Cabbage Kabab (Super Healthy, Super Tasty!)

Super healthy and super tasty kababs for vegetarians. Don't let the cabbage discourage you! The cabbage and potato mixture make these kababs super moist, succulent. Since I  steam-cook the cabbage almost three-fouth, before adding other ingredients, it has a creamy texture and there is no way anyone will guess whats inside!!  It's a must try!

By the way it's my mom's recipe with a slight twist! While she cuts her cabbage a little coarser to have a distinct taste of crispy cabbage, I like mine very very fine (almost minced) to lend a creamier texture and taste. She makes them like patties/ cutlet shapes (to keep them crispier uniformly) and avoids cornflour, while I make mine round so that I get a succulent centre and crispy exterior. Feel free to try my mom's version too as a variety, just chop the cabbage a little coarse and shape them like patties and skip the corn flour. It tastes good too!!

You need:

Very finely grated cabbage - 1 Cup

Boiled potato - 1 medium size (grated fined)

Onion - 1 medium (chopped very very fine)

Roasted cumin powder - 1 tsp 

Green chilies - 2-3 nos. (fine chopped, adjust to taste)

Fresh coriander leaves/Cilantro - 1/2 cup (chopped fine)

Fresh mint leaves - 5-6 nos. (fine chopped)

Fresh ground pepper - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp (adjust to taste)

Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp (adjust to taste)

Corn flour - 1/2  Tbsp

Gram flour - 1/2 Tbsp

Aamchoor/ Dry mango powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 2 Tbsp (or enough to pan fry)

1. Add a tsp of water to the cabbage and pop it in the microwave oven for 2-3 min. (squeeze out if any excess water remains). You can alternatively cook it in a non-stick pan without adding any water till its cooked three-fourth. The objective is to cook it before making the kabab so that it remains soft, moist and creamy. 
2. Mix all the ingredients other than oil and mix really well so that the kabab mix is homogenous.
3. Cover with a cling wrap and keep it in the refrigerator for 15-20 min. This makes the mixture firm enough to not crumble while cooking. 
4. After 15-20 minutes if you feel the mixture is not firm enough to stay intact while cooking add a little more gram flour to the mixture. Add just enough to hold it as adding more flour would make it less succulent and soft. 
5. Form balls and cook on a non-stick pan with just enough oil to coat the kababs and fry till golden brown in color. The heat should be medium high in the beginning and then low so that exterior gets a little crispy from outside and still stays soft from inside.
6. Transfer to a plate and serve with mint chutney!

* To make roasted cumin owder - slow roast on a pan and crush in a mortar pestle or spice blender)

Mushroom - Spinach Sandwich

Ok, I confess! I am not a big sandwich fan. If you are like me who considers it a health food and avoids too much cheese, deep fired patties and too much mayonnaise between your bread, you will know what I mean when I say, sandwiches are blah! But I have always managed to make some varieties at home which make me repeatedly say 'ok, this is the last bite I am going to eat as I am full' and still eat some more. One of them being the Mushroom-Spinach sandwich. The nutty taste of mushroom with hearty spinach goes so well together. Mushroom gives a nice bite to it, while the spinach cooked in garlic and spring onions makes it creamy. The colored peppers give a burst of colors that will make even kids ask for more and more! This nutrient packed sandwich is for everyone! Feel free to add fresh corn kernels, or any other veggie of your choice!

While any bread is good to make this sandwich, there is nothing like fresh Ciabatta. However, I prefer to make my own flat bread for this one and feel it's worth the effort!. And, why exactly do I prefer making my own bread? Well,  I don't like sandwich made with store-bought toasted bread, as it gets too crispy and you spend more time chewing the bread than enjoy what's inside. The un-toasted bread feels too bland and soft. And then there is nothing like a nice soft bread that is slightly crispy from outside and still fluffy, spongy inside!

Infact, I use the same dough in a loaf pan to make white bread! Eating fresh from the oven, home made bread is such a joy. Slather home made jam, or cream cheese or plain butter or just have it plain!

But don't worry, if you don't want to make your own bread, use any fresh bread from your favorite deli and this sandwich will still taste awesome!

