Vegetable Upma

It was one of those days when none of us were in a mood to eat a full fledged meal. All I got when I asked what do you want for dinner was "Make something light".

My standard resort on such occasions is poha or sabudana khichdi or idli/dosa - you get the drif! Along the same lines, this time I made vegetable rava upma - a standard breakfast item at weddings and such along with the usual idli/vada/pongal!

It was only very recently that I came to know that in Tamil Nadu, this dish is actually called "khichdi"! The discovery in  itself was an amusing incident involving two of my friends - one from Madras (I still can't think of it as Chennai!), the other from Orissa and ofcourse me! When the latter fed her kids "khichdi", the former was puzzled that it looked more like dal rice with vegetables and there was no sign of rava in it! After much confusion and some arguing, we realized that while two of us called the rice and lentils cooked with vegetables "khichdi" (I think that's what most of the country calls it!) the other one was looking for vegetable rava upma!

As far as my husband and kid are concerned, when I say upma, it means vegetable rava upma. There is no way they are eating a plain upma! Also, one wants any and every vegetable, while the other is allergic to nuts and can't stand the sight of onions and capsicum in his. So, I end up making "customized" upma!

What I mean is that, I cook my vegetables (I used the frozen mix of peas, carrots, beans and corn and added diced potatoes to it) separately in the microwave but saute the onions and capsicum along with the tempering in another pan! You can prepare the tempering and cook all the vegetables directly in the saucepan that you are using to make the upma. I just find it handy and quick to do all these things separately and since its the dishwasher that cleans the dishes, I don't hesitate to use an additional pot/pan!

So, while the rava is being roasted, I boil water in the kettle, cook the veggies in the microwave and simultaneously prepare the tempering mix! Finally, I just add everything in parts, making sure to separate my son's share before adding the tempering. But by all means prepare the tempering, add in the rest of the vegetables, add water, bring it to a boil and mix in the roasted rava - all in the same vessel.

Whichever way you choose to cook it, whatever you choose to serve it with (I did not go to the trouble of making chutney or sambaar, a Lime Ginger pickle was enough to satisfy us!) - this is a simple, fulfilling yet "light" meal!

Preparation & Cooking: 20 minutes          Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:

Rava/Sooji/Cream Of Wheat - 1 cup

Green Chillies - 2, chopped fine
Ginger - a small bit, minced
Turmeric/Haldi Powder - ½ teaspoon
Mixed Vegetables - 1 cup (beans, carrots, peas, corn, potatoes)
Potato - 1 small, diced
Capsicum - 1 small, diced
Onion - 1 small, choped fine
Curry Leaves -  a few
Salt - to taste
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Water - 3 cups
For Tempering: 
Ghee/Clarified Butter - 1 tablespoon
Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon 
Urad Dal/Black Gram Dal - 1 teaspoon
Jeera/Cumin Seeds -  ½ teaspoon
Chana Dal/Bengal Gram Dal -  ½ teaspoon
Cashews - 10-12, broken


Method:

1. Microwave the vegetables for 5-7 minutes, till they are cooked.
2. Bring about 3 cups of water to a boil in a kettle or another vessel - this hastens the cooking process as we don't have to wait for the bottle to boil when we add it to the rava.
3. Heat the remaining ghee for tempering, add in mustard, jeera, urad dal and chana dal. When the mustard and cumin seeds splutter and the dals turn a golden brown, add in the curry leaves and cashews. 
4. When the cashews get a reddish tinge, add the onions. When the onions turn transluscent add the green chillies, ginger and capsicum and saute for a couple of minutes, then take off the flame.
5. Roast the rava with 1 tablespoon of ghee till it turns a reddish tinge and gives off a nice aroma.
6. Now, slowly pour in the hot water, stirring constantly so it doesn't form lumps.
7. Continue to stir and cook till the rava reaches a smooth consistent texture and has absorbed most of the water.
8. Now add the turmeric, salt, mixed vegetables and the prepared tempering.
9. Mix everything well and cook for another minute.

