Ragi Puttu Upma

I wanted to do this blog post yesterday....but between catching up with friends n facebook n' gtalk n' all that...I didn't get the time to....:(...so I might as well do 2 posts today....





Most mallu families would've made Puttu Upma with leftover puttu as a tea time meal....my mom's taste divine coz she adds left over beef ularthiyathu into it as well n that takes the whole thing a notch higher in my books. I have made this upma without adding Beef and it still tastes nice. I wasn't a big fan of a beef less upma until my aunt, Sandhyachechi, came n' stayed with me. She made this upma with the leftover Puttu from breakfast n' I really loved it...Now I don't wait to have leftover puttu for this anymore. I make puttu just for this upma.






Talking of Upma did you read/hear about New York's celebrated chef, Mumbai-born Floyd Cardoz who made Upma for a contest in NY and won a big ticket prize of $ 100,000 (that roughly around Rs 45 lakhs). The theme? "prepare an item based on food memories. " Imagine that....the simple n' one of the most common south indian dish winning his such a big ticket! I shouldn't make it sound too simple, he did prepare a very exotic version of our common upma with wild mushrooms n' I think Chicken...(not sure about the chicken part). Anyway, apparently after all this hoopla in NY over exotic Upma, restaurants all over the capital here, have been getting orders for extoic upma (more than ever before) from tourists. I'm reading this article in the Hindustan Times, sitting on Rajdhani Express with the worst upma I have ever tasted for breakfast...:(...sad or what????






My upma here is 'oh so simple', but tastes really good. For an added health factor I have started including ragi in our food whenever the recipe permits it. For benefits of Ragi...please check out this page at itsnotmadrasi. You get Ragi Puttu podi/powder in all the stores now. Brands like Eastern, Double Horse, Nirapara etc. So do try them out if you haven't done so already. I'm mentioning a simple way to make puttu too...just for those who haven't had it. So here you go...




Ingredients:

For Puttu
1. Ragi Puttu Podi/Powder: 2 cups
2. Grated Coconut: ½ coconut (at least) more if you like it like me...:)
3. Salt: to taste
4. Water: enough to crumble the mixture. (don't add too much water or you will be left with a dough instead of a crumble.)

For Puttu Upma:
1. Ragi Puttu: 2cups (roughly)
2. Mustard seeds: ¾ tsp
3. Black gram: ¼ tsp (if you don't have this, use the regular tur dal n its still taste great)
4. Onion: ½ cup (chopped)
5. Green chillies: 2 (chopped) or less if you don't like it spicy
6. Ginger: 1 tsp (finely chopped)
7. Curry leaves: 1-2 sprigs
8. Salt (Optional) (as puttu already has salt)
9. Ghee/Clarified butter: 1 tsp

Method:

For the Puttu
I did not use a puttu maker for this, I used the steamer plate/thattu (Dhokla maker plates) in the idli maker instead, coz I was anyways planning to make the upma with the puttu instead of puttu itself. Since I don't do pictorial step by step, please check out this blog for a good way of making traditional Puttu. For the non traditional one, follow my steps here.

Step 1: Add salt n' water to the puttu powder to get the crumble required. Powder the mixture with your hands to form a coarse n soft crumble.

Step 2: Add scraped coconut to the above. I add a generous amount, coz i love the taste.

Step 3: Heat water in the idli maker, once the water boils, place the steamer plate above the water n' fill it with the above mixture. Steam it until cooked well. (roughly 5-10mins or less) The puttu is ready.

For the Upma

Step 1: In a kadai/ wok, add the ghee and do the tadka with mustard seeds, Dal n' add the curry leaves.

Step 2: Add the chopped ginger, fry it a little, add the chopped onion n' green chilies to this. Fry it well.

Step 3: Add the cooked puttu mix into this n' stir well. Adjust the salt if required. Sprinkle in a little water, if you think the puttu is not soft enough. And viola! its ready....






Serve it with some Kaddala Curry/ Chole or even a spicy meat curry (I served it with my Chicken Chettinad) and it needn't be something you serve only at tea time. Make it a meal. :) Happy Cooking!!!