Generally termed Thai Thirunal, it is a bustling festival for the harvesting period and largely enjoyed with elan in the Tamil Nadu belt. At its heart lies a great feast on Pongal day-a merry procession of foods representing thankfulness to nature as well as profuseness in relation to the gathering harvest season. The feast symbolizes gratitude toward the Sun God, farmers, and the cattle that contribute greatly to agriculture. Every dish prepared during Pongal conveys a piece of culture with it and presents the essence of togetherness and prosperity. Families join together to prepare and enjoy food, which generates memories and helps to bond well. The main item during the feast is Sakkarai Pongal, which is a sweet rice dish made by cooking rice in jaggery, ghee, and nuts. This naivedyam is given as an offering to God during the festival. This goes hand-in-hand with Ven Pongal, heavy curries, and other side dishes that are a great relief with curd rice.
Pongal is not just about the food but also celebrating life, prosperity, and tradition. Fresh ingredients smelled in the preparation aroma, festive sounds of preparation, and the opportunity for all family to gather are part of what makes a Pongal feast unforgettable. Everything you need to recreate this joyful culinary celebration at home, you will find at Budget Mart UK.
The Importance of Food in Pongal Celebrations
Food is held sacrosanct in Pongal and the essence of it is in appreciation, bounty, and communion. Pongal is also about harvest time, acknowledging farmers' efforts, and giving gratitude to the God's creation of nature which yields nourishment to the mankind. Every item made during these ceremonies holds significance of culture so that food takes up a core of the functions performed.
The heart of the Pongal celebrations involves cooking Sakkarai Pongal, which is a sweet preparation made from newly cut rice, jaggery, ghee, and nuts. This sweet is offered to the Sun God to thank Him for a good harvest season. Milk boiled during this time is seen as a ritual activity that reflects abundance overflowing for the next year. Besides all those sweet items, there would also be Ven Pongal and flavorful curries along with snack items that happen to be at their peak for festive times. Those shared moments enhance relationships while they enjoy with each other.
The Pongal meal is a meal beyond nutrition; it speaks of the rich culture and spirituality of the festival. It creates memories as a family sits down to prepare these dishes and later share them with one another.
Traditional Breakfast for Pongal
It has a traditional breakfast in the form of a beautiful spread of savoury items that bring happiness and comfort to every home. The morning meal heralds in the festival season, and indeed is full of flavors that showcase the rich legacy of Tamil Nadu's culinary offerings. Here are the key items, along with tips on preparing them using available ingredients at Budget Mart UK.
Ven Pongal
The star at the breakfast table is Ven Pongal. A rich and savory dish with a rice base mixed with moong dal and flavored with black pepper, ginger, and curry leaves, Ven Pongal can be prepared easily with good-quality rice and moong dal purchased at Budget Mart UK. The flavors in Ven Pongal get all the extra aromas when the mixture of ghee is fried along with black pepper, grated ginger, and curry leaves. Pour this tempering over the rice-dal mixture, and your Ven Pongal is ready to enjoy. Serve it with a side of sambar or coconut chutney for extra zest.
Sambar and Coconut Chutney
Sambar is a classic South Indian lentil-based stew filled with vegetables and flavored with sambar powder, tamarind, and mustard seeds. To make sambar, pick up your sambar powder and toor dal from Budget Mart UK. Coconut chutney, a refreshing condiment made with fresh coconut, green chilies, and a dash of mustard, can be prepared easily with the ingredients available at our store.
Vadai
Vadai-the crispy fried doughnut made up of lentils, soft within. To prepare these savory doughnuts, split urad dal, available in Budget Mart UK; grind it; and make into a smooth consistency. Add required spices like black pepper, curry leaves, and the chopped onions as well before the doughnuts would be deepfried. These golden brown crispy wafers of Vadai makes a perfect delight for your breakfast during Pongal.
All that one needs to make these traditional breakfast dishes is rice, dals, sambar powder, and fresh coconuts available at Budget Mart UK.
Main Course for Pongal Lunch
The main course of Pongal lunch is a feast of flavors, wholesome food items that brings the family together in celebration of harvest time. Not only do these traditional dishes taste great, but they also have cultural importance. Here is how to make the main course of Pongal lunch with Budget Mart UK.
