Uppittu

This is a Karnataka breakfast dish which is sometimes called upma. But I will never call it upma, it is always uppittu  because upma is for me my favourite Kerala dish. Uppittu is a very soothing comfort food, and easy and fast to make.

Ingredients

1 cup sooji (semolina)

2 ½ cups water

1 tbsp milk (optional)

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp cumin seeds

A few broken cashew nuts

2 tbsps finely cut onion

 A few curry leaves

1green chilli

1 ½ tsps sugar

Salt to taste

2 tbsps grated coconut

Instruction

-          Heat the oil, add the mustard seeds, when they splutter, add cumin seeds, broken cashews, then the cut onion, green chilli and curry leaves.

-          When the onion become translucent, add the water, sugar and salt (also milk, if you plan to keep the uppittu for a long time because the milk prevents discoloration of onion pieces in that case)

-          When the water boils, reduce the flame and stirring continuously, slowly add the semolina. Keep stirring and when it is still liquidy, after a minute or two, switch off the gas and cover it.

-          Garnish with grated coconut while serving.