Pulagam(Sesame rice) and Vankaya Bajji (Spicy,Tangy Eggplant curry) : Sankranthi festive Delicacies

Happy Sankranthi to all my readers. This Sankranti,  make your kitchen colorful with Veggibites recipes :-). Pls check for more dishes under the label 'festive recipes.'

Now lets proceed to my Sankranthi special recipe.

Pulagam is a rice dish that is specifically made for the festival of Sankranti in my region. I haven’t seen this recipe any where so thought of posting it for this year’s Sankranthi. Pulagam is usually made on the day of Bhogi, the first day of the Sankranthi festival.

To make this dish, fresh crop of rice is cooked along with black sesame seeds powder. It is then savored with generous amount of ghee (clarified butter) and Vankaya Bajji (eggplant curry).Along with it we usually make Garjelu/Kajjikayalu or Puran poli (Bakshyalu) for dessert .

Pongal or Sankranti is an indian festival that celebrates the new harvest of crops. Since the new crops are home, the festive food is made by using them and offered as Naivedyam first. The typical dessert that is made during Sankranti is Sweet pongal. It's made using the fresh crop of rice, Jaggery along with Moong dal. But again the festive food varies with the region/ state.

Pulagam

Pin it for later : Sesame Rice

The first time when I made it, I followed my mom's recipe from the recipe book she has written for me.It came out perfect.Being thousands of miles away from home, that book was the only way I could make my favorite festive foods.I'm giving the same recipe here for both pulagam and Vankaya Bajji. 

Pulagam is usually made with black sesame seeds. But I see that the variety of sesame seeds avalable in US can turn the dish very bitter.So with that bad experience I started making it with brown sesame seed powder. It tastes same but I miss the authentic color of the dish.

Servings:

Four (4)

Total time:

30 minutes 

Ingredients: (I use US standard measuring; 1cup=8oz=250ml)

• 2 cups rice
• 1/2 cup black or brown sesame seeds 
• 2 tablespoons Moong dal( pesarapappu)
• 1 tablespoon Ghee (clarified butter)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 cups water in Rice cooker (4 cups in Instant pot)

Pulagam Recipe 

1. Toast the sesame seeds with out oil and make a powder in coffee grinder or a blender.
2. Mix it with raw rice( do not wash the rice) and stir nicely previous day.This is done a day before to make the rice flavored with sesame flavor.
3. Roast 2 tablespoons moong dal (pesarapappu) with out oil and mix it in the above rice.
4. Keep it aside for a day.
   
5. Next day (Bhogi) cook the rice with 5 cups water, ghee, salt in a rice cooker. Add only little salt. 
6. When done, mix the rice nicely so sesame powder has not accumulated on the top.
7. Serve the rice with Vankaya Bajji and melted Ghee.
   
8. Top the rice with ghee and mix with the curry and savor it.

Vankaya Bajji (Spicy,Tangy Eggplant curry)

It is the side dish that goes with Pulagam. It is made with long, purple egg plant. The dish is tangy, mildly spicy and is really unique. I'm not sure why it's called Bajji because it's not a fritter. Traditionally it's made using mortar and pestle which gives nice texture with out mashing egg plant completely. Also raw onions are used in the recipe.You must try this recipe along with pulagam. The curry can also be served with Rice flour Roti (Biyyapu rotte), Ragi (finger millet) roti or Juwar roti (Jonna rotte). 

Servings:
Four (4)
Total time:
30 minutes

Ingredients: (I use US standard measuring; 1cup=8oz=250ml)

• 3 long, Purple Egg plant
• 1-2 tablespoon oil
• 3/4 th onion
• 1 tbsp Tamarind paste
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
• 3-4 Green chilli or adjust
• 1/4 tsp Organic Turmeric Powder

For seasoning: 

• 2 tablespoon oil
• Mustard seeds 
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp Curry leaves
• 2 Red chillies
• Few curry leaves

Vankaya Bajji  Recipe

1. Chop the Egg plant into small cubes and place them in water mixed with little salt and turmeric. The salt water retains the egg plant color.
   
2. Heat a pan with 1 tbsp. oil. Fy the chopped chillies. Keep aside. Cook the egg plant now.Add salt to taste, turmeric. Once the egg plant turns soft place them in a wide bowl and let them cool.
   
3. In the same pan, fry the green chillies in lil bit oil. Keep em aside.
4. Mean while ,Soak the tamarind in warm water.
5. Chop onions to small size pieces.
6. In a blender add green Chilli,tamarind extract,sugar first and make a paste. To the paste add cooked egg plant, onion and make a coarse paste. You can do this by pulsing the blender  and stirring in between. If you blend for too long it will mash the egg plant.You should see some pieces of egg plant and onion  in the final curry. I have used my food processor for this job and it came out too good :-)
7. Now heat 2 tbsp. oil in a fry pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves.Let them splutter and add to the Bajji. Stir. Serve with Pulagam.