Upma/uppittu

When we were kids, my mom always prepared idlis in a large quantity. On the first day, she would serve it with sambar and chutney. Usually in Konkani homes, either sambar or chutney was served with idlis, but at our home, my brother used to prefer chutney and I preferred sambar. We used to throw a tantrum, if my mom obliged to one of us. She had to listen “you love him/her more than me, so you always listen what he/she wants” :). So she would prepare both to keep both of us satisfied. It became so much of a habit that, we both learnt eating idli with sambar and chutney. Now it has become a habit of eating both, we complain if one of them is not served with idli :D.

For the evening snack, she would shallow-fry the remaining idlis(I will post her recipe of shallow fry soon). If still some of the idlis remained, she would store them in refrigerator and prepare upma on the next day (the refrigerated idlis become a bit hard, so they dont taste as good as the fresh ones). Though as a kid I didn’t like this upma much, I absolutely love it now. Its the best dish, one could think of, out of hard idlis. I make this dish even on the first day itself, when I screw up the idli batter and get very hard idlis :).

The picture is taken by my brother and sis-in-law. They took it when they prepared this dish in Bangalore.

Ingredients:
Idlis 7-8
Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn
Green chilies 2-3
Curry leaves 4-5
Asafoetida a pinch
Turmeric a pinch
Coconut(optional) 1 tbl spn
Coriander leaves(optional) 2-3 strands
Oil 1 tea spn
Salt

Method:
Powder the idlis with hand. There should not be big lumps.
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping up, add curry leaves, asafoetida, green chillies. Fry a bit. Add turmeric and powdered idlis. Mix well. If required, add salt (Idlis will have salt, so be careful while adding extra salt). Garnish with coconut and chopped coriander leaves.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 7-8mins

Aruna gave me this recipe recently. Though I had seen this in one of the recipe books, I had not tried it. But thanks to Aruna, I tried this and it was fabulous. Since so many vegetables are used in it, it can be considered as very healthy too.

In the book I mentioned above, they have included sprouted moong also, but since I was not having it handy, I just followed whatever Aruna has mentioned.

Ingredients:
Sooji(wheat rava) 1 cup
Onion 1/2 cup
Green peas , carrot, beans (cut into small pieces) 1/2 cup
Tomato 1/4 cup
Turmeric a pinch
Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn
Urad daal(optional) 1/2 tea spn
Asafoetida a pinch
Oil/ghee 2 tea spns
Sugar 1/2 tea spn
Green chillies 2-3
Curry leaves 4-5
Coconut 1 tbl spn
Coriander leaves 2-3 strands
Salt

Method:
Boil around 2 cups of water with carrot, beans and peas.
Heat oil and add mustard, urad daal(optional). When mustard starts popping and urad daal turns slightly brownish, add curry leaves(cut the leaves into two to enhance the aroma). Add asafoetida, turmeric and green chillies. Add onion and fry till onions turn transparent.
Now add sooji(rava) and fry on a low flame for around 6-7mins (take care not to burn the rava). Rava could be fried separately and added instead of frying it in peas mixture.
Add salt, tomatoes and sugar, mix well.
Transfer water along with vegetables to the rava mixture. Cover and cook till all water is absorbed. Mix well. Add coconut.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with or without sev.

Serves : 3
Preparation time : 15mins

Updated on 18th October 2006:
I got a mail from Bhumika Shah today, with the recipe and picture of vegetable upma. The method she has specified is slightly different. She first boils water and then adds roasted rava. Both the methods are equally good. Thanks Bhumika for the mail :).

This is a dish prepared with leftover chapathis. Usually leftover chapathis tend to become a bit hard and they don’t taste good as fresh ones. So I used to throw them, but then I saw my Pachi preparing this upma for the breakfast with such chapathis. This upma tastes great. I became such a big fan of this upma, I started asking my mom to prepare chapathis just to make this upma :D.

The major ingredients which give such a taste to this upma are onions and fresh coconut. If fresh coconut is not available, soak dessicated coconut in milk for around 20-30mins and then use it.

