Sabakki Sandige | Sabudana Papad | Sago Vadams | Sun Dried Tapioca-Pearls Fryums

Sandige are prepared during summer and are used during monsoon season. Some parts of south India gets such a heavy rainfall and floods that its hard to get out of the house to get vegetables. Before refrigerators come into our life, Sun dried fryums and pickles were ways of preserving food for 'rainy days'. These are still prepared and in use as they are yummy, and serves as snacks as well ...and anyway, one can not depend on electricity during monsoon :P 

Sandige is served mainly as side dish with rice. There is no word for Sandige in English, 'Fryums' was the first commercial brand which sold sandige/vadam made with potato starch & tapioca flour in India. The name got stuck and people simply use the word 'Fryums' for Sandige or Vadams. 

There are different variety of sandige and happala:  

• Base ingredient: akki/rice, ragi (finger millet), sabakki(Tapioca Pearls), aralu (Puffed paddy rice), avalakki (pounded rice), semolina 
• Sandige made with vegetables - potato, bitter gourd, ivy gourd, green chilies
• Papad/Happala: akki/rice, jackfruit, avalakki/poha, urad dal/black gram, karada (spicy red) happala, potato, genasina (sweet potato)
• Combination of - black gram + ash gourd, aralu + ash gourd, 
• Dal Vadi (sun-dried lentil dumplings): Toor dal (split pigeon peas), moong dal, Punjabi vadi - these sun dried dumplings are used in making curry.

Sabakki/Tapioca Pearls sandige is one of the easiest to make. ...at least for me. You can not go wrong with it, good recipe for newbies venturing into making sandige. I also feel it's the tastiest one. I could be biased. This is my mom's recipe. She is used to make every summer - a lot of it. Not only store a huge quantity for us, she used to pack batches of them to share with others as well. Every year, she used to  make sandige with rice, ragi, sabakki, potato, bitter gourd, ivy gourd and green chilies. 

Check out other recipes I have blogged which uses - Sabakkii, Sago, Sabudana 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup - Sabudana / sabakki / tapioca pearls
• 4 cup - Water
• 1 tsp - Green chilli paste (or as per taste)
• 1 tsp -  Cumin / jeera
• ¼ cup - Onion finely chopped (optional)
• pinch - Hing / asafoetida
• Salt - as per taste

Method:

1. Rinse 1 cup of sabakki couple of times and soak in enough water for at least 3 to 4 hours.
2. After soaking, drain and keep it aside.
3. In a large pan, bring 4 cups of water to boil.
4. Add soaked sabakki to the boiling water.
5. Mix-in chilli paste, cut onion and salt.
6. Occasionally stir and cook until sabakki becomes translucent. 
7. Turn of the flame, add cumin and hing. mix it all well. 

8. Let it cooldown for about 10 minutes, the mixture will become more thick.
9. Meanwhile, prepare the trays to put sandige on. I used parchment paper for lining on baking trays, you may use clean thick plastic sheets or use steel trays without lining.
10. Using a long spoon, place a tbsp of prepared sabakki mixture on the sheet and slightly spread making a small rounds.

11. Sun dry them for 2 days or till it dries out completely. I transfer all the sandige on one tray on day-3 and put it out in sun for one more day. NOTE: bring the sandige inside the house in the evening and put them out next day morning. Do NOT leave them out overnight.





12. On the last day, once you bring the sandige inside, let it air out for couple of hours or overnight, then transfer it to a container. 

Fry and Serve:

1. Put deep-fry pan on stove with about two cups of oil on high flame. 
2. Once hot, reduce the flame to medium-high
3. Carefully slide few sun dried sabakki sandige to the hot oil. It will start to bubble and swell. Use a slotted spatula or long strainer spoon to move them to the center and flip the sandige and make sure it is cooked at the edges by pushing it into hot oil. 

4. Remove the fried sandige from the oil and transfer on to a paper towel to drain extra oil. 
5. Fry in multiple small batches to cook them evenly and is manageable. Do not crowd the fry pan.
6. Sandige is ready to serve as a snack or as a side dish with rice.

NOTE:

• Use medium size sabakki/sago . Don't use nylon variety.
• It is better to soak the sabakki overnight, so that you can make the mixture early in the morning. And when you put it out in the sun, it will receive a full days sunlight to dry well. By end of the day one, it would have started to leave the lining sheets.
• While preparing the mixture, if the mixture becomes too thick, just mix little bit of hot water.
• If the mixture is watery, take some raw sabakki, blend it into powder. Mix in the powdered sabakki to the mixture and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes and let it cool. This will help the mixture to thicken
• Salt should be added carefully. When you taste the batter, it should be mild, after sandige dries it will be just right.
• When deep fried, the sandige will expand, therefore keep the size little small.
• Using onion is optional. But if you don't mind, use it. It really tastes good.
• If you have small children in house, reduce the chilli paste to reduce the spice or not use it at all.
• Instead of green chilli , you can grind red chilli and tomatoes to get tomato flavor and red colored sandige .
• You may add lime juice along with cumin; or  1/2 cup buttermilk while cooking for some tanginess.

We leave in bay area and are blessed with plenty of sunshine in summer - excellent condition for drying sandige. But also, there are Seagulls in the area as well, not a lot compared to coastline, but better to be cautious then to risk it. We have covered patio in our backyard, I placed sandige at the East-edge of the patio in the morning and moved it to West-edge around noon - still under the patio to avoid seagull droppings. I placed the trays with sandige on garden chairs and/or iron-board, so it was easy to move. Sandige did not receive sunlight for about half hour around noon, but since we have longer summer days, it does not matter.