Upma for the Indian Mother's Soul

A popular breakfast dish all over India, Upma flaunts its versatility by also serving as a hearty snack, savory side dish, quick lunch, or light dinner.  I love breakfast that can be eaten for dinner!  Originally from South India (my son is half Telugu), this dish, pronounced "oohp-maa," varies across the regions on vegetables and flavors.  My mom did not prepare Upma when I was young, perhaps because we were such carnivores in our house.  My mom started cooking it in the last few years, though.  My sister-in-law's all-vegetarian family makes it regularly and so do my Southie in-laws.  Now, it's a staple in our household because of the straightforward recipe and healthy ingredients.  Much like Sheero, Upma has become a comfort food that reminds me of when my mom was helping me after my son was born.   It has become another cherished family recipe.

My version of Upma is a lunch dish that is soft, fluffy, and rich and made of roasted rava mixed with onions, vegetables, spices, and cashews.  Choose vegetables according to your taste.  In my lazy mommy version, I add the frozen mixed vegetable packages found in the grocery store to simplify the cleaning/cutting/dicing step.  In contrast, my husband's family eats it plain and with a smoother, more liquid consistency.

Upma Recipe

Ingredients :

• 1 cup Rava or Sooji from the Indian store --substitute cream of wheat from supermarket
• 3 tbsp cooking oil, i.e. canola oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 - 3 cup hot water (pre-heated in microwave)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 or 2 medium onions, chopped
• vegetable mix - peas, carrots, green beans, corn 
• pinch of turmeric powder
• 3/4 medium chopped green chilies
• 1/2 tsp crushed ginger paste
  
• 1-2 tbsp yogurt (optional)
• salt to taste
  
• 1/2 cup chopped cashews (for protein)
• fresh chopped cilantro or coriander to garnish
• lemon juice to taste

Preparation :

1. Heat  oil and butter in a pan over medium flame. 
2. When oil is slightly hot, add cumin and mustard seeds.  Add onions when the seeds begin to pop and fry until onions become translucent and soft.
3. Lightly roast rava about 10-15 minutes until it just begins to turn pink.  Stir constantly to prevent lumps.
4. Stir in hot water and salt.  Then, add mixed vegetables that have already been cooked for 5 minutes in the microwave.  Bring to boil.
5. Add turmeric powder, ginger paste, and green chillies.
6. Stir in yogurt according to your taste.
7. The upma is done when all the water is absorbed by the rava.
8. Garnish with cashews, chopped cilantro leaves, and lemon juice.  Turn off stove and close lid.
9. Serve hot.

Chicken Curry for the Indian Mother's Soul

I enjoy cooking. I first dabbled in the kitchen my senior year at Brown when I went off meal plan along with my college roommate P. She and I mostly made some sort of stir fry or some sort of pasta dish EVERY day. Every so often we'd cook with our roommate M., who had far superior culinary skills and we'd learn a thing or two. I whip up her homemade cherry cobbler when I want to look like I know something about baking.

Once I graduated, I moved to Greenwich, CT and met my roommate A. who also loved to cook. She and I would spend countless wasted hours at work printing every recipe available on the web it seemed. Our first night in our apartment, we made lobster, which remains a traumatic experience to this day. I'll just say that our pots were not big enough for the lobsters and one of them struggled as we dropped him in. When we moved a year later, we went to the grocery store and bought the prepared lobster as our final meal in the apartment. Mmmm, lobster that someone else has prepared for you is the best.

That one bad episode aside, cooking is a great respite from work life. When I moved to San Francisco, I was on my own for the first time and got into the habit of cooking almost every night. I picked at least one new recipe a week to learn something and vary my diet. I loved it. Unfortunately, when I moved to NYC, I completely got out of the habit of cooking. Take out is so cheap and easy and the city offers so many fantastic restaurants that the time commitment of cooking and the expense of buying groceries just wasn't worth it.

But, now I am a mom and want to ensure that my family eats healthy so I'm back to cooking almost every night. Even while handling a 4-month old who requires constant attention and amusement, cooking is once again a relaxing and happy part of my day.

When I moved to San Francisco, my mom wrote out many of her Indian recipes for me (although I still had to call her every 10 minutes when I was following them for some reason). I have always meant to type up her chicken curry recipe, so I would have it forever, especially now that the original notebook page is yellowed from the turmeric and falling apart from the oil spills.

Chicken Curry or Biriyani

1. Cut the chicken (breast and legs) into small pieces. Wash the chicken with warm water 3 to 4 times and drain.
2. Grind ginger and garlic (2 tsp each). Add 1 tsp each of red hot pepper and turmeric powder and 3 tbls oil. Mix all these ingredients with salt to taste.
3. Add the chicken and mix well. Set aside.
4. Put a pan on the stove with medium heat. Add oil (about 1/4 cup) and heat. Put in whole black pepper (2 or 3), 2 to 3 cloves and small cinnamon stick. Let it heat for a while before adding chopped (1 whole) onion.
5. Add the spiced chicken pieces and stir and cook until the chicken is well done.
6. Add 2 diced potatoes and cook again. When potatoes are done, add the tomato sauce and cook again. Add 1 tsp garam masala and then turn turn off the heat.
7. Mix with the cooked rice if needed (for biriyani)