Sabudana Khichdi

I have been itching to get back to the blog but there hasn't been much cooking going on these days because of health issues. We are having this Khichadi almost every day, not that we mind.

I am recovering now and so thought that I will get back to the one resolution I made this year, well not exactly a resolution but a change in the lifestyle you could say. Up until now I had never fasted, weekly or otherwise even though it is quite common in the household back home. One major reason is that I tend to have low blood sugar which makes it difficult for me to go without eating anything for a long time. The other reason being that I dont really believe in fasting for religious purposes, especially when you compensate by having a lot of other goodies.

And goodies they definitely are! All food items that can be consumed during a fast are invariably delicious. You could say this was part of the reason I finally decided to give it a go and will be trying to fast once a week. I had been doing this for 4 weeks before I fell ill and had to take a break. But I am getting back to it now mainly because I need a change from the normal routine food and look forward to savour the fasting goodies!

I call this the subdued version of ‘Sabudana Wada’ for the simple reason that the ingredients are almost the same but its not fried. As mentioned in my post for Sabudana Wada, the trick to making good Sabudana Khichdi is also soaking it right. Thats half your work done. all that remains is assembling and cooking.

 

Sabudana Khichdi

serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 cup sabudana
• 1 tblsp oil
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 2-3 Green chillies, slit lengthwise
• 1 medium sized potato, boiled and roughly cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup –1/2 cup roasted peanut powder
• salt

Method:

The first step of course is to soak the Sabudana. If you have the medium sized normal Sabudana you need to soak it for about 4-6 hours. If the the sabudana smaller in size, 20-30 minutes will be enough. Take the sabudana in a container and fill it with water so that the Sabudana is just immersed. Too much water will make it soggy while less water will mean dry sabudana.

Heat the oil in a kadai. Once hot, add the Cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add the chillies and fry for a minute.

Now add the boiled potato pieces and mix well to coat them with the oil.

Mix the peanut powder and salt together with the soaked Sabudana. Add this mixture to the cooking potato and mix well. Reduce the flame, cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes, stirring in between to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the kadai. Serve hot.

My Notes:  The usual method of making sabudana Khichdi is to mix the soaked sabudana, boiled potato, peanut powder, salt and green chilli paste together and then adding this mix to the oil & cumin seeds. But I find that this sometimes results in a soggy khichdi because of the over handling of the boiled potatoes. So I prefer to do it this way.

Also you can use Ghee instead of oil for the tempering and sprinkle some grated coconut on the khichadi.

Sabudana Wada

This one takes the record for being in the drafts for the longest time - almost a year! We must have had Sabudana Wadas at least 10-12 times after this was drafted. Every time I made them, I would sit with the laptop determined to publish it and everytime something or the other would happen (e.g not fitting in with the ongoing events!) and it would be pushed back. But now here it is finally!

Sabudana or sago is the major reason, I don't mind fasting once in a while! I am a huge fan of the khichdi and absolutely love the wadas. But I have almost never liked the Sabudana wadas I have had at the restaurants or food joints. They are either too chewy or too hard & crispy. Home made it is for me, where I can make them as per my liking.

The soaking time totally depends on the type of Sabudana, you have. The minute homoeopathy-medicine-like sabudana needs hardly 20 min of soaking whereas the normal medium sized seeds may need anywhere between 4-6 hours.

Sabudana Wada

Makes about 10 medium sized wadas

Ingredients

• 1 cup Sabudana
• 4-5 Green Chilies (or as per taste)
• 1/2 cup Peanuts
• 2 medium-small sized Potatoes, boiled & mashed
• Salt
• Oil for frying

Method:

Soak the Sabudana as per the type of Sabudana for 1/2 an hour or 4-6 hours to make them soft & fluffy.

Dry roast the peanuts and then remove the skin by rubbing them between your palms. Grind them coarsely, there should be some whole or halved peanuts remaining.

Chop the green chillies and make a coarse paste preferably using the pestle & mortar.

Combine in a bowl, the soaked Sabudana, mashed potatoes, ground peanut, green chillies and add salt. Mix together and divide into equal portions.

Shape these portions as desired (round, flat etc). Check that the mixture holds its shape and is neither too loose nor very dry. This is very important since if the mixture is crumbly, the wada will disintegrate in the hot oil, whereas if it is too wet, the resulting wada will not be crispy & cooked properly.

If the mixture turns very loose add some more mashed potatoes and make sure that it binds well. Also I prefer the flat shape to the round ones. The flat shape ensures that the inside of the wada gets cooked thoroughly when fried. With the round ones, the surface gets crisp but the insides sometimes remain undercooked.

While you are shaping the wadas, heat oil in a kadai. To check if the temperature is optimum, drop a pinch of the mixture in the hot oil, it should instantly come to surface floating and the sabudana in the mixture should puff up.

Reduce the flame to medium and drop the wadas. Turn the wada using a slotted spoon to fry uniformly. Once the surface is crispy & brown, remove on a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil.

Serve hot with Coconut chutney.

The coconut chutney served with Sabudana wadas is usually made with peanuts in it. For this grind together 1 cup grated coconut, 1/2 cup peanuts, 2-3 green chillies, salt & 1 tsp sugar with a little water to the desired consistency.

On another note, Trupti of Recipe Center has passed on the following awards to me:

Thanks a lot for your appreciation Trupti!