Any time favourite- Rice Upma and its easy variant Upma Kuzhakattai

When looking for some nice savoury breakfast dishes to make, nothing can beat the rice upma or Arisi upma in my mother tongue Tamil. This was my hot favourite for breakfast or dinner. It is light yet filling. I now appreciate the humbleness and simplicity of this dish. This goes on wonderfully with my last post the tangy Brinjal curry as the upma is subtle and wholesome in taste.

Back in those days, this upma was always prepared in a heavy bottomed bronze pot called vengala panai. The slightly burnt upma which gets stuck to the bottom of the pot is to die for. Nowadays, this can be made in a handi, kadai, pressure cooker or even the modern rice cooker. Talk about being futuristic.

Also in the past people used to visit flour mills to get the rice ground to rava rice and stored for future use as upma was made almost every other day. But the city where I live I have no clue of the nearest flour mill, so I ended giving up preparing upma without this step involved. When I went down to Chennai to visit amma, I saw her soak the rice before grinding it in the simple blender. The soaked rice not only is easy to work with but also yields uniform rava texture instead of turning it into a floury consistency. Now let’s get cracking with the starting material sorted out!

As with all my dishes posted, this recipe also involves using the basic stuff available in your pantry or the nearest supermarket. The things you need are:

For the upma:

Raw rice- 1 cup, Toor dal- 1 fistful, coconut- ½ cup, grated, Salt to taste.

For tempering:

Mustard seeds- ½ tsp, Urad dal- 1 tsp, Chana dal- 1tsp, Pepper- ½ tsp, Cumin seeds- 1 tsp, Red chillies- 4 to 6, Curry leaves- few, Oil- 1 tablespoon

The process of preparing is very simple and easy. Here it goes.

Wash rice and dal together thrice and drain the water completely. Leave it for 20-30 minutes. Take this mixture in a food processor or blender and pulse for 2 or 3 times. The rice should be coarsely ground but not as fine as rava. This will yield about 1 ¼ cups of rice rava which is sufficient to serve two.

Transfer the ground rice to a rice cooker. In a seasoning pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds and leave it till it starts popping. Add chana dal, urad dal, red chillies, pepper, cumin seeds and curry leaves, in that order. When the dal becomes brown, add this seasoning mixture to the rice. Also add coconut, salt and 2 ½ cups of water. Mix well and turn the rice cooker on. When done, fluff the rice. Let it rest for 5 minutes and serve with a drizzle of coconut oil. Serve hot with tangy Brinjal gravy from the last post. What a heavenly combination guys. Please do try and let me know.

As a variation to this recipe is a follow on which can be made further to the Arisi upma recipe, is upma kozhakattai recipe?

As already stated, Upma is a mainstay breakfast in most Indian homes but Kozhakattai is something that Tamilians offer to our beloved Lord Ganesha to keep him happy. Upma Kozhakattai is none of these. This is a fine example of 'saatvic' food. It is very easy to make now that the rice upma is ready.

Remove the 'upma' onto a big dish / thali and cool off for 5-10 minutes. Once cooled, take a big handful of upma and shape it into ovals/spheres with a flat bottom for easy cooking. You will get roughly 14-15 such kozhakattais from 1 1/2 cups of flour. Arrange this in a steamer and steam them for 10 minutes or until a skewer or tooth pick comes out clean or can be placed in a sauce pan with some oil for shallow frying so it can be enjoyed with a bit of crunch on the bottom following cooking. Serve with chutney or tangy Brinjal gravy. Works magic in your mouth.

Check this wonderful Brinjal in a tangy gravy

My Paruppu Usuli recipe from last week post brought back wonderful lip smacking memories from my amma’s kitchen. The unbeatable aroma of the good old Ennai Kathirikai Kozhambu (means just the simple Brinjal in tangy gravy). Just the mere mention of the name always kindles my taste buds. This post is an effort to let my amma’s divine recipe reach the whole world! 

If you have time on your hands and are craving some homemade meal, like what your mom/grandmom would have made if she were with you, then this one's for you. I made it on a Saturday morning and it lasted till Tuesday the next week. I had it with rice, dosa, chappathis, more rice and more dosas! I am also planning to make this when my amma visits me. She is going to be so impressed. 

Brinjal sometimes brings out horrible memories for some people out there, so I thought I should just Google up the word Brinjal and I found these amazing facts about the King of vegetables; at least that is what I remember Brinjal being called from my childhood. They are low in saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol, high in dietary fibre and loads of vitamins and minerals. But what is different about this. Most vegetables are, but the important part is it is an excellent food in weight loss, being low in calories and fat.

Before you guys think this is no longer a food blog and leave the page, I will move on to the recipe of the day; an authentic Tamil Nadu Kozhambu recipe. Make sure you pick out nice and small Brinjal of more or less similar size. The rest of the things you need for this recipe are readily available in the nearest supermarket.

The things you need for this Kozhambu is

8-10 small aubergines , A lime-sized ball tamarind,  1/4 cup sesame/gingely oil/til oil, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp powdered jaggery/sugar, small onion chopped, rice flour 1 to 2 teaspoons

For the spice powder, the things you need are;

1 tbsp oil, 2 tbsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp hing/asafoetida, 1 tbsp Sesame seeds, 8 dried red chillies, 2 tbsp chana dal, 2 tbsp toor dal, 2 tbsp urad dal, 1 small coconut grated, 1 tsp salt

For tempering of the Kozhambu you need;

1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 dry red chilli, 1 sprig curry leaves

The process to make this awesome tangy and spicy Kozhambu is sometimes is a bit overwhelming for laid back person like myself but is not a difficult recipe. There is a bit of roasting and grinding and soaking and frying to be done. My grandma would have said "these days’ girls have it easy, you have the blender!" She is of course right! So let’s get started.

