Pure comfort in a bowl

Oat Bran Ukad

I love oats, seriously I do. But I get bored of eating same old thing over and over again. I need variety. I have eaten cooked oats with Peanut Chutney, Gunpowder, leftover Amati, leftover tomato chutney, almost everything leftover. After doing that for months, I decided to try something new with oats. I often make oat bran upma on weekends, but I do not want to spend that much time on a busy weekday. But I crave for something nice and warm that has a very familiar taste. My husband just cooks oatbran in boiling water with pinch of salt and enjoy it with lemon pickle. Today's recipe, oatmeal ukad is derived from cooking oat bran in water and traditional Maharashtrian dish called ukad.

Ukad is very popular snack item in Konkan region and is extremely simple to make. Traditionally it is made with rice flour and buttermilk. Warm bowl of ukad with mango pickle and papad is comfort food for me. My variation of ukad is also healthy pure comfort in a bowl.

Lets see how I make it for single serving -

1/2-3/4 cup Oat Bran
1/4 cup Yogurt
2 cups water
2 Green Chilies
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 tsp Ginger Finely Grated
Salt per taste
Pinch of Sugar (optional)
For Tempering - 1 tsp Oil, 1/2 tsp Cumin, Mustard seeds, pinch of Hing, Few Curry leaves
Chopped Cilantro for Garnishing

Preparation -
Beat yogurt, add water and mix thoroughly to make Indian style buttermilk.
Smash garlic and run knife to roughly chop.
Chop green chilies fine or just slit them.
Heat oil in a thick bottom non reactive vessel, add cumin and mustard seeds. Then add curry leaves. Fry them for few seconds. Add chopped garlic and grated ginger and saute on low heat till garlic turns golden brown.
Lower the heat to minimum, add prepared buttermilk, add salt and sugar. Mix thoroughly.
Now carefully add 1/2 cup oat bran, mix well removing all the lumps.
Now increase heat to medium and start stirring constantly. Add little more oat bran 1/2 spoon at a time.
Mixture will start thickening. Cover for 5 minutes on lower heat. Consistency should be like cream of wheat/idly batter.
Garnish with chopped cilantro. Enjoy while its warm.

Tips -

1. You use rolled oats, quick cooking oats, Just use more water to cook.
2. This should be eaten immediately after its made. Reheating is not recommended. 
3. Even though I made it with dairy yogurt, it can easily be made with dairy free yogurt. 
4. You can mix oat bran and buttermilk together mix in salt and sugar and add this mixture to tempering to avoid lumps.