Simple rava upma made with fine semolina, coconut milk and few seasonings.
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time15 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Breakfast, Main Course
Cuisine: Indian, south indian
Keyword: breakfast, rava, semolina, sooji, upma
Servings: 4
Author: Mullai Madavan
Ingredients
Ingredients - roasting, tempering for upma
1cupRavafine semolina
1teaspoonGheefor roasting
1tablespoonOilfor tempering
1/2teaspoonMustard seeds
1/2teaspoonSplit black gram
1/2teaspoonCumin seeds
1pinchAsafoetida
5leavesCurry leaves
Ingredients - saute & cook
1.5cupWater*check notes
1cupLight coconut milk
1/2cupOnionthinly sliced
4eachGreen Chilliesslit open
1teaspoonGingerminced
1tablespoonGheefor drizzle
1tablespoonCoriander leaveschopped, for garnish
3eachCurry leaveschopped, for garnish
3/4teaspoonSaltor to taste
Instructions
Roasting
Heat ghee in a pan and roast rava over low flame for 10 minutes without changing its color or until it turns brisk.
Transfer and set it aside.
Temper & Saute
Heat oil in the pan and season with mustard seeds, split black gram, cumin seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves.
Add in sliced onion, slit open green chillies and minced ginger. Saute over medium flame until the onion release water and turn translucent.
Cooking
Pour water, coconut milk into the onion mixture along with salt. Check for salt at this stage and add more if required. Heat it up, do not bring it to a rolling boil, heat over low flame and once you see tiny bubbles rolling in on the sides, add in the rava.
Keep stirring in keeping the flame low and cook the rava in the water/coconut milk by gently stirring, avoiding lumps.
Drizzle little of that ghee while cooking. Once the rava absorbs 70% of the liquid you may either cover and cook for 3 minutes over low flame or keep stirring until it absorbs all the liquid. Drizzle again with some more ghee and switch off.
Garnish with chopped coriander and curry leaves.
Serve hot with choice of chutney, podi, pickle or sugar!
Notes
Tips to make the perfect UpmaRoasting rava is one of the key to make perfect upma. - Roast them over very low flame, make sure not to brown them. Oil or ghee is not really required but roasting in oil or ghee helps them to fluff up better and absorb water evenly, quickly and cook without sticking to each other. Drizzling ghee in the end and while cooking helps to keep them non sticky.Water measure - Totally depends on the type/ size of rava that you use. For regular 1 cup upma rava/ fine sooji requires about 2 1/2 cup to 2 1/4 cup, also depends how well you roast. Adding too much water will end up like paste like sticky texture. Adding too little will yield a hard cake like texture. If you prefer porridge style, then add more water. If adding Coconut Milk, keep it half and half (half water and half diluted coconut milk) Thick coconut milk might curdle and wont let the rava cook properly.Cooking - Many add rava when its in rolling boil form... this will form lumps, rav will cook uneven, and quickly turn into a cake like texture. I like to add the rava as soon as it starts the first light boil and immediately reduce the flame to the lowest setting and cook by gently stirring to avoid lumps. This way the rava slow cooked to perfection, gently blends in with the water avoiding lumps.