Sakkarai pongal recipe, a temple style flavorful sweet pongal with jaggery, edible camphor, cardamom, cloves and the essential ghee and cashew nuts.
Rice and dal cooked with the secret ingredients like edible camphor, nutmeg and clove make it smell and taste DIVINELY. I really mean it, you will definitely agree with me once you try this!
You can also check my easy aval sakkarai pongal recipe in my website for a quick version. Don’t forget to check my kovil puliyodharai to go with this.
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This is one of my favorite mom’s staple recipe next to her sweet boondi. I made this few times now and got appreciation too from everyone. Recently like when I made it for our home Grahapravesham at our home in Kumbakonam.
So from then I wanted to post it here in my blog. I already have a sakkarai pongal recipe in my ulundu vadai post. But its plain and simple without all those special ingredients.
I have made this in pressure cooker, but can be made in the traditional way by boiling rice and dal and adding jaggery to it too (like I have updated in the video).
Before marriage, me, my mom and our neighbor used to do this pongal in pot in a temple (Kottai mariyamman koil) in Salem.
Every month we used to carry the ingredients and make pongal back of the temple, offer it to god and after that we distribute all the pongal there itself in the temple.
We just take a ladle full for ourselves. Other than that we distribute everything there. The vengala panai (Bronze pot) gets empty in no time. We come back home with heart full of satisfaction.
Occasions
Sweet pongal is made in many occasions other than pongal festival. For a Friday offering, aadi perukku, Ganesh chaturthi, Varalakshmi viradham etc.
Not that you can make for your family for a special breakfast. You can pair it with savory rava pongal.
Top tip
You can choose to boil the syrup until half string consistency and add to pongal for a shiny sakkarai pongal.
If you feel something is missing in taste, it will definitely be the sweet taste. So add more jaggery or if you are okay, one or 2 tablespoon of sugar for a quick fix.
The measurements given will be perfect, but some jaggery are less sweet or more sweet depending on it’s quality. So add more accordingly.
Make it watery so that the pongal remains loose even after it cools down. It thickens as it cools.
You can reduce ghee and just top some melted ghee over while serving. Adding lots of ghee also spoils the taste, especially when it cools down.
So I suggest always to heat it up and serve hot for both taste as well as texture.
Recipe card
Sakkarai pongal recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup Raw rice
- 2 tablespoon Moong dal/ pasi paruppu
- ¾ cup Jaggery
- 2 & ½ cups Water
- 3 tablespoon Ghee
- 1 pinch Salt
- 6 Cashews
- 2 tablespoon Raisin
- 1 Elachi
- 1 Cloves
- 1 pinch Nutmeg powder
- 1 fenugreek sized Edible camphor*
Instructions
- Take pressure cooker/ pan, add ¼ teaspoon ghee and roast the moong dal.
- Add water, washed rice and salt. Pressure cook for 4 whistles. Mash it once done.
- Powder jaggery and heat it with water just to immerse it and bring to boil. Let the jaggery completely dissolve and filter it and add to the mashed rice in the cooker.
- In a separate pan, heat a teaspoon of ghee and roast cashews to golden and add raisins to it.
- Once it fluffs up, transfer it and keep aside.
- In the same pan, add cloves, elachi and switch off the stove.
- Add nutmeg powder, give a quick stir.
- Take out elachi and powder it, add the powdered elachi, edible camphor, cloves along with nutmeg powder to the pongal.
- Mix well and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes.
- Add ¼ cup water or milk if it gets dry while cooking.
- Add ghee little by little while cooking.
- Lastly add the fried cashews and raisins.
Video
Notes
- I used old rice, so needed water at the ratio of 1 : 5. If your rice is new and gets cooked easily, 1 : 4 is enough for this pressure cooker method.
- After opening the cooker, if the rice is too dry, add ¼ cup water or milk while mashing. After cooling down, gets thick, so switch off the flame accordingly.
- I grate nutmeg and roast it in ghee while I roast cloves/elachi / cashews. When you do so, you should make sure to add the grated nutmeg after you switch off the stove. Otherwise, it may get burnt. Use good quality ghee. I always use homemade ghee.
