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Pongal (dish)

Indian rice dish

Summary

Indian rice dish

Field	Value
name	Pongal
image	{{multiple image
perrow	3
border	infobox
total_width	300
image1	Pongal or Pongali being cooked in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India.jpg
image2	Ven pongal with sambar and chutney.jpg
image3	Sweetpongal.jpg
footer	Cooking pongal in a traditional pot (left); Venn pongal (center); Sakkarai pongal
country	India, Sri Lanka
region	South India
associated_cuisine	Tamil cuisine
main_ingredient	Rice, milk
variations

Pongal () is a dish of rice cooked in boiling milk. It is a popular dish cooked by the Tamil people in South India and Sri Lanka. Its preparation is the main custom associated with the namesake Pongal festival. Several varieties such as the Venn pongal and Sakkarai pongal are part of the Tamil cuisine.

Etymology and significance

The dish is associated with the Pongal festival, a major harvest festival of the Tamils. The name literally translates to "boil over" or "overflow" in Tamil language. As per tradition, the fresh harvest of rice is cooked in boiling milk and offered to various Hindu deities. While the pongal is cooking, onlookers shout "Pongalo pongal!" ('Let the pongal rise up!').

Variations

[[India Post]] stamp depicting Venn pongal

Typically pongal varieties are made with cow milk and its derivatives. Venn pongal ("Venn" means white) is made up of rice and lentil porridge similar to the another South Asian staple khichdi. Spices like black pepper, ginger, turmeric, asafoetida, cashews, cumin, curry leaves, are used along with ghee (clarified butter), mung beans, and salt. In South India, it is commonly eaten for breakfast with coconut chutney and coffee.

Sakkarai pongal ("Sakkarai" meaning sweet or sugar) is made with jaggery, mixed with cardamom, cashews, raisins, nutmeg, and ghee. It is often served as a prasadam after being offered to the deities. Other variations include Kozhi pongal ("Kozhi" meaning chicken) made with chicken meat and Sanyasi pongal ("Sanyasi" meaning ascetic or monk) made with vegetables.

References

Verma, Priyanka. (2014). ["Pongal: Festival Of India"]({{Google books). Diamond Pocket Books Pvt Ltd.
Shanmugalingam, Cynthia. (2022). ["Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka"]({{Google books). Bloomsbury Publishing.
Monks Of Kauai Aadheenam. (1997). ["Monks' Cookbook"]({{Google books). Himalayan Academy Publications.
(2018). ["Everyday Ayurveda Cooking for a Calm, Clear Mind: 100 Simple Sattvic Recipes"]({{Google books). Shambhala.
Winslow, Miron. (1862). "Winslow's A comprehensive Tamil and English dictionary".
Singh, Manali. (2018). ["Vegetarian Indian Cooking with Your Instant Pot: 75 Traditional Recipes That Are Easier, Quicker and Healthier"]({{Google books). Page Street Publishing.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

indian-rice-dishes sri-lankan-cuisine kerala-cuisine lentil-dishes tamil-cuisine south-asian-cuisine vegetarian-dishes-of-india

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