Upma Kozhakattai

Back to blogging :) I was away from blogging for a while but definitely not from cooking.

Upma kozhakattai is steamed dumplings of rice upma. You can just make this as arisi upma in a crumbled form or make neat balls. In the former case, I follow a slightly diff list of ingredients/ method and make it more spicy and flavourful. This is a simple and standard dish made at home and fits as anytime meal. I like it a bit spicy with addition of chillies. I specially love to eat the upma that gets into the broken red chillies and comes out red :)
Tomato/cilantro/pudhina thokku or sambar is a classic combination. I will post the recipe for tomato thokku, soon.

Ingredients:
Coarsely Broken rice (Wash the rice, dry in a paper towel and quickly pulse in a blender/mixie) - 1.25 cups
Grated Coconut - 1.5 tablespoon (or even 2 if you want it rich and flavourful)
Finely chopped green chillies - 2 to 3
To Season:
Channa dal, urad dal - a tsp each (optional - The authentic method doesnt need this)
Dry red chillies - 1
Hing/Asafoetida - a pinch
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a handful
Oil - a tsp or 2 (You can also use coconut oil if you like the flavour)
(You can reduce the chillies. The original recipe has the coconut, dominating and less spicy)

Method:
1. Heat the oil, add the dal, hing, red chilli and mustard. When the mustard pops, add curry leaves, green chillies and coconut. Saute for 10 seconds.
2. Add 3.75 cups water( 3 times that of rice). Bring it to a boil and add salt to taste.
3. Slowly mix the rice rava without any lumps. Cover and cook till almost all the water is absorbed and rava gets cooked.(Retain a little moisture to help make the balls)
4. Set this aside for sometime to cool down. However, it should have a little heat left to make the balls. Taste once for the salt content and adjust. Rice rava might require a little more than normal rava.
5. Now make elliptical balls and steam in a pressure cooker at medium heat for 10 to 15 min. Don't use the weight.
Serve hot with pudina/cilantro/tomato chutney or sambar.

Tips:
1. You can make the rice rawa and store it. If you are planning to store the rawa, the rice should be completely dried. Alternatively, you can use the readymade idly rawa. It's good enough.
2. You can add some grated carrot as a variation to make it colorful.