What are the best traditional rice and millet varieties to make pongal with? We ask the experts. Sreedevi Lakshmikutty of social enterprise Bio Basics offers us a tasting of sweet and venpongal made with rice and millets sold at her city-based organic store. There is venpongal made of thooyamalli, kichili samba, and iluppai poo samba, apart from sweet pongal with karuppu kavuni and thinai (foxtail millet).
“All of these are traditional varieties grown in Tamil Nadu,” she says, adding that by opting to incorporate them in our everyday diet, we are “celebrating farmers and our grains.” Thooyamalli, which has a natural white sheen and is fragrant like the jasmine it is named after, makes for an excellent choice. The venpongal is fluffy, and retains the flavour of the rice. Although kichili and iluppai poo samba fade in comparison to it in appearance, they make up for it in taste. Both varieties turn out mushy when cooked with dal, which is exactly the texture of a perfect pongal.
If you are willing to experiment, try red rice varieties such as poongar and karuppu kavuni. J Kala, who is a cook at city-based Iyal, an organic store that also has a restaurant in its premises, has tried making sweet pongal with both varieties. “They take on the sweet flavours well,” she says, adding that her vote is for thooyamalli.
Sreedevi has given a twist to the traditional sweet pongal made with jaggery, and has instead used palm jaggery. The foxtail millet pongal sweetened with the latter is a refreshing attempt. The millet, owing to its miniscule grain size, is cooked to perfection, and pulls off the nutty, mild sweetness of palm jaggery so well. Karuppu kavuni, that has a strong chewy texture and flavour of its own, might not taste like a typical pongal, but to its credit, makes for a creamy dessert that holds its own.
T Senthil Kumar, the co-founder of Natrinai organic store in the city, and Thaenthinai, a restaurant serving organic food, suggests the ilappai poo samba for making both sweet and venpongal. “The fragrance of the rice will envelope the entire household,” he says, adding that among millets, samai (little millet) will be suitable. “Most people, irrespective of age, find samai’s flavour agreeable,” he says, adding that it is best if millets are soaked for a few hours before being cooked. Most traditional rice varieties mentioned can be cooked with 1:3 ratio of rice to water.
Sreedevi hopes that more people come forward to “valourise” these grains. “There is so much diversity in terms of grains in the State,” she says, “Only if we consume, can we conserve.”
