Hi dearies it’s time for the second post of this month’s theme, Diwali sweets and snacks recipes.
As I promised last week, I planned to give unique, simple, easy, and new variations to make your festive season colourful and flavourful.
After intense thinking, I came up with a sparkling idea of creating 2 dishes with 1 common ingredient. Also, keeping in my mind, both the dishes should be diverse from each. Et voilà!!!, here I chose Sago/ Javvarisi/Sabudana as my common ingredient and came up with 2 interesting recipes–
1) Sago Mixture/ Javvarisi Mixture/Sabudana Chivda.
2) Sago Sticks/ Javvarisi Murukku/Sabudana Chakli.
Sounds exciting…����!!!
Click here to jump to recipe card!
Sago Mixture/ Javvarisi Mixture/Sabudana Chivda is a chatpata snack made with Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi. This fasting snack turns out to be crispier, crunchier, which bursts out with a blend of flavours like spicy, sweet, and tangy. According to your vrat/fasting rules, you can decide upon the spices you want to add. This snack is highly consumed during Navratri and other fasting occasions. Do check my Sabudana khichdi, Sabudana vada, for your Farali recipes.
Sago Sticks/ Javvarisi Murukku/Sabudana Chakli is another snack I chose to make for this week. This snack involves regular Sabudana/Javvarisi which is used in Sabudana khichdi, Sabudana vada, porridge, or crackers. Essentially soak this Javvarisi/Sabudana in sour curd to give that extra tanginess to the Murukku/chaklis. This snack is a kurkure-like bite. It requires to refry to avoid burnt and undercooked murukku/chaklis. These Sago sticks are unique and stand out from other regular murukkus/chaklis in their taste and flavour due to the presence of sour curd soaked sagos.
Relish these 2 snacks and enjoy this festive season with your friends and family.
Before getting into the recipe, I would like to enlighten my viewers about the facts and myths around this ingredient- Sago/Sabudana/ Javvarisi.
Let me first start with the difference between Tapioca pearls and Sago pearls.
Tapioca pearls are starch extracted from the root of the cassava tree. While Sago pearls are the starch extracted from the inner pith of the Sago Palm tree. Both trees are grown in tropical regions. Using both the starches in a recipe is not always interchangeable but you can in a few recipes.
In India, we use both the tapioca and palm starches in the name of Sabudana/Javvarisi to make savoury and sweet dishes.
Here, we have two varieties of Sabudana/Javvarisi namely, Regular and Nylon.
To throw more clarity, I would like to highlight the differences between Regular Sabudana and Nylon Sabudana. Though both are starches, they differ in various aspects.
1) Process of preparation–
a) In Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi, starch pearls are steam boiled (kind of
pre-cooked) and dried.
b) In Regular Sabudana/Javvarisi, the starch pearls are roasted and dried.
2) Appearance-
a) Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi, pearls are transparent.
b) Regular Sabudana/Javvarisipearls are opaque.
3) Colour –
a) Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi pearls are dullish and turns white when cooked.
b) Regular Sabudana/Javvarisipearls are white in colour even after cooking or slightly translucent.
I used both Nylon and Regular Sabudana but in 2 different recipes. For Chivda/Mixture I used Nylon Sabudana. For Murukku/sticks, I used Regular Khichdi Sabudana, white opaque pearls. Don’t interchange the Sabudana varieties in these 2 recipes. Reasons are-
1) Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi will be dullish, transparent, big-sized pearls. They pop up when fried in oil and turns crispy and fluffy.
2) Regular Sabudana/Javvarisi will be white, opaque, medium-sized pearls. They get soft when soaked and mashable to get a starchy dough to make Murukku.
I highly recommend not to interchange the varieties. Use only that specific variety for that particular recipe.
Coming to the nutritional value, Sabudana/Javvarisi is purely starch-a good source of carbohydrate. It has very less fat, protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It’s a preferred dish for kids and sick as it’s light on the stomach, free from artificial sweeteners and chemicals, and easy to digest. It’s highly recommended to consume during fasting days as it’s an instant source of energy for it is loaded with starch. Sabudana/Javvarisi porridge/kanji is highly suggested to consume during diarrhea or loose motion as it has a cooling effect on our system. Sabudana/Javvarisi flour is gluten-free, a great alternative for wheat-based flour.