Ingredients:
Chapathis 2-3
Onion 1/2 cup
Green chillies 2-3
Asafoetida a pinch
Curry leaves 1 strand
Turmeric a pinch
Mustard seeds 1/4 tea spn
Urad daal 1/4 tea spn
Coconut 1 and 1/2 tbl spn
Oil/ghee 2 tea spns
Sugar 1/2 tea spn
Coriander leaves 2-3 strands
Salt

Method:
Cut chapathis into as small pieces as possible (do not powder them).
Heat oil/ghee and add mustard seeds and urad daal. When mustard starts popping and daal becomes slightly brownish, add curry leaves, green chilles and asafoetida. Add onion and turmeric. Fry till onions turn translucent.
Add chapathi pieces (if chapathi is very hard, sprinkle some water), salt and sugar. Mix all ingredients for sometime (do not fry for a long time, otherwise the chapathi pieces become hard).
Garnish with coconut and chopped coriander leaves. Mix well.
Serve hot.

Serves : 2
Preparation time :10mins

Green peas were not very common at our native before. Now a days we get them during the peas season. Whenever we got them, mom used to make some mouth watering dishes like kurma, pulav and this upma. When green peas were not available, she made this upma with only onion and rava(sooji). Both the versions are too delicious. Green peas gives a unique taste to this upma. I prepared this with frozen peas available here.

Until recently I didn’t know onion would make so much difference in taste. Just try both the versions.

Ingredients:
Sooji(wheat rava) 1 cup
Onion 1/2 cup
Green peas 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn
Asafoetida a pinch
Oil/ghee 2 tea spns
Sugar 1/2 tea spn
Green chillies 2-3
Curry leaves 4-5
Coconut 1 tbl spn
Coriander leaves 2-3 strands
Salt

Method:
Heat oil and add mustard. When mustard starts popping, add curry leaves(cut the leaves into two to enhance the aroma). Add asafoetida and green chillies. Add onion and fry till onions turn transparent. Add green peas and fry for 4-5 minutes.
Now add sooji(rava) and fry on a low flame for around 6-7mins (take care not to burn the rava).
Rava could be roasted seperately and added instead of frying it in peas mixture. Roasted rava gives a very nice texture to upma.
Add salt and sugar, mix well.
In a seperate bowl heat 2 cups of water. When it starts boiling, transfer it to the rava mixture. Cover and cook till all water is absorbed. Mix well. Add coconut.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with or without sev.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 10mins

This is one easy to do and very tasty breakfast. My mom prepares this often, but I had not got it straight anytime. Madhura sent me this recipe as well as the gorgeous picture last week. When I followed her recipe, I got the best vermicelli upma, just like my mom prepared. Thanks a lot Madhura 🙂 .

In Bangalore, a bit of turmeric is added to this upma and served with chutney. I think they don’t add sugar. I always liked the traditional vermicelli upma, which I have explained below, compared to the one prepared with turmeric.

Ingredients:
Vermicilli 1 and 1/2 cup
Green chillies 3
curry leaves 1 strand
Coconut 2 tbl spns
Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn
Urad dal 1/2 tea spn
Sugar 1 tbl spn
Oil 1 tea spn
Ghee 1 tbsp
Salt

Sugar quantity can be increased or decreased according to taste. This upma tastes great when is bit sweet and spicy.

Method:
Heat ghee and fry the vermicilli till it turns out slight brown in colour, keep it aside. In the same pan pour oil add mustard seeds allow to splutter, add green chillies curry leaves, urad dal. To this add the vermicilli, sugar and salt stir together. Add 1/2 cup hot water and stir, till the vermicilli cooks (After cooking for sometime, if you feel all the water is gone and still vermicelli is not cooked, then add water in very little quantity and repeat.). To this add the grated coconut.
Serve hot.

Serves : 3
Preparation time : 10mins

Among all upmas, this version and the one with peas were/are my favorites. Mom uses her home made sambar powder for this. Vayngan, is eggplant(brinjal) in Konkani. In North Kanara, upma is NOT served with chutney, but it is served with sev. It is usually a bit dry compared to the one we get in restaurants in Bangalore.

In Bangalore, I have seen people using eggplant in upma. Its usually called ‘Kharabhath‘ and was served with coconut chutney. I think they use more water compared to normal upma, so this used to be semi dry. In my previous office, we used to get evening snacks and whenever they served this kharabhath, we all used to skip the snacks :D.

