Ragi Putma

The name sounds weird  huh?! But ‘Ragi Putma’ seems to me a more appropriate name because ragi puttu is made and then converted into upma in this recipe making it Puttu+Upuma=Putma. I’ve heard of and had ragi upma in the past, all of which included lots and lots of oil and were tough in texture (I don’t mind the chewiness part though). I loved the taste of it but for the oil because it almost gets cooked in oil; so I always kept exploring on options for a less-oil ragi upma. Yesterday, I happened to search for steamed upma and to my surprise hit many blogs that used steaming approach for ragi upma (which is why I’m not able to quote one). This is definitely worth a try for everyone who like and don’t like ragi. It came out very soft and delicious.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time:  10 min

Cooking Time: 10 min

Ingredients:

1.       Ragi flour – 2 cups

2.       Coconut – 2  tbsp

3.       Salt to taste

4.       Oil – ½ tbsp

5.       Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

6.       Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

7.       Bengal gram – ½ tbsp.

8.       Dry chilies – 2

9.       Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10.   Curry Leaves – 1 sprig

11.   Onion – 1

12.   Garlic – 4 cloves

Method:

Step 1: Mix warm salted water to ragi flour and rub it to get moist puttu mix and cook puttu by filling it between coconut gratings. (Elaborate explanation on puttu making can be seen from the post ‘Puttu With Kadalai Curry’)

Step 2: When the steamed puttu has cooled down, crush it to get a course powder.

Step 3: Heat oil in a kadai: splutter mustard, fry Bengal gram & urad dal, sprinkle asafoetida, thrown in torn curry leaves & dry chilies and sauté the finely chopped onion & garlic in it till soft and slightly brown.

Step 4: Sprinkle some salt and add the crushed puttu and toss well. Turn off heat.

Step 5: Serve hot and eat it plain or with curds if you like.

TIPS:

* I prepared two batches: Served the first batch with ghee, sugar & banana and prepared upma with the other batch; that creates a balance in the palate.

*Leftover puttu can be made into upma.

*If serving for old people and kids, you can avoid frying dals in tadka leaving it a very soft diet.