Chekkara Pongali - Festival Sweet - Indian Andhra Telugu Recipes

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Preparations:

In a mortar & pestle powder the cardamoms along with edible camphor. Store this powder in a closed state to retain the sweet smell. Heat a pan and add ghee to it. When ghee is hot add the raisins and fry. Raisins swell in hot ghee. Drain the raisins from ghee when they are golden in color. Add cashew nuts to the same ghee and fry till they turn golden in color. Remove the fried cashew nuts from ghee and add the sliced almonds to fry. Remove the almond pieces when they are light brown in color.

Method:

Take rice in a bowl and add water to it. Wash the rice and drain the water. Keep this washed rice aside. Heat a non stick pan and add green gram to it. Fry the green gram stirring all the while on low flame. After some time observe the green gram changing color lightly leaving a nice aroma around the place. Then add the washed rice and mix well. Add water followed by milk to the green gram and rice mix. Mix well and cover the pan partially. Cook the rice and dal, on low flame, in the milk mixture. After some time observe that all the liquid is absorbed by the rice mixture. Test the doneness by pressing a grain of dal and a grain of rice between fingers. Observe that the rice mixture will be three-fourths cooked. Now add the extra milk and mix well. Cover the pan partially and cook the pongali. Once again when all the liquid is absorbed, test again for doneness. By now the rice mixture will be cooked 95%. Now add the extra water to the pongali. Also add the sugar to the pongali and mix well. After adding sugar, it melts and water oozes. Cook the pongali covering the pan partially for 2 to 3 minutes. Now remove the lid and pour in ghee. After mixing well add the cardamom and camphor powder. Mix this well and enjoy the nice aroma of the spice powder. Add half of the fried nuts and half of fried raisins and mix well. Now that the pongali is ready, transfer it to a serving bowl. Garnish the chakkera pongali with the remaining nuts and raisins. Serve hot and enjoy this dish with all your family members.

Points to Observe:

Adding milk gives the dish a nice taste (KAMMADANAMU). However,the chakkera pongali served in temples is made without adding milk. Especially during summer season, the chakkera pongali made with milk gets spoilt fast and becomes unfit for consumption. The green gram also hastens the process.

Use only edible camphor for this dish which gives an enhanced taste along with the cardamom powder.

As the pongali is cooked in milk, the texture of the rice and green gram will be grainy. You would not get the usual texture of cooked rice. Don't look for that texture. Check the rice is cooked sufficiently for consumption.