SAGO CUTLET

SAGO CUTLET

SABUDANA TIKKI ( suitable for vegans)

Normally these cutlets are eaten on Navaratri fasting days. Hindus celebrate navaratri in the month of April and September every year. The April one is celebrated mainly in north India. But the September one before Dashehra is celebrated in many states of India, with a big bang in Bengal and in Gujarat people are in a real mood of celebrating it with garba dance. In this festival, we worship Goddess Durga and her nine forms.

During the time of navratri, hindus fast from grains for 9 continuous days, those who can not fast for 9 days, they fast on first and the last day of navratri. Some people only eat fruits for nine days. I remember in my youth, when I was in Delhi, my brother's friend was fasting on only two cloves and water for nine days. In those nine days he was walking around 6-8 km to the temple of Kalkaji daily. Kalkaji, is a very old and famous Kali (Durga) temple in south delhi. During navratri lots of devotees are going there to offer their prayers and to have a glimpse of Goddess Kali.

The interesting thing is that during navratri days, though we fast from grain, but still eat very tasty, good, rich and variety of food . Many sweet, savory and fruity dishes are made without grain, the only problem in those days is that our consumption of calorie count is increased because of the type of food we make.

During navratri days lots of special ingredients are also available for cooking on fasting days. Some of them are sabudana (sago), samak chawal (fasting rice), kuttu ka atta (Buck wheat flower), singhade ka atta (water chestnut flower) etc. I do a lot of cooking experiments with these unique ingredients, together with some fruits and vegetables, during navratri.

These sago cutlets are my son-in-law's favourite and he enjoys a lot together with other fasting curries etc. So sometimes I make them in dinner, even when we are not fasting. Sago cutlets go very well with fasting rice, fruit salad, yoghurt and some sweets like any halwa or kheer etc.

In these cutlets I use boiled potatoes, ground peanuts and little potato flower, which helps in binding. Curry leaves and sliced green chilli gives nice colour and taste.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 100 grams sago
• 1 big boiled potato
• 50 grams ground peanuts
• 100 grams potato flour
• Chopped curry leaves/coriander leaves
• Finely chopped green chilli
• salt to taste
• chilli powder to taste
• Oil for frying.

METHOD

• Soak sago in small amount of water for 3-4 hours.
• Wash, boil and grate potato.
• Mix grated potato, peanut powder and potato flour in sago.
• Add salt, chilli powder, curry leaves and green chilli.
• Mix well and make small balls and flatten them to give shape of a cutlet.
• Heat oil on a high flame and fry them in batches, till golden brown..
• 15-20 cutlets can be made depending on the size.
• Can be served to 4-5 people with any chutney of taste.

I am sharing this recipe as my blog entry for Recipe of the week., and for The Hearth and Soul Hop, Aand with What'd you do this weekend, and for Virtual Vegan Party, and with Tasty Tuesday event.