Akki Tari (Rice rava) Uppittu - an old classic rejuvenated with fragrant herbs

Staying home during Holidays is fun and exhausting, fun because of all the stuff we get to do together as a family in a relaxed manner and exhausting because that is when I start opening closets and cupboards for a deep cleaning :-). We enjoyed the mundane things such as a lazy breakfast as the pace was so much slower compared to a week day rush. Actually, I have been cooking sporadically this past week, did minimal cooking when it was the three of us at home, skipped cooking altogether on some days and had sandwiches on the go and then went back to the kitchen with a vengeance to cook elaborate meals on the days I had guests. No pictures taken so will get to the new recipes next time I make them. I baked 3 different cakes within a span of a week, starting off with the fruit cake, followed by the muffins (not a cake exactly, but..) and finished it off with a carrot cake for the dinner on Friday. All three cakes were shared with different groups of people and devoured. After all the baking, I am a little caked out and baked out for now :-). I tried a few variations in my carrot cake recipe this time and it turned out as delicious as the previous version, I have updated the post, so if you haven't tried this recipe yet go ahead and make it your dessert next time. Served with a scoop of ice cream, it reminded us of the carrot halwa+ice cream combo.

The past week has been a mixture of sweet and sad events as we try to bid farewell to 2013 and welcome the new year. First of all, I don't even know how the entire year consisting of 12 months with an average of 30 days went by so fast, I look back and still remember the beginning of the year, I like to think this is because we had fun doing what we did and had a good year overall. Last week, I heard the news of one of my favorite Kannada poets passing on. Dr. G.S. Shivarudrappa whose poems made such wonderful Bhavageethegalu (light music genre) was someone I had the privilege of personally meeting at his home. While he became a household name with the music his songs made, he wrote much poignant pieces outside the genre too. The writer is gone but the writing lingers in the hearts of many and the legacy lives on.., here is a wonderful piece of poetry sung beautifully by 2 of Karnataka's greatest light music singers - for those of you who do not understand Kannada, the song is from the perspective of a singer, how he/she derives happiness just by the act of singing and does not sing for the listeners or the accolades.

Click here to listen - Yede Tumbi Haaduvenu

Two days back came the news of Farooque Sheikh's sudden death from a cardiac arrest. If you enjoy old Bollywood movies, go watch this natural actor in movies like "Chasme Baddoor" and "Kissi se na kehna" for a light comedy or "Umrao Jaan" and "Katha" for a more serious fare. Handsome, sincere and charismatic, he was one of the heroes I enjoyed watching movies of.

2 exits that act as a reminder of life so transient, and the weather is not helping much either. I am actually looking forward to starting work tomorrow and keep the brain engaged a little more rigorously elsewhere.

Before we end the year, here is a very homely and simple uppittu/upma made with a different ingredient than the usual upma rava. In our house, it featured on special days during the winter season when avarekalu abounded the market. Nammamma always made this with avarekalu (papdi lilva). After that one year of making a rare finding of this bean in my local grocery store, I haven't been lucky again. I resort to the frozen packs to satisfy my cravings when they hit bad. Since I didn't have the avarekalu this time, I used the frozen green Toor beans (these are whole beans and are available in frozen bags at most Indian groceries).

If you are used to avarekalu, you will be familiar with their unmistakable aroma which makes this uppittu very special, since I didn't have it, I used some fresh Dill leaves to make up for the missing aroma and the result was a delicious uppittu. This upma tastes very different from the regular upma and is a refreshing change. It is a saatvik uppittu usually made without onions.

What do you need to make Akki Tari Uppittu?
2 cups akki tari/rice rave - See below to make recipe at home
2 cups water
2 Tblsp grated coconut
3/4 cup frozen green Toor or avarekalu (papdi lilva)
1 cup chopped dill leaves
2 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1 Tsp cumin
2 green chilies
1/2 Tsp black pepper coarsely crushed
few curry leaves
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make Akki Tari at home?

• I used brown rice for a richer fiber alternative.
• Wash rice twice in running water and drain all the water from it.
• Spread a cheese cloth or kitchen napkin in a dry spot on your counter and spread the washed rice evenly in a thin layer.
• Let it dry overnight or for 6-8 hours until the dampness is gone completely.
• Powder in your mixer/grinder to a coarse rava consistency.
• A cup of brown rice yields about a cup of rice rava.
• This can be preserved for a few weeks stored in a dry container with lid. Make sure rice is devoid of any moisture before you powder it. I have learnt this lesson the hard way as damp rice results in distasteful growth in the powder and makes it inedible.

How do you make Akki(Rice) Tari(Rava) uppittu?

• Remove stems and cut green chilies into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Clean and chop Dill leaves finely.
• Cook Toor or avarekalu with a pinch of salt in 1 cup of water until soft.
• Measure 2 cups of rice rava, heat a skillet on medium heat and roast the rice rava stirring frequently for 5-7 minutes or until it warms up. It doesn't need to be browned but just heated through.
• Take the rice rave onto a plate and keep aside.
• Heat oil in the same pan, add mustard, cumin and green chilies. Let mustard pop.
• Add coarsely crushed black pepper and curry leaves.
• Add the chopped Dill leaves and sauté for 2-3 minutes until the leaves wilt and you get the aroma of the leaves.

• Drain and reserve the water used to cook Toor (or Avarekalu) and add the cooked beans to the seasoning along with remaining salt.
• Add the roasted rice rava and grated coconut and give a good mix.

• Measure 3 cups of water (use the water from the cooked beans) and add it to the rava mixture slowly while stirring the mixture with a spatula to avoid lumps.
• Cover, reduce heat to low and let it cook for 8-10 minutes until the rava fluffs up and becomes soft.
• Serve with a drop of ghee and a side of pickle and yogurt.

