India Online Journal, November 2001
Author: Jennifer Kumar

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Day 9

This morning I decided to go back to the college to look at the exams schedule again and see what room the exam would be held in. I was just so nervous. Today was the day they would post the room assignments. So, I just waited for Amma to make Tiffen, and I left. This morning, we had Rava Upma. It is one of my favourites, and it is one of the least spicy Indian foods. Here is the recipe:

Rava Upma

    Ingredients
    1. 1 tsp mustard seeds
    2. 1 tsp oil
    3. 3-5 green chillies
    4. 1 tsp. Channa dhal
    5. salt to your liking
    6. Rava (aka cream of wheat)
    7. Water (1 cup cream of wheat to 3 cups water)
    8. any one or combination of the following veggies cut into small diced pieces
    1 potato, 1 small onion, 1 tomato (or more for liking), green beans, green peas


Method of Preparation:

Put the oil, mustard seeds, green chillies and channa dhal into a hot frying pan. Fry this til the mustard seeds pop. Follow this by adding vegetables of your liking, and then add water one or two cups at a time til the water boils and the veggies are soft. After they become soft, add the rava (cream of wheat), for every one cup of rava, add three cups water. Boil till soft, and then add salt to your tasting. When putting dhal in any Indian food, that takes the salt away, hence you may like to add salt for taste.

This serves about 4 members.

After tiffen, I went to the college. Today was the first day of exams period. It is only on the first day itself they post the room schedules. I don’t know all the rooms of the college, so thought to come today, one day before the exam to check it out. Also, due to tension, I felt finding the room and the environment would calm me. Little did I know when I got close to the room, my teacher was there, asking for my hall ticket and wanting me to write the exam at that moment itself! I about had a heart attack there itself! I said “No Sir, that is tomorrow, I am just coming to see the room assignment today.” I guess he just wanted to say something, but that made my heart jump from my chest! Anyhow, I found the correct room, and then decided to go back home.

Today Amma made a special tiffen. Yes, sometimes there are more than one tiffen before a meal. This always makes me either feel like not eating that tiffen or not eating lunch. Well, I had to try this tiffen, because it was so unique. See, in South India, people eat mostly rice. It is in North India, where they eat more subji (veggie curries) and breads like naan and chapathi. People in South do eat chapathis, but it is more for a tiffen than a meal, like in North. Anyhow usually these chapathis are made from wheat flower. Today Amma was making chapathis from corn flower. It seems that this is a special dish of Maharashtra. Amma knows so many interesting dishes, she even makes some mango curry (Srikand) in mango season we eat with chapathi, it is SO good. Anyhow, this corn chapathi, unlike it’s wheat counterpart, is fried on an unoiled pan. It is also a bit thicker and has a different taste. We ate it with sambar. People in Madras won’t eat this, it is a speciality of Maharastra, and at that only certain areas. This flower is not even available commonly in Madras, so you may wonder how did Amma get this flower? She visited her native place recently, which is in Bellary that is near to the Andhra border, but in Karnataka state.

Srikand-- Bombay Speciality

    4-5 Mangoes
    1 cup milk
    sugar and salt to your liking
    cardamom to your liking

Preparation: Crush the mango, but take out the seeds. Add milk and mix thoroughly. It doesn’t have to be crushed like juice, it can be kept lumpy. Then add salt, sugar and cardamom to your liking. If you want to preserve taste, freeze for half a day then eat. You can eat it alone, like a fruit drink, or you can make chapathis and eat it with chapathi. It is a nice, cooling, mid afternoon snack. Best time to make this is during mango season with fresh mangoes.

Other than that, nothing else ‘happened’ today as I had to start my studying for my exams.
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