Easy Breezy Uppudu Pindi

The second session of Blogging Marathon #6 starts from today. There are 20 marathoners participating in this week's marathon and the themes this time are going to be
1. Cooking with one ingredient in seven different ways.

2. Seven days of Regional specials

3. Seven days of Picnic food

4. Seven days of 'Mini bites'

5. One theme a day

I selected "Regional Specials" for this week and chose "Andhra Cuisine" to be my theme. I am starting with a simple and basic sort of dish, "Uppudu Pindi" that can be created using ingredients mundanely found in any Indian pantry. This traditional recipe from the region is served either as breakfast or as a mini meal. One can loosely translate uppudu pindi as rice rava-moong-coconut upma with a basic tadka. A comfortably fulfilling meal that is simple in terms of preparation and can be put together in less time compared to the standard upma since there is no frying of onions / vegetables involved. You don't even have to take out your cutting board and knife if using frozen coconut. 

Ingredients: (For 3 - 4 servings)
1 & 1/4 cups biyyapu ravva (rice rava)
3 Tbsp moongdal (the split, yellow one)
1/4 cup fresh / frozen grated coconut (I used frozen)
2 cups water
Salt to taste
For tadka: 2 - 3 tsp oil, 1 Tbsp uraddal (skinned, split blackgram), 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 5 - 6 red chillies broken into bits

Method:
* Soak moongdal in hot water for about 10 minutes and drain.
* Heat oil in a kadai / pan and add the tadka ingredients. When the dal starts to turn reddish, add water, salt, coconut and moong dal to the pan.
* When the water comes to a rolling boil, reduce the heat to medium low. Add rava, continuously stirring. Cook covered until rava is done and appears fluffy.
* Serve with some avakaya for that authentic touch or with any spicy pickle or powder.

Note:
1. Moongdal is generally cooked prior to the rava addition. The extra water used to cook moongdal tends to make a mushy upma since it is hard to keep count on the water used. I don't prefer to end up with a mushy stuff and so soak the moongdal before adding it to the rava, which results in a fluffier upma.
2. Biyyapu nooka (coarse / cracked rice) can replace biyyapu rava (rice rava / rice ground to semolina consistency) in this recipe. The water quantity may need adjustment when cracked rice is used.

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