Hello TLC-ers! I'm here today with Dr Vidhi Patel who is a medical Doctor from India. She's
also a homeopath and a nutritionist and we are going to cooking something called 'Upma'
or 'Spicy Semolina'. [Intro music]
This is a very very nice South Indian breakfast dish. I'm not from South India, but I've fallen
in love with this dish when I first came to London and it was my first exposure to the
British weather. So I clearly not used to the changes and sudden
changes of the draft of air and all you need is a comforting warm but healthy food in the
morning, which I used to have when I was back home in India.
Sounds great! So all we need is semolina, cumin seeds, mustard
seeds, Asafoetida, desiccated coconut and some vegetables of your choice. So you can
go bold with any vegetables you have in the fridge, it doesn't have to be fixed with this
specific vegetable. All I have is some peas, some sweetcorn, half a carrot and an onion.
So what first? So we are going to roast the semolina first,
it is just going to take about a minute or two. You will actually see the colour changing,
so once we have a nice pan ready, all you need is just to roast the semolina.
So if semolina is not something that we use very often in cooking over here, why don't
you tell us a little bit about it? Semolina is actually the course drumwheat
middleings. It is very similar to what polenta is, you may have heard of polenta that is
very common in Italian cooking, and it is actually made out of corn and this one is
made out of wheat. It is a low glycemic index food so it won't hit high on the blood sugar
levels, especially in the mornings. And it is quite high in fibre, so it stays and makes
you feel full for longer period of time. However you did say before, it's not gluten
free. Yes, it's not gluten free because of course
because fo the wheat. But instead of semolina you can replace it with polenta, and then
it is gluten free. Great, okay.
So how long will we be doing this for? Just until we see a little change of colour or
we just smell the aroma of the semolina because when it starts to get roasted it will have
a nice warm nutty smell. So once that's done we put it aside and we
start cooking the actual dish. All the food that we're doing in our series
has got an ayurvedic slant to it so what is this particularly good for? This dish is particularly
good for all the three doshas, so you now ayurvedically there are three doshas: Vata,
Pitta, Kapha, body constitutions. Any body basically can take this dish, apart
from gluten free, but everybody is welcome to try this and everybody would have a really
nice long-lasting effect of it because it is a slow release energy food.
So I love it because this is the best food you would want to have in the morning when
you are just about to go and have a nice and heavier breakfast but it's still nice and
heavy. There you can see the aroma if you want to
smell it, isn't it? It's a nice nutty flavour, sorry the aroma.
Then all you need to do is leave it aside to cool down and get another pan and start
cooking the dish. Actually you know what I do? I keep this roasted
in a jar in my fridge, so you don't need to roast it every morning. So whenever you want
to do this dish, all you need to do is get your roasted semolina out from the fridge
and there you go! Great time saver.
So on a medium heat i'm going to add some oil, it's a normal cooking oil, you can use
any oil. Most of my recipes have gee, we'll talk about it in other recipes as well, very
good ingredient for ayurvedic cooking. So as you see, the oil is getting heated, I'm
just going to chop my vegetables. I've got a few vegetables ready already and I'm just
going to chop half a carrot and an onion. See I'm not a chef, I'm just going to. I have
not done any training in cooking, so I'm just going to cook roughly all you need to do is
just cut it in a way you like. Be bold, be courageous and motivated enough. I'm not as
into culinary, I just got into it when I came to London.
Well trust me you're a much better cook than I am, that's why you're here!
I'm getting better, I can't get very happy about it, but I'm getting better. So it's
an organic carrot, so I'm not removing the skin off it I'm just going by the big pieces
of it and just keeping it very simple. Okay, so, now I can see that the oil is all
nearly done so I'm going to now add the seeds. Now be aware they sputter, they pop, don't
get scared! Safety goggle time.
Yes don't wear your goggles, just go with the flow, so all you need is your teaspoon
of mustard seeds, and a teaspoon of cumin. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the
mustard seed? Mustard seeds are actually extremely high
in fibre as well as trace vitamins and minerals and this is also very good in copper, which
is something we don't think because it's a trace mineral but this is actually very good
and when you cook it in the oil like this it brings out it's properties more. So it
doesn't go low on properties when we heat it, it actually brings out the flavour, aroma,
and good health anti-inflammatory properties as well.
Brilliant! So I'm ready with my asafoetida, you have
to be ready with all your things because as you see, it's starting to pop. As you can
hear a little bit. You've just mentioned something there that
we don't really have over here, asafoetida. Can you get that in any shop?