You need:

For the filling:
Button Mushrooms - 1/2 Cup (cleaned and sliced)
Baby Spinach - 1 Cup
Onion - 1/2 Medium size (thinly sliced)
Capsicum/ Colored Peppers - 1/2 (sliced)
Olive Oil - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Freshly crushed pepper - 1/4 tsp
Cheddar cheese - 2 slices (use any kind you prefer, I used the non-fat variety)
Sweet corn kernels - 1/4 cup (optional)

For the bread:

All purpose flour/ Maida – 2 ¾ cup

Rice flour – ¼ cup

Boiled potato – ½ cup (reserve water used to boil the potatoes to replace water for kneading the dough )

Salt – 1.5 tsp

Oil – 2 Tbsp

Warm buttermilk – ½ cup (replace with a mixture of 1/4 cup yogurt with 1/4 cup water)

Honey – 3 Tbsp

Yeast – 1.5 tsp

Water – ½ cup (adjust the water you get from boiling the potatoes to make 1/2 cup)

Sugar - ½ tsp

Making the Bread:

1. Mix sugar and active dry yeast in luke warm water (105-110 F) and keep it aside for 7-10 min. By the end of 7-10 min, the mixture should be frothy and this indicates that the yeast is active. Make sure the water is not too hot as yeast dies when subjected to high heat.
2. Combine all other ingredients, knead till smooth and springy, 5-10 minutes by hand or food procesor.The dough should be sticky, soft and spongy, but if it is way too sticky to handle, add a little flour to knead. But remember the dough is supposed to be sticky and soft, so ad flour only if you feel the dough is unmanageable without adding any extra flour. (The quantity of flour and water I have given should ideally be what you need) This should take upto 10 min as it needs to form gluten to make a nice fluffy bread.
3. Cover with bowl with a cling wrap and let rise till doubled, approx 1.5 hours.
4. Gently deflate dough, shape into balls and flatten them with your fingers to make 1/2 inch high rectangles of 8x4 inch dimensions.
5. Place into greased pans and leave until nicely risen but not over-proofed, approx. 35-45 minutes.
6. Pre-heat the oven at 375 F (pre-heating takes 10-15 min) and bake for 20 min or until the downward facing side is golden brown.
7. Turn sides and bake for another 10 min. 

Making the filling:

1. In oil add chopped garlic and for 1-2 minutes will the oil is infused with garlic flavor.
2. Add the onions and fry till translucent. 
3. Add the mushrooms, spinach and capsicum/colored peppers and saute for 3-4 min. Add sweet corn kernels at this stage if you are using them too.
4. Add salt pepper switch off.

To assemble the sandwich:

1. Add the filling to one half a side of the freshly baked bread. Then add the cheese on top of the filling and fold the second side over.
2. On a pan toast both sides gently so that the cheese melts slightly or just pop in microwave oven for 15 sec to melt the cheese.
3. Serve hot!

Phyllo Cup Appetizers - A Gourmet Finger Food

Ever since I discovered Phyllo sheets, have gone bonkers making so many of those finger licking food with crispy wraps - Phyllo cups with savory fillings, Baklava, Chicken rolled in phyllo, variety of Cheese wrapped in phyllo, Samosa stuffing in phyllo, Chocolate in phyllo and so on. Somehow the crispy buttery taste of phyllo goes so well with just about everything. 


Wrap anything you love (of course I meant food ingredients you silly! :)), bake for 10-15 min and you have a speciality of your own!

I made some elegant looking finger food, perfect for a cocktail party. Couldn't resist and ended up making Phyllo Cup Desserts - A Gourmet Finger Food too! When you want to serve your guests something bite size, so that they could taste a variety of  stuff without getting an overdose, this is a perfect option! It looks awesome when displayed on an elegant looking tray, just like gourmet tasting sessions! No one will guess it was so easy to make!! (Just hope my friends who were raving about all my hard-work in making these bite size delicacies are not reading this! :) ) 

You can also make these phyllo cups well in advance and store them in an air-tight container. And then just before your party starts fill them up! If you have something that has a lot of syrup or juice, fill the stuffing just before the guests arrive. You don't want your guests to mistake it to cold  steamed dimsums! :)

This is how Phyllo cups look like in a muffin tray.

