Thai Basil Fried Rice

Blogging after a long gap, cooking after eons - life has changed in more ways than one. I am now Mrs S. S has featured in this blog as my guinea pig and now he doesn't really have a choice :) I have resumed work now and things are getting a little hectic. It's a little chaotic to balance work and home, especially when everything is new - new maid, new house, new city, new husband, new work place. And cooking keeps the sanity intact.

On a recent trip to the grocery, I chanced upon fresh rosemary, sage, Thai basil and beautiful fresh red chillies. And it's tempting when you have the choicest stuff sitting atop the kitchen counter.

Ingredients:

Fresh basil - 1/2 cup

Rice - 1 cup (cooked and cooled. Recommended to use jasmine rice but feel free to use what is available)

Peppers - finely sliced - various colors

Beans - finely sliced - 100 gm

Onion - 1 - finely sliced

Fresh red chilli - 4 - finely sliced

Soy sauce - 2 tsp

Garlic - 2 pods - chopped finely 

Method

Add a little oil in a wok. When it's hot, add red chilli and garlic and stir fry until the garlic browns. Add the peppers and beans and stiry fry. Add the soy sauce. Keep frying until the beans are tender but not overcooked. Add the onions and stir fry for about 30 seconds until they are cooked but retain the crunch. 

Fluff up the rice and add to the above. Stir well. Add the basil and turn off the heat. Give it a thorough mix and serve with lots of love. 

Serving suggestion: Thai green curry / Thai red curry

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Crimson Chakra - For the nth time

So, CC launches a new menu and having been asked to be part of a group to give feedback on how this was, I can only say I was impressed.

There was a good number of vegetarian dishes, a lot of paneer amongst that. I loved every dish on the menu except the basil vegetable fried rice - which I loved a little less for want of more basil :)

The menu card was neatly rolled and tied with a satin ribbon. We began with a drumstick charu. I quite thought it was going to be like sambar but was pleasantly surprised that it was very light on the palate.

There were three veg starters, all of which had paneer in them. The paneer was soft and delicious and CC has nailed the paneer dishes.

On to the main course, the breads were soft even when they weren't hot, so much so that some of them couldn't wait for a fresh serving and gobbled the not-so-hot naans and kulchas. The veg jalfrezi was excellent and we ate a whole bowl without the breads. The pita bread was fresh and the filling sumptuous (more paneer)

The dessert was the quintessential Indian kulfi. Need I say more. It was the perfect end to this delicious meal.

As a side note, CC @ night caters to those night owls who stay up late and have a midnight craving for some amazing food. I've ordered from them and have had a fantastic experience. You can reach them on +919962996116. The menu is available here.

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Dieters Delight - Red Pumpkin Soup

Recipe adapted from Susan Deborah. Susan gave me a recipe this morning and I modified it slightly to suit my tastes.

My dinners over the last few evenings have been soups. So I am always on the look out for interesting recipes. (If you do know some, please feel free to share)

Ingredients:

Red Pumpkin (aka butternut squash aka parangikka) - cubed - 1 cup
Carrot - 1 - roughly chopped
Onion - 1 med - diced
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp (If this is not available, you add peeled ginger and 1 clove garlic)
Oil / Butter - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - As per taste (I used about 1/2 tbsp)
Bay Leaf - 1
Pepper corns - 5-6 (change as per taste)
Salt - To taste

Recipe:

Heat oil / butter in a pan and add bay leaf, onions and ginger garlic paste. Saute until onions are soft. Add pepper corns, coriander power and mix well. Add the vegetables and saute until they are coated with the oil. Pressure cook. I used an electric cooker and cooked these for about 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

Cool and puree in a blender. Strain and heat through once again.

Note: The same recipe can be made with bottle gourd. 

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The week that was...

..was an incredibly mad week. 4 dinners, 2 lunches, a spa session, client presentations and amidst all this, I found time to read a bit! Oh yes, all this was during a busy work week!