Hope you all had a deep insight into the Sabudana/Javvarisi, its origin, properties, nutrient value and usage in recipes.
Now let’s get into the recipe…, 😍🥰
For Sabudana Chivda /Javvarisi Mixture-
Heat a thick-bottomed kadai or pan with ghee, add cashews, once they turn brown transfer it to a plate. Then add raisins, fry till it swells up. Transfer to the same plate.
In the same ghee add thinly sliced dried coconut or Copra, fry till it turns golden brown, transfer to the same plate and keep it aside.
Finally add curry leaves, fry till crisp, then add whole red chilli, fry for a minute, and transfer to the plate.
Now add any frying oil of your choice (preferably neutrally flavoured) to the same pan with ghee. Heat it in high flame, once the oil is heated up, reduce to medium flame and add groundnuts. Fry for a couple of minutes, it slightly changes colour, and skin starts to crack open, now strain it from the oil and drain excess oil with kitchen tissue.
Then add red rice flakes, it’ll get fried in a minute, remove it once it starts floating on top. Transfer to the same plate with groundnuts and drain excess oil with kitchen tissue.
Maintain the same flame, now add Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi in small portions like 2-3 tbsp at a time.
It’ll pop up and start floating on top in few seconds, but do not strain immediately. Give 2 minutes to fry by stirring gently and tossing the pearls. Maintain social distancing with the pan😜😅, as these pearls tend toò splutter a lot, and hot oil splashes around the place (refer notes).
Strain it from the pan when the spluttering sound reduces considerably and you can see the pearls would have burst and cracked up. It’ll take 2 minutes for each batch to fry and cook through.
Similarly fry the remaining Sabudana in small portions, following the same rules.
Now take a wide and deep bowl, add red chilli powder, black salt, salt, chaat masala, powdered sugar, mix well.
Then add the fried cashews, raisins, curry leaves, dried coconut, whole red chilli, groundnut, red dice flakes, and the fried Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi.
Stir it thoroughly with a ladle to ensure an even coating of spices. Toss it gently to shuffle the ingredients and topple from bottom to top.
Spicy, tangy, sweet Sabudana Chivda is ready to serve. Each spoon of chivda provides a cocktail of flavours and textures in your mouth. Crispy, crunchy Sabudana with a diversified flavour, will definitely capture your taste buds and turns out to be your family’s favourites …😍🥰🥰
It can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Will remain fresh for a minimum of 2 weeks.
For Javvarisi Murukku/Sabudana Chakli
Soak 1 cup of Regular Sabudana in 1 cup thick sour curd for a minimum of 5 hours or overnight. Soaked sabudana when squished between fingers it should mash easily. If it doesn’t, then soak for some more time (refer to notes).
Add chopped green chillies to a mixer jar.
Then add a small portion of soaked sabudana, pulse it and run for few seconds without adding water. It will gather as a single mass or lump. Transfer this into a wide bowl.
Similarly, grind the rest in another 2 portions and add salt, butter (refer notes) to it while grinding.
After transferring all the ground sago. Add Asafoetida powder, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, rice flour. Here, rice flour is just added as a binding agent. Start with 3 tbsp of rice flour. It may be sufficient depending on the quality of sago (refer notes).
Combine everything together and knead into a smooth dough.
Take a Murukku/ chakli maker with a star jali (refer pic and video).
Grease the inner side of the mould and fit with star jali.
Roll the dough into a cylindrical shape to insert into the mould.
Meanwhile, heat a deep-bottomed kadai or pan with any neutrally flavoured oil in high flame. Once heated, reduce the flame to medium. Press the Murukku maker and squeeze the dough directly onto the oil as swirls.
Make small swirls and decide the numbers, depending upon the size of the pan. Do not overcrowd the pan.
Flip it on both sides, cook for a minute and remove it when it’s half cooked.
Squeeze another batch into the oil and let it cook. Meanwhile, break the half-cooked chaklis from the previous batch into small sticks.
Once, the second batch is half cooked, strain from the oil and repeat the process of breaking into small sticks. Similarly, finish the rest of the dough. Now, re-fry the broken murukkus/chaklis in small batches.
