Mix Vegetable Upma

Mix Veg Upma

It is always a wonderful weather at Nitte. The best thing about Nitte is the lush green sceneries. The summers are not accompanied with the heat like that of Udupi or Mangalore. When it rains, the atmosphere becomes something that is above the levels of heaven. My husband and I always loved silent places with greenery and a cold weather.

Flower Bud

Cooking is a pleasure here, because I keep trying new stuff, sometimes its a hit, sometimes I fail, and I learn so much from these ups and downs. I always feared preparing dosas. But recently, I tried my hands on and it was good.

Talking about dosas, my mother used to be the best in all in preparing the dosa. Ever since we lost her recently, I realized there are so many things that I wanted to ask and learn from her. Her untimely death had a bad impact on everybody in the house. There was break from everything. Moreover, she knew certain things that just got swept away untold with her soul. Everything of hers just became a memory. I'm only happy with the fact, that her last happy moments were during my wedding. :)

All I learnt from last few days, is to keep a constant tab on ourselves, our diet, our cooking, our eating habits. Not only this, we need to keep our mental health in the right track. If you are mentally and spiritually unhappy, that may take away a lot from you.

Wheat Rava

I would say, depending more on the homemade comfort food is best option to stay healthy. A simple, but heavy breakfast that is accompanied with plain or flavored milk. Lunch that is rich in vitamins, greens and vegetables. Dinner, of course, should be a light meal. I used to be a coffee addict. Now, I guess it has been a long long time since I had a cup of coffee. Tea, is a better option, if you would love to switch over during your tea-time.

Talking about comfort food, Upma, the queen of a list of South Indian breakfast recipes, is the best form of a nice, peaceful morning. Upma / Uppittu is actually one of the most hated breakfast among most people, just because it gets a little bland sometimes. There is a nice way of making it interesting and tasteful.

I learnt this method of Upma quite recently. From every bite you get the crunch of vegetables and the fragrance of the seasoning. Apparently, I have seen most of my close relatives eating Upma with thick curd. I happened to try this and realized that its a winning combination and very comforting. My family loves this combo too.

Chopped beans

Chopped Capsicum and Tomato

Mix Veg. Upma Recipe

Ingredients

For 2-3 servings*

2 cups of Wheat Rava (Roasted in a wok or microwave)

2 medium sized chopped Onions

1 Capsicum

7-8 chopped beans

1 large chopped tomato

2 or 3 finely chopped green chillies**

1 tsp of turmeric powder

5 cups of water*

2 tsp of table salt (To taste)

2 tsp of ghee

2 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves

Seasoning

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp of mustard seeds

1 tsp urad dal

1 tsp channa dal

10-12 curry leaves

Method

Before starting the preparation, you need to cook the vegetables (i.e. beans, tomato and capsicum) separately either in a pressure cooker or an oven. Do not cook them completely. Let it be just-cooked.

Step 1: Heat a wok, and add oil. Once the oil turns hot, add mustard seeds. Now, turn off the heat, and add the remaining seasoning ingredients i.e. urad dal, channa dal, curry leaves.***

Step 2: Turn on the heat and add chopped onions, chopped green chillies and fry till it just starts turning transparent. Then add the turmeric powder.

Step 3: Add the remaining cooked vegetables to the wok and fry them along with the onions. At this stage you need to add salt. Mix well.

Step 4: Add water to this mixture. Keep stirring gently. Wait till the mixture starts boiling and bubbling.

Step 5: At this stage, reduce the heat to sim, add the wheat rava. Do not stir, you need to just fold the mixture. The upma neads to be airy, hence you need to fold and not stir.

Step 6: Add ghee over the top of the upma, fold in the upma, add coriander leaves on top and serve hot.

Note:

* For 2 servings of upma, I used 2 cups of rava and nearly 2 cups of vegetables. For 4 servings it would be close to 4 cups of upma and 4 cups of vegetables. I would suggest some more vegetables that could be added to this upma, viz. Caulifower, peas, carrots, potato and shallots. Water should be twice that of rava and one extra cup for the vegetables. As the quantity of rava and vegetables goes high, you may add a little extra water to ensure that the consistency is saved.

** I have added just two green chillies. This depends on my mood. If I want the upma to be spiced up, I would add 3 or may be 4. It is always better that a spicy upma is accompanied with cold and thick curd.

