Maize Upma

There was this broken maize that I procured from the local grocer which I used for this conventional south Indian recipe, Upma. Both of us are fond of upma, like the dialogue in ‘Pokiri’ movie, we also belong to upma-family. Maize upma tastes more like broken rice upma except for it is a tad bit sticky. Makki ka roti is famous in north India, corn breads or tacos and the like are well known maize recipes in continental cuisines; but in south India usage of maize is not much prevalent. Hence, this recipe would offer good cereal diversity to south Indian cuisine.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Broken Maize – 1 ½ cups

2.     Onion – 1

3.     Green peas – ¼ cup

4.     Carrot – 1

5.     Beans – 6

6.     Green chilies – 2

7.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

8.     Oil – 2 tbsp

9.     Mustard – ½ tsp

10.            Bengal gram – 1tbsp

11.            Urad dal – 1 tbsp

12.            Asafoetida – 1 pinch

13.            Salt to taste

14.            Water – 3 ½ cups

Method:

Step 1: Wash and chop the vegetables into small dices.

Step 2: Heat the oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds, roast Bengal gram & urad dal in it, sprinkle asafoetida, add curry leaves, green chilies and sauté onion in it till translucent.

Step 3: Heat water on the other stove with enough salt in parallel.

Step 4: Sauté carrot, bush beans and finally the green peas along with the onion.

Step 5: Add the broken maize into the kadai and let the grains get roasted.

Step 6: Now carefully add the boiling water to the kadai and close immediately. Be very careful as the hot water may splash while pouring into the kadai.

Step 7: Close the lid and cook in simmer for 5 minutes. Then open the lid, stir and cook again for 5 minutes.

Step 8: Fill a bowl, place it upside down on the serving plate and take off the bowl to get nice moulded serving.

Step 9: Serve along with coconut chutney or plain curds.