Veg Biryani and Cabbage, Onion, Tomato Upma

Lately, I've been feeling a bit lazy to cook anything for myself and also feeling a bit stifled with having so few fresh ingredients to work with. I'm waiting for this sunday when I can buy a truckload from the farmer's market. So, last night, I just ordered a Vegetable Dum Biryani. It came with a yoghurt raita, which I chucked away. My brother's always amazed why someone would pay Rs. 120 for a vegetarian biryani, when for only Rs. 10 more you get the chicken version. Ten rupees - that's the worth of a chicken's life?!

And this morning, for breakfast, a cabbage, onion and tomato upma, along with my coffee-coconut milk concoction.

Cabbage, Onion, Tomato Upma

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup semolina or an upma premix
• 1 cup chopped cabbage
• 1 tomato
• 1 onion
• 1 cup of water
• Teaspoon of olive oil
• Half a lime
• Handful of coriander

To make:

• In a pan, gently dry roast the semolina/upma premix for a minute or two.
• Add water to the roasted semolina and cook for approximately 7-10 minutes.
• Once the semolina is cooked, add the chopped up vegetables and stir for 1-2 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately with lashings of lime juice.

Pepper and Tomato Upma

My mom, seeing that I hadn't eaten anything till 11 am today, was nice enough to make a batch of upma for me today. However, I did supervise the cooking - since she usually loves to cook stuff for much longer than I would like, and does not put in quite as much veggies as I would like. I added green peppers, carrots, and tomatoes this time.

Pepper and Tomato Upma


Ingredients:

• 1 cup semolina or an upma premix
• 1 green pepper
• 1 carrot
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 onion
• 1 large green chilli
• 1/2 cup of water
• Teaspoon of vegetable oil
• Half a lime

To make:

• In a pan, gently dry roast the semolina/upma premix for a minute or two.
• In another pot, heat the oil and saute the onions and the chilli.
• Add the roasted semolina and cook for approximately 7-10 minutes.
• Once the semolina is cooked, turn off the gas and add the chopped up vegetables.
• Serve immediately with lashings of lime juice.

Broccoli, Carrot, and Pepper Upma

A favorite breakfast dish of mine is Upma, or savory semolina porridge. I generally spike it with tons of veggies I am dying to get rid of. In this case, some broccoli, carrot and green pepper.

Broccoli, Carrot, and Pepper Upma

Ingredients:

• 1 cup semolina or an upma premix
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1/2 cup carrot
• 1/2 cup green peppers
• 1 large green chilli
• 1 cup of water
• Teaspoon of vegetable oil
• Half a lime

To make:

• In a pot, gently dry roast the semolina/upma premix for a minute or two.
• Add oil and water to the roasted semolina and cook for approximately 7-10 minutes.
• Once the semolina is cooked, add the chopped up vegetables.
• Stir for half a minute and turn off the gas.
• Serve immediately with lashings of lime juice.
  
  

Hummus and Veggie Patties

There's a quiet nip in the air over the last few days - well, you can't really complain that it is cold in Mumbai! So, I am definitely craving a bit of heat from my food. There's always alcohol to do that job for me - but you can't go around boozy all day!

...And my pot of hummus (quite literally - it came in an earthen pot) needed intensive attention before its demise this Sunday (at least that's what the hummous lady at the Farmer's market told me last Sunday). Hence, the hummus, which is already boiled and ground up, was the perfect replacement for other lentils I might have used. Mine contained the usual chick pea as well as sesame and pumpkin seeds.

I made the mistake of adding some water in the blender which left the patties a bit on the soggy side. So, definitely don't do that! And I had mine with normal white (yes, processed) bread grilled with a lettuce leaf and two patties in each sandwich.

Hummus and Veggie Patties

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons of hummus
• About 1 - 1/2 cups of zuccini, peppers, carrots
• 2 whole jalepeno peppers
• 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder
• A pinch of tumeric powder
• About a cup of semolina

To make:

• Chop up the zuccini, peppers and carrots roughly.
• Toss the veggies into a blender and blitz the life out of them.
• Add the hummus, jalepenos and the spices. Mix again.
• Form patties of your desired shape.
• Coat the patties uniformly in the semolina (or bread crumbs, if you have them).
• Deep fry till a golden brown.
• Enjoy with a mint chutney or Tabasco.

Serving: Will make about 6 patties.

Vegetable Upma

Upma, or savoury semolina porridge, is a staple of any self respecting South Indian household. This tasty breakfast staple is best eaten piping hot and can be endlessly adapted depending on what you add to the basic semolina mix. Carrots and peas are the most commonly used veggies used to complement this dish.

We also have handy upma pre-mixes available - most famously by MTR, which is what I had and happily used this morning. I was originally going to make a ragi (millet) based upma, but then I realized I hadn't soaked my ragi overnight, so, screw that!

The pre-mix is essentially semolina with all the seasonings - so all you have to do is pour the mix into boiling water. In case you cannot find such a pre-mix, go to the bottom of the post for the full version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup upma pre-mix
• 1 1/2 cups of assorted vegetables (I used carrots, onions, peppers, cabbage, tomato)
• 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
• Coriander to garnish

To make:

Bring two cups of water to a boil in a pot.

Drop the cup of pre-mix semolina into the water and let it cook for 5-7 minutes.

Be sure to stir regularly to ensure no lumps are formed.

When the semolina looks cooked (no more than 7 minutes, usually), turn off the gas.

Add the vegetables. Stir thoroughly.

Garnish with the coriander and squeeze a quarter of a lime over.

Serve immediately.

If you do not or cannot find an upma premix packet, use plain semolina and add the following in addition to the ingredients outlined above:

• 2 green chillies slit lengthwise
• 1" piece of ginger grated
• 3/4 tsp mustard seeds
• Pinch of turmeric powder 

Savoury Semolina, Zuccini and Carrot Cake

Inspired by Anjum Anand's recipe posted on Arundati's blog, I decided it was time I used my oven for something other than heating cold stuff up. I've been way too hesitant to give baking a try - mainly because I hate the sensation of my hands in that wet, gooey dough. But this recipe doesn't call for any dough to be made. There is no flour or egg involved - Semolina (sooji) is used as the base.

The recipe does call for yoghurt, which I promptly omitted and added olive oil instead. Also, I added zuccini and carrots to my cake mix.

When I did try this yesterday, I couldnt find any baking soda/powder. I figured, how important could this one teaspoon of baking soda be, after all?! Ok, so my cake would take longer to bake, big deal! Turns out, its quite important. The bake time calls for 30-40 minutes of baking, but mine took about 1.15 hrs. Half way through the bake process, my brother came in and promptly showed me where the baking powder is kept at home. So, I added some baking powder on top of my still-baking cake. I still didnt get a nice brown "cakey" crust, and I added more turmeric than I would have liked, but it was still nice to eat when warm.

Savoury Semolina Vegetable Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup semolina
• 1 cup tepid water
• 2-3 tablespoons of olive/vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1 cup grated zuccini
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 tsp each chilli powder, turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

For tempering:

• 1 tbsp oilive oil
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds

To make:

Mix all ingredients except the baking soda and the tempering ingredients.

Heat a small fry pan and add the tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard and cumin seeds. Turn off the flame when the seeds start to crackle.

Pour this mixture into your cake batter. Mix well.

Add the baking powder.

Pour the mixture into a baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy while still warm.  

Well, at least it wasn't a TOTAL disaster considering it was my first baking lesson.