Sweet Pongal, Sweet Rice & Indian Breads🔗

1. Boil together water and brown sugar in a rust-free pan. After it boils, remove from fire. Take another vessel and tie a cloth to the mouth of the vessel. Distil the sugar syrup by pouring it on top of the cloth. Wash the rust -free pan used to make the syrup and place it beneath the vessel. The sugar water will fall into the pan. Boil the syrup again.

2. Mix milk and water and sprinkle some milk into the boiling syrup. Remove with a ladle, the black dirt which comes as a froth on top of the syrup. Put this dirt into another vessel.

3. Continue to sprinkle milk and remove all the dirt from the sugar syrup.

4. Dissolve saffron in little milk and pour it in the clean sugar syrup. Boil the syrup again. Test the consistency of the syrup. Once in 5 or 10 minutes take spoon full of the syrup, touch it with your forefinger and keep it on your thumb. When you separate the fingers, the syrup should come up like a wire. That is called tender sugar syrup. This type of syrup can be used for jalebi, mango, gooseberry sweet pickles. 5. If you boil the syrup for some more time and check it after 5 or 6 minutes, by dropping a drop of the syrup on the floor, the syrup should not spread on the floor. This is called aged syrup.

6. This type of sugar syrup is used for many varieties of sweet rice and laddu etc. This syrup can be done without using saffron also. But it is best done with saffron. How turmeric powder is added to salty, sour and bitter items, the same way saffron is added to the snack items. By adding saffron the dishes will be healthy, good flavored and looks good too.

1. Clean rice, wash it with water and spread it in a white cloth. Let it dry well. Heat ghee in a 4 padi water holding capacity pot and fry the rice until golden brown. Pour milk and water into the rice and mix. After the rice is almost done, add grated coconut to the rice. Add brown sugar and stir it and keep it in fire for 10 minutes.

2. After it is done, add cardamom powder to the Pongal. Almonds can be soaked in hot water. Remove the skin and cut it into pieces. Fry it in ghee and add it to the Pongal. Cashew nuts can be fried in ghee and added. Edible green camphor can be powdered and mixed with the Pongal. If ghee is added, the milk smell will reduce.

1. Boil pure water in a four padi water holding capacity pot and add ghee to the boiling water. Add Bengal Gram to the water and when it is half cooked, add yellow or green moong dal and mix well. Wash and drain the rice and add it to the lentils.

2. Close the lid. After the rice is 3/4th cooked, add milk, grated coconut, jaggery, cardamom powder and stir well. Remove the skin of cashewnuts and fry it in ghee and add to the Pongal. Add ghee 6 palam to the Pongal and keep it on a live coal without smoke for sometime and then take it out and serve.

1. Wash and drain rice and yellow gram. Boil water in a 4 padi water holding capacity pan and add the rice and lentils.

2. Close the lid until the rice is 3/4th done. Add ghee, milk, jaggery and grated coconut one by one to the Pongal. Add cardamom powder and cashewnuts fried in ghee to the Pongal.

Small/Broken rice - ½ padi Fried Yellow Gram - 1/8 padi Saffron - 1/8 r.e Pure Water - 1¼ padi Butter - 2 palam Powdered Rock Sugar/Brown Sugar - 15 palam Ghee - 12 palam Cloves - ¼ palam Almonds - 1½ palam Raisins - 1 palam Cardamom Powder - ¼ palam Ginger - 1 r.e Edible Raw Green Camphor - 1/8 r.e

1. Fry whole moong dal until the aroma arises and then split it before using. Wash and drain both rice and dal. Dissolve saffron in water and add it to the washed rice and boil water in a 3 padi water holding capacity pot and when it boils, add the rice mixture in it. 2. Close the lid. When the rice is 3/4th cooked, add butter, powdered rock salt or brown sugar and ghee. Cloves can be fried in ghee and added to the Pongal. Soak and remove the skin of almonds. Fry it in ghee and add it to the dish.

3. Almonds should be soaked in hot water, de skinned and cut into pieces. Then it can be added to the Pongal. Clean the raisins by removing the stems, wash and dry them. Then fry it in ghee and add to the Pongal.

4. Remove the skin of ginger, grate it and add to the dish. Add cardamom powder and stir the Pongal. Ginger and cloves are added for quick digestion and not for taste.

1. Boil pure water in 3 padi water holding capacity pot. Add ghee to the boiling water. Clean,wash and drain the rice and add to the boiling water. Drain the water and transfer it into a tray. 2. When the rice cools down, dissolve saffron in water, keep it on slow fire and then transfer it to the rice in the tray.Soak almonds in hot water, remove the skin and slice it.

3. Add it to the rice without frying it. Raisins should be cleaned, washed and dried and then added to the rice. Boil ghee and add the rice to it.

4. Then before serving add rock sugar, cardamom powder and raw edible camphor to it. Powder these ingredients and add it one by one into the Pongal. You can add jackfruit or other fruits cut into pieces to this Pongal.

1. Boil water in a 3 padi water holding capacity pot. Add ghee to the boiling water. By adding the ghee, the rice grains will not stick together. Wash and drain the rice and add it to the boiling water.

