Navratri or Navaratri is Hindu festival, workship of Durga or Sakti in all different Avatars. Navratri (means nine nights) is one of those festival celebrated across India in different forms with Pooja, fasting, dancing and of course lot of good food. Though navratri comes 4 times a year but the most signficant are Sharada (shard means cold) Navaratri in the month of Puratashi (September-October) and the Vasanta Navaratri (March-April) of the Vasanta kala.
Sharada Navratri is celebrated with much fun and fare cause that bring Diwali, lights, crackers, family, friends and again good food. For me Navratri means Durga Pooja going to various pandals, full night sitting & listening to Katha that’s fun too or dance away the evening with dandiya or adore the cute little dolls displayed in Golu.
Along with Navratri comes the fast and fasting food, there are again different ways of doing fasting some do without water for 7 days or 8 days and some people drink water and/or eat fruits, even the food restrictions vary that I have seen. Today I’m posting one of the popular fasting food Sabudana Khichadi which is very simple to make and can be done in jiffy if we have done the prep work.
Ingredients: [Serves -2 ]
Sabudana/Sago/Tapioca - 1/2 cup [ after soaking it becomes 1.5 cups of sago]
Roasted Peanut - 1/4 cup
Potato - 1 medium
Green Chillies - 2
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
Cilantro - few sprig
Ghee/Oil - 1 tbsp
Rock Salt (Sendha Namak) - to taste
Method:
1. Rinse and soak sago for 4 hours with just enough water. The water should be just above the sago level, if used too much water sago will be soggy, drain water and keep aside.
Now the soaking time vary depending on the type and variety of sago we are using, some needs soaking for 2hours or 4 hours, 6 hours or over night. If the sago is of very good quality then even 30 minutes is enough. So how we know what time is correct, it’s simple soak the sago as mention above and keep a eye when the sago becomes fluffy and double in size, and it should get sticky then it’s has soaked enough, with practice you will learn how much time your sago needs for soaking but generally it takes 4 to 6 hours or most of the people soak over night.
Here I used 1/2 cup of sago and after soaking for 4 hours it become 1 1/2 cups, so you got the idea?
2. Roast Peanut (if using raw peanuts) de-skin and powder coarse in a mixer or blender.
I just crush a little and have a coarse powder (like to bit peanuts while eating). But if you want go ahead and make peanuts into fine powder choice is yours.
3. Chop green chills, peel potato and dice it.
4. In a wok or pan heat ghee/oil add cumin seeds and allow it to crack. Add curry leaves, green chillies and sauté for 30 seconds. Now add potato, cover and cook until potato gets tender.
5. Now add sago, peanuts mix well and cook with lid on for 5-7 minutes on medium flame. Add salt, cilantro, lemon juice toss well and cook for a more minute.
Our sabudana khichadi is ready.
Variations ~
1. You can add boiled diced potato instead of raw.
2. You can add 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder.
3. If you are making this while not fasting then you can add 1 chopped onion. You can use normal table salt too.
4. Add 1 tsp of sugar for a sweet, sour taste. And for better taste and flavour use ghee.
5. If you are making this on a Friday fast, skip the lemon as mostly tangy things are not used during Friday fasting. If you don’t take green chillies during fasting then skip that and add freshly crushed black peppercorn to taste.
Have a good day ~~
3. In a pan melt jaggery with little water (around 1/4 cup), strain the water to remove impurities and bring it back to pan again, when it starts to boil well, add mashed rajma, coconut, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and mix everything well. Once the mixture becomes dry and start leaving side of pan it’s ready. 
5. Mix quickly in slow flame not forming any lumps. 
6. Once everything come together off flame and let the dough sit for 2 minutes. In the same pan or in a different bowl knead dough to make it smooth. It will be warm so big careful while doing this. If required keep dipping hand in a bowl of water. Cover the dough with damp cloth at all times.
8. Fill 1-2 tsp of rajma filling and gather corners together to form a bundle and seal the edges at the top. Repeat same for rest.
9. Heat a steamer with water or idli cooker, grease idli plates and steam modak for 10-12 minutes, once done the outer layer will be shinny. 
Ganesh Chaturthi was never celebrated nor it’s done now at my parents place, I have no idea why! So Ganesh or Vinayakar Chaturthi means eating all those yummy goodies from neighbors and in the last day watch from terrace Ganesh visarjan. I still remember all the different kinds of Kozhukattai/kolukattai, kudumulu we used to get and relish, but after coming to Singapore there’s not much of happening here as it’s always working day and nor it’s celebrated with fun and fair. With blogs full of modak, kozhukattai these days I was tempted too and finally manage to make these. It took lot of courage from me to try this as it’s my first time of making modak, though it doesn’t look perfect but tasted yum. If you haven’t tried modak yet then don’t be afraid give a try. 
3. Mix quickly in slow flame not forming any lumps. 
6. Fill 1-2 tsp of filling and bring all the edges together to seal modak, you can gather them together to form a bundle or roll well to make it in round shape like I did. Repeat same for rest.
7. Heat a steamer with water or idli cooker, grease idli plates and steam modak for 10-12 minutes, once the outer layer done will be shinny. 