Stir it frequently and cook for 1-2 minutes on medium flame. It turns golden brown. Now strain and drain excess oil by placing it on kitchen tissue. Likewise, re-fry the remaining chaklis. Do not overcook or burn it.
Crunchy, crispy, tangy, Javvarisi Murukku/ Sago Sticks/ Sabudana Chakli is ready to munch. Once cooled down, store it in an airtight container, it has a shelf life of 3 weeks.
Recipe card
For Sabudana Chivda /Javvarisi Mixture-
Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Snacks
Serves: 6-8
Author: Manimala
Ingredients-
Nylon Sabudana – 1 cup(heaped)/250 gms
Groundnut – ¼ cup
Red rice flakes – ¼ cup
Dried Coconut/copra – ¼ cup
Cashews – 5
Raisins – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Red chilli whole – 5
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Chaat masala – 1 tsp
Black Salt – ¼ tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Powdered sugar – 3 tbsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Oil – for frying
Instructions-
- Heat a thick-bottomed kadai or pan with ghee, add cashews, once they turn brown transfer it to a plate. Then add raisins, fry till it swells up. Transfer to the same plate.
- In the same ghee add thinly sliced dried coconut or Copra, fry till it turns golden brown, transfer to the same plate and keep it aside.
- Finally add curry leaves, fry till crisp, then add whole red chilli, fry for a minute, and transfer to the plate.
- Now add any frying oil of your choice (preferably neutrally flavoured) to the same pan with ghee. Heat it in high flame, once the oil is heated up, reduce to medium flame and add groundnuts. Fry for a couple of minutes, it slightly changes colour, and skin starts to crack open, now strain it from the oil and drain excess oil with kitchen tissue.
- Then add red rice flakes, it’ll get fried in a minute, remove it once it starts floating on top. Transfer to the same plate with groundnuts and drain excess oil with kitchen tissue.
- Maintain the same flame, now add Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi in small portions like 2-3 tbsp at a time.
- It’ll pop up and start floating on top in few seconds, but do not strain immediately. Give 2 minutes to fry by stirring gently and tossing the pearls. Maintain social distancing with the pan😜😅, as these pearls tend toò splutter a lot, and hot oil splashes around the place (refer notes).
- Strain it from the pan when the spluttering sound reduces considerably and you can see the pearls would have burst and cracked up. It’ll take 2 minutes for each batch to fry and cook through.
- Similarly fry the remaining Sabudana in small portions, following the same rules.
- Now take a wide and deep bowl, add red chilli powder, black salt, salt, chaat masala, powdered sugar, mix well.
- Then add the fried cashews, raisins, curry leaves, dried coconut, whole red chilli, groundnut, red dice flakes, and the fried Nylon Sabudana/Javvarisi.
- Stir it thoroughly with a ladle to ensure an even coating of spices. Toss it gently to shuffle the ingredients and topple from bottom to top.
- Spicy, tangy, sweet Sabudana Chivda is ready to serve. Each spoon of chivda provides a cocktail of flavours and textures in your mouth. Crispy, crunchy Sabudana with a diversified flavour, will definitely capture your taste buds and turns out to be your family’s favourites …😍🥰🥰
- It can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Will remain fresh for a minimum of 2 weeks.
Notes:
- Nylon Sabudana is the essential ingredient in this recipe, the rest of the ingredients are flexible. You can add or delete other ingredients like nuts, coconut, rice flakes.
- Here, I used red rice flakes as a healthy option. You can replace it with white rice flakes according to your availability and choice.
- Similarly, spices can be added according to your choice, with no hard and fast rules. But ensure to add spices to elevate the flavour as Sabudana has no taste of its own, it’s just bland. It acquires the taste of the spices you add. So, keep in mind to add spices that give spicy, tangy, chatpata flavour.
- Adding sugar will enhance the flavour. Prefer powdered ones rather than granulated ones as they will blend and combine well with sabudana.
- While frying Nylon Sabudana, after it pops and floats on top, it’ll start spluttering oil, so use a long ladle to stir, and also keep your face away from the stove.
- Frying in ghee is optional. Instead, you can skip ghee and fry all the ingredients in the oil itself. But partially frying few ingredients in ghee will definitely boost the flavour. Especially, dried coconut and nuts fried in ghee lifts the aroma.
