On Hindu fast days, many families set aside grains, lentils, onion and garlic, and cook instead from a short list of permitted foods. A Navratri guide from the Radha Krishna Temple lists among them “sabudana (tapioca pearls)”, potatoes and milk, with rock salt in place of ordinary salt. What is excluded varies a great deal between regions, communities and households, and this recipe is not written to anyone’s rules: if you are keeping a fast, your own tradition decides.
Sabudana khichdi is the best-loved thing made from that list, and it suits a store cupboard remarkably well. Sabudana is almost pure starch. In India it is made from cassava, and a University of Greenwich report found “the majority of cassava starch and sago production in India” centred on Salem in Tamil Nadu. It keeps a year in the bag, weighs little, and cooks in minutes once soaked.
The soak is the whole technique. Get it right and every pearl is soft, separate and translucent. Get it wrong and you have glue. The temple’s instructions are to rinse “until the water runs clear”, soak two to three hours, and drain completely.
- Rinse the sago in a sieve until the water runs clear. Put it in a bowl and add just enough water to cover it, no more. Soak 2 to 3 hours. Press a pearl between your fingers: it should squash flat with no hard white centre.
- Drain thoroughly and spread it out to dry off for ten minutes. Wet pearls stick.
- Crush the nuts roughly. Drain the potatoes, pat them dry and cut them into small cubes.
- Heat the oil in a wide pan and fry the potatoes until they colour at the edges, about five minutes.
- Add the cumin and chilli for ten seconds, then the sago and the nuts. Toss gently over a medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes, until the pearls turn translucent. Stir as little as you can: every stir is a chance to mash them.
- Off the heat, lemon juice and salt to taste.
Eat it straight away. It goes rubbery as it cools.
Serves 2.