Samai Ven Pongal - Millet and Lentils Savory Rice - In an Instant Pot

Pongal is by far one of my favorite festivals. If you have connections to a farming community that is how it will always be if you still live in India or not. I am lucky this time I will be home for the Pongal holidays. Pongal is the harvest festival celebrated in the Tamil month of Thai.

Wish you all a Very Happy Pongal!

Pongal is made to pay respects to the Sun God or called Surya Pongal and for the celebration of the cattle in the farm called Mattu Pongal. The 4 day long Pongal festival has Surya Pongal on the 2nd and the Mattu Pongal on the 3rd days.

Usually Pongal is made with freshly harvested rice but here we will add a twist and make Pongal with millets which is also a very important staple grown in the arid parts where there is scarcity of water. Renewed interest in millets is helping farmers in the drier parts of the states of Tamilnadu, AndhraPradesh, Karnataka and Telegana and leading to bio diversity of food crops. Water hungry crops like wheat and rice and the popularity of rice over traditional millets also put a big burden on farmers living in the arid regions of these states and not able to make a living. So it is fantastic that millets are making a comeback as a health food which goes a great way in adding diversity to the foods that are being eaten.

Millets are considered the poor man's food which in a status conscious society like India probably lead to its loss of popularity. Now that the rich man's diet has lead to suffering from diseases everyone is taking a more positive look at millets as a way to improve health and also awareness for sustainably grown cereals increases. While 2018 was declared as the 'Year of the Millets' let us hope that millets will continue to be patronized by a lot more people.

We all know that white rice is nutritionally unable to compete with millets and also adding a diversity of grains and cereals to the diet should be as important as watching calories. We try to use white, red and brown rice in our diets but millets surprisingly compete equally in taste in our house and much better liked than rice. While sourcing millets is hard because of the non availability in food stores in the US we manage to use it by carrying it with us whenever we can.

They are fantastic to be eaten with a lot of curries and in making popular rice based dishes like ven pongal. The slightly off color of the millets is because it is not polished. Samai/Samao or little millet is almost white in color but if it is not polished it looks slightly browner in color.

Using an Instant Pot or Pressure cooker we can make soft and delicious ven pongal in no time. The Pressure cooker version of this recipe is here. The sweet millet Pongal should also be enjoyed this Pongal season.



Ven Pongal can be served with coconut chutney or pulikuzhambu.

Set the Instant Pot in Saute mode and Normal setting.
Add ghee and when hot add in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
Add the required amount of water and add the millet, moong dal and salt.
Close the lid and in Manual mode set 12 minutes. In a small pan heat ghee and roast the cashews.
Let the pressure subside by itself, when it flashes L followed by a number it is in the warming cycle. Let the pressure subside normally and open the Instant Pot.
Add the cashews and mix it in.

Serve with some puli kuzhambu.

Saamai Ven Pongal - Millet and Lentils Savory Rice
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 cup of Saami or Little Millet (any millet can be used)
2. 1/2 cup of split yellow moong dal or paasi paruppu
3. 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger grated
4. 4-5 green chilies finely chopped
5. 1/2 tbsp of freshly ground pepper powder
6. 1/4 cup of cashews (optional, skip for nut free)
7. 1 tbsp + 1 tsp of ghee (replace with any oil of choice)
8. salt to taste
9. seasonings: cumin seeds, curry leaves and mustard seeds

Method

1. Wash the millets in several changes of water and set aside. Each cup of millet requires 3 1/2 cups of water for the creamy texture.
2. Put the Instant Pot in 'Saute' mode and adjust settings to 'Normal'. When the Instant Pot flashes Hot add in the ghee.
3. Add in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds, when you hear the mustard pop add the curry leaves, ginger and green chilies, saute for 30 seconds and add in the pepper powder followed by the required amount of water for the millet to cook.
4. Now add the rinsed out millet and salt and close the Instant Pot and put it Manual setting for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes you can turn off the Instant Pot or leave it on in the warming setting till the pressure releases naturally.
5. While the millet is cooking, heat a small pan with the tsp of ghee and roast the cashews till they are golden brown and set aside.
6. Once the releases naturally open the Instant Pot, add in the roasted cashews mix and serve.

Ven Pongal can be served with some coconut chutney or tamarind based kuzhambu.

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Whole Kambu (pearl millet) Dosai

Millet offers a variation from the regular rice, wheat back to rice routine. I read that 90% of our time is spent indoors under artificial lights and mostly sitting doing sedentary jobs which means eating a lot of rice and wheat is not necessarily the best. So to mix it up a little bit I like to add some millet to our diet and hopefully to tackle the ever expanding mid section :(

While the recipe I have here is the way I know in which kambu dosai is made with the addition of spices. I wanted to change the recipe around a little bit so that it is similar to the regular dosai recipe. Since millet is also carbohydrate rich I add more lentils to get a crispy dosai.

Normally I use whole kambu for this but i have a couple of packets of broken kambu and I used that since i was not going to make porridge with the broken kambu.

Soak the pearl millet, rice, lentils and fenugreek seeds overnight.
Grind the fenugreek seeds and white lentils till it is smooth and fluffy. Remove it to a separate vessel.
Grind the pearl millet and when it is getting smooth add in the rice and grind till it is completed smooth.
Remove it to the vessel along with the lentil batter.
set the batter to ferment overnight. Once fermented mix it with a laddle so the batter looks smooth and is ready for use.
Heat a griddle and add a laddle of batter and spread it into circle. Flip on cook on the other side.

Kambu dosai batter made with whole kambu and plenty of lentils is much lighter and crispier.

