotis. Pour ghee in the centre of a flat pan and put the rotis in this. Pour another spoon of ghee on top of it. Turn the sides. After it is fried well on both sides and becomes red, remove from fire.

2. You can refer to the 24th recipe for seasoning and add flavoured ghee to this before kneading, by adding pepper, cumin seeds, asafetida in ghee and seasoning the flour before kneading. Grated ginger can also be added.

1. Knead Bengal Gram flour, wheat flour, salt and ghee to a soft dough. Make lemon sized balls out of it and put this in a papad making machine.

2. Make rotis out of it. You can also add flavoured ghee to this by adding cumin, pepper and asafoetida in ghee and seasoning the flour before kneading.

Thick Curd - 1/8 padi Milk - ½ padi

1. Mix together Bengal Gram flour, wheat flour, salt and ghee. Add ginger juice, powdered cinnamon sticks and thick curd in a coated tray and knead well for 2 hours.

2. Add milk, curd and the flour. Knead again and make lemon sized balls out of it. Roll it using a rolling pin and cook it on both sides.