Green mung dal payasam (Paruppu payasam)

Today is Pongal, also called Sankranti, Lohri and Bihu, in different parts of India, a significant festival in our culture, the end of the harvest for rice, grain, sugarcane and turmeric. This holiday is celebrated nationwide with pujas, "prayers" to the Sun God for the abundance of crops. The word Pongal literally means "boil or overflow", and the prepared dishes are made in this manner, slow-cooked and loaded with jaggery or unrefined sugar. The essence of this dish is to cook the beans and other ingredients over a long period of time, about 2 hours in this case; this allows the flavours to come together in a sweet and delicious dessert.

This South Indian cookbook brings to my shelf the unique cuisine of the Chettinad Tamils in South India. This now popular cuisine is known to be extremely spicy, complex and distinct. This book is a beautiful collection of recipes that make this cuisine accessible to us at home.

For more recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole mung beans

1 cup jaggery, or to taste

1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

A pinch salt

2 tablespoons ghee

Water, as needed

1/2 cup desiccated coconut powder

1/2 cup cashew nut halves

Toast the desiccated coconut lightly on a pan on low heat till lightly brown. Remove and set aside.

Toast the cashew nuts on a pan on low heat till lightly browned and set aside.

Add the mung beans, jaggery, ground cardamom, 3/4 of the toasted coconut, and water and bring to a boil. Simmer quite vigorously for about 1 1/2- 2 hours until the beans are cooked down and begin to disintegrate. If you want a creamy texture, remove 1/4th of the cooked beans and mash with a spatula or a blender, add back to the mix, and stir in. Taste and adjust the sugar and cardamom. The payasam should have a very thick consistency, much like a thick custard.

You can serve this payasam either warm or at room temperature. Load into small bowls and top with pinches of toasted coconut and toasted cashew nuts.