Semolina - Upuma

A lot of my local fellow Australians say "ewww" when I mention semolina.  I am not sure why a lot of them seem to hate it so much.  But it is one of the most common breakfast dishes you find down in South India.  It can be served as a sweet dish with an accompaniment of bananas and sugar or it can be savoury with fried eggs and or/ chutneys.  It can even be had with plain yogurt.  The dish itself is very filling and helps with weight loss as it keeps you hunger free for longer.

This dish is very easy to make and it is the first dish I made for a large group of about 25 guests on my sister's wedding day.  The breakfast was just for the family and I had to whip it up quick and on that day it was served with sugar and bananas.  

Ingredients:

Coarse Semolina – 2 cups

Water – 4 cups 

1 red onion – chopped

1 green chilli – sliced

1” piece of ginger – crushed

1 handful sultanas

1 handful cashewnuts

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

1 tablespoon ghee

Handful of scraped frozen coconut (optional)

Salt to taste

Method:

In a wok, heat ½ a tablespoon of ghee and roast the semolina.  Roast it till you can smell the semolina and the ghee – but don’t burn it.  Set aside.

In the same wok, heat the remaining ghee. Add the mustard seeds and when they crackle, add the onions, chilli, ginger, curry leaves, sultanas and cashew nuts.  Roast till you can see the onions have wilted and starting to go translucent.  

Now add the water.  The general rule is 1 cup semolina needs 2 cups water to cook.  You may substitute part of the water with milk if you want a richer consistency.  At this stage you can add a handful of coconut and salt to taste.  When the water begins to boil rapidly, add the semolina stirring constantly making sure all the semolina gets cooked and there are no lumps.

When the semolina absorbs all the water, turn off the flame.

Serve with chutney, yogurt, fried eggs or sugar and banana.  I had mine with a dollop of home made plain yogurt and a sweet and sour lime pickle.