Oats Upma Recipe

Nowadays oats have become a cupboard staple in Indian homes. This trend includes me too - I always have a packet of oats at home for making quick and healthy breakfasts.

Oats: The New Cupboard Staple

Many people have heard of oats, their health benefits and have gone ahead and bought it into their homes. This has led to a frequently asked question on food forums that I am a part of - "What are some good recipes for oats?" 

Oats Upma

I am still discovering new recipes and ways in which to use oats in our Indian kitchens. 

Oats Upma

I have been thinking of making oats upma for quite some time now, but every time I think of upma, I think of the classic rawa (semolina) upma or masala upma, so this recipe has been on the back burner for quite some time. I woke up today morning thinking of the same classic upma, but plans changed when I found there was no rawa at home... and that is the story of how I finally tried my hand at making oats upma!

Oats Upma Finally!

Oats Upma Up Close

Oats Upma Recipe

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 tbsps oil (peanut or olive)

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2/ tsp asafoetida 

10-15 curry leaves

2 green chillies cut into 3-4 pieces

1 1/2 tbsp udad dal

2 medium onions finely chopped

1 cup oats

1 1/2 -2 cups hot water

Salt to taste

Lemon wedges and corriander leaves to garnish and serve

Method

Heat oil in a pan. Temper with mustard seeds and when they start to crackle add in the asafoetida, the curry leaves and the green chillies.

Lower the flame to medium high and add in the udad dal. Fry till it turns reddish brown. 

Now add in the chopped onions and saute till they turn translucent.

Next go in the oats. Keeping the flame medium high, roast the oats in the prepared tempering till they turn reddish and let off a nutty aroma.

Pour in the hot water till it covers the oats. Add in the salt too. Turn the flame to high and cook for about 3 minutes till the oats cook and the water evaporates.

Serve hot with a dash of lemon juice and some corriander leaves! 

Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Can I just say one thing about them?

Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Yes, just look at those beauties!

Despite being a Gujju, I am not a dhokla person.  I do not like the flavours of the ever popular 'khaata dhokla' which are the white ones made from fermented rice batter or 'khaman dhokla'  which are the yellow ones made from besan. To me, these humble and not-so-popular dhoklas win hands down! 

Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Ingredients

1 cup green moong dal (with skins)

1/2 inch ginger roughly sliced

1-2 green chillies cut into 4/5 pieces each

Salt to taste

Oil to cook

Method

Soak the moong dal overnight or for at least 6 hours. Remove excess water and grind with the green chillies, ginger and salt to make a thick batter that has the consistency of a dosa batter. This is the same batter as used to make Mag ni Dal na Pudla. 

To steam the dhoklas, take a deep thick large pan and put about 2 cups of water in the bottom and start heating it.  Grease a deep steel dish or thaali and pour the batter evenly in it till it is about 3 cms lower than the edge of the thali. Use a steel ring or an upturned steel bowl as a stand in it to put the thaali on. 

The deep pan for steaming with the steel ring as a stand

Place the dish with the batter on the ring as shown below.

The batter filled thali in the steaming pan

Cover with an upturned dish and let the batter steam and cook on a high flame for about 7 minutes and then on a lowered flame for 3 minutes.

Steaming the Dhoklas

The best way to check the doneness of dhoklas is to put a knife edge into it. If it comes out clean, then your dhoklas are ready to eat. Cut into squares of about 2 inches and serve hot with your favourite chutney or ketchup.

Dal Ke Parathe

We Indians always cook in additional quantities. The basic idea behind this is that if an unexpected guest ever comes over (which is quite common in our culture), there should always be something to offer to them. It is okay if there are leftovers, but food should never fall short for anyone. With this tradition comes generations of great food recycling ideas. Mothers have some of the best of these ideas! Dal ke parathe is one of them.

Since this trick to use up leftover dal is as traditional as it can get, the proportions presented just as traditionally - as guesstimates from experience.

Leftover Panchmel Dal

I had some leftover Marwari Panchmel Dal from last night's dinner that I used for this. The recipe for the Panchmel Dal can be found here. 

There are two more ingredients needed to make the parathas - whole wheat flour and salt. 

The transforming ingredients - flour and salt

A good estimate would be to use 1 1/2 cups of flour for every cup of dal.

I poured the dal in the flour and added some salt to it. Before adding any water, I used my fingers to thoroughly mix in the dry ingredients together. 

