Rava Upma Food

UPMA RECIPE | RAVA UPMA | SUJI KA UPMA

Steps:

• Finely chop 1 medium sized onion, 1 to 2 green chillies and 1 inch ginger and some coriander leaves.
• Also set aside the remaining ingredients.
• Heat a pan or kadai first. Add rava or cream of wheat.
• Begin to roast the rava. Stir often while roasting the rava.
• The rava or sooji grains should become fragrant and start to look dry, separate and crisp. Don't brown the rava.
• Switch off the flame and then add the roasted rava in a plate and keep aside.
• In a pan, heat ghee or oil. add the mustard seeds.
• When you hear the crackling sound of mustard seeds, it means they are getting fried.
• Now add the cumin seeds along with chana dal and urad dal.
• Fry till they begin to brown a bit or get lightly golden
• Immediately add cashews and begin to fry. By the time, the cashews get golden the lentils will also get golden.
• Now add the finely chopped onions. Saute the onions till they become translucent.
• Then add the chopped green chilly, ginger, curry leaves. Sauté for a few seconds. You can also add 1 dried red chilli at this step.
• Then add 2.5 cups water, sugar and salt as required. Mix well and check the taste of water. It should be a bit salty but not too much.
• Sugar is optional and you can skip it.
• On a medium to high flame, heat the water and let it come to a rolling boiling.
• When the water comes to a rolling boil, lower the flame to its lowest. Then add the rava in 4 to 5 batches with a spoon.
• Once you add the rava, mix and stir immediately. The entire batch of rava should get mixed with the water evenly. Then add the next batch of roasted rava. Mix and stir again.
• This way keep on adding and stirring the rava up to the last batch.
• Quickly stir and mix well. The rava grains absorb water and thus swell and get cooked.
• Cover and allow the rava upma to steam for 2 to 3 minutes on a low heat.
• Then switch off the flame. Here the rava is cooked and the upma is ready.
• Lastly add chopped coriander leaves. Mix again.
• Serve upma with coconut chutney or lime slices or lime pickle.

UPITTU ( RAVA UPMA)

Steps:

• Heat a wok or kadai, spray with butter flavored cooking spray and add semolina. You can also use 1 tsp ghee instead of cooking spray for a more fragrant (albeit higher fat) version.
• Roast, stirring occasionally until fragrant (about 7-8 minutes).
• Take out semolina and keep aside.
• After wiping off the hot pan to remove leftover semolina grains, add the oil.
• When oil is hot, add the tempering ingredients - mustard seeds, cumin seeds. If you wish you may also add spilt urad dal.
• When mustard seeds sputter, stir in chopped onions, ginger, curry leaves and green chilies. Note that you can deseed the chilies if you don't want any heat.
• In the meantime, bring the 2 cups of water to boil and add salt to it.
• Back to your wok, stir regularly and when the onions are transparent add diced tomatoes and let cook for a couple of minutes.
• When tomatoes are cooked, add the roasted semolina you kept aside earlier and mix well.
• Pour boiling salted water over this mixture, give a quick stir and cover with lid.
• Let it cook for 3 minutes on low flame. Then take off lid and add chopped cilantro, cashews and 1 Tbsp grated coconut. Mix well.
• Take off heat, and serve hot garnished with the remaining tablespoon of grated coconut and a sprig of fresh cilantro.
• NOTE 1: Don't over-roast the semolina or it won't cook well.
• NOTE 2: Possible additions - grated carrots, fresh green peas, roasted peanuts. You could also add 2 tablespoons cashews (roasted pieces) and/or 2 tablespoons coconut (grated fresh) along with the cilantro.
• NOTE 3: If you try to add salt after you take the upma off heat, it won't incorporate very well. So I suggest tasting the upma just before you add cilantro etc. and add more salt if you wish. Make a note of how much salt your family prefers, and next time add the entire amount to the water.