Sugarcane Juice Pongal

The day after pongal, we make 3-4 different types of rice and 1 sweet rice for neivedyam to God. This year apart from my usual tamarind, lemon and coconut rice, I decided to try a new sweet rice with sugarcane juice. In the north, for Lohri they make ghanne ka kheer which is sugarcane kheer but I thought of venturing into making sweet rice in a thick consistency instead of kheer. It turned out excellent, the key is to get a sweet variety of sugarcane since I did not add any additional sugar. I also did not add any flavourings as I wanted the authentic taste of sugarcane. It is a ritual to use sugarcane during pongal, so this is a good way to use the sugarcane that we keep next to God on Pongal day.

Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 75 gms Plain cooking rice

• 2 litres Fresh sugarcane juice (no sugar added)

• 1 tbsp Ghee

• 2 tbsp Raisins

Instructions

1. Add the sugar cane juice to a thick bottom non stick saucepan and bring to a boil

2. You will see some scum forming on the top, remove that and throw it away

3. Add washed rice and start boiling

4. Half way when the rice gets cooked, add the raisins so that they bloat and continue to cook

5. Cook till the rice gets fully cooked

6. Lastly add ghee and switch off the flame

Notes

• Quantity of the sugar cane juice depends on how loose or thick you want the rice to be. With the above quantity, it was perfect for me.

• You can add broken cashew nuts or slivered almonds.

• You can add cardamom powder or any other flavourings but I preferred the authentic aroma of the sugarcane.

• It generally takes a long time to cook, I took almost an hour.

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