Sabudana khichdi

It is difficult for me to mention sabudana khichdi without my friends veena and vidya,and with them comes lots of memories of a joke shared over a coffee,a recipe exchanged over an evening phone call or a lunch had at ATITHI.

A bunch of great friend that they are  knowing how much I enjoyed southindian cuisine sometimes they got me a tiffin to take home filled with delicious lemon rice,tamarind rice,puliyogere rice,tomato rice,dosas with chutney powder,rave idli,upma,curd rice(my favourite), a variety of palyas and the list continues...

There comes the tricky part.Since childhood I have seen my mother never returning any neighbour's vessel or a friend's tiffin empty.She used  to return the vessel or tiffin filled with home cooked delicious dishes,sometimes if the person was in a hurry to take his/her tiffin and leave and there was no time to prepare anything, she used to fill it with chocolates but never empty.Having learnt that how could I return my dearest friends tiffin empty.So the solution-SABUDANA KHICHDI.

The first time I made it for veena's tiffin I was skeptical.I went ahead and made it anyways.At lunch time I returned the tiffin with much trepidition not wanting to see veena's reaction incase she is not found of sabudana khichdi(becasue hubby dear is not).To my relief and surprise she was much excited to see the "SABUDANA KHICHDI",infact I had not seen her this excited since finishing the herculean task of correcting lab papers of ACCESS :).So after that,it became a norm to return her tiffin with just and just sabudana khichdi.Enter vidya -she too liked it and most of the times I ended up returning her tiffin too with sabudana khichdi.

knowing that I have my food blog (which remains devoid of any posts most of the times) vidya has been insisting me since long to put up sabudana khichdi recipe,being a lazy bone that I am when it comes to blogging I have been avoiding it for as long as I remember :).

what made get out of my slumber and put this recipe? well two things :

First:Vidya requesting it yet again and

Second:I call up veena at bangalore from seattle after fifteen days,which is by our standards way too long not to talk and this is the first thing veena has to say:"I tried making sabudana khichdi and it turned out all lumpy,I miss your sabudana khichdi.."both of us burst out laughing and I had a hearty laugh with my friend after a long time,not because the sabudana khichdi was all lumpy but that she was missing sabudana khichdi more than anything else...
So here is it for my dearest friends VEENA and VIDYA.

Ingredients:

1.  1 cup sabudana.
2. 1/2 cup coarsely pound peanuts.
3. 2-3 green chillies.
4. 2 tbsp grated ginger.
5. 1 tbsp of lime juice.
6. 2 tbsp oil.
7. 1 tsp cumin seeds.
8. 1 tsp tumeric powder.
9. Salt and sugar to taste.
10. Chopped coriander leaves to garnish.

INGREDIENTS

Method:

1. Soak the sabudana in water for about 4-6 hours or overnight.
2. Drain excess water.
3. Add salt and tumeric to sabudana before cooking it,mix it lightly.
4. Heat the oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
5. Add green chillies when the cumin seeds start to crackle.
6. Toss sabudana in the pan.
7. Add ginger paste and lime juice,mix lightly.
8. Take care not to mix sabudana often.
9. Add the crushed peanuts(Add sugar to peanuts before crushing).
10. Garnish it with chopped coriander.

SABUDANA KHICHDI

Variation/Tip:

• Add sugar to the peanuts and then crush them,this will ensure sugar is powdered too.
• Most of the time if the water is in excess quantity while soaking the sabudana then,the sabudana khichdi turns lumpy.keep water just enough for them to puff up and become tender.Something like this:

WATER QUANTITY USED TO SOAK SABUDANA

SOAKED SABUDANA AFTER 4 HOURS

• Stirring sabudana khichdi all the time leads to a sticky sabudana khichdi.Hence it is always better to add salt and tumeric to the sabudana before cooking it:

SALT AND TUMERIC ADDED SABUDANA:This will go in to the pan.