Friday, November 25, 2011

Sabudana Khichdi

Phew!! I'm back on blogging again after a long while; I had been really busy visiting family and then traveling in the last 5 months, and the show is still on. I reached back Bangalore after a month of Diwali break at my in-laws place and the trip was so much full of fun and zeal. After returning, I just could not unpack my bags before my sweetheart again planned for a new trip and this post comes as my first one from this very beautiful land, perhaps nature's best selected habitat, called Africa. The luscious green farms, giraffes grazing on the roadsides, peacocks craving for your attention every morning, shivering breeze almost taking your breath off out of joy, and my tiny miny pie wandering in the whole campus making friends with pussies and laughing loud at them....awwww, what could be really more beautiful than this! :)
Now this post was actually supposed to be posted in October during the Navratri fasting, but better late than never, and who knows a good recipe could sometimes make you fall in love with fasts and you could just be inspired to do it in greed of this; well, I surely never did so coz I would grab some from my mom's plate who was religiously doing it for a fast! ;)


Preparation Time: 10 minutes (apart from soaking)
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Fun Fact:
Tapioca is a starch extracted from the root of plant species Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and most of the West Indies, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, bitter-cassava, manioc, mandioca, aipim, macaxeira, manioca, boba, tapioca plant, yuca ˈjuːka) (not to be confused with yucca). In India, the term 'Tapioca' is used to represent the root of the plant (Cassava), rather than the starch. In Vietnam, it is called bột năng. In Indonesia, it is called singkong. In the Philippines, it is called sago.
Tapioca is a staple food in some regions and is used worldwide as a thickening agent, mainly in foods. Tapioca is gluten-free, and almost completely protein-free. In Britain, the word tapioca often refers to a milk pudding thickened with arrowroot,[citation needed] while in Asia the sap of the sago palm is often part of its preparation

1. Sabudana/ Sago/ Tapioca pearls: 1 cup
2. Water
3. Tomatoes - 2 (finely chopped)
4. Green Chilly: 1(sliced)
5. Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
6. Rock salt/ Sendha Namak: As per taste
7. Ghee/ Oil: 3 tbsp
8. Coriander leaves

  1. Soak the sabudana/sago in warm water for 40-45 minutes. Though it entirely depends on the type of sabudana you have, because some stay hard even after soaking for an hour and some loose their shape and overdo in even 30 minutes, so be prepared for the way you have been handling it.
  2. Take ghee/oil in a pan and heat it. Add cumin seeds/ jeera to it followed by green chilly and tomatoes.
  3. Let it cook for 2 minutes till the ghee/oil separates.
  4. Now add sabudana (after draining the excess water) to it and then add salt.
  5. Stir well and cook for 5 minutes. 
  6. The sabudana being too starchy will surely love to stick to the bottom, so keep stirring to avoid the same, though some would still manage to do so even after all your hard labour. 
  7. Check if the sabudana is cooked by taking a small portion in a spoon and pressing it between your fingers ( but don't just get burnt in hurry!). If you still find it hard (the lazy ones as I said who don't go soft even after sleeping in water for so long), add a little water to it and cover for 2 minutes. Again check for the right consistency, else repeat the last step till you get it right. 
  8. Garnish with coriander leaves.
  9. Now waiting for what, just go and grab it! :))
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