Ingredients:
1 cup sooji(wheat rava)
1/4 cup brinjal (cut into small pieces)
1/4 cup onion (cut into small pieces)
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
1/2 tea spn urad dal(optional)
A pinch asafoetida
Oil/ghee
1/2 tea spn sugar
3/4 tea spn Sambar powder
1 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut
A pinch turmeric
Salt

Method:
Heat oil and add mustard, urad dal(optional). When mustard starts popping and urad dal turns slightly brownish, add curry leaves(cut the leaves into two to enhance the aroma). Add asafoetida, turmeric and onion. Fry till onions turn translucent. Add brinjal pieces and fry for around 5mins.
Now add sooji(rava) and fry on a low flame for around 6-7mins (take care not to burn the rava). Add salt and sugar, sambar powder, mix well.
In a separate bowl heat 2 cups of water. When it starts boiling, transfer it to the rava mixture. Cover and cook till all water is absorbed. Mix well. Add coconut.
Serve hot with or without sev.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 15mins

Some of you might wonder, why am I posting upma here? This is one of the most famous and extremely easy breakfast. I think this is the recipe learnt by most of the people in their early days of cooking. But I am an exception to this. Though I knew the recipe for upma very long back, I prepared the most horrible upma until recently. I even stopped making it, because every time I prepared it, it became like cement :D.

Two years back when I was staying with by brother and cousin, I tried this many times. Each time when I prepared it, all used to run away. So after my marriage, I never tried making it. Then after repeatedly forced by my hubby, I gave him the warning, ‘I will prepare it and you HAVE to eat it, does not matter if it is good or bad’. Somehow, that day it came out well :).

My mom prepares 3-4 types of upma. I am going to post all of them here this week. Hope you all enjoy the upma week. BTW…I used to wonder, how a person can like upma until recently. Now I have started liking it.

I will start with the most basic upma. It is usually prepared in temples or during functions at home (when there is a lot of things to do for lunch, so usually people make something simple like upma for breakfast) or during wedding. This does not have onion in it. Usually served with sev.

Ingredients:
1 cup sooji (upma sooji or wheat rava)
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
1/2 tea spn urad dal(optional)
A pinch asafoetida
Oil/ghee
1/2 tea spn sugar
2-3 green chillies
4-5 curry leaves
1 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut
A pinch turmeric
Salt

Method:
Roast the sooji on a low flame till a nice aroma comes out. Take out on a plate.
Heat oil and add mustard, urad dal(optional). When mustard starts popping and urad dal turns slightly brownish, add curry leaves(cut the leaves into two to enhance the aroma). Add asafoetida, turmeric and green chillies. Now add sooji(rava) and fry on a low flame for around 6-7mins (take care not to burn the rava). Add salt and sugar, mix well.
In a separate bowl heat 2 cups of water. When it starts boiling, transfer it to the rava mixture. Cover and cook till all water is absorbed. Mix well. Add coconut.
Serve hot with or without sev.

Serves : 2
Preparation time : 20mins

PS: The sooji can be roasted in bulk and saved for future uses.

Few days back I was chatting with my friend and colleague Poornima. She was very happy about my blog. So she voluntarily gave me two recipes. Here is the first one. The other one requires deep frying, so I haven’t tried yet.

This requires a bit patience. When I read the recipe, I thought, ‘Such a big procedure for upma!! (I am not a great fan of upma). But still, Poo is telling the recipe, so it should be good’.

Then the very next day I prepared it. While preparing, it was giving some bad smell of moong daal. So I again started thinking…’who will eat it, if it smells this bad!!’. Still I prepared it, and it was amaging. Just give it a try, though throughout you will feel its a bad idea, finally I am sure you will be happy to have prepared this!!!.

Ingredients:
Moong daal(hesru bele, mooga daali) 1 cup
Onion(chopped) 3/4th cup
Lemon juice 2 tbl spns
Curry leaves 1 strand
Green chillies 4-5
Mustard seeds 1 tea spn
Coriander leaves 3-4 strands
Oil 1 tea spn
Salt

Method:
Soak moong daal in water for 3hrs (I soaked it for just 1 hr or may be less than that). Grind with salt without adding water(if required, add very less water) it to a coarse paste.
Make small balls with hand, keep on idli stand or a normal vessel and cook on steam (the way idli is cooked).Powder the cooked balls with hand to remove big lumps. (Ignore the bad smell of cooked moong daal at this stage!!!).
Heat oil and add mustard. When it starts spluttering, add curry leaves, green chillies. Fry for some more time. Now add onion and fry till they turn slightly brownish. Add moong daal powder prepared already and a little salt ( Salt is already added while grinding, so add only a little at this stage). Add coriander leaves and Lemon juice.
Serve hot.

Serves : 3
Preparation time : 30min