Bellam pongali /Gudd ka kheer /Jaggery pudding

This is my favourite now-a-days. After a couple of trials which were not successful, then came this yummy, easy, jhatpat pongal recipe. I have checked several sites for the recipe and tried to attempt to do it from whatever I remember is easiest and out came this one. Hope you enjoy it too. oh by the way, it is healthy too because Gudd/Bellam/Jaggery is rich in Iron.

This rice pudding is ammavaru's favourite. So another reason for me to do it friday's so that Goddess is happy at home :).
Ingredients
Cooked Rice  - 2 cups
Cooked Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1-2 cups (depends on your sweet level). I used almost 1 and 1/2 cup
Ghee  - 2-3 table spoons (for frying dry fruits and mixing in pudding)
Cashews/ Golden Raisins - a fistful of both or as you like

Method of preparation

Take a kadai and add cooked rice, moong dal and milk. Keep it on medium heat and let it stay for 5 minutes or until the milk is nicely mixed up with rice. The rice might become a little mushy but it tastes yummy that way. Make sure you keep mixing the rice in between as the milk have tendency to stick to bottom and sides. Add jaggery at this point and mix properly. If you have large pieces of jaggery it might take long time to melt. So I would suggest, either grate it or mash it to small ones, so that you do not need to spend much time in front of stove.

Take a small bowl and add ghee (clarified butter) to it. Fry the cashews and golden raisins. Once the raisins take the ball shape and cashews change the color slightly, add them including the ghee to the rice mixture above. Mix it thoroughly and serve hot.

 

This is a very nice recipe for naivedyam/Prasad for Goddess Laxmi/Lalitha. As you hear in the stotras "Gudanna preetha maanasa". Hope the goddess likes it too.