Sabudana - Ni - Khichadi --- Its really not as hard as it looks!

In my previous entry Whats Been Going On In My Life , I had promised to write about the sabudana ni khichadi. So, over this past Memorial Day weekend, my gradmother had come over for a visit.. We've had a tradition of her teaching me something new to cook everytime she comes over.. This time, it was Sheera, Gol Papdi and Sabudana Ni Khichadi. Sabudana are also known as Pearl Sago and are used quite often in Gujarati and Marathi foods. One of things with sabudana is that if not soaked properly, they either remain very hard or they become slimy and sticky, and that is what would always make me think twice about even buying them. Anyway, my grandmother showed me the "trick" to perfect sabudanas, which is to soak them for atleast 2 hours! Shivani and Viraj had come over as well to hang out with us, so, even she got to learn the trick.. And rumour has it, that she indeed tried it out at home by herself and the result was awesome.. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but, without further ado, here is the recipe ..

Ingredients

1 cup sabudana
1 cup water
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
1 medium potato
1/4 tsp jeera
1 - 2 curry leaves
1/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsb finely chopped green chillies
1 tbsb corn oil
salt and hing to taste

Method:

1. The longest step in the preparation is soaking the sabudana. In a bowl, add 1 cup water to 1 cup of sabudana.
2. To this, also add 1/2 the ginger and 1/2 the chillies, 1/2 the salt.
3. Mix well and let this soak for ATLEAST 2 hours.
4. Meanwhile, start chopping the potatoes and peanuts
5. After about 1 1/2 hours of soaking, start heating the oil
6. Once the oil is hot, add the hing and curry leaves
7. As the curry leaves start to cook, add the jeera
8. When the jeera also starts to sputter, add the potatoes
9. Add the remaining ginger, chillies, salt and sugar.
10. Cook the potatoes covered for a good 15 to 20 minutes till they are tender.
11. Next, if its been 2 hours since the sabudana have been soaked, add them to the potatoes.
12. Also add the peanuts
13. Cook this for a few minutes (around 5 or so) so that all the flavors marry.
14. Serve this hot with buttermilk.

Vegetable Biryani - Oh the possibilities

The wonderful thing about this dish to me is that I can make it with whatever vegetables I have on hand.
Now, there is probably some official way to make it, but, I will tell you about my way..

Now, I often don't keep a lot of vegetables in the house. I don't end up cooking a lot and things tend to go bad, even if they are in the fridge ;-).. So, on a cold saturday afternoon, (the temperature was around 35 F), as I was looking for inspiration for lunch, I happened to come across some green and red bell peppers that were about to start growing furry things on them.. So, I decided to use them in my Veg Biryani.. As luck would have it, I also had a yellow onion and some green spring onions and carrots. I unfortunately didn't have any peas, potatoes, green chillies or cilantro, but, that didn't stop me. Here's the "Recipe" I used :

Ingredients:

1/2 medium yellow onion chopped
2 springs of green onion chopped
1/2 red bell pepper chopped
1/2 green bell pepper chopped
1/2 carrot chopped
1/2 cup rice
2 tsp oil
1 tsp butter
1 tsp biryani masala
1/4 tsp cummin seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida (Hing)
1/2 tsp grated ginger
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups of water
2 sprigs cilntro (for garnish)

1. Heat up the butter in the pot that you are going to use to make the rice.
2. When the butter starts to melt, add the cummin seeds
3. Wait for the cummin seeds to sputter slightly

4. Then add rice. Sauteé the rice for couple seconds till it turns translucent
5. Add water
6. Let it cook for about 15 - 20 minutes. I like to have the rice left "Al Dente" - slightly undercooked as it will cook when mixed with the veggies
7. In another pan, heat up the oil
8. Add Hing when the oil is sufficiently hot. The Hing should sizzle a little when added
9. Add the two types of onions and sauteé them for couple minutes

10. Add the peppers and carrorts and let them cook for a while.
11. Once the veggies are sligtly tender, add the biryani masala, ginger and salt to it and mix well and let the flavors marry.
12. Let this cook on medium heat for a few minutes (Approx. 5 minutes). Stir every mintue or so, to make sure that nothing stick to the bottom of the pan.
13. Once the veggies are tender, add the cooked rice to it and mix well.
14. Let this cook for another couple minutes or so.
15. At this point the biryani is cooked are ready to be served.
16. Garnish it with Cilantro (which I didn't have and wished that I did!)

I ate this with "chundo", a sweet gujarati mango pickle. But, I would have ideally liked to eat it with some form of raita. All in all, it came out pretty good. Now, if you didn't have these veggies, you could add anything you have at home. You can also add chicken to make it chicken biryani!!