Sankranthi is a harvest festival celebrated by Hindus all over India with different names. Sankranthi festival dishes vary upon region but Sesame seeds and jaggery are the most commonly used ingredients in these dishes. In Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh most of the people celebrate just first 2 days which are Bhogi and Sankrathi. First day dishes contain Sesame rice and second day dishes contain meat. Ariselu ( jaggery, rice flour snack) and sesame-jaggery balls are other most commonly prepared snacks during this festival.

This Sesame rice or nuvvula pulgam is cooked with black sesame seeds as it contains more oil than white or brown sesame seeds and is served with Chikkudu kaya/ Indian broad beans curry or Brinjal masala curry on the side. When I prepared Sesame Rice for this Sankranthi, my husband recollected that he used to eat this pulgam with jaggery and when confirmed with my mother in law, she said that hot sesame rice with tiny pieces of jaggery and ghee tastes good. Probably people like me who have sweet tooth will enjoy this combination

Ingredients:

1. Rice – 1 Cup
2. Sesame Seeds – ¼ Cup ( I prefer black sesame seeds)
3. Salt – 1 tsp
4. Water – 2 ½ Cups

Method:

• Grind sesame seeds and mix sesame powder with rice until all the grains are neatly coated with sesame powder. We don’t wash rice in this recipe. 
• Add water, salt and adjust salt according to your taste. 
• Cook rice in rice cooker/ on stove top pot /in pressure cooker.
• Serve warm with Chikkudu kaya curry / Capsicum masala / Brinjal masala / Jaggery.

Note:

• This time, the Indian grocery store near my house ran out of chikkudu kaya and I had to make capsicum masala with sesame seeds as side dish to sesame rice which is also good.

Sesame rice served with Capsicum masala and Jaggery

Linking this post to

Bon Vivant #11 – Healthy Appetite