Onion Rava upma

Making perfect upma can be tricky. Tips to make upma:
1. Ratio of water and rava should be exactly 2 : 1.
2. Be generous with the oil. Adding more oil makes it tastier obviously. For 1 cup of rava add 2 tbsp of oil.
3. Make sure you fry rava well on very low flame till it gives a nice aroma.
4. Add boiling water to roasted rava. Do not add warm water.

Thai Velli Kolam (of 25th Jan)

As I had mentioned in the earlier post on pongal, these are the set of kolams, drawn for the friday,25th Jan. I had drawn few more,but failed to take the snaps.

Morappam/Kuzhi paniyaram

Morappam is a favourite evening tiffin. Me and my sister ask Amma to prepare this on Sundays when we watch movies. Perfect evening snack. Those days, as kids, we never bothered about it being drenched in oil. But things have changed now. I have bought a non-stick appam pan specially for making oil-less(not oil-free !!!) morappams. With non-stick pans, the oil used will be somewhat equal to what is required in preparing a dosa. Thats manageable. So here goes the recipe.

Idly/Dosa batter - 1 cup

Medium sized onion - 1 no

Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Chana dal - 1 tspn

Finely chopped green chilly - 2 nos

Curd chilly - 2 nos

Curry leaves - few

Hing powder - 1/4 tspn.

Heat oil in a skillet. Do the seasoning as given and add to the batter.

Stir in the finely chopped onions. Add salt. Mix well.

Adjust the consistency by adding water, so that it is thinner than dosa batter.

Fill the non-stick appam pits each with 1/2 tspn of oil. Pour spoonfuls of the batter into each pit. It will take two minutes to cook one side.

Flip the morappams upside down. Cook the other side also.

Since it is spicy on its own, serve them with a mug of steaming hot coffe/tea. If desired can serve with any chutney of your choice.