Upma

Dry-roasted semolina made into a thick porridge, and the name is salt plus meal.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee).

Ingredients

• 200 g coarse semolina
• 3 tablespoons ghee
• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon urad dal
• 1 tablespoon chana dal
• 20 curry leaves
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 green chillies, slit
• a 3 cm piece of ginger, grated
• 600 ml water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• a handful of coriander leaves
• 1 lime

Method

1. DRY-ROASTED SEMOLINA MADE INTO A THICK PORRIDGE, AND THE NAME IS SALT PLUS MEAL. Its article's first sentence is the definition -- a DISH OF THICK PORRIDGE FROM DRY-ROASTED SEMOLINA OR COARSE RICE FLOUR -- and the etymology confirms how plain the thing is meant to be: the names DERIVE FROM THE COMBINATIONS OF THE WORD UPPU, MEANING SALT IN DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES AND MAVU MEANING GROUND GRAIN MEAL. Salted meal. Everything else in it is an addition the article calls optional.
2. SO THE ROASTING IS THE STEP THAT CANNOT BE SKIPPED. Dry pan, no fat, medium heat, six or seven minutes, moving constantly, until the semolina smells nutty and a few grains have taken colour. Unroasted rava makes paste rather than porridge, and no amount of care with the water fixes it.
3. LET IT COOL BEFORE IT MEETS ANYTHING WET. Roasted and cooled, it can be tipped into boiling water and stirred without lumping.
4. TEMPER IN THIS ORDER: MUSTARD, THEN THE TWO DALS, THEN THE LEAVES. Mustard seeds until they pop, urad and chana dal until golden, then curry leaves for a few seconds. The dals stay slightly crunchy in the finished porridge, which is half the pleasure of it.
5. ONION, CHILLI AND GINGER UNTIL THE ONION IS SOFT, NOT BROWN. Five minutes. Browned onion makes this taste like a different dish.
6. THREE PARTS WATER TO ONE OF SEMOLINA, AND IT GOES IN BOILING. Six hundred millilitres to two hundred grams. Salt in the water, not after.
7. RAIN THE SEMOLINA IN WITH ONE HAND AND STIR WITH THE OTHER. It thickens in under a minute. Tipped in all at once it sets in lumps that cannot be broken up afterwards.
8. COVER IT, LOWEST HEAT, FIVE MINUTES, THEN STIR IN GHEE AND LIME. It should be thick enough to hold a spoon upright and still soft. The lime is not in its article and belongs there anyway: a plate of salted semolina needs the acid.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes