Ven Pongal

You will need these ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Mung Dal - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Water - 4 and 1/2 cups
Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsps
Mustard - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 2 pinches (If you have whole asafoetida, it must be powdered fine)
Curry leaves - 1 to 2 sprigs
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsps
Green Chillies - 3
Pepper (crushed) - 1 tsp
Whole peppercorns - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash the rice and soak it for about 1/2 hour.
2. Dry roast the mung dal until the raw smell goes away. Be careful not to brown it.
3. Mix the water with the coconut milk and salt. Add the rice and dal to this mixture.
4. Cook this in the pressure cooker (5 whistles).
5. Heat the ghee in a kadai and crackle the mustard.
6. Add in the cumin and the asafoetida and stir it lightly until cooked.
7. Lower the flame and add in the ginger garlic paste, the curry leaves, the chillies, the crushed pepper and the peppercorns  and cook until done.
8. Remove this mixture from the flame and mix it until the seasoning has blended well with the rice.
9. Serve hot.
10. This can be served with spicy sambar or chutney or with a curd salad. You can also serve it with pappadam.

Note:
The amount of water depends on the rice. Each type of rice requires different amounts of water to cook.
The rice I used needed 3 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. So I need to add 2 more cups of water so that the pongal is soft and mushy. Since I am using coconut milk I substituted 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 cup of coconut milk.
This means 1 cup of rice requires 4 and half cups of water and 1/2 cup of coconut milk.