Dal and flour to knead the dough

You can use a little water (I used about 1 tbsp) for easier kneading of the dough. Once it has been knead, you can let it rest for 10 minutes. You will be able to see lovely flecks of the dal interspersed in the dough!

Resting the prepared dough

After the dough has rested, roll out parathas and roast them with a little oil on the tawa.

Roasting the parathas on the tawa

These are best had with a dollop of butter melting all over it!

Dal ke parathe with a dollop of butter

Thalipeeth

Thalipeeth, sigh. The name itself brings water in my mouth. There is a simple reason why... the flavours of the flour! The flour used for thalipeeth is called 'thalipeethachi bhajni'. The word 'bhajne' in Marathi literally translates to roast. Yes, you guessed it right, the flour is made by slow roasting rice, pulses such as chana dal, moong dal, urad dal, bajri, jowari, nachni and spices such as corriander seeds and cumin seeds individually and then grinding them together into a fragrant flour. This fragrance is also a great way to determine whether the flour is fresh or not.


Thalipeeth is the flatbread made by flattening the dough prepared from the bhajni on a tawa using your fingers and then shallow frying it to give a crispy, golden brown flatbread. This beauty of a dish is crisp on the outside and a little soft on the inside. It has the flavours of slow roasted flours, onions and corriander. It makes for a great snack or main course. Thalipeeth is best enjoyed right off the tawa with loni (white butter).

Thalipeeth hot off the tawa... now where is that loni?

Ingredients

1 cup thalipeeth bhajni
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 tsps red chilly powder
10-15 corriander leaves finely chopped
Salt to taste
Water to knead the dough
Oil to shallow fry the thalipeeth

Method

Mix with your fingers a dry mixture of the bhajni, onion, red chilly powder, corriander leaves and salt. Add a little water and knead a firm dough. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Make balls of around 2 inch diameter with the dough.

On a cold tawa, put some oil and using your fingers flatten the ball from inside to the edges. Heat the tawa and shallow fry the thalipeeth till golden brown on both sides. It is best done on a medium flame, though it takes a little time, you will get perfect crispiness on both sides and the inside will also be cooked properly.

Eat it with white butter (loni).

Apple Cinnamon Oats

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. But it can get too boring to eat the same apple in the same way everyday. It has happened to me so I tried my hand at creating something new from the same old apple. And voila! I thought why not use apple with its best spice partner cinnamon in my morning oats? The dish turned out to be good, so here I am sharing away the recipe.

Apple Cinnamon Oats

Apple Cinnamon Oats

Ingredients

3 tsps plain oats
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 apple cut into thin small slices or grated
1 pinch cinnamon powder
2 tsps sugar (or more if you prefer)

Method:

Put the milk and oats to heat in a deep pan. Add in the apple pieces and sugar. Let the milk come to a boil.

Lower the flame and let the oats cook in the milk. About a couple of minutes later add in the cinnamon powder. The oats will take another minute on the lowered flame after that to cook through.

Serve garnished with a slice of apple. Enjoy a healthy and filling breakfast!

Mag ni Dal na Pudla

Based on the response to my post from day before yesterday on Soam, it seems that Gujarati food is quite popular among people! Here is a simple, tasty recipe straight from a Gujarati kitchen: Mag ni dal na pudla. Mag ni dal na pudla have only 4 ingredients in it and can be eaten by Jains as they have no onions or garlic. They are a versatile dish tat make for a very tasty breakfast, afternoon snack or a filling main course too! As they are made of green mung dal with the skins still on, they are very nutritious and a great source of protein and fibre.

There are versions of this recipe from different regions of India. In Marwari kitchens and on Calcutta streets (because of the Marwari influence in Calcutta) they are called moong dal cheelas. Moong dal cheelas, served smeared with different types of chutneys like garlic chutney and corriander chutney, are quite a popular street snack in Calcutta (after puchkas, of course!). In  Andhra kitchens there is Pesarratu dosa which is served for breakfast with upma. Pesarratu dosa however is made with whole moong and have chopped garlic and onion in it, whereas Mag ni Dal na Pudla are made with moong dal and have no onions or garlic. 

Mag ni Dal na Pudla

Mag ni Dal na Pudla

Ingredients

1 cup green moong dal (with skins)

1/2 inch ginger roughly sliced

1-2 green chillies cut into 4/5 pieces each

Salt to taste

Oil to cook

Method

Soak moong dal overnight (about 6 hours at least). Drain all additional water from the dal. 

