Here is all you need to know about the traditional Tamil dish Pongal
If you have grown up in India, you must be familiar with the festival Pongal. Celebrated by Hindu Tamilians all across India and in parts of Sri Lanka, it is a four-day harvest festival. Also known as Thai Pongal, it is observed in the beginning of the month ‘Thai’ as per the Tamil solar calendar. Just like Makar Sankranti, Pongal too is dedicated to the sun god Surya and pays tribute to agricultural abundance. This year, Pongal is from 15th to 18th of January.
Amidst the ongoing festival, we were wondering what Pongal means. Turns out, it means “to boil, overflow” in Tamil and refers to the ceremonial Pongal dish that is prepared during the festival and offered to the sun deity followed by the cattle. It is then eaten by humans. Experts say that it is this very dish after which the festival is named and not vice versa. Isn’t it interesting? Here is more about this traditional Tamil breakfast.
Pongal: A sneak peek
The quintessential Pongal dish is made of freshly harvested rice boiled in milk and jaggery. Once boiled, other ingredients are added for extra flavour such as cardamom, raisins, green gram, cashew nuts and more. It is often served hot with coconut and ghee spread from above.
Served during the festival Pongal, it is often made in clay pots decorated with garlands, roots of turmeric, and hand-made pattern artwork called ‘kolam.’ Besides being cooked in people’s kitchens, it is also prepared in town centres, villages and temple premises where elderly women of the house gather and stir the dish in presence of sunlight. It is no less than a social event where the phrase “Has your rice boiled?” is often spread from mouth to mouth.
Pongal: The origin story
As the legends go, the people of the Indus Valley civilisation who lived around 10000 B.C. were the first to harvest rice and often eat it raw or cooked. Five thousand years down the line, a royal chef in present-day Tamil Nadu accidentally boiled rice with Moong dal. The result? The birth of a dish we now know as Pongal. However, it was years later around 200 B.C. that the festival Pongal was born. But that’s a story for another day.
What’s interesting is that, Pongal earned the other important ingredients namely milk and jaggery, thanks to the ancient Greeks. Yes, you read that right. Legends have it that after Alexander the Great invaded India in 327 B.C., his soldiers were fascinated to come upon rice. In fact, they were so impressed with this crop that they decided to customise it to their own liking. Guess what they did? They took rice, lentils and beans and boiled them all together in red wine. Food historians suggest that just like red wine (it’s mentioned in the Bible as the holy drink) was a religious choice for the Catholic Greeks, milk derived from cows was a religious option for the Indians. And that is how the present-day Pongal dish originated.
Types of Pongal
Also known as pongali or huggi, this traditional Indian rice dish comes in more than a single variety. Here’s a look at them.
Chakarai Pongal
This is the sweet variety of Pongal that is made as a ‘prasad’ specially during the festival of Pongal in Tamil Nadu and occasionally in Andhra Pradesh during Makar Sankranti. It is made by boiling rice with coconut and mung bean which is then sweetened with jaggery or white sugar. It is also known as Sakkara Pongal. Interestingly, apart from the sun god, the sweet Pongal is also offered to Goddess Pongal (another name for Goddess Parvati) for her blessing on the crops.
Venn Pongal
Perhaps the most popular kind of Pongal, it is savoury in taste and is made with clarified butter. It is a staple breakfast eaten in South India and is often served with vada, sambar and coconut chutney. Venn in Tamil means “white.”
Melagu Pongal
This is a spicy kind of Pongal made with rice, moong dal and pepper. In fact, Melagu is the Tamil word for pepper. It is usually eaten as a snack.
Puli Pongal
Often eaten as dinner, this type of Pongal is made with tamarind (Puli in Tamil) and boiled rice.