Welcome back to another edition of Foodie Vocab Monday! Keep reading for a quiz, recipes and everything you need to know about the word of the day. Chances are you are a bit stumped already…

This week’s word is: Pongal. So what the heck does it mean, anyway?

And your choices are:

a.) A wrapped sushi appetizer
b.) An Eastern-European beet stew
c.) An Indian rice dish
d.) An Indian curry made popular in England in the 1960′s

No cheating!!!

We mean it!!!

And the answer?

The correct answer is: c.) An Indian rice dish

It is said that the ancient Tamil people cooked pongal and offered it to their deities. Every January, Tamilians celebrate the harvest festival of Pongal where the famously popular dish is served, boiled with milk and jaggery (whole cane sugar). The dish makes for a sweet breakfast option!

Serve up some tasty Indian rice dishes that will satisfy any craving:

Indian Lentils and Rice

Curried Rice

Basmati Rice

Curried Fish Risotto

Mujaddarah

Chicken Curry

How do you cook your rice? Do you like it as a side dish, as a filling entree with protein or as a breakfast option similar to oatmeal? Let us know in the COMMENTS!

Did you guess this week’s word? If so, congrats! If not…better luck next time. ;)

Emilie

Tags: basmati recipes, best recipes, easy recipes, fodo adjectives, food trivia, food woods, foodie vocab, indian food, indian recipes, indian restaurants, pongal, Pongal harvest, Pongal January, pongal recipes, quick recipes, vocab, word the the day

Posted by Emilie, 11:43 AM

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2012 at 11:43 am and is filed under cooking, dessert, easy, food, food in the news, holidays, recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.