You need:

Phyllo dough/ sheet ( found in any Grocery store) 

Melted butter - approx. 1 tbsp

Small muffin tray 

How to make Phyllo Cups:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
2. Place a phyllo sheet on a flat surface. Brush melted butter all over the side facing up, using a pastry brush.
3. Place the next sheet on top of this sheet. 
4. Repeat with butter application and one more sheet. So total of 3 layers of phyllo sheets with melted butter in-between, is what you are looking at. 
5. Now cut these layered  phyllo sheets into 2.5 inch x 2.5 inch squares. 
6. Place one square over another in such a way that it forms an eight end star. Ie; don't place one square on top of another, but a little dispersed so that it looks like a star/ flower and does the job of a cup once placed inside the cups of the muffin tin.
7. Lightly grease the muffin tray. Now place sheet on the cup of a  muffin tin and push the centre so that it forms a cup.
8. Now bake it for 7 min or until its golden brown. 
9. Flip the cups gently and bake for 2-3 more minutes so that the base too becomes crispy.  
10. Now they are ready to be filled with anything you fancy!

Ideas for the Filling:

• Soft brie cheese with olive
• Hummus with pine nuts or pomegranate seeds. 
• Mango Salsa – Chopped mango tossed with fine chopped red chilies, parsley, salt, lime juice and sugar. 
• Cooked shrimps/ prawns tossed with thousand island dressing
• Chopped boiled potatoes with mint chutney and a tsp of yogurt to make it into an Indian chat
• Tomato salsa
• Chopped boiled egg with chives, salt and pepper. 
• And whatever you fancy.  There are no set rules!

*Use only unsalted butter and please don't use any other spread or vegetable spread. I tried to avoid butter and instead decided to use melted vegetable spread that tastes like butter. I melted the spread in a dish and soon had a film of vegetable oil floating on water. The phyllo sheets got only water between the layers and I ended up with a sticky gooey baklava instead of the flaky layers. I had to redo to perfect it! :(

** Try using an organic phyllo dough. Keep them frozen till you are ready to make your cup cakes. These sheets thaw in minutes. Keep a moist kitchen towel handy to cover the those sheets which are in the queue.

Egg Patty

Here comes something all eggitarians will love! I have many friends who enjoy eating eggs but don't get many varieties of egg-based snack/ appetizer at home or while eating out. This has a nice mild taste of an egg, even though you never feel you are biting into one. A bite and it will leave you guessing – where's the egg! These nice crisp golden brown bites are heavenly!

This patty is supposed to be deep fried, but nah, that's way too much oil! Pan fried with a little oil works just fine! Remember, always try adding ajwain/carrom seeds when you are using besan/ gramflour to fry something. They compliment each other and at the same time have digestive properties. You will not experience the typical heaviness after gorging on fried stuff if you add the ajwain. 

For your next party, you can make them in different shapes and sizes for a pretty looking appetizer tray! I am posting two pics. One to show you the texture and second one to show you shapes you can try making. But don't worry if the shapes don't come out perfect, the egg patty will still be delectable! Serve it with some hot spicy chili sauce! A word of caution here – always keep some distance from the pan as you fry them, since the eggs just pop a little bit as they turn golden brown. Don't let this scare you, it's all easy and safe, just that a word of caution for a safe kitchen! :)

You need:

(makes 10-12 pcs)

Large boiled eggs – 5-6 nos. (see my note below for a perfectly boiled egg)

Besan/ Gramflour – ¾ Cup

Ajwain/ Carrom seeds – ¼ tsp

Salt – to taste

Green chilies – 2-3 nos. (finely chopped)

Spring Onions – 5-6 nos.  (finely chopped, use both white and green part)

Crushed black pepper – ¼ tsp 

Baking Soda - 1/8 tsp

Water – 2 Tbsp

Oil – enough to pan fry (I used 1 tbsp for a batch of 6 patties in total f)