Kambu Dosai
Soaking Time: 8 hours or overnight
Batter Grinding Time: 40 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1. 2 1/2 cups of kambu (pearl millet)
2. 1 1/2 cups of idli rice
3. 1 1/2 cups of whole urad dal (white lentils)
4. 2 tbsp of fenugreek seeds
5. salt to taste
For the Dosai
6. Oil

Batter Preparing

1. Wash the kambu in several changes of water and let it soak overnight. Wash and soak the rice and lentils. Soak the fenugreek seeds.
2. Grind the soaked fenugreek seeds and when it is looks almost blended add the lentils to it and blend to a smooth batter, remove to a vessel. I let the grinder run for about 20 minutes.
3. Next add the soaked millet and let it grind till most of the millet has been blended, add the rice to this and continue to grind till it becomes a smooth batter.
4. Remove the millet rice batter to the lentil batter, add salt and mix it well and leave it overnight to ferment.
5. Note:Where it is cold and fermenting is a problem, put it in the oven or microwave with the light oven overnight and it should ferment nicely.

Method

1. Heat a dosai pan or griddle, wipe some oil on it with some cloth.
2. Add a laddle of batter and spread it in a circle.
3. Add oil along the edges of the dosai, let it cook on one side and then flip and cook on the other side.

Serve with chutney of choice.

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Varagu Arisi Inippu Pongal - Millet Sweet Pongal

My favorite festival even more so than Deepavali is Pongal, the harvest festival. It is perhaps true for most farming families. Here in the US, the harvest is long been over and we are in the throes of winter so making Suriya pongal is out of the question but we have the trusty pressure cooker to help us out.

Sarakarai(sugar) Pongal is a popular breakfast item in our house. The kids love it and I cook it every now and then. So of course I made it on Pongal day. But this time instead of rice wanted to use millet and ended using varagu arisi or kodo millet for making the pongal.

Pongal has to be kind of mushy and moist not dry. This also means the grains should not be separate and hanging out on their own. Yes! very different from what we would want for biryani or pulav. Millet takes slightly longer to cook than rice. So for the texture you would like for Pongal add 4 1/2 cups of water to one cup of millet. No additional water is needed for the lentils that are to be added.



The recipe in pictures.

Cook the millet and lentils in the required amount of water. Break up the jaggery.
Melt and filter the jaggery and mix it to the rice.
Roast the nuts and raisins, mix in the cardamom powder and roasted nuts to the rice, mix and turn of the heat.

A tasty and delicious dish is ready in no time.

Varagu Arisi Inippu Pongal
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 cup Varagu Arisi - Kodo Millet (1 cup of millet - 4 1/2 cups of water)
2. 1 cup split yellow moong dal - paasi paruppu
3. 1/2 cup jaggery
4. 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
5. 1/4 cup nuts (I used cashews and charoli)
6. 1/4 cups raisins
7. 1/2 cup milk
8. 2 tbsp ghee

Method

1. Wash the millet and lentils in several changes of water and add the millet along with the water required in a pressure cooker. Cook for 6-8 whistles and wait for the pressure to subside.
2. Take the jaggery in a sauce pan along with one cup of water, heat till the jaggery dissolves completely. Filter the impurities out.
3. Heat the ghee in a pan, add the nuts first roast till they start to brown, add the raisin and roast for a minute more. Turn off the heat.
4. Open the cooker and give a good mix. Add in the jaggery syrup and mix it well. Turn the heat to a low and gently add the milk while mixing.
5. Now add in the cardamom powder and the fried nuts. Mix and quickly turn off the heat and remove from the stove.
6. Note:To powder cardamom add with it a tsp of sugar and powder in a spice grinder.

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Saamai Ven Pongal - Little Millet with Lentils - One Pot Meal

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. We have been hit by a heat wave the last couple of weeks and staying indoors seems to be the most prudent thing to do. While staying indoors we are naturally attracted to the TV but switching on the TV brings with it its own set of problems.

If you look at it, there are ways to beat the heat and in a way it is bearable, what is unbearable is the bad news that each day seems to bring that is intolerable. Anyway we all have to eat and cooking is something that can take your mind off of the events going on around of which we have no control any way.

Every now and then I sit back and think about the amount of rice we consume and wonder how I can change that trend. Millets provide one easy alternative. Tasty and pretty easy to cook as long as you have a good recipe that millets work well in. Little Millet or Saamai as it is called in Tamil is conducive to making this recipe with moong dal. Saamai savory pongal is a one pot meal with lentils and spiced with ginger, pepper and green chilies and seasoned with nuts.

One good thing about this pongal is that you do not have to worry about the amount of water, the more the water the better the texture seems to get.

Saamai Ven Pongal - Little Millet with Lentils
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time:30 minutes
Ingredients

1. 2 cups of saamai or little millet
2. 1 cup of moong dal (no need to roast)
3. 3-4 green chilies (chop or mince fine)
4. 1 tbsp grated ginger (preferably freshly ground)
5. 2 tsp pepper powder
1/2 tsp of cumin powder
6. 2 tbsp roasted cashews
7. salt to taste
8. 2-3 tsp ghee (use any oil for Vegan)
9. seasonings: mustard seeds and curry leaves

Method

1. Wash the millet till the water runs clear.
2. In a pressure heat the oil or the ghee and add the seasonings mustard seeds followed by the curry leaves.
3. Add in the green chilies and grated ginger and saute for a few minutes. Add in the pepper and cumin powders.
4. Add the washed millet and moong dal. For one cup of millet add 3 1/2 cups of water and 1 cup of water for every cup of dal.
5. Check for salt. When the water comes to boil close the lid and cook for 4 whistles.
6. Roast the cashews in ghee or oil.
7. Once the cooker cools naturally, open the lid mix the rice gently and add the roasted cashews.

Serve with coconut or any spicy chutney.

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