Telugu Foods

Telugu Foods Bombay Rava, also sold as upma rava, is coarse wheat semolina, the granular flour left after the bran is removed. It is unroasted, so it needs a few minutes in a dry pan before it goes into a dish, and it cooks into distinct grains rather than a paste when the water ratio is right.

Best for

• Upma with onion, green chilli and curry leaves
• Rava dosa and rava idli
• Kesari, sheera and halwa

How to cook it

Dry roast the rava on medium heat for four or five minutes until it smells nutty and the grains move freely, then set it aside; skipping this is the usual reason upma turns to porridge. For upma, use one part rava to two and a half parts boiling water, add the rava in a steady stream while stirring constantly to stop lumps forming, then cover and cook on low heat for three to four minutes. For halwa, keep the same ratio but use milk or a milk and water mix.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container.

Telugu Foods Roasted Wheat Rava Fine is fine wheat semolina that has already been roasted, so the step most people skip or rush at the stove is done. Being fine rather than coarse, it cooks quickly and gives a softer, smoother result, and being pre-roasted it is far less likely to turn into a lumpy mass.

Best for

• Quick weekday upma
• Kesari, sheera and rava halwa
• Rava kesari-style sweets and rava ladoo

How to cook it

There is no need to roast it again, though thirty seconds in a dry pan does no harm. For upma, bring two and a half parts water to a rolling boil with salt, then pour in one part rava in a thin stream while stirring without stopping, which is the only reliable way to avoid lumps. Cover and cook on the lowest heat for three minutes, then rest it off the heat for two more. For halwa, use milk in place of water and add the sugar after the rava has absorbed the liquid.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container.

Telugu Foods Rice Rava is coarsely broken rice, the granular rice used where a recipe wants the grain to hold its shape but cook in minutes rather than the better part of an hour. It cooks softer and stickier than wheat rava, and being pure rice it is naturally gluten-free.

Best for

• Rice rava upma and uppudu pindi
• Idli batter made with urad dal
• Rice porridge and simple breakfast dishes

How to cook it

For upma, temper mustard seeds, chana dal, green chilli and curry leaves in oil, add two and a half parts boiling water to one part rava with salt, then pour the rava in slowly while stirring so it does not clump. Cover and steam on the lowest heat for five to six minutes until the grains are soft and no water sits at the bottom. For idli batter, soak the rava for twenty minutes, squeeze out the water, and fold it into ground urad dal before fermenting.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container.

Telugu Foods Guntur Red Chilli is the long dried red chilli that Andhra cooking is built on, and it is hot in a way that the milder Kashmiri chilli beside it on the shelf is not. Whole chillies keep their heat and aroma far longer than ground powder, so buying them whole and grinding as needed is worth the extra minute.

Best for

• Andhra curries, pappu and vepudu
• Pickles, podi and chutney powders
• Grinding into fresh chilli powder

Using it

Break or snip the chillies and shake out the seeds if you want colour and flavour without the full heat, since most of the heat sits in the seeds and the pale ribs. For a tempering, fry one or two whole in hot oil with mustard seeds for a few seconds only, until they darken slightly; let them blacken and the whole dish turns bitter. To grind, dry roast on low heat until brittle, cool completely, then grind. Start with fewer than a recipe suggests and adjust.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight jar away from light.

Telugu Foods Wheat Rava Coarse is broken wheat at a coarse grind, closer to cracked grain than to fine semolina, and it keeps the bran. It cooks to a firmer, chewier result than Bombay rava and takes longer to soften, which is why it suits savoury pots and breakfast porridges rather than delicate rava dosa.

Best for

• Godhuma upma and savoury broken-wheat dishes
• Wheat rava pongal and khichdi with moong dal
• Sweet or savoury breakfast porridge

How to cook it

Rinse once and drain. In a pressure cooker, use one part rava to three parts water and cook for two or three whistles, then let the pressure drop on its own. In an open pot it needs closer to four parts water and fifteen to twenty minutes of simmering, topped up as it thickens. Temper mustard seeds, chana dal, green chilli and curry leaves in oil first and add the drained rava to that, so the grains take on the flavour as they swell.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight container.

Telugu Foods Sakinalu is the Telangana festival snack: rice flour worked with sesame seeds and ajwain, piped into loose coils and deep fried until hard. This is the spicy version, so there is a clear chilli warmth behind the sesame. It is a substantial, brittle snack that shatters rather than crumbles, and the sesame is what people recognise it by.

Best with

• Tea or filter coffee
• Sankranti and other festival snack plates
• An evening snack with something plain alongside
• Sending to family, since it travels well

Pack and storage

130g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening. Sakinalu are fragile, so keep the pack somewhere it will not be knocked about, and move them to a rigid airtight container once opened to hold the crunch.

Telugu Foods Kashmiri Chilli is the whole dried chilli used for deep red colour rather than heat. It is noticeably milder than a Guntur chilli, which is why it is what goes into tandoori marinades, rogan josh and butter chicken, where the dish needs to look red without becoming too hot to eat.

Best for

• Tandoori marinades and tikka
• Rogan josh, butter chicken and other North Indian gravies
• Colouring pickles, chutneys and chilli pastes

Using it

Soak four or five chillies in hot water for twenty minutes and grind them to a smooth paste; a wet paste releases far more colour into the oil than dry powder does. Fry the paste in the oil at the start of the gravy until the oil takes on the colour, which is the step that makes the difference. For a tempering, use them whole and lift them out before they darken. Mix them with a hotter chilli when you want both colour and heat.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening, in an airtight jar away from light.