Rice upma/ Arisi upma / Breakfast/ dinner recipe.

 Rice upma / Arisi upma is authentic South Indian breakfast/ dinner recipe. Traditionally it is made in bronze pot .( vengala panai in tamil) The brown crispy layer will be formed  in bottom when  this rice  upma  is made in bronze pot. That crispy part will be very tasty.I like that very much more than upma. Taking that crispy bottom layer from the pot is very tricky . My mom used to scrape the pot with a ladle in order to collect the crispy layer. Me and my sister will be patiently waiting  and watching my mom thinking "when she ll finish the process and give  it to us" ? ( Childhood memories... Greenish in my mind)

Nowadays i am making in nonstick pan as i don't have bronze pot. Traditionally rice is washed and drained  and  drained rice is broken  coarsely using mixer.  But in this recipe i have used readymade pack (idly rava) of broken rice. lets go in to the recipe...

Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

Idly rava - 1 cup

Onion - 1 no(finely chopped)

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 2 tsp

Chana dal - 4 tsp

Greenchilli - 4-5 nos

Red chilli - 2 no

Ginger - 1 tbsp(finely chopped)

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Oil - 2 tbsp

Water - 2 and 1/2 cups

Salt - as needed

Method:

1. Measure and take 1 cup of idly rava( The picture shown here does not show the exact quantity .(1 cup) Just for showing you idly rava i have clicked the picture of rava.  )

2.  finely chop onion and ginger. Slit the green chillies. Heat oil in a pan( good condition nonstick pan works best)  add mustard , when it pops, add chana dal. When it gets browned add urad dal and fry it till it gets golden brown colour .

3. Now add chopped onion, greenchillies and curry leaves. Fry them till onion turns transparent. Then add 2 and 1/2 cups of water  and salt . Allow it to boil.

4. When water boils, add idly rava and close the pan with lid. (Be careful at this stage as rava and water mixture may splutter)Cook in the medium flame for 10 -12 mins .  Stir it frequently while rava gets cooked in order to avoid burnt bottom layer.  In order to confirm rava is cooked,  wet your hand press the rava, if it is soft then rava is cooked.  After rava is cooked simmer it for 5- 10 mins to get crispy bottom layer.

Now our rice upma is ready...

Top with 2 - 4 tbsp of grated coconut for best taste. Coconut chutney will be a good side dish for this upma. But my husband loves to have with brown sugar.

Notes:

• You can also use coconut oil .
  
  
• If you don't get idly rava , then wash raw rice and drain it by sreading the rice in a cotton cloth. After it is drained completely, grind it coarsely in a mixer.  Don't powder it.  This coarsely grinded rice is called as ' kurunai'  in tamil. Use this kurunai for making arisi upma.
  
  
• You can also add a pinch of hing while tempering
  
  
• When upma is done, transfer the upma to another conainer and scrape the   bottom of pan to get crispy layer. If you leave upma in pan itself for a long time, then you won't get crispy layer.