Make crisscross cuts in the Brinjal and leave them in water until cooking. Soak tamarind in warm water for 20 minutes and extract thick milk from it. Set this aside. Heat oil in a handi or wok, add garlic and fry until fragrant. Then add onions and fry them until golden brown. Stir in tomatoes and continue cooking. Cover and cook for few minutes until the tomatoes turn pulpy and oil starts to leave the sides. Now fry the Brinjal till cooked through and semi soft. Meanwhile heat few teaspoons of oil in a kadai and add all ingredients except salt. Fry till spices are fragrant and dals and coconut have turned golden brown. Remove from heat, mix in salt and grind to a coarse powder. When the Brinjal are done and gravy thickens add this coarse powder. Bring this to boil once or twice and transfer to a serving bowl. To a wok, heat oil and then add the spices for tempering. When the mustard seeds start popping pour this over the Kozhambu recipe for a nice seasoning. Serve with anything you like rotis, rice, pongal or dosas.

Note: This kuzhambu keeps well for up to 4 days at room temperature. Make sure that you bring to boil each time before serving. It tastes best the day after it is made. I love it with dosa!

                                                     
For all of you who don’t like Brinjal for any reason, please try this wonderful tangy recipe once and you would forget why you ever disliked this vegetable. And all the rest of you please try this recipe and give your valuable comments.

Forgotten delicacy: Paruppu Usili

Ever since my childhood, I used to pester my mom to prepare this paruppu usili for me every single week. It’s a lentil crumble which can be prepared with vegetables like beans or banana flower or cluster beans or onion or carrots and so on. Even without the vegetable, this dish can be mixed with plain rice dotted with ghee. It not only adds body to a vegetable like beans but also a great flavour. But my personal favourite is when this dish is done with banana flower (vazhaipoo in Tamil). The combination of paruppu usili, mor kozhambhu which is a kind of stew made with butter-milk and garlic pepper jeera rasam (which is a clear soup eaten with rice) makes a tasty South Indian main course. Sundays are the perfect time to indulge in such traditional lunches followed by an extended afternoon siesta. 

It is very simple and easy to prepare and it is not time consuming. The things you need are readily available in your nearest supermarket. So why don't you look at this recipe and go shopping. This is the recipe which has been used in my family for years...so here am letting the secret out.

1/2 cup toor dal  Handful chana dal (split bengal gram dal)  2 red chillies  1 green chilli  pinch of asafoetida  Pinch of turmeric powder  2 cups chopped  banana flower (vazhaipoo in Tamil)  Oil  1/2 tsp mustard seeds  2 red chillies  Salt to taste

The process is so easy and it takes so nostalgic that you would make it over and over again...So just start cooking as it is a time tested recipe......

Wash and soak the dals for 3-4 hours.   Drain the dals well. Take the dals, 2 red chillies and one green chilli with some sea salt, a pinch of turmeric and asafoetida in a mixer. Rough grind the above. Don't make too smooth a paste. Remove the ends of the banana flower and any other fibrous parts and the bulb from inside. Chop them into small pieces. Place them in little water to which turmeric and salt has been added. In a steamer / cooker without whistle steam the above mixture for about 10 minutes. Once cooled, crumble it well with your hands. Try and take only as much water as is needed to cook the beans so that you don't have to throw away any water in the end. In a pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil. Crackle the mustard seeds in the oil, add the 2 chillies. Then, add the crumbled usili and saute till it turns golden brown. This is the paruppu-usili. Saute for another 2-3 minutes. Paruppu Usili is ready to serve. Instead of   Banana Flower(Vazhappoo) , Cluster Beans(Kothavarangai),  carrots or French Beans can be used. Can be served with Rice. Let me know how it all went......wait for my next recipe Vathal Kozhambu

Kanjivaram idli- South Indian bun cake

Brought up in a South Indian family, Idli was and is our hot favourite, tasted divine specially with the sambhar and chutney our mom made. Me and my sister would always go for idli any day over pizza or pasta. When we were much younger we always called this Cake idli. So I started trying my hand  on making this Kanjivaram Idli my mom made with such ease. My better half loves to eat home cooked food and try new cuisines and his knowledge of idli is the simple Idli. Kanjivaram idli is something new and out of this world name for him. So following my mom's footsteps, I made the idli using the same process my mom always did remembering from watching her whilst sitting on the kitchen counter while she cooked.

The procedure she used was simple and time tested, so there is nothing to worry but just start cooking even if you are an amateur cook.

Things you need are ready available in all supermarkets.

1 cup Rice  1 cup Urad Dal  1/2 tsp Pepper  1/2 tsp Jeera  1/2 cup Coconut  2 tbsp Oil  1/2 tsp Channa Dal  A pinch of Asafoetida  A pinch of Turmeric  3/4 tsp Salt  Green Chilli  1/2 inch Ginger  A few Curry leaves

Just follow this procedure step by step and you are sure to get the best soft white fluffy idlis in town.

Soak the rice and urad dal in water for a few hours. Then, wash and grind into a coarse batter adding enough water. Keep it to ferment overnight. The next morning, heat oil in a pan and add the rest of the ingredients, fry a bit, and then mix into the batter along with required salt. The batter should be thick. After that, steam in idli moulds or greased plate for almost 10-20 minutes. But i would strongly recommend big plates for steaming as it is awesome to cut into the idli just like a cake. Serve hot with tomato Chutney or homemade sambhar. Hope some of you try this South Indian delicacy and let me know if it tasted as good as it always did.