Upma Kozhakkattai

First post in 2009 !!! Yippee... After months of hibernation, I have started to gain enthusiasm in cooking again. Arisi upma is one of my favorite tiffins, upma kozhakkatai is just another form of arisi upma that I love. The traditional way of preparation starts with soaking the rice, drying the rice on a cloth, grinding the rice into coarse powder..... okay thanks to the Indian stores for coarse ready made idli rava, the preparation time is reduced !. Sorry for the bad picture, I was too eager to eat the dish and didnt concentrate on the quality of the photograph !

Ingredients
1. Coarse Rice rava 1 cup
2. Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
3. Bengal gram dal - 1tbsp
4. Red chillies - 3-4
5. Curry leaves
6. Asafoetida
7. Little bit of pepper powder freshly ground (optional)
8. oil - 2 tbsp
9. mustard seeds- 1/2 tbsp
10. split urad dhal- 1tbsp
11. Water in the ratio of 1: 1.5

1. Take oil in kadai, add mustard seeds when it splutters add the urad dhal chenna dhal, when they are roasted add curry leaves, dried red chillies, asafoetida.
2. Add water and salt and let it boil
3. Add Grated coconut and the coarse rice rava. Mix it well so that it does not form lumps. Different rice ravas may require different amounts of water, microwave a cup of hotwater and keep it ready. Incase you feel that all the water is absorbed and the mixture is getting dry you can add the same. Cook on medium heat, keep it closed for a couple of minutes.
4. When the mixture is cooked , let it cool for a while
5. Make balls and keep it on a idli plate and steam cook the same
6. When the kozhakkatais are done they will have a glassy finish.

Steaming hot kozhakattais are ready !
Enjoy with a dash of ghee on the kozhakkatai and a side of chutney , pachidi or sambhar. I had left over vengaya sambhar and had the kozhakkatais with that.

Optionally you can also soak 1/5 cup of toor dal and coarsely grind it and add it to the rava mixture and cook.