1. In a wide bowl, grate boiled eggs using a thick side of the grater. Don't use the fine grater as the eggs will get mashed up and the patties will not have any texture. If you don't have a thick grater, fine chop the eggs instead.
2. Add besan, ajwain, salt, green chilies, spring onions, black pepper and baking soda. Add very very little water, just about 2 tbsp of water. This should be enough to bind the ingredients as the egg yolk is sticky enough already.   You may add 1 tsp of water at a time to adjust the consistency of the patty mixture if its still too dry.
3. Divide the mixture into 12 equal parts. Shape them any way you like! 
4. In a non-stick pan, heat 1 Tbsp of oil and fry the patties till golden brown in color. Cook them on medium high so that they cook through and also have a golden brown crispy exterior.
5. Serve with spicy chili sauce, red or green, I leave it to your discretion. :)

Egg Puff

I grew up eating these egg puffs! Almost all bakeries in Bangalore sell them, but some of them are special!

A quick note on my special relationship with the local bakeries- Those tiny bakeries, their tiny cakes, tiny cream rolls and tea/coffee in tiny glasses. Everything so tiny and unpretentious! And that's exactly what makes them so special! But my dad stopped liking these tiny bakeries, ever since the afternoon he spotted me and my sister (Renu) sitting on the steps of one such bakery, gorging on one of those egg puffs as we sipped our tea. The issue wasn't really their product, but the company of all those construction workers frequenting that place. Dad drove past the bakery, somehow spotted us, even though we tried really hard to hide our faces behind the egg puff and tea. Anyways, he screeched his breaks in disbelief as we both smiled back innocently!! He signaled us to get into the car and we signaled back telling him that puff and tea wasn't over yet! Rest as they say is history!

Such bakeries are very close to my heart. Time would slide by doing TP (time-pass) with friends on a rainy day, infact any day! Hours would be spent discussing crazy ground breaking ideas, silly jokes, gossip, movies, sports and what not. And all this over freshly baked egg puffs and tea.

Ok back to the egg puffs. I like the crispness of the puff and then the softness, gooeyness of the egg in the center. While egg has the sweetness, onion masala lends to the spice! I have rarely stopped at just one! And if you have the puff pastry sheet in stock, you are one lucky person because you are merely 15 min. away from this irresistible snack!! Super easy!

You need: 

(makes 4)

Boiled egg -  2 nos. (shells removed and cut into half)

Puff pastry sheets – 4 nos., each sheet 3 inch x3 inch (Thawed completely)

Onions – 2 medium size (thinly sliced)

Coriander powder – ½ tsp

Red chili powder – ¼ tsp

Tomato paste – 1 tsp 

Salt to taste

Crushed black pepper- ¼ tsp

Oil – 1 tsp

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 F.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add the sliced onions, salt. Fry for a min. 
3. Add coriander powder, chili powder and crushed black pepper. 
4. Add the tomato paste and fry till all the moisture is gone. If there is a lot of moisture, the portion where the stuffing is in contact with the puff pastry, will be soggy. 
5. Let the stuffing cool to room temperature. 
6. Now take the pastry sheet and place the stuffing on it. 
7. Put the flat side of the egg on top of the stuffing. Fold the sides of the pastry sheet and pinch them to make them all stick together.
8. Pop them into freezer for 5 min. 
9. Take them out and lightly coat them with oil or milk to get a nice golden color. 
10. Bake in the oven for 10 min or until golden brown.
11. Serve with chili sauce or tomato ketchup. 

*To get perfectly boiled eggs, bring water to a boil. Gently add the eggs and boil with lid on for

3 min. Switch off the heat and let the eggs stay in the water for 13 min. Boils perfectly. 

**You can also make an egg puff without any onion masala. Just stuff the egg and season it will salt pepper and chaat masala. 

***You can stuff cooked vegetables too to make veg puffs

****These puffs can be folded any way you like. You could either stick just two opposite sides together and keep other two open, or close all sides or even fold it like an envelope. 

