February 18, 2009

Guess The Indian Name...

Does anyone need to be told that whole grains are better for you?
Growing up, rice was mostly par boiled or rose matta rice, both of which are highly nutritious and chapathis/rotis were made with whole grain wheat.(The wheat was bought, washed, dried in the sun and taken to the mill to be converted to the Whole wheat flour!!) There was hardly any bread and pasta and noodles and cereal etc.

But now it's not so easy to make every choice whole grain and healthy. I kind of(yeah, let me see if I can do it) resolved to increase the whole grain intake in my family this year. Not very easy coz all the Kerala Breakfast items, puttu, vellappam, pathiri,etc( which are mostly made of white rice) show up as dinner in my house. So every meal, whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner should try to inject whole grains in it if it can be done.
So got curious by this article in NY Times.NY Times Dining section is a good time pass on Wednesdays mornings with tea. This week's issue is out to promote whole grains for breakfast.. in rebellion to the sugar laden cereal and donuts as options. Read this article, Whole Grain Breakfasts. You might recognize a couple of options that you are already familiar with. But can you guess what this recipe for Coconut Oat Pilaf closely resembles and if you had to give it an Indian name, what would you call it?

Update 2/20/09
Most of you guessed it correctly..Oats Upma!! When I first saw it, the recipe looked glamorous and exotic but reading into it, realized that it's just UPMA!! Our staple is going mainstream.

16 comments:

  1. haha...that sounds like upma to me!! :D

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  2. Oats upma? That is what the recipe is at least! I looked into the list and was happy to see that we have some of those for dinner or breakfast at least two to three days definitely!!

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  3. As there is oats in the recipie,ginger and chillies and coconut, i think imight call it our upma :-)

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  4. Is it Uppumavu you're refering to?

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  5. Hello Shaheen,
    Since i received your mail this morning,i have been racking my brains out!! so just to see if i am on the right road or may be i need my GPS! haha
    its very similar to Veg Biryani,but to obvious,no?after a google around came up with this Thengai Saadham???
    but this is with lentils errrrh
    heeeeeeeeeelp
    yours Myra

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  6. I saw it but sounds like Pulao, a replacement for morning Oatmeal cereal, Indian ishtyle?! :D

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  7. Something like kandapohe?

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  8. this one is simple..
    its oats upma...
    did u try it?
    ki

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  9. reminds me of the healthy north indian breakfast - namkeen dalia and of course with a kiss of kerala coconut :)

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  10. Definitely Uppma, ofcourse with oats. Our version is decorated additionaly with Channa dal, Urad dal and Onions. But the basic recipe is Uppma. It is nice to know that our recipes are becoming main stream.

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  11. sahiti, coconut rice sounds good but it seemed closer to upma.

    Asha, c'mon, i thot u would get it right.:(

    Rest all of you. i guess this was a no brainer!

    Ki, no, haven't tried this one. I do make upma with the whole wheat rava/farina or with dalia and i have tired oats dosa which was too much work..hardly worth the effort. DH said he will eat oats as is.

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  12. I think the link itself gives the clue:-

    pilaf
    A steamed rice dish often with meat, shellfish, or vegetables in a seasoned broth.

    [Persian pilāw, from Turkish pilâv .]

    So it indeed seems a Pulao!!

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  13. oops..i missed the update in the post..

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  14. Yeah, you're right! It's upma alright! :D

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