Dinner one was on Tuesday at Tasneem Aunty's house, with my gang of girls, where I got to flaunt my short skirt without being worried what anyone'd think ;-) The menu was exhaustive - , corn tempura, biriyani, jeera rice, coconut rice, poori, channa, dal, quban ka meetha, kajur - sigh! The food was as delicious as the conversations!

Dinner two was on Wednesday - well that's more of high-tea, at Tuscana's new menu launch, followed by some awesome icecream at Bellaria (right next to Park Sheraton) and of course, pulling Bharani's leg with the hot latino chick. (wink wink)

Dinner three on Thursday was with my super duper bestie girl friend to catch up on a lot of things (I'm not saying what they are). This was at Eco Cafe Chamiers - 2 spicy hot chocolate, 2 veg sandwich, 1 carrot cake and 1 bottled water at INR 850. (not to mention a huge haul of books at flat 50% discount)

Lunch one was at work, with my clients, on Friday. The food was packed and delivered from Fortune Palms, OMR. Very mediocre lunch - maida roti, corn and palak sabzi, paneer butter masala (and the paneer was beyond biting), dal, jeera rice and moong dal halwa.

Dinner four was at my fav couple - Sindhu and Sathish's house, on Friday. This was super long in coming, but when it did come, it was amazing. Ragda patties, Grilled Mushrooms, Paneer Tikka, Chapati, Baingan Sabzi, Amrut Ki Sabzi, Biriyani, Raita and carrot halwa. This was followed by Sathish's special - thums up + vanilla ice cream. Interspersed with some brilliant conversation, we ended the evening at 11 pm with some mint flavored green tea.

Lunch two was at Kalyan Nagar Association, at the Iyappa Poojai of my childhood buddy Shanky's dad. I was already stuffed with all that I have mentioned above, but who can resist an authentic tambrahm elai virundhu - sambhar, rasam, beans curry, vaazhakkai curry, aviyal, chakkara pongal, paal payasam, vadai, appalam & pachidi!

Rounded this all up with breakfast at ID - dosai, vadai and kasi halwa on Sunday morning. NEP was very mediocre, but hey the food made up for it! :)

And now, it's time to pull my socks and hit the treadmill with a vengeance! :)

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Girls, Gossip, Dinner - CC on KNK

After a very successful gossip session at Rajdhani, EA, earlier this week, the girls decided to have some more fun. And a dinner marked the beginning. (Oh, there are many more to come; Shall be revealed when the time is right)

Many of them had not been to the KNK branch of Crimson Chakra, so decided to head out there after checking out the By Hand, From the Heart sale at Isphani Center. (I couldn't make it to the sale)

Kamalika and Preethika had to drop out but the rest of us decided to go ahead. Aarti, Tasneem Aunty, Jenny and Nigar (And yes, this group, including KK and Gans, is called Drama Queens :P)

Jenny had never tasted the famous elaneer souffle and her main intention on this trip dinner was to eat that.

OK, so here goes the order (and we confused ourselves and the waiter)

a. Curried Mushroom and Corn Sacks (and we thought it was a gravy! :O )
b. Fried Baby Corn in curry leaf batter
c. One Potato salad that came with some huge banana flower leaf (vaazhapoo)
d. Mushroom soup (by 2) (Nikhil / Naveen  - where is the tortilla soup that's available in the Adyar outlet? :O)
e.Smoked rice (Aswin Rao - everyone was talking about you when ordering this; am sure you'd have porai erified so much today)
f. panneer paranthas
g. lasagne
h. cheese stuffed ratatouille basilica (!? and this came super cold - so had to send it back to be re-heated)
i. elaneer souffle (by the boat loads)

Now, what can I say. Everything was perfect - food, service, ambiance! Except for that slight problem with the basilica thing and a pretty sour salad, every other dish was CC trademark. The potato salad had sour cream but it did feel a tad too tangy!

After a hearty meal and a decent bill, we walked out with a heavy tummy and some heavy bags with loads of tomatoes (courtesy Tasneem Aunty). Now I am looking for tomato recipes! Anyone?

