Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Semiya/Vermicelli Pongal

Today afternoon I started doing some cleaning up for the Pongal festival. As I was working all the memories related to the Pongal holidays like cleaning the house, the house entrance being decorated with tender mango and palm leaves,  the colourful Pongal kolams, markets flooded with fresh turmeric, claypots, and sugarcane etc., came flooding to my mind. 
By the time I finished my work I had a sudden craving for something pongalish ;) ....With the festival being just 4 days ahead, I did not want to make sweet pongal or payasam and thus ended up making this vermicelli pongal.
Since I have made Semiya kesari before,  I knew that it pairs up well sugar, but with jaggery its an experiment I did for the first time and it turned out delicious.
When the sweet aroma of melted jaggery and cardamom filled the house, my son came to me and asked  "Amma sammi kumpidalama?" meaning 'Shall we go and pray?'. I was taken by surprise at the same time felt happy that he was able to relate the sweet aroma to something religious and festive :)


I would say that this is a super quick substitute for regular sweet pongal , takes maximum 20 mins.

Ingredients:
1 cup Semiya/Vermicelli
1/4 cup moong dhal
3/4 cup shredded jaggery
2 pods of elaichi/cardamom
1/4 cup of sliced almonds/ handful of cashews
handful of raisins
3 tablespoon of shredded coconut  (optional)
2 tablespoon ghee

Method:

Boil the jaggery in 1/2 cup of water and filter through a mesh, just to avoid any impurities.
Take 1/4 cup of moong dhal in a microwave safe dish , add 1/2 cup of water and cook for 5-6 mins.
The dhal should be in a 3/4 th cooked state, need not be mushy.
Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a pan and fry the raisins and almonds till golden. Keep aside.
In the same pan roast the vermicelli till slightly golden
Boil 2 cups of water in a pan and add the roasted vermicelli and cook till all te water is absorbed.
Now add the melted jaggery, crushed cardamom, cooked  moong dhal and stir well,
Cook in medium heat until all the water is absorbed.
Stir in the roasted almonds/cashews, raisins, coconut and another tablespoon of ghee.
Mix well and serve warm


Iam sending this yummy pongal to the Pongal Feast event at 'Kurinji Kadhambam'

16 comments:

Swathi said...

Delicious semiya pongal.

Gayathri Kumar said...

Very innovative pongal..

Kurinji said...

Really yummy pongal n new to me sumi. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for participate with my event....

Pongal Feast Event

Kurinji kathambam

kurinji kudil

Priya Suresh said...

Very unique and delicious pongal..

Raji said...

That's a yummy looking semiya pongal...

Rachana said...

Delicious and innovative pongal!

Shah cooks said...

Sounds like a vermicelli kesari too! delicious.

Rajani said...

great innovation

Finla said...

Love it looks realluyumm.

Aruna Manikandan said...

sounds interesting
looks delicious dear....

Torviewtoronto said...

first time here this looks delicious

Jayanthy Kumaran said...

Hy Sumi,

first time here...fascinating space you have with rich collection of recipes...Am your happy follower now...do stop by mine sometime..
Tasty appetite

Unknown said...

This is sure a nice twist to the normal rice pongal...yumm

M D said...

Yummy looking Pongal. I am drooling!

Padhu Sankar said...

Delicious Pongal

Umm Mymoonah said...

This looks very yummy, checked out few of your other recipes too. Very tempting pictures.

Related Posts with Thumbnails