Khara Bath (Vegetables and semolina)

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   If you have been to Bangalore, India you will see a lot of Khara Bath, chow chow bath etc served in the 'sagar' restaurants.  My husband loves this stuff.  I could never understand for the life of me how someone asks for 'upma,' as I call it, when in a restaurant.  I mean, you have choices of batura, puris or even dosas.  Well, like all things goes in life men and women are wired different and I attributed this taste of his also as being another of the man syndrome.  However, after trying several times to imitate the taste of the restaurant khara bath at home and eating them I have developed a taste for it myself.  Now, once in a while we make some khara bath for breakfast and have decided man or woman you can enjoy this food.

  Weather Report: When its awful I can't help but let you in on some news on the subject.  Its dreary, murky, awful outside. I have been stuck at home except for an occasional walk around the block now and then for the last week or so and its a bother.  Without dragging you into my woes let me suffice by saying I have bad weather around here and a dish that looks like 'spring just arrived' helps lift my spirit a wee bit.  Some cheer, any cheer for this weather.  Cheers!!

Ingredients:
Semolina                   - 1 Cup
Butter                        - 1 Tbspn
Oil                             - 2 Tspn
Mustard                    - 1/2 tspn
Onions                      - 1/2 cup chopped
Green Chilies             - 3 or 4 thai chilies
Tomato                     - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Green Peas               - 1/2 cup
Carrot                       - 1 medium size finely chopped
Bell Pepper               - 1/2  of a medium sized pepper about 1/4 cup when chopped fine
Curry Leaves            - 1 sprig
Coriander Leaves      - 3 - 4 sprigs finely chopped
Asafoetida                 - 1/4 cup (if you do not like the taste then just a pinch or so)
Turmeric Powder      - 1/4 tspn
Coriander Powder    - 1/2 tspn

Method:
1. Boil 3 cups of water and set aside
2. Heat oil in a pan and either add clarified butter or splutter the mustard
3. Add the chopped onions and saute along with the butter (I add butter at this point or sometimes even later because if we try to add it along with the oil the butter turn an awful brown color)
4. Once the onions are golden brown add turmeric, asafoetida and coriander powder and mix and quickly add in the tomatoes and stir to avoid burning off of the powders
5. Once the tomatoes are cooked for a couple of minutes add all your vegetables and stir fry them to cook
6. Once you vegetables are all done or about 3/4 done add a cup of the upma rava (semolina) and stir
7. Stir until you can hear crackling sound or you can detect the aroma of fried rava.  If you are not sure what you are looking for make sure you stir fry the rava atleast for 5 minutes making sure its does not burn
8. Add chopped coriander leaves and stir it in along with 1 tspn of salt.  It maybe a good practice to add the salt to the water and tasting to make sure its salty enough.  I added about 1 tspn salt and it worked well but you might need a little more or less as per your taste.
9. Add the boiling water slowly stirring all the while.  Make sure you do this at medium to low fire because it tends to bubble and splatter and if not careful and you get it on your hand it stings and may even burn.   
10. Taste to make sure the semolina is cooked which it will in a couple of minutes
11.  The dish is kind of gluey and sets on cooling.  Serve hot with coconut chutney and pickle

Contributor: Sunitha