Wholesome Bread Upma with Anaheim chillies

How does an Indian bread upma sound with a fiery Mexican twist?
First a little literature for those who are not familiar with "Upma". It is an Indian dish made of either cream of wheat, rice, vermicilli, cous-cous, or our very own stale (that which has lost freshness) bread.

It originated from the word "Uppu" meaning salt, and "Maavu" meaning flour (of any kind). I know it kind of sounds way too simplistic, but trust me... the name does not do justice to the dish. Sometimes it is even ridiculed for the simplicity of the dish!
It has a healthy amount of vegetables which depends on what the person who is making wants to add. So, it is a pretty flexible dish to prepare.

I am a big fan of anything spicy, so I have chosen a particular type of chilly for this which you may or may not be familiar... Anaheim peppers.
Anaheim peppers are stuffed or very often used in salsa, and refers to a milder variety of New mexican chili peppers. They can be bought fresh or canned. For this dish I prefer the fresh ones. You may want to remove the seeds if you cant take too much heat.

As far as the bread goes, I used the flourless whole wheat bread which is made from sprouted whole grains, you can find this in the speciality bread section of your grocery store or at Costco.

Wholesome Bread Upma

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flourless bread - 10-12 slices
Anaheim peppers - 3 medium (they are about 4-6 inches in length)
Red Onions - 1 medium diced
Ginger root - An inch finely chopped
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Urad dal - 1 tbsp (for seasoning only)
Curry leaves - A few
Salt - To taste
Ground black pepper - 1 tbsp
Light Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

You may or may not want to take the corners off the bread slices. It does not matter either way.
Break it up into pieces and pulse them in a blender or food processor till you get soft crumbs. No big pieces.

In a pan, heat the oil and add mustard seeds, urad dal, ginger and curry leaves till the seeds start to splutter.

Add the onions and saute till translucent. Then add the Anaheim peppers (chopped) and saute for another few minutes till it is tender.

Add the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and toss everything together, and let it cook for another 10-15 minutes in order to let the bread absorb all the flavors.
If it is too dry, you may sprinkle a little water. But this is not neccessary.



Garnish with some chopped cilantro and serve hot with coconut chutney.



Since the bread is made from flourless and sprouted whole grains, I am sending this off to Suganya's JFI – Oct ’08 – Whole Grains event and Aparna's WBB: "Grains in my Breakfast" event