Notes:

• You can make rice rava with white rice (Sona masoori), follow the same process above.
• If you are pressed for time, a quick alternative is to use store bought idli rava. This is a decent replacement if you do not want to make the rice rava at home. Use the coarser variety.

Barley Upma - World Diabetic Day - spreading awareness through food

On this World Diabetic day, Swati asked a few of us bloggers to blog about the disease in an effort to create awareness. Diabetes is a condition of the body when there is excess sugar/glucose in the blood stream. Type 2 diabetes found most commonly in adults is caused when the body either does not create enough insulin or the insulin does not work as intended. This insulin resistance creates a build up of glucose (sugar) in the blood stream impacting the body function and leading to complications with major organs in the system. Bleak as this diagnosis sounds, diabetes is a treatable condition with a combination of well managed diet, regular exercise and medication.

Coming from a South Asian community, most of us are pre-disposed to diabetes. While genetics play a major role in diabetes manifestation, individual life styles contribute greatly to it too. So, you are not spared if your parents or grand parents didn't have the condition, you could be the first one to start the trend as a sedentary lifestyle and obesity can trigger diabetic diagnosis. However, a diabetes diagnosis doesn't have to make life unbearable. One thing that helps most is to be consistent and consciously make healthy choices. 

As a kid, I had seen a couple of my relatives eat 'Godhi anna' which is cooked broken wheat instead of the white, fluffy rice the rest of the family enjoyed. It used to be mostly bland and devoid of any frills and many of these people also took daily insulin shots which meant that the diabetes was quite advanced. While every person has unique needs, there are some 'free foods' such as herbs to enhance the flavor, vegetables such as cabbage to add volume which can create miraculously yummy treats without them being 'bad' on your blood sugar. Key to diabetes regulation is to watch for foods that tend to create a spike in the blood sugar. Foods that digest slowly (high in soluble fibers) are considered best in diabetic diet. Your best source of advice should be from your health care professional or physician. With that disclaimer, I do want to share some things that I have learnt over the months now as I journey towards helping a family member keep diabetes regulated. 

While regular exercise helps everybody, it becomes a more essential need in diabetic care. Make sure you add regular exercise to your routine, simple changes like moving around instead of being glued to the chair can be a great first step.

When it comes to diabetic diet one should aim to eliminate or atleast limit the intake of processed foods. Replace your all purpose flours with whole wheat flour, upma rava with broken wheat as simple gestures that go a long way in controlling blood sugar. Sweets do not need to be totally off limits if included as occasional treats. Whole grains, beans, pulses make some of the best vegetarian diabetic friendly choices. Whole grain essentially means grains that have all 3 components - germ, bran and the endosperm (or starchy part). Oats, quinoa, brown rice, barley, cracked wheat, millet are some of the commonly available whole grains. These foods are high in soluble fibers and create a slow release of nutrients and hence does not spike sugar level in the blood. Reduce oily substances and use vegetable/plant based oils whenever possible. Freshly prepared food in place of a can of soup is a very welcome change in diabetic diet. Equally important is to control your portions at every meal and space them so there is no long stretches of starvation to the body. 

Here are some additional websites to go to if you are looking for diabetes related information -

International Diabetes Federation
American Diabetes Association

With that, I have a simple and delicious variety of upma (when you are in doubt or lack creative juices to name a dish, call it Upma and it works just fine :-)) made from Barley. I used some nutrition enhancers like garbanzo beans/chick peas and fresh Kale which is a protein power house. These additions make the dish different and yummy. You can use any other cooked beans or leafy greens instead. I hope this post is not all preachy but has some good take aways if you are looking for diabetic friendly recipes. I can guarantee that all of us at home enjoyed the Barley upma very much. Some of my other diabetic friendly recipes can be found here and here.

Side bar conversation: I was torn by conflicting reports on the inclusion of coconut oil in a diabetic friendly diet, while some reports say the high saturated fat content in coconut oil is a 'no-no' for diabetes, some swear by the lower GI effects of this oil. Again, I am not the expert in the subject, so I leave it to others.  

What do you need to make Barley Upma?
1 cup barley
2&1/4 cup water
1/2 cup cooked garbanzo
1 cup fresh kale
1.5 Tsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
2-3 green chilies
1 inch piece ginger
3-4 curry leaves
2 shallots/3 Tblps chopped red onion
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder

How do make Barley Upma?

• Soak Barley in 4 cups of water overnight.
• Scrub and rinse barley in the morning, drain the water a couple of times to remove any impurities.
• Bring 2&1/4 cup water to boil along with a pinch of salt. 
• When the water starts to boil, add barley and let it come to a boil, keep stirring at this point.
• Once the bubbles start again, cover and bring the heat to low and cook or 20-25 minutes until water is absorbed and barley is cooked.
• Switch off and keep it covered for 10 minutes.
• In another pan, heat oil and add mustard. When mustard seeds pop, add chopped green chilies, ginger and curry leaves and saute for a minute.
• Add chopped shallots/onion, followed by remaining salt, turmeric powder and saute until onion turns limp.

• Add chopped kale leaves and continue to saute until they wilt about 2-3 minutes.

• Add the cooked chick peas, cooked barley and give a good mix.

• Do a taste test, add lemon juice if you like, serve hot.

Notes:

• Cooked barley is a little chewy (similar to brown rice texture).
• Soaking barley reduces the cooking time drastically, you can otherwise cook barley in pressure cooker.
• Adding salt to the boiling water helps barley absorb some salt and brings out its taste better.

Variations:

• Add other cooked vegetables (beans, carrots, peas etc) to enrich this dish.
• Sprouts & cooked beans make a healthy addition too.