Friday Night's Tiffin " Uggani"

Uggani or Buggani or Borugula Upma has been the one favorite thing that always tops my list of tiffins. My kid brother couldnot pronounce it as is, and had nicknamed it 'Pungani', and everyone at home used to ask mom to make pungani every week then. As kids we loved the rubbery texture of the wet borugulu or Puffed rice, also the mild sweetness given by the onion and the pappula mixture made it so very yummy. I never thought Uggani could be found outside Rayalaseema region, but it was a pleasant surprise to find it at Silparamam in Hyderabad. I might have not made it so often here in my kitchen had it not been for my uggani mad husband's insistent requests. Some tastes, I have noticed change as we age, but this one thing among few others never tastes any different than it tasted since I started eating Uggani. So here I am with the delicious yet simple Uggani recipe.

What you will need:
Borugulu/ puffed rice/ murumuralu 4 cups (good for 2 people)
Medium sized onion: slit length wise
Pappulu/ Putnala pappu/ Fried chana dal: 2 tbspns
Endu Kobbera/ Dried Coconut: 2 tbspns
Green Chillies: 7-8
Salt: as needed
Turmeric: Just a pinch

For the vata ( tiragamata/seasoning)
Mustard seeds: 1 tspn
Curry leaves: 5-6 no
Oil: 2 tbspn

• Powder pappulu and endu kobbera and salt.
  
• Slit the green chillies into half (alternately you can always make a green chilli paste)
• Soak borugulu in lots of water for about 5 minutes and then drain the water from them by squeezing. They might appear all pressed but they will be fine. Just make sure you donot soak them for longer than mentioned.
• Now take the oil in a frying pan, may be a deep pan and add the mustard seeds followed by curryleaves when the oil is hot enough.
  
• Add onions and chillies and fry them for a while till they are crisp and light brown but not too brown. Add salt and turmeric at this point.
• Now add the soaked borugulu and just mix everything in the pan, and then add the pappula powder to the puffed rice. Turn off the heat and mix all the ingredients well.

So that is it your Uggani is ready to be savoured.