Phyllo Cup Desserts - A Gourmet Finger Food

Well, now here's the proof that I have really fallen in love with the Phyllo dough/sheets! I initially started with Phyllo Cup - Appetizers and ended up making Phyllo Cup - Desserts too! 

These bite size devils. give you ample opportunity to taste lot's of desserts and finally pick your favorites and gorge on them! Just the game begin with these tiny bites that maybe gooey, or fruity or cheesy or crunchy or creamy or plain simple irresistible bursts of flavor !! :)

You can fill anything you fancy. Just let your imagination drive you crazy!

You can see in my other post "Phyllo Cup Appetizers - A Gourmet Finger Food". The steps for making the Phyllo cups are exactly the same and I have mentioned it again here (at the bottom of the post) for your easy reference.  

Ideas for the Filling:

• Whipped cream topped with strawberry jam/preserve or even fresh strawberry. 
• Ricotta cheese with fresh chopped berries like blueberries, strawberries, mango
• Chopped banana with cream or nuts
• Melted chocolate topped with nuts.
• Custard of your choice.
• Flavored yogurt with chopped fresh fruits.
• Chocolate chips drizzled with caramel

I could just go on and on!!

*How to make phyllo cups: 

You need: Phyllo dough/ sheet ( found in any Grocery store), Melted butter - approx. 1 tbsp, Small muffin tray 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
2. Place a phyllo sheet and apply melted butter all over the side facing up using a pastry brush.
3. Place the next sheet on top of this sheet. 
4. Apply butter all over the second sheet making sure there are no big air bubbles in between. Repeat this step to add one more layer. So total of 3 layers of phyllo sheets is what you are looking at. 
5. Now cut these layered  phyllo sheets into 2.5 inch x 2.5 inch squares. 
6. Place one square over another in such a way that it forms an eight end star. Ie; don't place one square on top of another, but a little dispersed so that it looks like a star/ flower and does the job of a cup once placed inside the cups of the muffin tin.
7. Lightly grease the muffin tray. Now place sheet on the cup of a  muffin tin and push the centre so that it forms a cup.
8. Now bake it for 7 min or until its golden brown. 
9. Flip the cups gently and bake for 2-3 more minutes so that the base too becomes crispy.  
10. Now they are ready to be filled with anything you fancy!

**As mentioned in my previous post - You can also make these phyllo cups well in advance and store them in an air-tight container. And then just before your party starts fill them up! If you have something that has a lot of syrup or juice, fill the stuffing just before the guests arrive.

Rava Dosa - Restaurant style (South Indian Crispy Savory Crêpe)

Have you ever wondered how those Rava Dosas in restaurants have that beautiful net like texture. Well, I discovered that recently! I know, some of you may already know the trick, but coming from a North Indian family (where Idli, Dosas were the weekend highlights!) meant limited access to those secrets and tips. There was no Internet and google search my mom could depend on like we all do. She still keeps reminding me how lucky we are to have all this information at our finger tips, while in their times it was only friends, books, magazine and of course the Trial & Error method! :)

Still remember as a kid, mom painstakingly making dosa and idli from scratch. For Sunday breakfast, preparation would start from Friday! - The soaking, grinding and fermenting. I used to be so impatient to try some dosas, would pester mom to make at least an uttapam (soft savory pancakes with vegetables) soon after the batter was made. Mom would keep telling me to hold on till the batter ferments, but me-being-me, would not listen and get it my way. Oh, I can't stop writing stories and my life around food, can I!

OK so back to the recipe. This is super quick, super easy. Go ahead and treat yourself to some nice homemade, hot rava dosas – with texture and taste – restaurant style!

Just add onions to make an onion rava dosa, or stuff masala after it is ready to make a rava masala dosa! 

