Sweet pongal

Method

1. 1 Roast the lentils in a dry pan for 5 minutes until fragrant, then rinse them with the rice.
2. 2 This version is brewed with milk instead of water, so the tea is thicker and richer than the version brewed with water.
3. 3 Cook the rice and beans in the diluted milk over low heat for 35 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
4. 4 Cook palm sugar with a little water to make syrup, then strain to remove the solids.
5. 5 Pour the syrup into the pot of rice porridge only when the rice is fully cooked; adding it too early will make the rice grains tough and prevent them from expanding.
6. 6 Roast cashews and raisins in ghee, then pour the ghee into the tea and sprinkle with cardamom.

With an appliance

• Oven 53 min

  Replace step 3: put the rice, beans, and milk mixture into a pot, cover loosely, place on the middle rack of the oven at 150 degrees for 28 minutes, stirring once at the 15th minute; reduce to about 7 minutes, until the grains are evenly soft, the milk does not overflow or burn, and reduce stirring from seven times to one. Palm sugar syrup should still only be added when the grains are soft, as in step 5.