This is one of my dad’s favourite puddings, which is traditionally made for the South Indian harvest festival of Pongal when the new-season jaggery (palm sugar) is harvested. When he showed me how to make it, I thoroughly approved of his liberal chef-like use of butter at pretty much every stage (along with the very chef-like trait of tidying away as he went along). We checked the recipe on the phone with my grandmother’s sister, my great-aunt Leela Chithi in Trivandrum – she recommends 250g sugar in this recipe, but we decided to halve it – feel free to increase it as you wish!