And Naveen - Thank you. We had a great time and I hope you have a fun vacation in Colombo!

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Dieter's Delight - Stuffed Zucchini

Yeah, it's the same zucchini I'd picked from Gormei Market last weekend and it was wilting away in the fridge. I wanted to make some salad with it, and found a recipe too, but the sudden craving for upma last night pushed this to the background.

And this morning, as I was sipping the coffee, I saw Cheryl's post on HBG about making bread using the pressure cooker. I was looking through the website and then found this cute little zucchini recipe and I knew what I should do for dinner.

So here's how this is made. I made some alterations from the original.

Slice the zucchini into thick pieces (about 4 cm tall, I made them taller, my bad!) and scoop out the innards, leaving some at the bottom to serve as the base. Finely chop some beans and carrots. Add some olive oil in the cooker, add the minced garlic, zuzzhini innards, carrots and beans and cook well. (Alternatively you can cook this in the microwave, which is what I did).

Stuff the mixture in the zucchini.

Meantime, finely chop an onion and tomato. Add some olive oil in the pressure cooker, add the onion, tomato, some basil leaves and half cup of water. Cook for a couple of minutes. If you have a steamer, place that in the cooker, arrange the stuffed zucchini in that. If not, pour the onion tomato mixture along with the water inside a pan, and arrange the zucchini in that. (The idea is for the zucchini to absorb the flavor of the reduction). Add half cup water inside the pressure cooker. (You don't need to do this if you use a steamer). Cook on high pressure for about 5 minutes (without whistle. I did 3, and felt that this needed a little more cooking. That said, I loved the texture of the zucchini at 3 mins, crunchy yet soft. On second thoughts, may be one or two whistles could have done the trick)

Transfer to a plate and have fun! (Psst: I also did crumble some low fat feta cheese over it)

Recipe Source: http://www.hippressurecooking.com/2010/08/stuffed-zucchini-on-tomato-bed.html

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Dieter's Delight - Broccoli all the way!

Tonight's dinner - courtesy Gormei Market - Yeah I'd picked up the broccoli when I was there for the Easy cooking workshop by Sara Koshy :) It was an exhausting day at work and with the wretched traffic, I made it home really late.

So tonight's dinner is an amazingly easy to make soup and salad, with minimal ingredients.

The soup recipe is by Gordon Ramsay (Sunil - I made the soup finally and you may now call me D Gordon Iyer :-) )

Add bite sized pieces of broccoli in salted boiling water, and let cook until tender. (Pierce a knife through it and you'll know). Transfer the broccoli to a blender. Add the stock (about half the quantity) and blend well. Taste, and season as required. And yay, we are done. Drizzle a little olive oil and while you eat the soup, here's how you make the salad.

I'd read this recipe a few years ago and have been making it quite often. Perhaps my most favorite broccoli salad. Boil broccoli as above, except, let it be a tad crunchy. Finely chop garlic and ginger. Saute in high heat for under 2 minutes, until the aroma is released. Add the broccoli & a little salt, and stir fry for a minute or two until the garlic and ginger blend well with the broccoli. For the dressing, in about 3 tsp of sesame oil, add about 8 drops of soy sauce, mix well and drizzle over the salad. Toss well and serve.

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Dieter's Delight - Mushroom Mint Salad

It has been a crazy day; How else would you term a day when the carpenter is on full swing, cutting, sawing and drilling, and you can barely enter the house without being showered with sawdust! So yes, I was getting some shelves fixed and that's a 2 day job! Sigh

It was past 8 pm by the time these guys left, and I was hungry. There was a sly temptation to order out - a million thoughts running through my mind - Dominoes is right next door! Or should I call Mast Kalandar (they are 2 km away), or should I call Yo Potato or may be a peta wrap!

And then, I could hear the mind's mocking laugh! To shut it up and not feel guilty, decided to rustle up something quick!

