Indian Cuisines from Vegan Chef Ravi, Part 2 of 2 – Savory Vegetable Upma & Chocolate Upma

Today, he will show us how to make upma, a thick porridge meal in India. "So, first, we peel and dice the carrot, and then we peel and dice the potatoes, and we deep fry them. After we deep fry them, we will take them out and then prepare the semolina. Here we have 250 grams of oil that we are going to use for deep frying. So, we’ll warm up the oil a little bit first, and once it is a little bit warm, we will start putting the carrots. As we take a closer look at the carrots, they have changed color, and they look like they are almost fried. This is the point of time we take out the carrots and reduce the fire. Now we’ll put in the potatoes to continue frying. We don’t need to make it too brown and hard and crispy, it’s almost cooked, so it’s time now we remove the potatoes from the fire. And at the same time, we need to reduce the fire, so that it won’t be too hot for the soya beans (edamame). As you look at the completion of the soya beans, it’s puffed up. We have been cooking it for approximately two minutes to two and half minutes now, depending on the flame that you are using. Now we’ll take another pot or pan. This is when we put the salt; ten grams, water, and the curry leaves and start to boil it. And now we switch. First, we take back some oil that we had earlier, and then we put in the semolina and start to sauté it. We have to constantly stir this for five to seven minutes until it starts changing color, a little bit brownish. So, we turn off the fire and then clear up all the semolina into the center. And now we add this boiling hot water into the semolina. You will notice, the water is now getting absorbed by the semolina. We still have a little bit more water left on the surface, and this is the point of time we add in all our vegetables for an easy mix. In this way, everything is evenly mixed and evenly assorted, so every bite will contain vegetables and semolina together. And now we are almost at the final stage of the semolina, where we put the cashew nuts. Now, we have a delicious upma ready to be served." Now, Chef Ravi will make Chocolate Upma. "So, for that, we need the same quantity, 1100 cc of water that’s 1.1 liters and 150 grams of sugar. Now we need to let the water boil and keep the fire on maximum heat if possible. So as you can see, the water is boiling right now, and we are going to take it off and put it on the wooden board so it doesn’t damage the table. Turn off the fire. Give it a quick stir to dissolve the sugar into a syrup. And now we will add in forty grams of cocoa powder, straight into this, and mix. We’ll bring back the semolina onto the gas stove and pour in this hot liquid. Give a quick stir to take off any excess chocolate. As you can see, the water is almost dried up, and it’s now time to serve this delicious chocolate dish."