Today I am going to share a South Indian breakfast menu idea or a Pongal breakfast menu idea. After a break of 1 and 1/4 years from blogging, I am sharing a Pongal relevant post that is close to my heart.
read more: South Indian Breakfast Menu Idea1
Pongal festival
In South India, people celebrate it on Pongal Day, which falls in mid-January, i.e. on the first day of the Tamil month of Thai, with the rice harvested from the farm. Not only do they use rice, but they also make curry with harvested vegetables and express their gratitude to God/the sun with coconut, turmeric plant, sugarcane, banana, betel leaves, harvesting equipment and more. This festival is all about thanking God with the harvest. The next day is Maatu Pongal in Tamil where they express their gratitude to cows, buffalos and other farm animals for their hard work.”
Easy trick to make 2 in 1 Pongal
On Pongal day, I always prepare authentic raw rice or millet pongal in a pot. Then I divide the cooked plain pongal to make both sweet and khara pongal/ven pongal/savory in one go. This way you don’t have to cook the rice twice for these two dishes. Alternatively, you can use another method where you cook both sweet and savory at the same time in an Instant Pot. Watch the video link HERE for Millet-based Pongal.
South Indian breakfast menu
Our recent breakfast menu for the Pongal festival is shown in the photos, and I have a short YouTube video showing how I prepared all the menu items mentioned here in a snap. In any case, I will also explain the recipes in the menu.
- Medhu Vadai is the best starter and complements the Pongal, sambar and chutney menu (the video recipe of which I will share later).
- Sambar – The recipe link I have shared is Arachuvita sambar, which goes well with Tiffin and Pongal varieties. I will also share more sambar recipe links in the near future.
- Coconut chutney (recipe follows)
Coconut chutney recipe
This is the restaurant style coconut chutney recipe, and every time I make coconut chutney, this is my favorite version. Sometimes I switch up a few ingredients, like adding red chili instead of green, but the flavor definitely varies by restaurant style. The trick is to add more green chili and thicken the chutney. Don’t skip the tempering part either. I use fresh coconut for this and never frozen shredded coconut, so the flavor of coconut meat is also important to achieve that specific taste.”
Ingredients
Grated coconut – 1 cup
Green Chilis – 2 numbers
Dalia/Pottu Kadalai – 1/3 cup
Salt – if necessary
To temper
Mustard seeds – 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves – 1-2 sprigs
Oil – if necessary
Method
Grind all the ingredients mentioned above with required water into a smooth paste. You can add a few raw curry leaves while grinding. Keep the chutney thick, or add more water to thin. Add oil to a pan; When hot, add mustard seeds and once they splutter, remove from heat. Add the curry leaves, mix quickly and add to the ground chutney.
Thanks for reading till the end, the next post in Nitha Kitchen is Lunch Box Series/Kids Lunch Box Ideas, keep visiting for more interesting recipes.
Click HERE for more Pongal related recipes
Click HERE for more festival related recipes