The mushrooms should be used by today, so I chopped them up, set them on the pan, on low heat, along with some lemon juice and salt. Cook covered for about 10 minutes. Let cool and drain the water.

Meantime, finely chop a handful of mint and some coriander. Roughly chop some cucumber. Deseed tomato and roughly chop that too. Toss everything together; add some yoghurt, and we are done :-)

And this is the new entrant in my kitchen - magnetic knife holder :-). (Thanks to S, it sure matches the color of the decor)

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Dieter's Delight - Lemon Coriander Soup and Stuffed Mushrooms

Day 3 of intensive cooking and dieting and working out and it has been a success. With the taste buds suddenly craving for mushroom, I'd decided to make lemon coriander soup and some stuffed mushrooms for dinner.

I finished prep and cooking in under 45 minutes, and in between some cleaning as well. So, that's how easy this is.

This soup recipe serves 1 (Adapted from Tarla Dalal Healthy Soups and Salads)

Boil about 500 ml of water, along with some chopped carrots, lemon grass (I used the dried variety), roughly chopped onions, some pepper corns, a few mint leaves, a teeny bit of salt, and some ginger. Boil this for about 15- 20 mins, on simmer, until the aroma is released and the broth is flavorful. Strain and set aside.

Chop some mushrooms, cabbage, spring onions (save the green for garnish later), carrots and saute in a teeny weeny bit of oil. To this add salt, and add the broth. Cook on simmer until the the vegetables are tender yet slightly crunchy. Add plenty coriander, the green of the spring onions, and a liberal dosage of lemon (depending on how tangy you like it - remember there's already some lemongrass in there).

Meanwhile, boil some sprouts in a microwave, on high for 5 minutes. Clean the mushrooms and remove the stem. Dry the mushrooms on a clean kitchen towel. Chop the stems & some onions. Saute on high heat for a few seconds; To this add the boiled sprouts, and some salt. Saute until they mix well. Add chopped coriander and mint. Brush the mushrooms with a little olive oil (remember mushrooms let out a lot of water, and they usually are basted), stuff the sprout mix inside the mushrooms. You can either bake them in the oven (if you are the lucky one and own an oven) or put them on a pan, on low heat, until it's cooked through but doesn't fall apart. (Or microwave on high for about 4 minutes, making sure the heat is even across all the pieces - that means you need to keep checking at regular intervals)


I made some mint yoghurt dip to go along with this (but that's not in the picture because I was in a hurry to eat and the picture was shot when the mushrooms were cooking).

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Dieter's Delight - Vegetable Stir Fry Clear Soup

The dieter's delight series will continue with tonight's dinner.

After some cardio and weights, and some unscheduled customer calls (which I didn't take too kindly to), I was terribly hungry and quickly put together this soup. (Adapted from Tarla Dalal Healthy Soups and Salads book)

Finely slice capsicum, cabbage (I used the white and purple variety, for the dash of color) and spring onions.
Grind together a bulb of garlic and a green chilli.
Heat a sauce pan, with a little oil. Add the chilli garlic paste and saute on high heat for a few seconds, just until the aroma is released.
Add the vegetables, salt and stir fry. (I learnt to do this without the ladle :-))
Pour about 2 cups of hot water, squeeze a few drops of lemon and let it boil for a few minutes, until the flavor spreads through. Just throw in some chopped coriander and we are done!

The broth is extremely flavorful (and perhaps can be used as stock for other soups), and the vegetables were crispy - just like how a stir fry should be.

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Dieter's Delight - Grilled Paneer on a bed of sprouts

I have tried lots of ways to lose weight, but what really helped me are eating right and working out right. Having said that, it's not easy to eat right and work out always. There have been pangs of emotional eating, raiding the fridge at midnight (like Nigella - oh she has such a negative impact on weight loss), eating because you go out in a group and you can't help resist temptation (yeah OMG did that to me) and then the bakers shower their love on you by baking these wonderful cakes and you can't help but indulge. 