Serve hot with chutney/sambaar or plain old pickle - yummy!

Venn Pongal

And its Pongal again - have come a full circle! My first ever post was a Pongal post - Chakkara Pongal. How could I not post something this Pongal? So, this time, I have opted to post the recipe for Venn Pongal. Of course I made the Chakkara Pongal as well for neivedyam.

 Venn Pongal literally translates to "White Pongal"!

Before I got married, I used to not like eating pongal. Infact at weddings I never understood the fascination with idli, upma, pongal and vadai for breakfast! Both, my sister and I, would drag our feet when called for the wedding breakfast feast - the only think we liked eating on that menu was the vadai!

Another memory associated with pongal is the bets that my parents would have on Sunday nights - appa, amma, sis and me would play some card game or carrom or some other board game like ludo or snakes and ladders. One parent and one sibling teamed against the other pair. We were young enough not to care about anything other than who won and who lost, my parents on the other hand had the same running bet. If my mom won, she got to pick what we had for dinner, but if dad won, it would either be pongal or khichdi for dinner - that's how much he loved both these dishes while the rest of us had them on our least favored list!

All these years later, post marriage and one kid, I have gained an appreciation for this dish though! It is a quick, one pot meal that has rescued me on many a weekends when I am in absolutely no mood to cook. The fact that hubby loves it is an added benefit! What I team it with depends on my level of laziness and how much time I have spent yapping on the phone with my parents and sis! When I have time on hand and don't mind a few additional minutes in the kitchen, I will serve it with a quick tomato gothsu (using canned diced tomatoes ofcourse ;) ), at other times I'll prepare a quick coconut or almond chutney (as was the case today), while on the laziest of days, we'll make do with some pickle!

What ever be the choice of accompaniment, this simple dish is one of my "go to" dishes on most weekends. I just take out a small portion and temper it without the pepper and cashews for my little one - pepper because he can't take the heat, and cashews because he is allergic to nuts.

Preparation & Cooking: 30 minutes          Serves: 2-3

Ingredients:
Moong Dal (Green Gram Dal) - ¾ cup
Rice - 2 cups
Water - 6 cups
Milk - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
For Tempering:
Ghee - 3-4 tablespoons
Cashews - 10-15, broken
Ginger -  1 teaspoon, minced
Cumin Seeds (Jeera) - 4 teaspoons
Peppercorns - 10-15
Curry Leaves - a few

Method:

1. Roast the moong dal for a few seconds till it gives off a nice aroma, don't let it brown.

2. Wash the rice and add it to the dal. Add in the rice, salt, water and milk and pressure cook it till it turns soft and mushy.

3. In the mean time, grind the cumins seeds and pepper corns into a coarse mixture or crush them using a mortar and pestle.
4. Prepare the tempering by heating the ghee and adding the cashews. When the cashews turn a golden brown, add in the ginger, curry leaves and the ground cumin and pepper mixture, give it a stir and take off the flame.

5. Once the pressure cooker has let off steam, open it and add in the tempering and mix well.



Steaming hot Venn Pongal is ready to be served.

Sending this across to

hosted by Sara's Kitchen.

Idiappam

Cooking Time: 40 minutes               Serves:2 

Ingredients:

In today's age of instant rice noodles, here is a guest post from cardamom, showing the elaborate way to prepare idiappam.

Idiappam podi - 1 cup

Salt -1/4 teaspoon

Method:

1. To make idiappam, first boil the water until it starts bubbling vigorously.

2. Take the flour in another vessel, add the salt and pour the hot water gradually into it, stirring constantly till it becomes a smooth slightly wet dough.

3. Use the idiappam molds (idiyappa achi) to squeeze out the dough onto the idiappam stand (or any plate for steaming).

4. Steam this in an idli cooker for 15 mins.

5. Wait for it to cool down, then transfer the idiappam to the serving plate.

 It is the perfect accompaniment to a bowl of hot stew!

- Cardamom