You need:

Maida/ All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup

Rice flour – 1 Cup

Rava/ Suji/ Semolina – 1 Cup

Ginger – 1 tsp (very fine chopped or grated)

Green chilies – 1tsp (very fine chopped)

Cumin – 1tsp

Crushed Pepper – 1 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp (adjust to taste)

Hing – ¼ tsp (I know a lot of you may not like hing, but it does make a difference here)

Fresh coriander/ Cilantro – handful (fine chopped, try using only the leaves, but that's OK! :) )

Dry grated coconut – 2 tsp (optional)

Buttermilk/ Curd – optional

Onion – 1 medium (finely chopped)

Ghee (clarified butter) or Oil – as much or less as you like. :)

1. Mix all ingredients other than Ghee/Oil and Onions (last two from the list of ingredients above)
2. Add water and make a very thin batter. Almost that of buttermilk consistency. Don't worry, rava dosa batter does in fact look like the buttermilk you get in south indian darshinis!
3. Ok, now to making the dosa restaurant style, heat a nonstick tava/ griddle.
4. Uniformly spread some chopped onions (depending how much you would like) on the tava. Skip if you don't like onions in your rava dosa.
5. Hold the bowl containing the batter close to the griddle (this is to avoid messing your kitchen counter and stove top as the batter is too thin, but please keep safe distance!). Now scoop out the batter in the cup of your palms and sprinkle over hot griddle. Yes, just keep scooping and sprinkling till the entire tava is covered, and that is the only way you will get that nice net like texture. (If it is not a non stick pan , spray non-stick spray ,wipe clean and sprinkle the batter, but this would mean a lot of effort !).
6. Cook on medium high flame. Don't add the oil/ ghee immediately and wait for a while for the dosa to cook a little. This trick makes  it nice golden brown and crispy! And remember, this dosa takes a little longer than regular dosas to get that golden brown color, so be patient. And don't worry about the dosas breaking, they will eventually hold very well once cooked.
7. I have found a nice way to stop my dosas from falling apart. After spreading the dosa, I trickle some batter along the circumference as if joining the edges with dots. And this stopping the net texture from breaking when you are removing the dosas.
8. Serve hot with pickle, or chutney. 

*Please mix the batter with a whisk. I know some of you may be too lazy to use a whisk but trust me it makes the whole process so risk free of those annoying lumps. Last thing you want to do in this quick recipe is searching for lumps and removing them! Use a whisk, in fact for any recipe that requires making a batter, it will save you a whole lot of unwanted effort. Stressing on this of course means I have been lazy before and learnt it the hard way :)

** You can use potato stuffing, the same one you use in masala dosa to make a nice rava masala dosas.  

Sabudana Khichri/ Upma (Sago/Tapioca Pearl Snack)

 A popular breakfast or snack that has a very nice balanced taste of sweet (sugar), salt, tang (lime juice) and heat (green chilies). As you bite into this crunchy yet moist savory dish, all these tastes unfold one by one.

There is one doubt I have always had - why is it called khichdi (gooey sticky porridge), and why not upma (dry granular porridge) because, both preparation and texture is more like upma. Never mind, it tastes good and that's what matters.

In different states of India, its prepared differently. In fact it is a very popular dish eaten during religious fasting. If you are making this for someone who is fasting, then skip the lime juice and replace salt with rock salt (sendha namak). As I write this I realise 'food for fasting' is a complete opposite of 'fast food'! Anyways, that topic for another day, now for the recipe!

You need:

Sabudana (Tapioca/Sago) – 1 Cup (when soaked plumps up to 1.5 – 2 times. So based on that you can decide how much you want to use, please follow soaking instructions to get best and foolproof results)


Powdered Roasted Peanuts – ½ Cup (You can adjust this to your liking, but it tastes good with lots since it makes it crunchy, don't make a very fine paste, make a crumbly kind of powder)

Whole roasted peanuts – 8-10 nos.

Lime juice – 1.5-2 Tbsp (you can adjust this to taste, traditionally its high on tang)


Sugar – 1-1.5 tsp (you can adjust this to taste, traditionally its has enough sugar to balance the tang from the lime juice and heat from the chili)


Oil – 1 Tbsp (typically 2 Tbsp would be used but I tend to go a little shy on this)

Ghee – 1 tsp (optional but does make a big difference)

Cumin Seeds – 1/4 tsp

Salt – to taste


Green Chillies – 3 nos (finely chopped, adjust to taste, though traditionally its made pretty hot)

Potato – 1 medium (boiled peeled and cut into small cubes)