And suddenly, I've been seeing too many posts on weight loss and a friend also remarked that I'd gained weight :-( So, it's back to basics - firing it away on the treadmill, combined with lots of reps of Surya Namaskar, a zero-carb high-protein dinner and a bit of weight training to balance out the cardio. And Green tea with mint and a dash of lemon :-)

For a vegetarian like me, protein options are limited. Tofu (I really don't like this much), Soy milk, Sprouts and Paneer are easily available and some of the best choices when it comes to eating tasty and healthy food. 

So here's tonight's dinner

Boil sprouts in a microwave (for about 5 minutes on high). Let it cool.

Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, mint and coriander.

Add some salt to taste.

I have a taken recent liking to green tabasco. So I added a couple of drops of that.

Mix well. Rest for a few minutes.

Meantime, slice the paneer into long strips. Brush with some olive oil. I added some chilli flakes, mint, coriander and salt. (I used my MR sandwich maker, dumped these strips in there and let them grill, turning them over at regular intervals)

That's it and we are done. Happy dieting. (Warning: Do not watch Nigella's show when you eat this. I loved the coconut ice-cream she made today and was looking at my bowl of salad and shaking my head in disbelief)

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Rain, Girl Friend and Coriander Pesto

Not necessarily in that order, but it has been a great end to the week (not to mention the approaching long weekend) . I met Cynthia today for the first time, and it just felt like I've known her for years. (We've made plans to meet up tomorrow at Adoniya; hopefully Aarav lets her). Girl gossip after ages felt so therapeutic and time just flew by. Before I knew it, it was quarter to eight and I realized I had to get home before Masterchef Australia.

On my way home, it started to pour and pour it did! All the way back, my mind was constantly thinking of pasta and I was actually dreaming of the cilantro pesto pasta I had at Egg Factory, Bangalore a few months ago. I knew I had to have this today. This is not authentic and I quickly put together this dinner from whatever ingredients I had at home. (Alright, I just finished drooling over Simon Hopkinson and now Nigella is on TLC making me drool further - it's a purely dessert show today)

For the pesto: (I'm not giving exact measurements here, because I just went with whatever I had)

a bunch of coriander
a few mint leaves
a fistful of cashewnuts
one bulb garlic
dried chilli flakes
some parmesan
and olive oil

Grind all this in a blender, until it becomes a fine paste. Add more olive oil if required.

Cook the pasta (I prefer spaghetti) until al dente; My owl timer was really useful tonight.

In a pan, add olive oil and saute some onions and capsicum on high heat; (I wish I had mushrooms). Add salt. Add the drained pasta and mix through.

Finally add the pesto and mix well. Retain this until the heat spreads through.

Serve the pasta with a good amount of Parmesan grated. Dig in.

This is one of the best ways to finish off the left over coriander and mint. 

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A cozy evening, Hercule Poirot and Oven roasted tomato soup

When the work day turns out decent and you get a day off mid-week, the kitchen beckons. Having actually ignored the kitchen for a long while now, I decided to make some soup for dinner. Oh yeah, what's so great about making a soup? Nothing, really. It's simple and just gives you that warm feeling.

So, I just dump about 4 big tomatoes (cored), 1 piece of garlic, half a chopped onion, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper into the oven at 450 deg, for about 25 minutes. Boil water (you can use stock, if you like), add butter, bay leaves and some mint. Add the caramelized tomatoes, onion, garlic, and let boil. Simmer for a few minutes. Let cool a bit and blend in a processor. Strain the puree, and simmer on low heat.

Garnish with cream (if you are not on a diet ;-) )

Transfer to a soup bowl, and eat to your hearts content. Yummy, simple and filling.

(And yes, I'm now reading Hercule Poirot, The complete short stories collection)

And yes, this is the cute little owl timer that S got! :D :D I so love this owl, he's cute, isn't he! :)

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Fusion 9 - High and Mighty

It was the day of yet another dinner with the foodies at the one of the city's well known restaurants on Sterling Road. I'd never been to Fusion 9 before and I wish Shadir or Doc had warned me earlier about the poor lighting. (That explains some of the out of focus pictures). This was one of the fun dinners I've been on, with Doc Waz and Shadir regaling us with food stories of their college days. Aswin was a last minute entry as Nish and Ali couldn't make it. Divyan and Karthik completed the 6 member group.

