Barnyard millet pongal

Barnyard millet pongal(Kuthiraivali pongal)

Me and hubby prefer variety when it comes to dinner. That is the only meal of the day we eat together. Being foodies we really relish and savour whatever we eat. Pongal is one of the dinner menus that we do once in 2 weeks. We usually like our pongal very mushy. One reason is mushy pongal tastes awesome when it is piping hot with a good chutney or gosthu. Second reason is with minimum amount of ghee the pongal still tastes like the restaurant pongal. 

Recently we got ourselves introduced to the world of millets for good. Most of the dishes taste exactly same when replacing rice with millets or I would say some of them taste even better. One such awesome tasting replacement is the millet pongal. I tried my hand with Barnyard millet aka kuthiraivali in tamil. This is one of the millets which gets mashed up easily and so becomes the obvious choice for a delicious mushy pongal. It tasted like the pongal we get in early hours of margazhi month in the temple.

Servers 2

Ingredients

Barnyard millet(Kuthiraivali) - 3/4th cup

Moong dhal(Pasiparuppu) - 1/4th cup plus 1 tblsp

Salt to taste

Water - 4 cups

To temper

Peppercorns - 2 tblsp

Ginger (finely chopped) - 2 tblsp

Green chilli - 2 (optional)

Jeera powder - 1 tblsp

Curry leaves 

Ghee - 1 tblsp

Procedure

1) Take a cooker and dry roast the Moong dhal in medium flame till nice aroma comes. Take care not to burn the dhal. 

2) Wash the barnyard millet and add to the roasted dhal. Add water and salt and close the cooker. Keep in between medium to high flame. 

3) Place the cooker whistle once u get steam. This ensures the dhal cooks well. 

4) After 4 whistles, reduce the flame to low and keep for 5 mins and then switch off

5) Once you are able to open the cooker mix the cooked dhal and millet well. Meanwhile take a small kadai and add the items under to temper. Pour the mixture over the cooked mixture and mix well. 

Serve with white chutney and tomato or brinjal gosthu or with onion tomato chutney.

Notes:

- I prefer adding ginger, pepper and jeera powder in the end as it gives a very nice flavour. You can also add all the ingredients except ghee along with dhal and millet in the cooker itself before cooking. Finally add ghee and mix

-  I add only 1/2 tblsp and it tastes good. For indulgence once in a while or when giving for kids, you can add more ghee as per your taste.

- I like adding jeera powder since it blends well with pongal to give nice flavour and taste. You can also add jeera as such. 

- If you dont prefer mushy pongal, you can reduce water. 

The same procedure can be used to make pongal with foxtail millet aka thinai for people who dont prefer too much mashed up pongal.