If you are a Bangalorean by heart, you know its always 'tindi time' through the day. Come'on.. you know you can have idli-vada, masala dosa, chowchowbath, set dosa, rava idli, etc at any point of time. And if you have a huge gastronomical appetite, then you can easily slip in a couple of those items on the menu cards.
A walk on any street and you will find atleast one Darshini/breakfast place/Hotel that is serving the famous SouthIndian Breakfast. And heavenly aromas of the delicate Sambar, Hot steamed Idli's, seem to waft around through that entire street, yes yes.. coffee too.. err Kaapi.
So, today's morning.. err the freezing morning, had me cuddled up in my duvet, thinking about what breakfast I could make. Realizing it was November 1st and it was Kannada Rajyotsava, I decided it was going to be something supremely SouthIndian and obviously Dosa's and Idli's weren't possible, cause I hadn't made any overnight preparations. So I decided it was going to be the Famous ChowChow Baath, honestly for the last 30 years, I have never had the craving or even the slightest want to have Chow Chow Baath in any restaurant, but today I had this strong urge to gorge on some.
So it was... I got off to kickstart my day with the Chow Chow Bath: essentially a combination of a) Cooked Semolina with the essential spices, onion, and tomato ; otherwise known as Upit
b) Cooked Sweet Semolina ; otherwise known as Sheera
a) Upit: You will need
1 cup Rava-Coarse
1 small onion, tomato chopped
2 green chillies finely chopped
1 spoon Urad dal, Chana Dal
2 spoons of chopped cashewnuts
1 spoon of Ghee
5-6 Curry Leaves
1/2 spoon of Mustard seeds
Oil
In a pan, add 4-5 spoons of Oil. once its hot, add Mustard seeds and allow it to sputter, add the urad and chana dal and also the cashewnuts and allow them to slightly brown. Add onions and fry till transparent, tip in the chilies and curry leaves. Tomatoes go in next. Add the semolina at this stage and fry well, till you have the aroma of the rava/Semolina come through. Add salt and sugar as per taste. In a separate vessel, boil Water- 2.5 times the quantity of Semolina added. Once its boiled, add the water to this Semolina and cover it with a heavy lid. Keep on low heat now. Allow to cook completely and garnish with Coriander leaves.
You can add finely chopped veggies to this :Carrots, beans, capsicum etc. Grated coconut is again an option.
b) Sheera : You will need
1 Cup of Fine semolina
1.2 cups of sugar
3-4 cloves
5-6 cashewnuts chopped
few raisins
Saffron (optional)
Ghee-2 spoons
Cardamom powder-little
In a pan, add the ghee. Once hot, add the cloves, cashew nuts and raisins. Once the cashew nuts turn golden brown, add the Semolina and fry well, till you have the smell of the rava punching your nose. Add saffron and fry a little more. In a separate vessel, boil Water (2.5 times the semolina quantity). You could add a little milk too, if you wish. Add the boiling water to this semolina mix and Cover with lid and turn the heat to low. Once cooked, remove the lid and add the sugar and give it a good mix. You will find the Sheera would turn to a little looser consistency, since the sugar would melt within. Add the cardamom Powder in the end and give it a good final mix.
Add the twist with Pineapple : You could make Pineapple sheera: All you need to do is, fry around 1/2 cup of finely chopped pineapple along with the Semolina and another 1/2 cup of finely chopped Pineapple can go into the boiling water, Boil it for a little longer though. The rest of the procedure remains the same.
A cup of Upit and 1 cup of Sheera adorned on your plate is called the 'Chow Chow Bath'.
Enri, aita tindi????
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