Sunday, August 11, 2013

Upma

A savory breakfast snack made with semolina



Just like Poha/Pohe Upma, is one of the most common breakfast dishes in India. No two upmas will ever taste the same and restaurant upmas are consistent but are soaked in fat. The point is, it is hard to get hold of the perfect upma! People will add unnecessary ingredients, too much mustard, burnt cumin and white lentils, burnt semolina, unroasted semolina (yuck!) and the worst blunder of all, making too dry or too gooey an upma.. hah! The list is endless as to how many ways the upma can go wrong :P

But now you got 'the' recipe :) One very VERY snobbish person has testified that I make the best upma in the world ;) This will make the perfect, moist, tasty upma!

You will need:

3/4 cup fine-medium rasa (semolina/ sooji)
1 tsp ghee
1 tbsp oil
mustard seeds
1/2 tsp asafetida
2-3 curry leaves
1 red chilli cut into pieces
2 green chillies chopped
1 onion chopped (medium sized square)
1/2 tomato, chopped
2 1/2 cups water
salt
sugar (optional)
lemon juice
cilantro



1. Heat the ghee in a pan, add the semolina and roast (stir continuously), till slightly golden.
2. Turn off heat, transfer on a cold plate and spread into a layer to cool down
3. In the same pan heat oil
4. Simultaneously in another pan, start boiling the water
5. Add mustard seeds followed by asafetida, curry leaves, chillies, white lentils to the hot oil
6. add the onions to the oil mixture and cook covered for 2-3 minutes
7. Remove lid, stir and add the tomatoes, cook for just about a minute.



8. The water should be boiling by now, add the boiling water to the fried onions
9. add salt and sugar (optional) as per taste
10. Once the mixture comes to a rolling boil, slowly add the cooled semolina, while stirring constantly
11. The mixture will start to thicken as the semolina hydrates. Mix thoroughly making sure no lumps form.
12. Lower the flame, cover and let cook for some time.
13. Remove lid and stir, till a soft, moist upma is obtained. If overcooked, it becomes dry and might burn and stick to the pan. If undercooked, it will be sticky and even uncooked.
14. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot



This dish is sometimes served garnished with sev (fried lentil noodles)


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