- The colour of pongal differs with the colour of jaggery.‘Paagu vellam’ works best. It is slightly darker in shade. (Urundai vellam)
- Jaggery can be added more if needed. We usually like it super sweet, so adjust according to your taste preference.
Sakkarai pongal for pot method Ingredients
- Raw rice – 1 cup
- Moong dal – 2 to 4 tablespoon
- Jaggery – 1 to 1 & ½ cup
- Ghee – ¼ cup (can adjust as per preference)
- Cardamom – 1
- Water for cooking rice – 6 cups
- Milk – 2 tablespoon
- Water for jaggery syrup – ½ cup
- Edible camphor – mustard seed size
- Clove – 1
- Nutmeg powder- a pinch
- Salt – a pinch (optional)
- Cashews, raisins – 1 tablespoon each
Stepwise photos
1. Take pressure cooker/ pan firstly, add ¼ teaspoon ghee and roast the moong dal.
2. Add water, washed rice as well as a pinch salt. Then, pressure cook for 4 whistles. Mash it once done.
3. Meanwhile, powder jaggery, heat it with water just to immerse it and bring to boil. Let the jaggery completely dissolve.
Then filter it and add to the mashed rice in the cooker.
4. In a separate pan, heat a teaspoon of ghee and roast cashews to golden. After that add raisins to it. Once it fluffs up, transfer it and keep aside.
In the same pan, add cloves, cardamom and switch off the stove. Add nutmeg powder, give a quick stir.
Take out cardamom and powder it, add the powdered cardamom, edible camphor, cloves along with nutmeg powder to the pongal.
You can skip roasting cardamom and crush it raw as well and add to pongal. I do this just to ensure it gets powdered well.
At times, the cardamom rice is not black and wont get powdered at all. While eating it comes in mouth which some people find it annoying. It also gives less flavor.
5. Mix well and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes. Add ¼ cup water or milk if it gets dry while cooking. Drizzle ghee little by little while cooking. Lastly add the fried cashews and raisins.
To know your pongal is done perfectly, it will have a shine from the jaggery coating the rice. So keep cooking until then.
Divine smelling + tasting pongal is what you have now! The whole house smell divinely😊
Loved the cute vessel…beautiful pics and delicious pongal
itis rice know typo error in the first line ! btw mouth watering
Lovely clicks, deliciously done..
I love this to the core… Comfort food
so yummy this is my kids favourite
Great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com
delicious prasadham preparation… as you said Raji really this will give divine taste and flavor…nice post
Ezcookbook
Wow… beautiful pics… Always did simply pongal…Never added the spices as you have said… surely will try this rich flavourful method today…
Can feel the flavor.. It's makes me hungry here
Looks rich & delicious 🙂
Prathima Rao
Prats Corner
sweet pongal looks so rich dear! ..I'll try your version soon 🙂
As a kid this is the only payasam that I used to make. Reminds me of those wonderful childhood days. My grandfather used to like it.
Too good and love the clicks.
Wowww… looks super delicious and tempting.. love the presentation too.. You rock dear 🙂
Indian Cuisine
i guess this is like the kovil prasadam raji looks deliciously divine
As you said its look so divine and yum …I really wish I can have it …fab pics
Am loving the cashews and raisins…looks so delicious..
inviting dear..join me in fast food event – vermicilli .
Such a droolworthy and super tempting sweet pongal, love it.
My Fav too. Drooling here looking at the ghee soaked Pongal.
Ghee dripping pongal… wow. Hey wait are we through with diwali. Just had a doubt since i received pongal recipe 🙂 and then I understood that we can have pongal for diwali but we cannot have diwali for pongal (for those who can understand). he… hee…
Rich and delicious…perfect color and texture…yummy looking pongal
Looks divine..I remember the Pongal festival..
Rich, creamy and yummy…..lovely recipe…
Raks the pic looks so colourful lovely sooooooooo good and tempting.
OMG pongal looks very yummy.Its really makes me drooling Radhika.
yum yum…luv this recipe and the cute bowl…and the clicks 🙂
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A delicious traditional dish. I have made it with quinoa and brown rice too. Yours looks so delicious with all the goodness in it.
Very rich pongal, looks divine.