In a blender, blend the soaked dal with the roughly sliced ginger and green chilly pieces and salt. Add a little bit of water (about 2-3 tbsps) so that it forms a smooth batter of dosa batter consistency. 

On a tawa, heat oil, spread the batter using a ladle such that it forms a crepe thicker than a dosa. Cook till it turns golden brown and easily comes off the tawa. Flip over and cook till it turns crispy on the other side.

Serve with your favourite chutney or ketchup or enjoy just as it is!

Golden brown and crispy: Mag ni Dal na Pudla!

Breakfast Challenge Week 5: Bread Butter Jam (A Cool Tip)

Hahaha! Yes, that was my breakfast today. Today, was one of those lazy mornings that I was not up to letting my alarm wake me up. So I used whatever 5 minutes I had left over from my 15 minutes to quickly toast two pieces of bread, slather them with butter and mango jam and eat it with great relish.

A cool tip I have learnt and can share is when applying butter, make sure you apply it on the hot toast. Nothing absorbs butter like hot toast... the effect is simply awesome!

Breakfast Challenge Week 4: Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie

I have heard a lot about breakfast smoothies and seen a lot of recipes. But I have never tried them really.

Smoothies are fruits and flavours, and sometimes oats, blended in milk to make a thick shake. There are many variants of smoothies too. There can be made with fruits and yoghurt blended together with honey for a low calorie version of the smoothie. They are quick and easy to make, nutritious with milk, fruits and oats, delicious and very filling. Today, I tried making a smoothie for the first time with milk, bananas, chocolate and oats. One glass of it in the morning at around 8 a.m. had me going till 12 noon.  

Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie

Preparation Time: 7 minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsps oats

1 large banana/ 2 small bananas

150 ml milk

1 tbsp drinking chocolate

1 tsp sugar or 2 tsps honey (optional for sweetness)

3 cubes ice (optional)

Method

Soak the oats for about 5 minutes. Chop the banana. In a blender, blend together all the smoothie ingredients. Add ice if you wish; the milk I had was using was cold, so I did not need it.

Pour this rich thick shake into a tall glass or a go-cup and enjoy! 

Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie enjoyed in the balcony!

Breakfast Challenge Week 3: Anna's Tomato Cheese Sandwiches

I have been getting pretty nostalgic about Xavier's days for the last couple of days. Today morning when it was raining, I was reminded of (again) of rains in the first quad, where the water would flow from the terrace via the gargoyle's mouths to the ground and make a very interesting sound on the stone basketball court of the first quad. Sigh. Xavier's.

And that brought me to memories of breakfasts at Xavier's! Especially those at Anna's mess! One of my regular favourites were his tomato-cheese sandwiches. So on that nostalgic note, today's breakfast was anna's simple and filling tomato-cheese sandwich. I can say great things about how the sandwich tastes, like how the acidity of the tomatoes, balances the saltiness and richness of the cheese and the sprinkle of pepper and salt just add an edge of spice to it. But no, to me the taste is as simple as those times were: it's the taste of mornings of Xavier's!

Anna's Tomato Cheese Sandwich

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Ingredients

2 slices of bread
1 cheese slice/ 1/2 cheese cube/ 1 tsp cheese spread
1 tomato sliced into 4 round slices
Sprinkle of black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Method

Toast the bread if you wish. It will add about 3-4 minutes to the preparation time. Spread the cheese spread over one slice or put the cheese cube slices/ cheese slice on it. Add the tomato slices. Sprinkle the salt and pepper on these slices. Close the sandwich with the other bread slice and enjoy the sandwich!

The taste of Xavier's mornings!

Breakfast Challenge Week 2: Masala Upma

Today is one of those rare mid-week 'holidays' for me. The only advantage of this 'holiday' is that I do not have to travel and so I had some more time to prepare a breakfast and savour it. I have still put in an eight hour work day for projects and assignments.

 My breakfast menu for today was a twist on the upma I make almost frequently - masala upma. I have had this recipe in my head for some time and I tried it out today. It has had great results and so I am sharing it with you.

Masala Upma

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsps oil

2 tsps mustard seeds

1 tsp asafoetida powder

10-15 curry leaves

2 tbsps white udad dal

1 medium onion finely chopped

2-2 tsps rasam powder

1 cup rawa

3 cups water

3-4 tbsps lemon juice

Salt to taste

Method

Put the 3 cups of water to boil.

In another pan, heat the oil and temper with mustard seeds. Add  in the asafoetida powder and the curry leaves. When the curry leaves crackle add the udad dal and fry till it turns reddish. 

