Rava Upma ( Semolina Pudding )

It is a hot, breakfast snack in which, Cream of Wheat and lots of vegetables are used to form a soft mushy salty pudding like snack.

The word Upma, for the dish is derived from "Salt-and-flour" in all the South Indian languages.

In Tamil the word "Uppu" means "Salt" and "Maavu" means "flour" (of any kind); uppu+maav = Upma;

Ingredients:

• 2 cups semolina ( Cream of Wheat)
• 1 carrot
• ½ cup green peas
• 1 small capsicum
• 1 small potato boiled
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 inch ginger grated
• 4 green chilies finely chopped
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 6 tbsp cooking oil
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 2 tsp black gram split (urad dal)
• 10-12 curry leaves
• 2 dry whole red chilies
• ¼ tsp asafetida
• salt to taste
• 2 tbsp butter

Method:

• Roast the rava in a dry thick bottom pan without the color changing, remove and cool.
• Wash, peel and dice the vegetables( potato, capsicum, carrot) of equal size about 1 cm square.
• Heat oil, temper with asafetida, mustard seeds, red chillies, urad dal and curry leaves.
• Add the onion, ginger and green chillies. Cook for a few minutes.
• Mix in potato cubes and green peas and saute for about 3-4 minutes. Now add capsicum and fry for 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle salt to taste.
• Pour 4 cups water and bring to boil. When the water starts boiling, add the rava in a flow, stirring continuously to prevent lumps from forming.
• Cook for a few more minutes stirring all the while. Remove from fire. Add butter and keep covered for 5-7 minutes.
• Drizzle lemon juice and serve hot with coconut chutney.

Do You Know?

Curry leaves are highly aromatic and are used as a herb. Their form is small and narrow and they somewhat resemble the leaves of the Neem tree; therefore they are also referred to as Kari Patta in Hindi.

They are commonly used as seasoning in Indian and Sri Lankan cooking, much like bay leaves.In their fresh form, they have a short shelf life though they may be stored in a freezer for quite some time.They are also available dried, though the aroma is inferior.They are also available dried but the aroma is inferior.