Katte Pongali (Spicy Moong dal Rice)

Ingredients:

Long grain Rice-2cups
Moong dal-1cup
Cumin seeds-1Tbsp
Dry red chillies-2
Crushed black pepper-1Tbsp
Green chilli paste-1tsp
Ginger paste-1tsp
Salt-1tsp or as per taste
Oil-1Tbsp
Ghee (clarified butter)- 3Tbsp
Cashew nuts-12-15
Curry leaves-few
Water-5cups

Method:

Wash moong dal, drain all the water and let them dry on paper towel. Heat oil in a pan, add moong dal fry until dal turns light brown and set aside. In a 3 qt pot heat ghee and add cumin seeds, red chillies, crushed pepper and cashew nuts, fry until cashews turn golden brown, and add curry leaves, ginger and green chilli paste, fried dal and rice, fry altogether for a minute and add water and salt, and mix everything together and cook on a medium heat, until rice is almost done and cover the dish, and cook on medium low heat until rice is completely done. Serve hot with ginger chutney or onion pulusu.

Note: You can transfer everything into a rice cooker and cook until done instead of cooking out side on a stove.Or another way of cooking this dish is you can cook dal and rice with salt separately in a pressure cooker and transfer to a bowl. Fry all the seasonings just like above and add that to the cooked rice and dal mix. Mix everything together very well and serve.