Sakkarai Pongal
It's the center dish for lunch in Sakkarai Pongal. A traditional sweet made out of rice, jaggery, ghee, and cashew, is used as an offering to the Sun God. Preparation involves just simple cooking of moong dal mixed with cooked rice and added into melted jaggery, ghee, and roasted cashew. This gives an authentic taste when prepared from high-grade quality jaggery and rice sourced from Budget Mart UK. The taste of this sweet and aromatic rice will win over festival palates.
Kootu
Kootu is a mildly spiced vegetable stew made of a combination of lentils and vegetables. The dish can include pumpkin, carrot, or beans in its content. It is cooked on coconut and is seasoned with black pepper and cumin. Fresh vegetables and toor dal can be obtained from Budget Mart UK for this dish. It is the perfect level of balance in flavors and nutrition, paired well with the rich Sakkarai Pongal.
Avial
Avial is a creamy mixed vegetable curry prepared in the yogurt along with coconut and other spices. Avial is the best mixed vegetables curry and prepared with light yogurt, light coconut, and great flavor. Mix fresh drumsticks, carrot, and beans while preparing Avial along with coconut and cumin to prepare this scrumptious dish at Budget Mart UK.
Curd Rice
To balance the intense flavors of rich dishes, there is curd rice as the cooling and comforting accompaniment that can be mixed with cooked rice, yogurt, and seasoned by mustard seeds, curry leaves, and green chilies.
Thus, the preparations of traditional Pongal dishes like these are easier to prepare through ingredients that Budget Mart UK has availed, along with bringing a flavor that completes your celebration.
Pongal Snacks & Appetizers
Pongal cannot be celebrated unless accompanied by delightful traditional snacks and sweets that can add a little festive touch to the occasion. From crispy Murukku, golden Vadai, to Adhirasam, these preparations bring joy as well as add flavor to harvest festivals. Treats like savoury-crunching Banana Chips, Thattai, or Seedai stand out, or sweet indulgence in Sakkarai Pongal and Payasam. For those in the UK, these festive delights now come to them with convenient online Pongal snacks and sweets combos. With a variety of traditional snacks and sweets, perfect for sharing among family and friends or enhancing a Pongal feast, enjoy the authentic taste of these festivity delights right from your UK home. In addition, if you are craving homemade Indian sweets during the festival, you can readily purchase Indian Pongal sweets online in the UK from trustworthy websites such as Budget Mart UK. With quality ingredients and authentic flavor, these products make it quite easy to replicate the spirit of Pongal at home. Enjoy the festival with ease and enjoy the glee of distributing these traditional goodies to your near and dear ones.
Desserts to Conclude the Meal
No Pongal feast is considered complete without gorging on traditional sweets made with love and care that add sweetness to the celebrations. They always symbolize joy and prosperity and are thus a great constituent part of the festival.
Among the favorite sweets during Pongal is certainly Payasam, a milk-based dessert comprising rice or vermicelli and having cardamom fragrance, with added roasted cashew nuts and dried raisins as garnishes. For a rich experience, premium jaggery powder has to be utilized to naturally add sweetness to Payasam, also adding an intense earthy undertone to its richness. The second is Adhirasam, which is a fried dessert made with rice flour and jaggery. It has a chewy texture and a sweet fragrance, making it the most popular at festive time. The quality of jaggery is essential in getting its authentic taste; hence, our premium jaggery powder ensures that it is done to perfection every time. For those who love something to bite on, there is Kozhukattai, sweet dumplings filled with coconut and jaggery. These steamed delicacies are both yummy and wholesome.
These traditional sweets are not only a delight to your sweet tooth but also add significant cultural intensity to your Pongal celebrations. Moreover, with prime ingredients like fine jaggery powder for preparing Pongal sweets easily sourced online at Budget Mart UK, making these treats becomes effortless, resulting in a sweet and memorable end to your celebrations over Pongal feast.
Budget Mart UK is the destination for anyone from South India or who just wants to drench themselves in the gaiety of Pongal celebrations. Specializing in Indian and Asian festivals, we are proud to bring you the best deals and exclusive kits. And, if you want an affordable Pongal kit that comes with groceries and pooja items, making your celebrations hassle-free and memorable, we are the place.
Our Pongal grocery kits with pooja items in the UK have been designed after much thought. These include must-haves such as rice, dals, jaggery, and other ingredients which are an intrinsic part of making this dish and pooja essentials to perform it. Fresh sugarcane for Pongal celebrations in the UK completes all that one would need to replicate the real flavor of this harvest festival.
Leave a comment