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.

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.

Gujarathi Kaman dhokla from the scratch

Well, adding to the list of recipes i have posted before is Gujarathi Khaman dhokla which my husband loves to eat. There are many ready made packs available in the market but nothing can beat the soft dhokla which is made from the scratch at the proximity of your kitchen. So i am going to give out my secret recipe which i have used all along to make the perfect golden dhokla which finds its way direct into everyone's heart.

This can be made using the ingredients which is always available at home or your nearest supermarket.

1 cup rice 

1 cup urad dal 

1 cup yellow moong dal 

3 cups sour buttermilk 

2 green chillies crushed fine 

1/4 tsp - ginger grated fine 

1/2 tsp - soda bicarb 

2 tbsp - oil

2-3 pinches red chilli powder 

1/2 tbsp - coriander finely chopped 

Salt To Taste

It is very easy to make this. Not much hassle is involved in the procedure of this dish. The flour required can be made and stored well upto 2 months in advance. Just in case, you want to make some nice warm dhoklas when guests arrive without prior notice.

Mix the rice and dal, wash, drain and dry on a clean cloth for a few hours. The grain should be completely. Grind to a coarse flour in dry grinder or at the flour mill. This flour should be like very fine rava like in texture. Store in airtight container and use as required. 

To make khaman, take 1 cup flour in a bowl. Add buttermilk, and mix well. Keep- aside for 4-5 hours. Dissolve sodabicarb in the oil. Add to batter. Mix all ingredients except red chilli powder and coriander. Pour immediately in a 6" diam. greased plate. Steam over water either in a cooker or steamer. Pierce knife, and check, should come out clean if done. Sprinkle the chilli powder and coriander, steam again for 2-3 minutes. Cut dhaman dhokla into squares or diamonds and serve hot with mint chutney or sweet and sour date chutney. 

Also with the remaining dhoklas after a sumptuous lunch, you can be creative and make dhokla sandwiches by placing a layer of dhokla cut in half and a spread of sweet and sour chutney and a piece of fried paneer, then alternate with layer of dhokla and green minty chutney. And top with another dhokla layer and here comes a triple decker dhokla sandwich topped with sev which can be enjoyed with a cup of hot tea in those cold winter evenings.