Upma

A savory breakfast snack made with semolina (rava)

Just like Poha/Pohe Upma, is one of the most common breakfast dishes in India, particularly south. 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, uncooked onions (worse: carrots), unroasted semolina (yuck!) and the worst blunder of all gooey upma.. ouch! The list is endless as to how many ways the upma can go wrong 😛

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! My favorite thing to make on a lazy Sunday morning when I am feeling borderline homesick. It never fails to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

You will need:

3/4 cup fine-medium rasa (semolina/ sooji)
1 tsp ghee (optional)
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. If you don’t want to use the ghee (although I strongly recommend you try it), just dry roast it, but DO NOT use oil – It will taste bad.
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 – stir – repeat, till a soft, moist consistency is attained. If overcooked, it becomes dry and might burn and stick to the pan. If undercooked, it will be sticky and well undercooked!
14. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot

Upma is sometimes served garnished with fresh grated coconut and/ or sev (fried lentil noodles)