Tapioca Upma

Tapioca upma is commonly known as Sabudana Kichidi in Maharashtra. Tapioca pearls are cooked and sauteed in a spice ground that mainly comprises of roasted peanuts and chillies to result in a warm, spicy meal. But when such dishes make their way to the south, hard bred people like me convert it into an Upma by adding familiar South-Indian spice blends to it.

So, this is another recipe that I took down from my mother-in-law and tweaked it generously to arrive at a Tamil variation of the Kichidi.

Ingredients (feeds four)

1. 4 cups of Tapioca pearls soaked in water for 8 hours. If you forget to soak it on time, worry not, just soak the pearls in lukewarm water for 4-5 hours.
2. ¾ cup of unsalted, shelled, peanuts
3. 5-6 dry red chillies (or green chillies if you prefer)
4. 1 medium onion, finely chopped
5. 1 teaspoon of brown mustard seeds
6. 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds / jeera
7. 1 teaspoon of Hing
8. 1 teaspoon of turmeric
9. 3 teaspoons of coriander seeds (dhania)
10. 1 teaspoon of bengal gram dhal / kadala paruppu / chana dhal
11. 1 teaspoon of Toor dhal / yellow or orange lentils / thuvaram paruppu
12. 1 teaspoon of urad dhal / spilt dehusked black gram / thuvaram paruppu
13. 2 tablespoons of oil
14. Salt to taste
15. Curry leaves and coriander leaves for granishing
16. The juice of half a lemon

Preparation

1. Dry roast the peanuts, coriander seeds, bengal gram dhal, toor dhal, urad dhal, red chillies and Hing.
2. Grind the roasted spices
3. In a pan, heat some oil. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add cumin seeds, pinched curry leaves, and turmeric and stir.
4. Let the diced onions join the party in the pan. Saute onion till it turns translucent. Stir on medium heat.
5. Next, add the drained tapioca (make sure to drain and squeeze out water, without mashing up the tapioca). Stir the tapioca to incorporate the onions (about 4 minutes)
6. Now add the ground spice powder (of peanuts and others) and stir well. Keep stirring the tapioca so that it blends with the spices and doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
7. Add salt, and cook the tapioca for about 8 minutes (stirring often). When the tapioca pearls cook, they turn glossy and translucent.
8. Finally, switch off the heat. Squeeze some lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves. I made the unforgivable sin of not stocking up on enough coriander leaves - so my upma was devoid of its lovely aroma.

Since Tapioca is high in starch, the upma will be a little sticky. The spices may seem excessive, but they are absolutely necessary to add some flavor to the otherwise bland and starchy Tapioca. This upma goes down well with some creamy, cooling yogurt that cuts the edge off of the spices.