Instant Pot Kalkandu Sadam | Kalkandu Pongal - Vidhya’s Vegetarian Kitchen

square image of kalkandu pongal served in clay pot

5 from 4 votes

Instant Pot Kalkandu Sadam | Kalkandu Pongal

Instant Pot Kalkandu Sadam is a festival special sweet rice recipe prepared with sugar candy, rice, and milk, popularly known as Kalkandu Sadam or Kalkandu Pongal.

Prep Time5

Cook Time30

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: South Indian

Keyword: Instant Pot Kalkandu Sadam, kalkandu pongal

Servings:

Calories: 207kcal

Author: Srividhya G

Equipment

Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

Measurement Details: 1 cup = 240ml; 1 tbsp = 15ml; 1 tsp = 5ml;

1 cup rice short grain variety, preferably
2 cups water
½ cup sugar candy you can add up to ¾ cup
2.5 cups whole milk divided
¼ tsp ground cardamom
a small fenugreek-sized edible camphor
1 to 1.5 tbsp ghee
2 tsp cashews
2 tsp raisins
a pinch of saffron strands to garnish

Instructions

Prep - Work: Wash the rice and drain the water. Powder the ½ cup of sugar candy into a coarse powder.
Add the washed rice and 2 cups of water, and 1 cup milk to the instant pot.
Set it in manual mode, cook for 5 minutes, and let the pressure release normally.
Open the lid and mash the rice thoroughly. (Instead of IP, you can pressure cook rice with milk and water for up to four whistles)
Now set the IP in saute mode again and add the remaining 1.5 cups of milk, powdered sugar candy, cardamom powder, and edible camphor.
Mix well and let it cook until sugar candy is well incorporated. It took me about 4 minutes. Turn it off or set it to warm mode. I added about ½ tbsp of ghee now, which is optional.
Now in a separate tempering pan, heat the ghee. Once the ghee is hot, add the cashews and raisins, and fry until golden brown.
Add this to the pongal and mix well.
Garnish with saffron strands and serve warm.

Notes

I did not add moong dal. But you can add 2 to 3 tbsps of moong dal.
Edible camphor is optional, but that adds amazing flavors and tastes more like kovil / temple-style pongal.
Adjust the sugar candy amount as per your preference.
You can also add ¼ cup sugar candy and ¼ cup sugar.

Nutrition