To this add in the onions and saute them for 1-2 minutes till they start to release the oil. Add in the rasam powder and cook it in the mixture till it's aroma releases a couple of minutes later. Add in the rawa and roast it well.  

Add the boiled water and salt and let the rawa mixture cook in it for 5-7 minutes till the rawa cooks through and the mixture has the consistency of thick porridge. 

Serve hot with lemon juice. This goes very well with filter coffee!

Masala upma in all its glory!

My leisurely breakfast today morning: masala upma and filter coffee. 

For the days when I have a time crunch, I can prepare the dry upma mixture one evening before and store it in the refrigerator after it cools down to room temperature.  The next morning I would simply have to boil water (3-4 minutes) and cook the upma in it (about 7 minutes) and I will have hot upma ready in about 10 minutes!  

Breakfast Challenge Week 1: Masala Oats

I have started skipping breakfasts again. My schedule has started getting extremely jam-packed again and I stay up late at nights to complete my work. So I end up choosing the extra half an hour of sleep in the mornings over making and eating breakfast. Hence, I have made a deal with myself. I am going to divide up the half hour into 15 minutes of additional sleep time and 15 minutes of breakfast time. I will make dishes for breakfast that are healthy, filling and take only 7-8 minutes to prepare, so I can eat them at a decent pace too. And if they take more than 10 minutes to prepare, then I should have enough time to pack them up in a tiffin and eat them on my hour long commute (thank you Mumbai city for that!) Needless to add that since I am giving up 15 minutes of precious sleep for cooking them, these recipes better be delicious! This of course has the added advantage of giving me more blog posts to write!

In the Breakfast Challenge Week, the first recipe is Masala Oats. As we all have often heard, oats have a lot of health benefits and make for a hearty and healthy breakfast. Yes, there are a variety of flavoured (sweet and savoury) oats available now in the market. I have tried and liked some of them but I do not want to eat them much over the long run as they do have preservatives. For me, they are okay once in a while when you are in a real crunch, but not an option I would go for everyday.

Masala Oats

Preparation Time: 6 minutes

Ingredients

2 tsps oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsps oats
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilly powder
1 1/2 tsps Kitchen King masala or garam masala
1 1/2 cups water
Salt to taste
1-2 tsps tomato ketchup (optional)

Method

In a pan heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.

When they start to turn red, add in the oats, and the turmeric powder, chilly powder and Kitchen King/ garam masala. Dry roast them for about 30-40 seconds till the masalas release their aromas.

Add in the water and salt. Bring to one boil. Then lower the flame and simmer for about 3-3 1/2 minutes till the oats are cooked and it has a porridge-like thick soupy consistency.

Serve in a bowl. Add in the ketchup if you wish to have a tangy flavour (this kind of reminds me of eating Maggi noodles with ketchup, especially when it is made with the Kitchen King masala)

Enjoy your quickly prepared breakfast!

Healthy, hearty and quick: just how I like my breakfasts!

The Dals Week 4: Upma

When I started the dals week, I was thinking about the versatility of dals. They not just as used to make dal for dipping rotis or having rice with, they are also used to add texture to pliant vegetables and flavor to bland ingredients like rawa in upma.

So coming to upma, I recently tried the recipe using udad dal in it about two months back and have transformed from a ­I-HATE-upma  to a I-LOVE-upma person! I have had more upma in these last two months than I have even bothered to look at in my entire life. I have found the balance of flavours in it that I enjoy, and I really am enjoying it!

Upmaaaaaaaaaaa!

Upma

Ingredients

2 tbsps oil

2 tsps mustard seeds

1 tsp asafoetida powder

10-15 curry leaves

2 tbsps white udad dal

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 cup rawa

3 cups water

3-4 tbsps lemon juice

Salt to taste

Finely chopped corriander to garnish

Method

Heat a pan and dry roast the rawa on a low flame for 7-8 minutes till it starts turning reddish and releases its aroma. Remove and keep aside.

On the other side, heat the water till it comes to a boiling point and let it be.

In the same pan, heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds and the asafoetida powder. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the curry leaves and let them crackle.

Now, lower the flame and add in the white udad dal. Fry in the oil on the low flame till its starts turning red.

Add in the finely chopped onion and fry till it softens and starts losing its raw aroma. Now add in the roasted rawa and sauté it for 2-3 minutes.

