Variations on the upma

Few self respecting TamBrahms would not know how to make upma. The recipe is so simple, it screams for experimentation.

Over the years, I have created and experienced variations on the theme. Here are a few.

Roasting the Rawa

Instead of roasting it in a pan, use a large square piece of cotton and set the rawa in the center. You may choose to add some aromatics, like a bunch of rosemary into the rawa.
Bring all four corners of the cloth together, twist the loose end and tie it into a knot. Drop this next to a slow burning fire. Its important that the cloth with the rawa never touches the fire. Keep for about 3 – 4 hours, and the use the rawa for making upma.


The water to stir the rawa in.

Many years ago, my brother created this variation on a hot Saturday morning. Those days my sister-in-law would cook at least 2 different meals every day of the week. On weekends she would not cook, and we finished all the leftovers, which she kept in the fridge. Kind of a weekly culinary review. On Sunday night, we took her out to dinner and then the cycle would continue next week. One Saturday morning my brother decided to make upma for breakfast. As he was checking through the fridge for ingredients, he saw a pot full of rasam. Instead of water, he used the rasam to stir the rawa in and made culinary history.

Another time, I had to cook lunch for someone I was excited about at that time. She was also bringing a bunch of friends over and I had to show some semblance of skill. So I roasted the rawa, until it was almost brown. This ensured the upma would not become a coagulated mass, and the grains of rawa would separate themselves after cooking. I used home made beef stock to stir the rawa in. Earlier I had heated vegetable oil with lard, dropped sesame seeds into it, then added the beef stock. When the stock began to boil, I added the rawa, stirred constantly and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Once done, I transferred the upma into a large flat earthware, and set it on a sigdi (a fire hazard, but you have to be stupid sometimes) to keep warm. I had roasted green, yellow and red peppers on the sigdi earlier, on which I drizzled fresh olive oil. This was the side to the Indian couscous. I then paired the meal with a warm bottle of dry Riesling.

An Old Favorite...

Rama Naik Lunch Home, outside Matunga Station, Central Rlwy, Bombay. 

Eat a thali, or better yet opt for the unlimited meal on banana leaf. Its a typical TamBrahm meal, with 2 vegetables, one raita and pickle. One starts with eating puri, then comes the rice attack. Sambhar and rice. Rasam and rice. Dessert, optional. Buttermilk and rice. A word from the wise. While eating on a banana leaf, eat slowly. As the meal progresses, the oils from the leaf releases an aroma , without affecting the flavor of the food. The way to tell a good banana leaf is that, it should be releasing its flavors even while eating the last course, buttermilk and rice.

After finishing the repast,rinse your hands the wash basin outside. Pat dry lightly on anything without an odor. Wait for a minute for the hand to warm up, and then smell it. If heaven had an aroma, that would be it.

A recipe for the road

When one is travelling, living in friend's homes, living off a suitcase for more than a month, it becomes necessary to become creative with food. Here's a breakfast/lunch/snack/dinner recipe that has always worked for me.

What you will need:

Bread:
Half an English muffin, fresh. If you cannot find a muffin, a paratha/lavash/old focaccia/half buttermilk biscuits will do. Basically a piece of flat bread. I dont recommend white bread, since I dont like it. I like mine toasted, sometimes in the toaster other times on a hot pan with butter, if available.

Flavoring:
Again this varies depending on whose fridge I am raiding.

I am usually looking for cilantros, a pod of garlic, some peanuts, and sugar to grind into a paste.
Variations include crushing basil and garlic into a spoon of plain mayonaisse, crushing one mint leaf into a half a spoon of avakkai pickle, adding green chilli sauce and mint to peanut butter, mixing Schezwan pepper and black-salt with Dijon mustard....

Spread the flavoring lightly over the bread and let it sit. Keep aside some flavoring to be used later.

The vegetables:
Remember, you are raiding a fridge, so there is always some precooked veggies available. Its either sitting in a container steamed and ready to use, or its in a prepared dish floating in gravy. Pick the vegetables out of the gravy and set it on top of the bread. You might have to mash the vegetables a bit to get them to sit on the bread.

Set the vegetables on top of the flavored bread

The meat of it.:
One egg. Preferably farm fresh, duck eggs. Or farm fresh chicken egg. Or a plain vanilla egg.
Heat a ladle that is smaller than the piece of bread. Break the egg into the hot ladle and wait untile the white is cooked and a thin film forms over the yolk.

Drop the egg on top of the vegetables on the the flavored bread. Drizzle some flavoring over the egg.

The toppings and sides:
Aha. Some friends always have caviar sitting in the fridge, but I have not had the heart to use the caviar. Yet. Salmon roe, with its distinctive texture and saltiness works fine. A dollop of sour cream and chives gives the sandwich a sensous texture. Bunch of steamed veggies on side makes it a large full meal. A glass of tonic water, into which a spoon of khus syrup has been mixed, gives the sandwich a surreal accompanyment...

And there's only one way to eat this Sandwich. Messily.