Fresh shredded coconut – 1/3 Cup

Fresh green coriander/ Cilantro – handful (needs generous helping and use only the leaves)

Black pepper powder – ¼ tsp (optional, check my notes in the bottom to read why)

1. Wash sabudana for 10-15 sec. Soak it in water completely immersed for 30 min. After 30 min, drain out all the water. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 6-7 hours. Make sure you keep it covered at all times, else the sabudana will dry out and get chewy while cooking. If possible gently mix the sabudana with a fork without damaging them every 1-2 hours. This is not mandatory but keeps the sabudana moist uniformly.
2. Once the sabudana is all plumped up, mix salt, sugar, lime juice and powdered peanuts. Remember you can always go a little conservative with sugar and lime juice at this stage and add later if you feel the need. These measurements are adjusted as per my taste.
3. In a nonstick pan, heat oil and ghee. You can always add ghee instead of oil for better taste. But I have mixed the two to cut down on ghee and still have that fragrance.
4. Add cumin seeds. Once they splutter add green chilies. Fry for a min.
5. Add sabudana mixture to the pan. Mix well. Reduce flame to low, cover and cook for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add shredded coconut and the potatoes. Fry for another min. Mix gently as the the sabudana can break easily. Adjust salt, lime and sugar at this stage.
7. Cover and cook till the sabudana is cooked through. The best way to judge if its cooked well is when all the sabudana beads become translucent and none of them remain opaque white. This process may take anywhere between 7-10 min depending on how much moisture they had while soaking. Remember, cover and cook but stir intermittently so that it doesn't stick to the bottom and burn. You can always sprinkle very little water in between to add a little moisture to cook. But just sprinkle else they will get sticky and gooey. Last this you want is to chew gum after all that effort! :)
8. Add whole peanuts. I add them in the end as I prefer them crunchy and not the soft steamed feel they get, while cooking with lid on. Mix them 
9. Add coriander leaves and serve hot.

*There might be many ways to soak the sabudana, but this has been a fool-proof method for me. It gives perfect moisture to sabudana without making it too soft or gooey.

**Are you are wondering if it makes sense to buy one full packet of sabudana (the Indian store here sells nothing less than a 2 lb pack, smart!!) just for this one odd khichdi? Well good news, I will soon be posting recipes for yummy sabudana kheer, sabudana vada and a few more recipes that call for sabudana. So go ahead and pick that sabudana packet this time!

*** The starchiness of tapioca is complimented by pepper. Try adding a pinch to a small portion. And if you like the taste, go ahead add to all. I like mine with a hint of pepper.  

Poha (Avalakki/ Beaten Rice Snack)

A very popular Indian snack or breakfast!

You need:

Poha/ Avalakki/ Beaten rice – 1 Cup (Thick variety)

Onion - 1 medium size (fine chopped)

Green chilies - 2 nos. (slit)

Curry Leaves- 7-8 nos.

Ginger - 1/2 inch (finely chopped)

Vegetables - Carrots, Sweet green peas, Potatoes (chopped into small pieces)

Lime Juice – half a lime or as per taste

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Hing/ Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp (optional)

Salt – As per taste

Peanuts – ¼ cup or adjust as per your liking (roasted)

Butter – 1 tsp (optional, though it does add to the sweetness of the poha)

Coriander leaves/ cilantro – handful (chopped)

1. Wash poha in water and decant all the water. Keep it aside.
2. Steam cook all the vegetables in a microwave till they are almost done. Usually takes about 2 min each.
3. Heat oil, add mustard and cumin seeds. Once they start spluttering, add hing, green chilies. 
4. Once green chilies change color a little bit, add curry leaves and ginger. Fry for around 30 sec.
5. Add onions, salt, turmeric and fry till onions are just about to become translucent.
6. At this stage add all the vegetables. Fry for 1-2 min.
7. Now add poha, lime juice, sugar and give it a gentle stir since poha breaks or gets mashed up very easily when moist. Cover and cook till poha is completely soft from inside too.
8. Add peanuts and coriander leaves. Mix well by gently folding in.
9. Switch the heat off and serve hot.