Rice Uppma mix

Ingredients

• Parboiled rice - 4 cups
• Raw rice - 2 cups
• Toor dal - 1 cup
• Black pepper - 3 tspn
• Cumin seeds - 2 tspn

method

This mix comes in handy if you are in a hurry or if some unexpected guest arrives. Rice uppma is a fine dish but is always used as an emergency stop gap dish on most functions because of the ease of preparation of this dish. Making uppma with this mix doesn't require lot of skill or time. Although it takes 10 minutes to make the uppma, the mix takes 2-3 days to prepare because of the need to wash and dry the rice and dal (sun or air dried). This mix can be stored for months.

1. Wash the rice & dal separately & drain the water thoroughly.
2. Spread them in a towel separately & dry them out under sun if you live in a tropical region. Those who can not dry it out under sun can dry them inside the home by spreading it on a dining table & leave it till it gets completely dry. When you bite a grain or two of rice it should be hard just like the rice before washing. To achieve this level of dryness, you may need to use an even to dry the rice and dal further for few more minutes at the minimum temperature setting. Please use a cookie sheet to dry them in the oven. Keep an eye on the rice so that it does not puff up.
3. Grind them separately in a blender to a coarse powder (coarser than rava).
4. Grind the pepper & cumin together into a coarse powder. Mix them all together & store them in a dry place.

   You may mix the ground rice & dal powder together and run them through a sieve to eliminate any finely ground particles. The powder has to be coarse and not too fine for the uppma to come out good.