Jan 14 - is the first day of the Tamil month, Thai. Pongal is a festival that is celebrated in South India - celebrating the good harvest and the Hindus celebrate the Sun god for the harvest. They make Pongal. There are two kinds of Pongal. Sweet and Savoury.
Sweet Pongal - is made with rice (new crop), bit of green grams, milk, jaggery (pure unrefined sugar made with sugarcane), ghee, raisins, cashews and cardamom.
Savoury - (white Pongal) is made with rice, bit of green grams and milk.
Both pots are tired with green ginger and tamarind plants like a jewel. Everyone add a bit of milk and rice into both pots and when the pot boils over kids bang the drums and scream "pongalo pongal" - celebration of rice boiling over.
A rooty vegetable curry - made with 7 kinds of vegetables, grated coconut and ground rice is added at the end, it's delicious.
Pumpkin kulambu - a dark pungent hot sauce made with thick tamarind paste, lot of chilli powder and pumpkin is made. It goes great with white Pongal.
Children eat lot of sugarcane during this festival as this month is the harvest season for many things including sugarcane, ginger, tamarind, sweet potatoes and new crop (new rice from the harvest.
No comments:
Post a Comment