Navratri has begun, as people are set to observe it from September 22 to October 1, and with that many people will be fasting during this time of the year. While most people already know the dishes that they are going to indulge in, there are others, mostly those living on their own, who may need some help.
It is also the best time to indulge in dishes such as Sabudana Khichdi, Sabudana Wada, Sabudana Kheer, and Shrikhand too, says the maharaj at Khandani Rajdhani, as he shares recipes for them.
Sabudana Khichdi
Ingredients
Sabudana 1 1/2 cups
Peanuts 1/4 cup
Green chillies 4-5 chopped finely
Potato 1 medium
Ghee 3 tablespoons
Curry leaves 1-2 sprigs
Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
Rock salt to taste
Lemon juice 1 teaspoon
Coconut, scraped 2 tablespoons
Coriander leaves a few sprigs chopped
Method:
1. Wash sabudana and then soak in one-cup water for three to four hours.
2. Sabudana grains should be separate and moist.
3. Roast peanuts on a hot griddle, peel off the skin and then grind coarsely.
4. Peel and wash the potato and cut into cubes.
5. Heat ghee in a pan, add curry leaves, cumin seeds and chopped green chillies.
6. When cumin seeds crackle add the potato cubes.
7. Cook till the potatoes are done.
8. Add sabudana, scraped coconut and ground peanuts, sauté for four to five minutes, stirring well.
9. Sprinkle a little water, add salt and lime juice. Mix well.
10. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot
Sabudana Wada
Ingredients:
Sabudana 1 cup
Potato, medium, boiled 3 to 4
Peanuts 1/2 cup
Jeera 1 tsp
Green chillies, finely chopped 1-2 nos
Lime juice 2 tsp
Coriander leaves, few chopped
Sugar or as required 1.5 tsp
Kuttu ka atta 3 tbsp
Rock salt as per taste
Oil for frying
Method:
1. Soak the sabudana in water for 5 hours at least or overnight. Drain of all the water completely from the soaked sabudana.
2. In a bowl mash the potatoes and add sabudana; then mix together.On a skillet or in a shallow pan, roast the peanuts till they become crisp. Cool and then coarsely powder in a dry grinder.
3. Add the peanuts, rock salt, sugar, green chillies, coriander leaves and lemon juice. Mix the entire mixture well.
4. Now take some portion of the mixture in your hands and shape them into flat round vadas. Deep fry the sabudana vadas till golden brown. Serve sabudana vada with coconut chutney.
Sabudana Kheer
Ingredients (measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)
Tapioca pearls or sabudana – for a denser kheer 1/2 cup
Milk 4 cups
Organic unrefined cane sugar or as required 4 to 5 tbsp
Green cardamoms, husked and crushed in a mortar-pestle to a semi fine powder 4-5 gm
Chopped cashews 2 tbsp
Raisins 1/2 tbsp
Saffron strands/kesar (optional) 3-4
Method:
1. Rinse the sabudana pearls till the water runs clear of the starch.
2. Take a thick bottomed pan or sauce pan in which you will be making the kheer.
3. Add the rinsed sabudana pearls and water in the pan.
4. Cover and let the pearls get soaked in the water for 15-20 minutes.
5. Later keep this pan on the stove top and begin to cook the pearls.
6. Meanwhile heat or warm the milk too. No need to boil the milk.
7. After 4-5 minutes, add the milk to the pan and continue to cook.
8. Add sugar and cardamom powder and simmer till the pearls have cooked well for about 20-25 minutes on a low to medium flame.
9. Keep on stirring occasionally.
10. Switch off the fire and add cashews and raisins.
11. Garnish the sabudana kheer with saffron strands.
12. Serve sabudana kheer hot or warm or cold.
Shrikhand
Ingredients:
Hung Curd 1 cup
Sugar 1/2 cup
cardamom powder 1 tsp
Gulab Jal
Charoli 1 tsp
Dry fruits – almonds, pista, chopped 1 tbsp
Method:
1. Place a thin muslin cloth on a strainer and pour the curd over it and loosely cover it with the edges of the cloth. Refrigerate this and let the curd sit in The strainer for a minimum of 4-5 hrs.
2. Add sugar and mix well.
3. Pour the mixture in sieve to yield smooth shrikhand.
4. Add the elaichi, gulab jal, charoli, dry fruits and mix.
5. Serve chilled.
