Tasty Roti Upma With Leftover Rotis

Colleague: So where are you from?
Me: Haannn….ummm…… Actually, since my father had a transferable job, so we moved from one place to another. Since I had stayed in 6-7 places… Wait! Let me count……..born in Silchar, brother born in Kharupetia….. Whatever! :O So, I am little bit from Silchar, little bit from Kharupetia, bit from Karimganj, Umrangso, Dimapur, Guwahati, New Delhi and Bangalore😊
Colleague: (With an expression – mujhe maaf kar do maine sawal pooncha/please forgive me for asking the question): Okay 😭

Yes! This is the state someone reaches to, when he or she asks two very innocent and simple questions, with a sincere intention to break the ice to start a conversation – ‘Where are you from?’ and ‘From where have you done your schooling’?

Although, I do not have any intention to bore or trouble others with my extremely wander-full replies, but somehow, I feel unfair to answer the above-mentioned query with any particular place. As I believe, I carry a little bit from each of these places, and each of these places should get their due credit, for filling my life and my personality with the teachings that come with experiences.

I strongly believe that every place where I have lived are somehow responsible for what I am today. Being it my beliefs, or the way I interact with anyone, or the way I see things to how I face challenges, all these things can somehow be attributed to the places, where I have grown up or I am growing up in. Even the festivals I celebrate and the way I celebrate festivals have something to do with the places, I have lived in and I am living in. Last but not the least, my association with the places can also be seen in my kitchen. And talking about kitchen, the blessing I owe to my current place where I live is – improving my skill and my palate for Upma.

‘Upma’, the magical word combining the two words ‘salt’ and ‘flour’ in Dravidian languages, is actually a magical dish in true sense. With its innumerable benefits, the dish is a one stop solution for lot of challenges. Like, the dish requires very less time to prepare, hence providing a quick solution for sudden hunger pangs. An equally delightful companion for both amateur and experimental cooks, as the dish is very easy to prepare and can be enhanced beyond limits with tweaks and customization. Also, the dish is accredited with providing happy ending to most leftover dinner items (Eg. Idli Upma, Roti Upma). And above all, with few simple modifications, it is a ‘knight in shining armour’ for every mother who wants to feed their children, boring healthy food by erasing the word ‘boring’ from the same (Eg. Oats Upma, Dalia Upma etc.).

Thus, as I grow familiar with Upma, I find lots of my solutions regarding food lie in Upma. Being it ‘Bread Upma’, allowing me to take a break from my regular bread and butter, or ‘Oats Upma’, making easy to choose healthy food for family (I cannot imagine what the scene would have been, if the only option to have oats was milk and oats). With so many solutions lie in the four-letter word, I sometime being over enthusiastic, look up to Upma to provide solutions for my daily prevailing problems, like Home Work Upma for Kids, or Anytime Chai Upma for husband 🤔. Don’t know with time if I will be able to find customised Upmas for my problems, but for the time being, I have found my solace in ‘Roti Upma With Leftover Rotis’ for saving me from having simple rotis, which is somehow incoherent to my not so simple taste buds.

Recipe: Roti Upma With Leftover Roti

Preparation Time: Around 38 minutes (Includes crushing rotis) Cooking Time: Around 35 minutes Equipment Used: A pan, a turner, 2-3 bowls, chopper, chopping board, knife and peeler Yield: Serves 3

Ingredients:

6 chapattis or rotis of around 15 cm diameter
1 potato
Handful of beans (around 10-12)
1 cup chopped cabbage
1 stem of curry leaves
1 small onion
1 small tomato
1 teaspoon urad dal (split black gram)
4 tablespoons sunflower oil/ refined oil
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1/8 cup dried coconut powder
1 and ½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon sugar
½ cup water
1inch X 1inch ginger crushed
1 green chilli
1 teaspoon ghee or clarified butter

Method:

Crush the rotis to as small pieces as possible
Roughly shred the potato after cleaning and peeling it
Clean the beans and cut them to 3 cm pieces approximately
Chop the cabbage
Roughly chop the onion and slice the tomato
Clean the curry leaves
Rinse and soak the urad dal
Heat a pan and heat oil in the pan once the pan is hot
Add mustard seeds into the hot oil and let the seeds splutter
Once the mustard seeds stop spluttering, add coconut powder followed by the soaked dal
Add the chopped onions and slightly fry them
Once the onion pieces turn golden brown or translucent, add the sliced tomato pieces and the vegetables that are cut and kept ready
Add curry leaves, followed by ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon sugar
Cover the pan and let the vegetables cook on sim for 10 minutes after stirring and mixing the ingredients with a turner
Uncover the pan after 10 minutes and check the tenderness of the vegetables
Once the vegetable pieces are tender, add crushed roti pieces
Stir continuously for 2-3 minutes so that the roti pieces absorb the flavour of the ingredients
Add ½ cup water while stirring continuously
Add 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon sugar and mix them with the ingredients
Crush the ginger piece and add to the ingredients
Switch off the flame or remove the pan from heat
Chop 1 green chilli and sprinkle on the dish
Add ghee and spread the same with a turner all over the dish