Making the sakkara pongal in the pressure cooker is a great time-saver.Perfect for Navrathri:)
Nice looking pongal..love d snaps too
totally tempting sakkarai pongal. I can imagine the divine taste of the pongal with nutmeg and edible camphor. Wonderful presentation
hello raks
can u pls tel me how do u slice the nuts especially the one u did in ur carrot halwa post?
Nasi, I do with my super sharp knife 🙂
The pongal looks super delicious, how I wish I could now have a bowl of it.
wow…absolutely inviting..
Tasty Appetite
Pongal looks absolutely fabulous..:)
Reva
Hello Raks… u may have got tonnes of awards for this lovely blog of urs 🙂 I recently got one for my blog and I wished to share it with u, as I have picked up some lovely recipes from ur space here… so my way of saying thanks 🙂 Do chk my blog 🙂
Nice photos and detailed recipe.I tried this today and enjoying the house filled with its aroma. I normally use milk and it gets very messy. Oh…I love this! My Sakkari Pongal was never this good!
Wow, awesome.. btw, mouth watering. beautiful…
wow.. mouth watering, btw awesome….
Wow! Thanks – just needed by me.
Planning to make one big quantity of pongal and make half portion for sarkarai pongal and another half for ven pongal
The presentation is just amazing. Cant wait to go home and try it out today :)Btw, I am also using the ven pongal recipe
thanks raks. the pongal was very taste
thanks raks. the pongal was very taste.
Totally agree on Use good quality ghee. I always use homemade ghee. That's so true. Your pongal looks divine!
Made this for Hindu new year right now …awesome recipe keep up the good work..Im srilankan but really love southindian recipes and try them out often 🙂
Perfect recipe.. Turned out soooo yuuummmmyyy 🙂
The ghee floating on the top makes the pongal, look even more delicious…Awesome click
Hi Raks, I made this today(Aadi Friday). It came out so good and it is divine. Everyone liked it. Tastes exactly like temple pongal. Thanks 🙂
P.S.: Came to know that today is Aadi Friday from your FB post. Thanx 🙂
Thank you for your prompt feedback 🙂
Looks delicious Raji..Will try this soon…From ur post i remembered the time when we used to go to temple(same kottai mariamman temple.. my native is salem) and keep this pongal during festival days(adi festival) with mom.
Hi Raks..made this yesterday, as usual another perfect and delicious recipe..!thanks a lot..
Will try on 14th 🙂
Same here, will try it on 14th, tomorrow:) Happy pongal to you all!!!
Thank you for posting yummy pongal recipe nice picture
Happy pongal raks
very nice the way you describe the food recipes…:-)
Hi raks, pls tell me wats elachi ,nutmeg powder and camphor u ve used is specially madeones for cooking isit???
elachi is cardamom and the other two are also for flavor. its available in stores.
Simply delicious!!!!!!
Hi.Raje,It brings back the sweet memories as you have said,with in no time sakkarai pongal would vanish in the dovotees thronging the temple .But the satisfaction remains always.
If I want to use milk n water to cook the pongal how do I adjust the proportions? Or is this a strictly water recipe
You can use half and half milk and water. That is replace half water with milk.
Tried this and cem out so well 🙂 And it was my first time !! Thank you
Thank you for this recipe. I have tried it three times and each version was as good as the previous one. Only problem is I didn't use nutmeg and camphor as I couldn't find it anywhere in Tekka. Can I know where you purchased these two items?
Tried this and cem out so well 🙂 And it was my first time !! Thank you
Very easy steps and preparations Raksitchen.
Felt nice to see the words "Kottai Mariyamman Kovil" 🙂 Will try this recipe tomorrow. Thanks!
Both available in Mustafa, near the place they keep red chillies, perungayam and those things
Thanks! Will buy them and try it with all ingredients next time.
Hi raks
The Pongal looks delicious! I want to make this tomorrow. Did you add milk to it or just water?
If you want to make with milk, reduce water and add milk half the amount of water.
Thank you Raks, I tried this yesterday, so delicious.. everybody loved it.. Thanks for amazing recipe.
Tried and turned yummy!! Tasted like the ones in temple… Made my festival a big hit!!!
Tried it for the first time and it came out very well.
Tried it today, it was yummy. My mom was totally surprised at the taste…as I had done without asking her….
Oh, thats awesome 🙂 Thank you for your time to give feedback