Thinal Sakkarai Pongal / Foxtail Millet Pongal

Another healthy and tasty millet recipe. You can also check out other millets recipes Little Millet Adai, Varagirisi Pidi Kozhakattai.

I dedicate this  sweet post to my friends Aiswarya and Sharath who is getting married in couple of days. They are such a sweet couple and a lovely pair.

Aish and Sharath, wishing you lifetime happiness together.

Ingredients:

·         Thinai /  Fox tail Millet – ½ cup

·         Powdered Jaggery – ½ cup (Paagu vellam)

·         Moong dal – 1 tbsp

·         Water – 2 cups

·         Ghee – 2 tbsp

·         Cashews -6 (Broken or whole)

·         Cardamom  – 2 pods

Method :

Wash the millet, drain the water and keep it aside.

Add 1 tbsp of ghee in a Kadai. Fry the cashews to golden brown and keep it aside.

In the same kadai, add powdered Jaggery and ½ cup of water. Heat the kadai till the jaggery melts completely and filter jaggery to separate the impurities. Keep the jaggery syrup aside.

Heat the kadai in medium flame and add 1.5 cups of water. Once the water boils, add the washed millet and 1 tbsp of moongal. Cover and cook for 5-10 mins in low flame with stirring in between. Make sure it doesn’t burn out. Check if it is cooked well. If not sprinkle lil more water and cook it soft. Alternately you can also use pressure cooker and cook it for 2 whistles.

Once it is cooked, add the jaggey syrup and cook for 5-10 mins, till the jaggey is completely absorbed by the millets.

Add a tbsp of Ghee. Powder the cardamom and add it to the Pongal. Finally Add the fried cashews. Now super healthy pongal is ready. Serve it hot or chilled.

When you serve it cold, fluff it with a fork or spoon before you serve, as it becomes like a cake after a while.

Tips

·         This pongal can be made with other varieties of millets too.

·         You can add milk while adding jaggery syrup and make the consistency like payasam too.  I tried making payasam with saamai.