Anywhere! Anywhere, in Tescos, Sainsbury's, Asda, Waitrose, you can get everywhere. The
world is a small place now. Everything is possible.
So what is asafoetida? It's one of the best remedies for anyone who
is having digestive issues, and also because it's an anti-spasmodic you can also take it
as premenstrual herb, so you can take it to relieve the spasms before the menstrual approach.
So all you need to do is take a teaspoon in water and drink it, you don't need to cook
with it even though it is perfect, you can also take it in water.
Brilliant! So you've put cumin in the recipe, why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Cumin is my favourite, favourite, just smell how beautiful this is. It's very strong isn't
it? This is very strong, less goes a long way.
This is one one of the best remedies for headaches, so tension headaches, stress headaches, also
I would just say take a teaspoon in water and drink it just like we do with asafoetida
and it relieves headaches instantly. I hope you don't get a headache, but if in
case, you can. So now as you see our onions are nice and
golden brown and my carrots are also, so we don't want it too mushy. The carrots should
have a bite. But still partly cooked. We're going to add, basically it's on a medium to
high heat, and I'm going to add all my vegetables. See how colourful it is?
That looks awesome. I love the colours! I could eat this, but
we're going to add it and let it stir and cook. At this point of time, it's time to
add some pink Himalayan salt. It's quite a trendy ingredient these days.
It is, because it is naturally high in iodine, and it doesn't need to be fortified with any
other minerals. It is having more iodine than any other salt you can find, and it has got
less sodium. And what was this right here? Salt and pepper, just regular black pepper.
With the salt I'm going with the pink himalayan salt, I go with this in all my recipes.The
reason I always use pepper is because it is increasing the bioavailability of any food
you eat. The bioperine in it is actually excellent for enhancing the absorption of everything,
so imagine one catalyst that helps you get all the nutrients in just by being there.
And that's the little pepper. Pepper is one of my favourite, as good as turmeric. Wow,
brilliant! As you see, it is all nice, we need to now
cook the peas and the corn so at this point of time when you see it's all nice and partly
cooked we add a glass of water. We'd have to now wait for about 2-3 minutes and that's
it, and then add the semolina and we are nearly done.
So as you see it is nice and boiling and all you need to now do is add the semolina, because
all the flavours are all packed in there. All we need is semolina, and some coconut.
Brilliant! So I'm going to add the semolina
in here. Okay, and keep stirring fast, so you don't form any lumps.
You just turned the heat up a little? yes because I don't want the lumps, so it's
just going to be as you see it is starting to solidify, just like a porridge-ey consistency.
It's already partly roasted so it won't take long to cook. All you need to do is stir it
to avoid the lumps and also avoid getting the ingredients all stuck to each other.
So if you weren't using these vegetables are there any other veggies that you would reccommend?
Broccoli, cauliflower, aubergines, tomatoes, anything mangetaut, asparagus, green beans.
So it's literally anything. Because the main thing here are these three
spices, that is for the health benefits. That's it, and the semolina. So everything else,
is an accompaniment. And when you substitute the semolina for polenta
is the cooking process the same? Exactly the same, roast the polenta, let it
settle for a while and do exactly the same process. Stir and just make it.
See, it's getting thick, this is exactly what we want and we can turn off the flame. So
this is all done, see? If you want to smell it. Ah it smells great.
I'm getting hungry! Okay, won't be long, just a minute, so all we have here is a plate.
Get some space and plate it. So, in fact we have made quite a lot.
I've never seen this before! You would also have to taste this in a minute.
But even when you go to a restaurant over here, it's not something I've seen on the
menu. Is it not very common? It should be very common, because it's one
of the most easiest things to make and semolina is something that is easily available in the
markets here. That's desiccated coconut. Coconut is a traditional food in south of India, so
any dish you make from south of India, coconut is the best friend.
So everything and anything from south of India would have coconut in. That looks great!
That's it. Okay so I'm just going to give this a go,
I'm sure it's going to be amazing. Not too hot, I hope!
Yes, it's just right temperature. Mmm, that's great! And it's very light.
And flavourful, I'm definitely going to give this a try. I just love it. I'm actually going
to have some later. Well there's enough in there I think. Yeah
we have a lot. Okay so that's it for this week, I hope you
enjoyed the recipe, join us again in the next episode for another ayurvedic recipe and don't
forget to like, comment and subscribe. [outro]