Saamai Ven Pongal, Little Millet Pongal

          Happy Pongal/Sankranti ! While going through my blog, I realized that I had lot of sweet/sakkarai pongal recipes but not one ven pongal ( savory ), so decided to post this today. But instead of using rice I have used millets, I have used saamai/ small millet for making this pongal. It's a very easy recipe, it came out really good and tasted as good as the regular pongal..

Need To Have

• Saamai/Little Millet - 1/4 cup
• Moong Dal/ Green Gram - 2 tablespoons
• Ginger - 1" piece, chopped finely
• Cashews - 5 to 6, broken into pieces
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Black Peppercorns - 11/2 teaspoons
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder - 1/8 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 15 leaves

Method

          Dry roast the little millet and moong dal till you get a nice aroma. Wash it and cook it with about 21/2 cups of water  and 1/2 teaspoon of oil till done.

          Heat some oil and ghee mixture, add the cumin seeds, black pepper and cashews. Once the cumin seeds start sizzling and the cashew start turning golden, add the ginger, curry leaves, asafoetida and turmeric powder and mix it for a 1/2 a minute. Add it to the cooked millet and moong dal and mix it well. Serve it warm with chutney and sambar.

Note
I cooked the millets and dal in the pressure pan, you can do it in a regular pan too.
The millet and dal once cooked, shouldn't be dry, add some water, it should be in a porridge consistency, it thickens as it cools.
Be a little liberal with the ghee and don't avoid the ginger.

Some Sakkarai Pongal varieties in my blog :

Broken Wheat Sakkarai Pongal
Regular Rice Sakkarai Pongal
Semolina/Rava Sakkarai Pongal
Karumbu Charu Pongal/ Sugarcane Pongal
Kothiraivali Sakkarai Pongal