Bengal Gram & Yellow/Green Gram 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:

Pure Water – 1 ¾ padi

Ghee – ½ palam

Bengal Gram – 1/8 padi

Yellow or Green Gram Dal – 1/8 padi

Rice (good quality) – ½ padi

Milk – ¼ padi

Grated Coconut – 4 palam

Jaggery – 20 palam

Cardamom Powder – ¼ palam

Cashew nuts – 5 palam

Ghee – 6 palam

Method:

1. Boil pure water in a pot that can hold four padis of water. Add ghee to the boiling water. Add Bengal Gram to the water and when it is half cooked, add yellow or green moong dal and mix well. Wash and drain the rice and add it to the lentils.

2. Close the lid. After the rice is 3/4th cooked, add milk, grated coconut, jaggery, cardamom powder and stir well. Remove the skin of cashew nuts and fry it in ghee and add to the Pongal. Add 6 palams of ghee to the Pongal and keep it on a live coal without smoke for sometime. Remove from the stove and serve.

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