Unlike the cuisine in North of India, the food of the South is predominated by rice as a primary ingredient – long, short, small, broken, flattened. This variety makes for some of the most healthy and interesting breakfast recipes, especially in Southern & Western India, particularly Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In Southern kitchens, upma as breakfast has an ubiquitous presence. Quick, easy, nutritious and filling, a stomach full of upma can sustain a person for several hours without getting hungry or craving for the next feed. Upma is usually made of coarsely ground rice or wheat (called semolina), enhanced with seasoning in ghee or oil (such as one described in 22) and a fair amount of vegetables such as beans, carrots, green peas, etc. Another popular breakfast, a standard fare particularly in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, is a variety of preparations made from flattened rice called Poha.

Preparation

The key aspect of breakfast food such as upma, poha, porridge is its quickness and ease of preparation – the whole process does not take more than 15 minutes, from start to finish. Hence, it is an ideal item to prepare when the number of people to feed is large or one is pressed for time.

Ingredients

As the recipes below will show, the basic ingredients are coarsely ground rice or wheat or flattened rice, seasoning with ghee and water as required. Nowadays, upma is also prepared using different kinds of millets, coarsely ground bajra, jowar, maize, etc.

Seasoned Flattened Rice With Tamarind

Ingredients:

Flattened rice – ½ padi

Tamarind – 2 palam

Pure Water – ¾ padi

Turmeric Powder – veesam 1/16 r.e

Salt – 1 palam

Jaggery – ½ palam

Red Chillies – ¼ palam

Fenugreek – ¼ palam

Asafoetida – veesam 1/16 r.e

Chana Dal/Bengal Gram – veesam 1/16 padi

Grated Coconut – 2 or 3 palam

For Seasoning:

Sesame oil – veesam 1/16 padi

Red Chillies – ¼ palam

Urad Dal – ½ palam

Mustard – 1/2 palam

Curry Leaves – ¼ r.e

Method:

1. Pound flattened rice to cracked rice consistency in a pounder. Mix tamarind in pure water and remove the seeds from it. Add salt, turmeric powder and jaggery to it.

2. Fry red chillies, fenugreek, asafoetida in oil and put it in the tamarind juice. Soak chana dal in water for some time and fry it in ghee and mix the cracked flattened rice to it and add it to the tamarind juice. Soak well.

3. Refer to the seasoning recipe to season the Poha and use sesame oil, red chillies, urad dal, mustard, curry leaves. Add the tamarind mixture to this and fry well for 3 minutes. Remove from fire and use.

4. Grated Coconut 2 or 3 palam can be added to the tamarind juice before adding it to the seasoning. Flattened rice can be used without pounding.