*** Once the mustard seeds start popping, it is always better to turn off the heat and add urad dal, channa dal and curry leaves. I use this method mainly to avoid the risk of burning the seasoning.

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Akki Rotti

Akki Rotti

I've always loved to try out new recipes. Soon after I got married, I've been learning a lot of tips and tricks on cooking and various methods of preparing sambars/rasams from my MIL and FIL ;) The best part now is I've learned to be a bit more quicker as well. Both my in - laws have unknowingly played an important part in helping me improve what comes from the kitchen.

Akki Rotti / Rice Rotti is a breakfast dish that I learnt from them. The best part of this breakfast item is that it can be prepared from left over rice too. I have come to realize that onions enhances the taste of the outcome. I know there are many people out there who do not prefer onions and garlic in their food. If you do not prefer to add onions to akki rotti, you can try replacing them with the stalk of coriander leaves.

The main reason that inspired me to write this post is the arrival of a new and first camera, a gift from that very special person! :) Thanks to him, I have started getting more closer to photography. These shots are some of my very first pictures. And I must admit, photography is something really adventurous.

Coconut

Coriander leaves

A chutney made using coconut goes very well with akki rotti. Seasoning the chutney is very important as it introduces a very heavenly flavor in the chutney. If you are a typical South Indian it goes without saying that you and your family will love to have this as their breakfast.

Chutney

There is one thing I always believe i.e. "The dish with few ingredients is more tasty."

The recipe of Akki Rotti is very simple. It just requires the most basic ingredients you'll find in any kitchen.

Akki Rotti Recipe

Makes about 10 rottis (Thin size)

Ingredients

Rice flour + Left over rice** (2 full cups of rice + 4 cups of rice flour)

2 medium sized chopped onions

3 chopped green chillies

1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves

2 tsp of salt (To taste)

2 tbsp of vegetable oil

Ghee or butter

Water - To knead the dough

**Note:

1) If you add left over cooked rice to the mixture, you need to mix the cooked rice and flour in 1:2 ratio.

2) Ensure that the cooked rice is smooth enough to be knead along with the dough. If the rice is too grainy then you need to cook it in a pressure cooker for ten minutes.

Method

Step 1: Mix the rice + rice flour, onions, green chillies, coriander leaves, vegetable oil, and salt and make a mixture.

Step 2: Make a soft dough by adding sufficient amount of water. Knead the dough till it becomes smooth as shown in the pictures.

Step 3: Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

Step 4: Pinch off a small quantity of dough and roll it into a ball shape.

Step 5: Take a cold* dosa tava. Dip your fingers in water and then pat the dough ball into the shape of a rotti on the tava. Make few holes in the rotti as shown in the pic. This is to ensure that the ghee or butter reaches through the gaps. Now start heating the rotti in a high flame. High flame ensures that the rotti is soft enough.

Step 6: Once half the rotti is done it'll turn brown on the lower side. Add some ghee or butter to the rotti. You need to flip over the rotti to roast the other side. Once the other side also turns brown and crispy you may take it off the pan and serve it hot with coconut chutney.

*Note:

1) You need to use a cold tava for patting the rotti, else you may get your fingers burnt. Keep dipping your fingers in water while patting the rotti on the tava to ensure that the dough doesn't stick to your fingers.

2) Once you are done with making a rotti, you can plunge the tava in cold running water, reduce the temperature of the tava and use it to make the next one.

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Semolina Uppittu / Bombay Rava Uppittu / Upma

Another addition was this upma with the sweet pongal for nagara panchami. An extremely simple breakfast preparation which many of them hate, but not me. ;) Uppittu if made with lot of interest and love always tastes wonderful. :) And this logic applies to any kind of food one makes.

Made with bombay rava / bombay suji / semolina uppittu tastes the best!

Without taking much of your time I'll delve into its preparation.

Ingredients (3-4 servings)

1 cup semolina / bombay suji / bombay rava
1 ripened tomato (Chopped)
1/2 cup of grated carrot
1/2 cup of chopped beans
2 green chillies (chopped)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cups of water (for the semolina)
3/4 cup of water (for boiling the vegetables)
Salt to taste

Seasoning

5-6 curry leaves
2 tbsp ghee/oil
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp of cumin seeds
1 tbsp of green gram dal

Method

Boil the tomatoes, carrot and beans in 3/4 cup of water.

