Akkaravadisal

Popularity: This is a very famous Iyengar recipe…very popularly known as Iyengar aathu Akkaravadisal..

This is yet another form of Sweet Pongal wherein the entire contents is boiled and made using milk alone. Another notable thing is that this will be more of a semi solidal form – even more than sweet pongal and it consumes more rice:milk ratio since it absorbs milk while being cooked and hence it is advisable to make it very semi solidal and it will thicken in course of time.

Ingredients:

1.       Rice & Moong Dal in the proportion of 1:6

2.       Jaggery: (Crushed) : To 1.5 times the proportion of Rice & Moong dal (if rice + moong dal mixture is 1 cup, then jaggery should also be 1 and a half cup), you can even use 2 cups jaggery if you want more sweetness. Since this recipe is cooked in milk itself, it would consume more sweetness than chakkari pongal

3.       Ghee: 6 to 8 tbsps

4.       Cashew Nuts: 10 to 15

5.       Kismis (dry grapes): 10

6.       Elaichi powder (cardamom powder): a pinch

7.       Boiled Milk: 1.5 litres

8.       Water

Preparation Procedure:

1.       Dry roast the rice and moong dal in a kadai for a minute or two

2.       In a pressure cooker, add the rice and moong dal and boiled milk in the ratio of 1 : 5.5. If rice and moong dal mixture is of the measure of 1 cup, add 5.5 times the measure of boiled milk and cook it for 10 to 12 whistles.

3.       Allow the cooker to settle and cool for some time.

4.       In the meanwhile, add the crushed jaggery to the kadai and very little water and start stirring by keeping the stove in sim

5.       Once the jaggery dissolves and becomes semi solidal, switch off the stove.

6.       After few minutes, filter the jaggery water to remove any residuals and to ensure that the jaggery is clean and pure.

7.       Open the pressure cooker and nicely smash the cooked rice and moong dal well and add the jaggery semi liquid to this and keep stirring. You can increase the proportion of jaggery based on the sweet requirements and taste.

8.       Add ghee when the Akkaravadisal is hot and keep stirring.

9.       In a little ghee, fry the cashew nuts and dry grapes and add it to the Akkaravadisal. Add cardamom powder (a pinch) and serve..