2. After the rice is cooked, drain the rice and transfer the cooked rice into a coated tray. Cool the rice and dissolve saffron in 1 r.e water and mix it with the cooked rice. Then add grated coconut and cleaned brown sugar. Add cardamom powder, raisins and almonds into the rice. 3. Soak almonds in hot water, remove the skin and fry them in ghee and add to the rice. Raisins have to be cleaned, washed and fried in ghee and then added to the Heat ghee in a coated vessel and add the cloves to it.

4. After the cloves are fried, add it to the rice and mix well. Keep it on slow fire for 10 minutes and remove. Sprinkle finely powdered rock candy and serve.

1. Boil water in a three padi water holding capacity pot and put little ghee into it. Add the rice into it. After the rice is cooked, drain the water and spread it in a tray and cool the rice.

2. Dissolve saffron in milk and pour it into the rice and mix well. Add grated coconut into it. Make sugar syrup out of brown sugar by following the sugar syrup recipe at the beginning of this chapter. 3. Mix with the rice.Soak almonds in hot water and remove the skin and slice them. Wash raisins in water, remove the stem and dry them.

4. Fry both almonds and raisins in ghee and add it to the rice. Cardamom Powder can be mixed to the rice. Heat 10 palam ghee in a coated pan and fry the cloves in it.

5. Remove the cloves and add the rice to this ghee. Then keep the vessel in slow fire and add the powdered rock candy to the rice.

1. Wash and drain the rice thoroughly. Add ghee to a pan and add the rice when it is heated. Fry until it becomes red.

2. Pick juicy and sweet mangoes and squeeze the juice out of it. Strain the juice and boil it in a 3 padi water holding capacity pan. After it boils well, add the rice and stir it.

3. When the rice is 3/4th boiled, add brown sugar, cardamom powder, almonds and raisins. Almonds should be soaked in hot water, de skinned, sliced and fried in ghee. 4. Raisins can be cleaned, washed, dried with a cloth and fried in ghee and added.

5. Add pure ghee to the rice and keep the rice in a slow fire for 5 minutes. Before serving the rice add powdered rock candy to it.

1. Fry ghee in a pan and add the grits to it. Fry it to slight brown in color. Remove and set aside. Boil water in a pot and add the grits to it.

2. Add brown sugar, cardamom powder, almonds or cashew nuts to it.

3. Almonds should be soaked in hot water, de- skinned, sliced and fried in ghee. Add ghee to the rice.

1. Heat ghee in a pan. Add semolina and fry until light brown. Heat milk in a pan and when it boils, add the semolina.

2. Stir well. Add brown sugar to it. Add raisins,almonds and cardamom powder. Almonds should be soaked in hot water, de skinned, sliced and fried in ghee.

3. Dissolve saffron in milk and mix it with the dish. Add ghee and keep it for 5 minutes.

4. Powdered rock candy is added before serving the halwa.

Rice - 1 padi Pure Water - 2 ½ padi Fried Yellow Or Green Gram - veesam 1/16 padi Chana Dal/Bengal Gram - veesam ½ padi Grated Coconut - 5 palam Jaggery - ½ veesam Cashewnuts - 5 palam Cardamom Powder - ½ r.e Ghee - 1/8 padi

1. Clean the rice, fry it in a pan little by little until it is golden brown and make flour out of it. Boil pure water in a pot. Fry the whole moong dal and then split it to use it. 2. Add the fried moong dal and Bengal Gram to the boiling water. When it is half boiled, add grated coconut and jaggery to it. When the jaggery is dissolved, add the rice flour to it. Stir and close the lid.

3. After some time add cashewnuts, cardamom powder and ghee. Add it one by one to the kali. Keep it on slow fire for sometime and remove from fire.

4. You can soak the rice, grind it and then fry the ground flour to make this dish. If you want the kali to be dry, the water used to cook this should be less.

5. If you need the dish to be like a solid mass, the water has to be more.

1. Wash and soak good quality rice, grind it to a flour and fry it until golden brown. Fry Bengal Gram in ghee until golden brown. Boil pure water and after it boils, add the jaggery.

2. After the jaggery dissolves, add the rice flour, Bengal Gram, coconut pieces, cardamom powder etc. mix well and remove from fire. Transfer it to a tray. After it cools down, sprinkle some water and knead.

3. Make balls as big as mango. Flatten it like pancake by keeping it in the centre .Take a wide mouth vessel and pour water into it. Place it on fire. Place some hay or straw on top of it and keep the pancake on this hay.

4. Cover the pancake with some more hay and close it. After 10 minutes check the pancake to see if it is done (hard).

5. Repeat the procedure for the rest of the pancake also. In this type of pancake along with the Bengal Gram, cowpeas and cashew nuts can be added.

1. Powder almonds, pista and rock candy. Add it to the grits. Add ghee and knead well. Make balls out of it.

2. Dissolve kasturi and saffron in rosewater. Add it to the kneaded balls and knead again. Make lemon sized balls out of it and flatten it.

3. Keep this rolled dough in a coated plate and close it with another plate. Allow fire on top of the plate and under the plate.

4. When the roti’s are done and the aroma arises, remove from fire and set aside.