Pour the hot water into the rawa mixture and add the salt. Bring to a boil. Then on a medium high flame let the rawa mixture cook in the water till it starts to thicken and achieve a porridge-like consistency. You can let it continue cooking for a bit more if you like it thicker.

Lastly, add in the lemon juice.

Serve hot topped with fresh corriander or sev and chopped onion. Don’t wait, dig in!

Upma with sev and chopped onion

P.S. You can add in more vegetables such as carrots, beans or peas. Just parboil them and add them in about 2 minutes before your desired consistency is achieved so as to avoid overcooking of the vegetables.

Salli Par Eendu: With Love from Parsis

My crazy bawi! How I miss her since her last blink-and-you-miss-it visit from New Zealand last week. She was here to visit her sick grandmother and I was (right there!) with her, all the time I could spare from classes and tests (why?! why?! why?!)... the only thing we managed to cook together in this entire trip.. due spending large amounts of time at the hospital, a non-functional kitchen (where we had to even borrow cooking oil!) and her very short trip with long list of things she HAD to eat (Noorani's included!) was our favourite simple one-dish meal Salli Par Eendu (eggs on potato sticks).

This is a Parsi-style omlette is simple to cook, tasty and a great filler (passes all criteria I would have for dishes to make when I need comfort food!) Of course we devoured it so fast that I did not manage to (ok..ok... did not bother to as I was too busy eating it) click pictures but the next time I make it I will surely put up pictures!

Salli Par Eendu

Ingredients (for 2- 3 people)

50 gms potato salli (for every 3 eggs) - salli is thin fried potato sticks available at any stores that keeps farsan
1 tbsp oil
1 tomato sliced in thin round slices
1 green chilly finely chopped
10-15 leaves of corriander finely chopped
3 eggs
salt to taste

Method

In a non-stick deep pan (used for shallow frying) heat some oil and layer the salli across the pan. Sprinkle some water across the pan (about 1/4th of a cup across the pan). Then, layer the tomato slices on the salli and cover and steam the salli and tomatoes for about 5 minutes till the salli and tomatoes soften.

While the salli is steaming, break the eggs in a bowl, add the green chillies and the salt and beat it till it gets a little fluffy. Once the salli and tomato are steamed, pour the egg mixture around the pan so  that it forms an even layer around the salli. Garnish with the chopped corriander on top and cover and cook till the eggs are done. This takes about 3-4 minutes when covered.

Delicious salli par eendu is ready to be served hot!

Breakfast Times

I pamper myself with my breakfasts. Surprised? Read on.....

During school days, 'breakfast' was a quickly gulped down, albeit filling glass of milk before hurrying to catch the school bus. The only time we (as a family) actually sat down and demarcated the first meal of the day as breakfast was on Sundays when grannie whipped up, either traditional breakfast dishes (poha, upma, idli) or more often than not, impromptu concoctions (toasted bread , bread, butter and tomato sandwiches with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, chips and dips).

It was when I was at Xavier's that my travelling distance and time increased, and I realised the value of having a healthy (or at least a hearty) breakfast. To motivate myself, I made breakfast time, "me" quality time and pampered myself no end!

Breakfast times at Xavier's had me spoilt for choice, be it anna's (the mess owner's) Toast and baked beans, or maggie with cheese and garlic, or Raju's quickly dished out hot soft omlettes with fresh pav with oddles of cheese or cutlet pavs with a the sour and sweet tomato ketchup (those were still my no need to control weight days....sigh!) or piping hot steamed idlis with a spicy tangy sambhar (it was me and my best friend's own version of sore throat remedy) to delightful dosas served with a dollop of butter that you could see melting till you carried your plate to your seat. All of these would be gulped down with a generous helping of  a double cappucino (the Nestle machine one which was somehow much better than what we got at Somaiya or get in the office vending machine), and the company of a good book for lit class or just CD and our chitter chatter.

For the past three years, I haven't really had much of choices as far as breakfast is concerned (you see I passed out of Xavier's) yet my breakfast time continues to be me times (unless I eat at my desk - but its still a meal I don't miss). Especially on weekends, when I make the effort to make myself a nice breakfast with a great cup of tea and spend time on it either with a sitcom or a great book.  Its the best way for me to start my weekend!

And then of course there are special occassions breakfasts (I come from a Gujju family after all!) with hot crisp neutral tasting fafdas with a spicy chutney that makes you just want to grab the next item on the menu, a sweet hot juicy jalebi! I can't wait for those occassions!

So the start of a new blog with a post about the first meal of the day that leads to great starts!