Mohan and Mrinalini from the PR consultancy led us with the initial introductions and I'd requested for a copy of what we'd be eating today. (It's too difficult remembering names, and I sure don't want to look at the pics wondering what it was ! :-) ) Sajith was taking care of our table. I'm covering only the vegetarian fare here. (It wouldn't be fair for me to talk about something that I don't eat)

It was a new spring menu that has now been introduced. And me being a veggie, was curious how the new menu helped us. It so happens that this revised menu has loads of options for vegetarians. *big smile* Round 1 to Fusion 9

The dinner kicked off with the barman's special - Irish Apple Mocktail. Not a big fan of apple, this one was a little too sweet for my liking and didn't really make an impact on my taste buds. When I told Mohan about it, he promptly got the bar to get me another drink with orange and lemon and mint, and loads of crushed ice. The orange had no flavor, and all we could eat was the crushed ice. I should have perhaps tried some other mocktail from the menu. Round 2 to me ;-)

The drinks gave way to starters. The first dish on the table was a platter of watermelon and feta titbits with reduced aged balsamic. Round 3 to Fusion 9. Absolutely brilliant. This coming from someone who HATES watermelons - This is a must order when you go there. Fresh watermelon scoops with generous cuts of feta - yummy !

This was followed by sicilian rice cakes, mushroom and smoked scamorza filling, fresh tomato and MTN. Usually, cakes are associated with cubed / rectangular shapes, but this one was round (!!??) Slightly dry, but overall good flavors. The mushroom and scamorza stood out. Round 4 to Fusion 9

With this, came the beirut hummus falafel platter. Round 5 to Fusion 9. Excellent pita and hummus. We could lick the bowl clean :)

After this, followed the spiced tofu katsu with crispy rice noodles. Tofu by itself has no taste. This one was well cooked, and the katsu sauce is a perfect combination with the tofu. I was curious as to what the katsu was made of and Sajith would only tell me that it had peanuts and Japanese spices. I asked him what spice was that and he insisted it was Japanese spices. (Aswin says it's theriyumotheriyadho and Doc waz claims it's nikumonikado :P) Jokes apart, I'd certainly like to know what spice it had ! It did taste a bit like maggi and korma. Round 6 to Fusion 9

What I should mention here is an out-of-the-tasting-menu item - Tandoori broccoli. I am in love with Fusion 9 only for this dish. (We never did get that second plate, did we.. Aswin?)

The salad then came on. Roasted new potato salad with sour cream and dill mayo. Round 7 to me. Potato skin was bitter and there was something weird about this salad. The peas were undercooked and there was absolutely no flavor anywhere. One mish mash of ingredients dumped together hurriedly !

Corn chowder soup came on. I'd rather not say anything about this. It was too creamy and after all the heavy starters, given a choice, I'd have opted for a clear soup, something that would also cleanse my palate. The soup was equally heavy and it didn't quite taste of any particular flavor. Round 8 to me.

Next is Pasta. Yay, I've always loved pasta and was super glad that the veg pasta was not penne ! It was fusili, with fresh spinach, sundried tomatoes, assorted peppers and leeks. Pasta was undercooked (much below the al dente level, perhaps another 30 - 40 seconds in the boiling water, or even a minute may be?). Sundried tomatoes were too little in number and too bad Aswin ate the last piece ;-). Also appears they weren't actually sun dried. Oven roasted may be? Nothing to rave about - this pasta. Round 9 to me

It was already past 10, and we had still not started the main course. Pizza was yet to be served. :-)

The pizza landed on the table, looked delightful. We cut and served, wanting to taste each vegetable on the pizza - zucchini - check, eggplant - couldn't find one, peppers - check, onions - check, mozarella - check, white cream - check. An overall decent pizza, but I've had better ones. Round 10 - draw. 

