Upma/Uppittu step by step

The first time I made Upma/Uppittu was in the initial months after my marriage and when my Atte( mother-in- law) and sister-in-law were away. I had only watched Amma cooking Upma but since I had always heard from people that Upma was one of the easiest dishes to make, that morning I decided to make it. I chopped onions, vegetables and found the rawa, but I was confused about the quantity of water to be added. So as usual, called Amma. Since Amma was in the garden, my brother picked the phone and when I told him about the confusion, he immediately told me, 'Ansu, I just made Upma the day before, add double water' I asked him if he was sure and he was positive it was double. Having got this info I rushed to cook as it was already late and my Maava( father-in-law) had to leave in half an hour for his college. So into the pan went oil, seasoning, rava/sooji, double water, vegetables- oops! I remembered, I had to boil vegetables, water separately and add it to roasted rava:( too late, so decided to cook covered till done. Then realised I had used Bombay rava(fine rava) and Amma uses thicker unrefined rava called special or Bansi rava! I prayed and hoped everything would somehow be okey and cursed myself for having laughed loud at the messed up Kichidi made by Maava the previous day. The final product of my cooking was a hard sticky mass. Maava was waiting at the table, ready to eat. I brought the Upma to the table and served him a spoonful. He looked at the plate with amusement, looked at me( by then I wished I had some place to hide my face), laughed out loud till he had tears in his eyes and said ' Yes! my Kichdi was far better than this!'.He then silently finished eating and left. My husband who hated Upma refused to eat my version of it. For a long time after this incident, the thought of Upma stressed me out and when I told Amma, she began the usual, 'I told you to learn cooking before marriage........' but lovingly taught me her wonderful recipe of making Uppittu and I proudly say that today when asked the menu for breakfast, my husband says 'Uppittu!'. I have mastered Uppittu thanks to Amma's recipe, the patience of my husband and Maava.

As usual this recipe makes use of very little oil and does not make use of chillies and tomato.

You will need (serves about 2)

For the seasoning

Oil or butter or ghee: 1/2tsp

1/2 tsp split black gram

1/2 tsp channa dhal 

Cashew nuts 4-5 crushed into pieces (Optional)

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

Curry leaf 1 twig

Turmeric 1/4 tsp

1 big onion finely chopped( optional)

1/2 a green capsicum (washed, chopped fine)

1/2 red capsicum (washed and finely chopped)

Small bunch of cilantro finely chopped

1.5 cup Unpolished/unrefined Sooji or semolina 

Water 3 cups

1 medium sized carrot (washed, peeled and minced/chopped fine)

1 cup of fresh peas

1/4 inch piece ginger (crushed)

Salt to taste

Peppercorns 5-6 crushed and powdered

Jaggary to taste

Grated coconut to garnish.

Method

Take a heavy bottomed pan, add 1/2 tsp oil, (cashew nut), black gram, channa dhal, mustard seeds and wait till mustard seeds pop and the dhals and nut brown evenly. Add turmeric, curry leaf, (onion), green, red capsicum, chopped cilantro and stir till all water is lost. 

In a separate pan boil water, add ginger, pepper, carrot, peas, salt, Jaggary, adjust taste and cook covered till vegetables are tender.

Add unrefined rava/sooji to the seasoning-capsicum mixture and roast with constant stirring, take care to see that the rava doesn't burn/stick to the bottom of the pan. when evenly roasted (colour of Rava changes from a shade of yellow to whitish yellow and you can smell the nice aroma of roasted sooji) it is time to add water and cooked veggies.

Add boiling water with the vegetables to roasted Rava mixture, mix well, turn down the flame and cook covered for 3-5 minutes.

Garnish with grated coconut and serve hot with coconut chutney or yogurt.

Note:

You may include your choice of vegetables.

Amma also makes tasty Uppittu by adding pieces of organic Nendra banana with the skin to the boiling water, cooking it till soft and adding it to roasted rava.

When visiting Egypt, my sister's Atte made a ready to cook version of Uppittu by seasoning and roasting the rava. All we had to do was, boil veggies in an electric rice cooker and add the mix to get delicious Upma!