Milk Pongal

Six types of tastes are described in the Bhaga Shastra – salt, sweet, sour, hot, bitter and pungent. It states that every meal should include all these tastes, so that the appetite is satisfied and the tongue is neutralized by all the tastes being together. As per the instructions in Bhaga Shastra, in order for all parts of the body, mind and brain to function properly, a balanced diet of all these tastes is a must.

Further, the purpose of having all six tastes is to balance the tridoshas in the body, namely vaata (acidic), pitta (alkaline) and kapha (phlegm). Every ingredient used in Hindu cooking is classified as per their dosha properties. For e.g. too much of vata foods such as flat beans, corn, jackfruit, Bengal grams, will lead to belching, itchiness or prickliness on the skin. Excess of pitta foods results in giddiness, acidity and imbalance in the brain and mood disorders. Excess kapha food leads to chills and cold.

Bhaga Shastra further classifies foods into rajasik, tamasik and sattvik types. Rajasik food makes one feel agitated, aggressive, lustful and egoistic. Tamasik food makes a person lazy, sleepy and depressed. Satvik food gives clarity to the person and brings him peace of mind leading to bhakti (devotion), tripti (fulfillment) and ananda (bliss). It is therefore not surprising that the Bhagashastra has a huge variety of sweet dishes made from rice, broken wheat, flattened rice, millets, maize, lentils (both split and whole). Many of these sweets are made during festive occasions – with certain sweets made specifically on a particular festival. For e.g. pongal in the Tamil New Year festival of Thai Pongal, kolukattai or modak for Ganesh Chaturthi, saffron sweet rice for Basant Panchami in Punjab, sandesh for Durga Puja in Bengal, karah prasad in celebrating festival of Sikh Gurus, kheer and laddoo in almost all Hindu festivals, payasam in South Indian festivals, especially Onam, and the list just goes on. In fact, India has the largest variety of sweet dishes in the world.

Ingredients:

Good Quality Rice – ½ padi

Ghee – 4 palam

Milk – 1 padi

Pure Water – ½ padi

Grated Coconut – 5 palam

Brown Sugar – 15 palam

Cardamom Powder – ½ r.e

Method:

1. Clean rice, wash it with water and spread it on a white cloth. Let it dry well. Heat ghee in a pot that can hold 4 padis of water and fry the rice until golden brown. Pour milk and water into the rice and mix. After the rice is almost done, add grated coconut to the rice. Add brown sugar and stir it and keep it on fire for 10 minutes.

2. After it is done, add cardamom powder to the Pongal. Almonds can be soaked in hot water. Remove the skin and cut it into pieces. Fry it in ghee and add it to the Pongal. Cashew nuts can be fried in ghee and added. Edible green camphor can be powdered and mixed with the Pongal. If ghee is added, the smell of the milk will reduce.

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