It was time for the main course. Moroccan Panneer steak with spiced harissa and lemon cous cous- epic fail. Round 11 to me. Panneer was rubbery, and the lemon cous cous tasted like wheat upma. The sauce was decent and the only saving grace here was my favorite broccoli.

I was stuffed. Too many dishes for a tasting session. As I was drooling over the dessert menu, steamed rice with Thai Green curry arrived. I thought it was a little too lemon grassy, (and a few others on the table also did think so, but Doc thought it was perfect). Overall good one, rich flavors, slightly on the creamier side; nonetheless a good way to end a meal. Round 12 to Fusion 9

We were eagerly awaiting the dessert, having stuffed ourselves with all the aforementioned dishes. And it came, regally, on a platter. One bite and we realized the desserts were outsources from Sandy's. Yay ! The chef explained that they didn't have enough space in their kitchen to make these. Of course, the chocolate brownies were from their kitchen and were absolutely delicious. The cheesecake and German chocolate mousse from Sandy's - delightful as always. Round 13 to Fusion 9

On a Tuesday evening, this place was crowded. That should explain that the fact that the crowd loves this restaurant, despite being a tad expensive. A meal for 2 would cost anywhere between 1200 - 2000. I also come to understand that the non-veg dishes were done well. 

On the whole, a good experience and if they can work a bit on sourcing fresh ingredients, especially the leaves (lettuce and basil - which were terribly bitter), and perhaps removing paneer from the menu (I love paneer but it just doesn't fit in here), this would be a great place to dine. 

PS: I also think you should tune into Star world on weekdays from 9 pm so we could watch MasterChef Australia. We were told TLC is your standard channel ! 

PSS: As we wound up and were leaving, the aroma of sizzlers was undeniably dragging us back. Why, Oh why, did you not serve us some of that brilliant sizzler?

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The humble upma - Comfort food

As I started off from work, I read the last tweet from Raj Ganpath that said I am sure all of you are planning your dinner menu. What's on the workout platter? Wonder how he read my mind - I was delayed at work and the first thing on my mind was dinner plans. Should I order something, should I buy something on the way, perhaps make Maggi (R - I'm sure you are drooling at the mere mention of this word :D)

I had some left overs in the fridge, but I wanted to eat something tasty, spicy and something that doesn't require too much of an effort to cook.  Oh what I can say, but every time I think of the above options, upma is the only dish that appeals to me. 

I can eat upma plain without any side dish (provided it's made properly), or if I am a little too ambitious, I can pair it up with chutney, sambar, thokku, pickle or even potato curry ! 

Few things to be noted while making upma:

a. If possible, make it in the traditional iron kadai. That way you'll get the extra-dried and fried bits (kaandhal) that you can scrape off! (S loves this)

b. The ulutham paruppu (urad dal) and kadala paruppu (channa dal) are to be roasted nicely until golden brown. They should NEVER become black. 

c. Roast the rava (sooji) in the same oil as the onions, ginger, chillies and dal. There's no need to roast it separately.

d. Make sure you do not rub your eyes after chopping green chillies and ginger. (That's my trademark; rubbbing the eyes, that is)

e. Add enough hot water, to the roasted rava. How much is enough? Add water just until the rava is submerged. Not more not less.

f. Cook covered, for a few minutes.

g. Open the lid, and then cook on low heat for a few more minutes. 

h. Upma should be "non sticky" and "non-pasty". (As they say in tamil - பொல பொல னு இருக்கணும்)

i. Add a dash of lemon and garnish with coriander. 

Variations:

a. You may add vegetables and make it a vegetable kichdi. Note: Kichdi in South India means vegetable upma, not the gujju dal kichdi.

b. You may add a little turmeric powder to make it look pretty.

c. Instead of onion / green chillies / ginger, add sugar and orange color to make rava kesari :P

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