In a wok, add the oil and wait for it to heat under medium flame.

Once its heated, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and wait for it to pop. Then add the curry leaves, gram dal and then add the chopped green chillies.

Add the semolina and salt together to the wok / vessel and mix well.

Add the boiled vegetables, sugar and water (2 1/2 cups) and mix it. Do not mix it too much. Just a mild stir is sufficient.

The mixture will look as follows after 3-4 minutes. The semolina will be cooked.

And the uppittu is ready :) :)

Happy cooking :):):)

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Aloo Parota (Chapati with potato filling)

Good Morning :) :) Long time since I have filled up something in this place. There are quite a few recipes to be posted still :) I'll post all by the end of next week. :) My Wish List is at stake. :-/ But I'll catch up soon with it. :) :)

I'm on holidays just after I'm done with my Engineering completely; so a lot of playfulness has creeped into me :) I've lost touch with subjects you could say. Need to catch up with that too :) Coming to what I'll be posting today, I had been to my friend's place last Sunday. I keep visiting her frequently these days and I shamelessly keep trying out my recipes in her house too. :) Thanks to her mother who always is enthusiastic to hand over her kitchen to me :) There we decide at the nth moment that we'll prepare lunch by ourselves as her parents had been out to a temple. I decided that I'm going to cook the lunch. We thought for a long time to decide what to cook. Then came to a decision of making Aloo Parotas (Aloo means potato, Parota is a kind of an Indian bread). We took off and here is how it went.

Ingredients (For 6-7 parotas)

To make the dough for Parota

4-5 tbsp of wheat flour
1 tbsp of oil
1 tsp of salt (To taste)
Water to knead the dough (Quantity: Add water that is suffiecient to make a soft but non sticky dough)

To make the Potato (Aloo filling)

2 medium sized potatoes
1 onion (Finely chopped)
2 tsp red chilly powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 green chillies (chopped)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 a cup coriander leaves (chopped)
1 and 1/2 tsp salt (To taste)

Method

Boil the potatoes, onions, green chillies together and keep it aside.

On the other side, make the dough take wheat flour salt and oil in a bowl.

Add water one table spoon at a time and keep kneading the dough.

Keep adding water until it starts sticking to your hands like glue. After this knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes. It becomes soft and smooth.

Make oval shapes, slightly smaller than a lemon size, out of the dough and keep it aside.

For the filling

Mash the potato, onion and green chilly mixture. Add salt, red chilly powder, cumin seeds and turmeric powder and mix thoroughly.

To make the Aloo Parota

Roll out the oval shaped into a flat disc of diameter about 4 to 5 inches. Add a little amount of maida while rolling so that it becomes easy to roll the Parota.

Place a lemon sized potato stuffing at the center of the Parota.

Close the Parota as shown below. Make the same of these kind and keep it side for 20 minutes.

Note: This is a very important step because if you do not keep it aside for sometime, the potato stuffing may come out of the dough covering while you roll it out to make the parota. Hence it is very important to keep this for sometime and then roll it out to make the actual parotas.

After 20 minutes, roll out the potato stuffed dough into a flat disc (chapati) using a rolling pin. Add maida over the Parota while rolling it out so that the Parota doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Diameter of the parota which I made from the above quantity was about 7-8 inches.

After this heat a flat pan to the maximum and place this parota in the pan.

After 2 minutes, invert the parota and smear ghee/oil/butter over it.

After 2 minutes again invert the parota and smear ghee/oil/butter on the other side too. See to it that both sides are fried as shown below.

Serve it with curd raita or any other side dish.

I made the curd raita which required the following ingredients

3 cups of curd
2 tsp of chopped ginger
2 finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 pinch of Asafoetida (Hingu in Kannada)
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1 tsp salt (To taste)

Method

Mix all the ingredients mentioned above thoroughly.

Serve the Parotas and Raita together. :) It was a very good lunch. We ate the parotas followed by curd rice. It was simply divine :) Later uncle and aunt came and we made for them too. I'm happy they loved it genuinely :) :)

If you haven't made these yet, do make them :)

Take care till I write.

Happy cooking :) :)

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