- Now let’s move on to the next recipe…it’s Javvarisi Murukku, Sago Sticks, or Sabudana Chakli.
Recipe card
For Javvarisi Murukku/Sabudana Chakli
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Snacks
Serves: 6-8
Author: Manimala
Ingredients:
Regular Sabudana/Javvarisi – 1 cup
Sour curd – 1 cup
Green chilli – 6
Butter – 1 tbsp
Salt – as required (roughly 1 tsp)
Asafoetida powder – 1/8 tsp
Sesame seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – tsp
Rice flour – 3-4 tbsp
Instructions:
- Soak 1 cup of Regular Sabudana in 1 cup thick sour curd for a minimum of 5 hours or overnight.
- Soaked sabudana when squished between fingers it should mash easily. If it doesn’t, then soak for some more time (refer to notes).
- Add chopped green chillies to a mixer jar. Then add a small portion of soaked sabudana, pulse it and run for few seconds without adding water. It will gather as a single mass or lump. Transfer this into a wide bowl.
- Similarly, grind the rest in another 2 portions and add salt, butter (refer notes) to it while grinding.
- After transferring all the ground sago. Add Asafoetida powder, sesame seeds, cumin seeds, rice flour.
- Combine everything together and knead into a smooth dough.
- Here, rice flour is just added as a binding agent. Start with 3 tbsp of rice flour. It may be sufficient depending on the quality of sago (refer notes).
- Take a Murukku/ chakli maker with a star jali (refer pic and video). Grease the inner side of the mould and fit with star jali.
- Roll the dough into a cylindrical shape to insert into the mould.
- Meanwhile, heat a deep-bottomed kadai or pan with any neutrally flavoured oil in high flame.
- Once heated, reduce the flame to medium.
- Press the Murukku maker and squeeze the dough directly onto the oil as swirls.
- Make small swirls and decide the numbers, depending upon the size of the pan. Do not overcrowd the pan.
- Flip it on both sides, cook for a minute and remove it when it’s half cooked.
- Squeeze another batch into the oil and let it cook. Meanwhile, break the half-cooked chaklis from the previous batch into small sticks.
- Once, the second batch is half cooked, strain from the oil and repeat the process of breaking into small sticks. Similarly, finish the rest of the dough.
- Now, re-fry the broken murukkus/chaklis in small batches.
- Stir it frequently and cook for 1-2 minutes on medium flame. It turns golden brown. Now strain and drain excess oil by placing it on kitchen tissue.
- Likewise, re-fry the remaining chaklis. Do not overcook or burn it.
- Crunchy, crispy, tangy, Javvarisi Murukku/ Sago Sticks/ Sabudana Chakli is ready to munch. Once cooled down, store it in an airtight container, it has a shelf life of 3 weeks.
Notes:
- Soaking sabudana in sour curd is mandatory to impart a tangy flavour. Do not miss this step. Plain curd will not solve the purpose.
- Soaking time varies on the size and quality of the sabudana you choose. Squishing test will help you to figure out if it’s soft and soaked enough.
- After the given soaking time, still, you find the sabudana hard, then extend some more time. Also, if all the curd has absorbed and sago is still hard, then add 1-2 tbsp of sour curd and soak it further.
- Add butter while grinding the sabudana, if it’s a hard block. If it’s melted butter, you can add it directly to the ground dough. Do not add more than 1 tbsp of butter.
- As I mentioned early, rice flour is a binding agent. You can stop at 3 tbsp. If you add more rice flour, sago’s distinguished taste will disappear. Don’t add more than 4 tbsp of rice flour to 1 cup of sago. It’ll turn out to be crispier but sago’s hint in the chakli will diminish and it’ll be like any other rice flour chakli/murukku.
- You can add either white or black sesame seeds. Also, adding cumin seeds is optional.
- While grinding green chilli, make sure, it’s ground reasonably with sabudana as it shouldn’t block the jali’s hole. If so, remove those chunks from the dough while you knead.
- Frying the murukku/chaklis in one stretch will take more time and it will not cook through properly even after browning. Re-frying helps the chaklis to get crispy and cooked without burning it.
- Do not eat the murukkus when they are hot, let it cool and then taste it, only then you can get through the texture rightly. When they are hot, they’ll be soft, so you cannot judge if it’s at the right stage.