Kitchen Experiments : 5-minute Masala Upma

Whenever I am home the whole day (on a Sunday or any other holiday) I find myself feeling hungry way more often than I do while I am at work. Hunger pangs haunt me, and I either seek solace in some forbidden junk food, or sit down to a meal. :D

However on Sunday, the hollow, empty feeling in my tummy cried out for something more substantial than a fried snack. Lunch was still an hour away (!!!) and so I betook myself to the kitchen to fix a 'filling' snack. "I'll make upma, its healthy and filling", said I - one can always rationalise eating between meals by playing the "healthy" card! ;)

Considering that I was positively aching with hunger, I didn't have any fancy complex recipe in mind, but was too bored to whip up regular upma. So off I went - roughly chopped onion, tomato, and a green chilly, splashed some garlic-flavoured oil (couldn't find fresh garlic) in a kadhai/wok, added cumin seeds, turmeric powder, onion and green chillies. After a minute, added the tomato and gave it a brisk stir for another minute. Dumped in the semolina, stirred in the water (double the volume of the semolina) and some salt and a touch of sugar. Stirred away like crazy till the mixture bubbled and frothed and thickened to form a thick, sticky mass and the semolina was cooked through. Oh yes, and added a generous dash of my favourite Sriracha Chilli sauce along with the salt and sugar.

Served it (to myself, my parents were too chicken to try the mutant upma) garnished with some chopped coriander and an artistic (yeah, right!) drizzle of Sriracha sauce.

Yum.

PS: Looking at the sticky upma I had produced, Dad went - "Ummm...did you boil the water before adding it to the semolina? It needs to be steaming hot, else it forms a gluey paste - kind of like the one you have made." Ooops.