Health food recipe: This pongal with dry grapes and jaggery helps improve blood circulation

This Pongal variant helps ease digestion and improve blood circulation. How about that? Executive chef Jaffar Ali of Vivanta Chennai IT Expressway picked the Inippu Munthiri Nei Pongal especially for this reason. He shares, “It is a traditional dish cooked with broken wheat and edible camphor.” The latter, incidentally, has medicinal properties. Rich with ghee and sweet with the goodness of jaggery, the chef breaks down this recipe with simple steps, so you can make this treat at home.

Recipe 
Inippu Munthiri Nei Pongal (Dry Grapes, Rice and Jaggery Pongal)
Portions - 4

Ingredients
Red rice – 200 gm  | Jaggery – 500 gm  | Ghee - 50 ml  | Golden raisins – 25 gm  | Crushed cardamom powder– 8  | Cashewnuts – 50 gm  | Edible camphor -2 gm or a pinch  | Coconut – 50 gm  | Moong dal – 50 gm  | Broken wheat – 25 gm

Method
● Soak jaggery in warm water, strain, reduce on a range and make syrup.
● Soak the rice and broken wheat for 30 minutes, then wash it.
● Cook the rice and dal for 30 minutes till it is soft and slightly grainy.
● Fry the raisins and cashewnuts in ghee, till golden in colour.
● Add jaggery syrup to the rice and dal mixer, sprinkle cardamom powder, a pinch of edible camphor and mix well. 
● Add golden fried raisins and cashewnuts. 
● Sprinkle hot ghee over the sweet Pongal.
● Serve hot on a green banana leaf.

sonali@newindianexpress.com | @brightasunshine