Winter Special Indian Semolina Kous  Kous

This is our own good old upma which is with a winter twist. I must here mention that I have started using whole black peppercorns after I ate the upma given to me by my friend and neighbour Anuradha. This is when I went to my mother's house at Bengaluru my hometown last winter. Anu and me always went for our walks and our typing classes on  early, misty, cold mornings as teenagers. We still meet even after 35 years of me being married in Mumbai, when I go there for my holidays. One early misty morning she comes calling me out quickly and hands over a box of upma, the tastiest one I have eaten in a long time. The taste of the ginger and the peppercorn is still fresh on my tongue. Thanks to her for the dish and here I am sharing my own winter special with Anu's added flavour!!
The greenish yellow colour of the dish is because of the green tomato paste and the turmeric powder.
When you bite into the peppercorns it is a different hit on your palate!!

I have used fresh green chick peas, fresh green pigeon peas, the regular evergreen peas and green tomatoes in this dish.

Ingredients
2 cups of semolina roasted in 3 tablespoons of clarified butter, a teaspoon of split black gram, a pinch of asafoetida a pinch of turmeric powder
 Paste of 1 green tomato, small piece of ginger and 3 green chillies
8 black peppercorns
1/4 cup of fresh green chick peas, 1/4 cup of fresh green pigeon peas, 1/4 cup of normal green peas
A few fenugreek cress leaves, mine is homegrown
Salt to taste 
1 tea spoon grated jaggery
Some fresh scraped coconut
Chopped coriander

Method
In a deep bottomed pan make a tempering of oil, mustard seeds, splutter them and add all the green pulses and the fenugreek cress, sprinkle little salt and water and cook covered for a while, then add water 5 cups, salt the jaggery, tomato paste, chopped coriander and let the water come to a boil, add the roasted semolina bit by bit stirring all the time to see that there are no lumps. Now add more salt if require, and a tablespoon full of clarified butter, mix well and keep to cook covered. After a while stir and check if cooked, serve garnished with freshly scraped coconut and coriander.