Kavuni rice Pongal

Kavuni rice is a black coloured,fibre rich,one of the healthiest rice varieties consumed in southern India.Mostly used for dessert with a nutty flavour. This is a recipe based on traditional Chettinad sweet method with slight vegan additions.

Method:

1. Soak 1 cup of kavuni rice overnight after washing impurities a couple of times.
2. Next day, drain the water and pulse rice coarsely for 1 or 2 times roughly. Let it be good mix of nutty whole rice and smaller pieces.
3. Add 2 cups water,1 cup thick first coconut milk,cardamom powder and rice in pressure cooker.
4. Cook it for 3-4 whistles which takes 7-8 min.
5. Meanwhile, crush palm jaggery for 3/4 cup or 1 cup as per sweetness preferred.Make a light syrup with 1/4 cup of water. Filter impurities.
6. I used Sukku karupatti which is a mix of dry ginger powder and rocky palm jaggery. That gave an extra flavour.
7. Once the rice is cooked,release pressure. In a medium flame, add syrup , cashew milk made with 10 cashews and 1/4 cup water.  This gives a rich taste to the sweet.
8. You can either powder cashews dry and then add water. Or soak cashews for few minutes and make a paste.
9. Stir well , add 2 tblspn ghee or as needed and add 3/4-1 cup of coconut milk or water to thin the consistency.
10. Rice will absorb more water in sometime. So it is better that Pongal is more soggy. Cook everything for 5 min in open cooker under medium flame to thicken a bit.
11. Fry and add nuts and raisins of your choice at last.

Creamy kavuni rice pongal is ready within 15 min. Serve it warm or chilled. It gets a dark to light purple colour finally based on the milk additions.