How To Make An Authentic Maharashtrian Style Sabudana Vada….revealing my secret

Hi!

One might wonder why do I say a ‘must read’ for this post as Sabudana Vada is a very commonly made stuff and a lot of people make it quite regularly as fasting food. I have eaten this vada made by many people but have always found something missing, there’s a particular taste that always haunts me and which I am seeking for, when I want to eat or try this and which goes amiss in most of them.

Most of the people just mix the sago, potato, peanut, salt and chillies to make the vada and it turns out to be a good vada with great flavour but this is not what I am looking for, there are a few more ingredients when added to this

vada, takes it to a higher level in terms of taste and flavour which I am going to share with all of you here, one can say I am here to share some secrets which normally I should have hidden. But I always believe that by sharing I learn more than by hiding it and I also strongly believe that with the same procedure followed and ingredients used, one’s passion and the taste of one’s hand gets added to the preparation, so what I make and how it tastes, is not easy to copy..

This vada though needs basic ingredients, can actually fail easily if not handled properly, so do ensure that you use good quality sago else the vadas might burst open while frying and which can cause burns and accidents. Also, use old potatoes which are cooked in open vessel, they yield a far superior result. Coming to the recipe, I am providing exact measures of the ingredients that I have used and gladly they gave me a good result, a result that I wait for. One can change one or more ingredients as per their choice but if you want to taste my kind of vada, just stick to this..

BTW this is my younger one’s favourite and he waited almost for two years for me to make these, which actually made me wonder how much patient he had been…and also, how lazy I was to keep postponing.

Ingredients for Sabudana Vada

4 cups of soaked sago

2 medium sized, boiled potatoes

6-7 green chillies

3-4 tbsp. chopped coriander

3/4 cup roasted and crushed peanuts

3 tsp. singhada flour/ waterchestnut flour

3 tsp. rajgeera flour/ amaranth flour

1/2 tsp. sugar

salt to taste

1 tsp. cumin

oil/ ghee for frying

Method

Wash the sago with water 2-3 times and discard all the water and leave it covered overnight. Apply about 2-3 tsp of yogurt while leaving it to soak overnight, this imparts a mildly sour taste to the vada.

Mix all the other ingredients into the sago and mix properly, ensure that the potatoes are properly crushed. The singhada and rajgeera flour not only helps bind well but they do add a fantastic nutty and earthy flavour too, so my word of advice would be not to miss them.

Heat oil or ghee on a medium flame, take a ping pong ball sized vada mix and flatten it and smoothen the edges, deep fry in oil or ghee till golden brown in colour, for best result fry in ghee.

Remove on a kitchen towel and serve hot with green-peanut chutney.

Method for Green-Peanut chutney

Grind together a cup of chopped coriander with 6 large spoons yogurt, 1/2 cup roasted peanuts, 6 green chillies, salt and half teaspoon cumin to a smooth paste. Add a little water to make it a little thin, mix and serve. I have always found this chutney an excellent accompaniment for these vadas.

These vadas are quite filling, they make an excellent starter and are perfect fasting food, moreover if made in large quantity they make a good brunch item, which was the case at my home, my kids love this and they can actually hog on them.

A word of caution, these vadas are quite addictive, no one can eat just one and plus they are high on calories, so it is surely not for weight conscious  and calorie conscious people.

I am sending this to Naina and PJ’s Flavours of Maharashtra.