Akki Sandige (Rice sandige) - home made and a pictorial

Hope all my friends in the US had a good 4th of July weekend and watched fireworks or did other fun activities. Happy 4th to all!

It has been a roller coaster 2 weeks since coming back from the short and exhilarating week in India. Flora has seen enough bags being packed and people travelling all around her, I am sure she is hoping it ends soon and things return to normal. She doesn't know there is a new normal awaiting to happen once our little girl and her big sister goes off to college in 2 months, and this is a trial period for what is coming :-(. We finished the graduation, grandparents left for India after 5 months of stay which jerked us to reality a little and then the next day, DD was travelling on her first 'by herself' India trip without parents. She has been dreaming of this for a while now and we didn't have the heart to stop her. So she packed her bags and was on the flight before we even settled down to the home without the grandparents. The nest seems so quiet and still without her chirping all over, I miss the grunts, whines, complaints, fights and most of all the hugs :-). It has been a little over 10 days and we are already counting the days to her return.

We knew as every parent inherently does that the baby will grow up and will have to find her own way in this world. Ever since she started high school 4 years ago, I have thought about this almost every moment with a tinge of dread but mostly pride at how she has been growing up. But no preparation is enough in these matters of heart. It is not easy to hold back the tears when she calls and says, "Amma, we went to eat this thali meal today and I thought you would have enjoyed all the powders and pickles they put out as part of the meal" but I am happy that the child is thoughtful and the gesture makes me all warm inside. I can tell she is having a good time in India, I am proud of her enthusiasm, courage to go on this trip but we also see the vulnerable little girl as she ends every call with, "Love you guys, miss you too".

With DD out, the long weekend did look really long and threatening to begin with. It is also made by the reality that we have never had a vacation for the last 17 years which DD has not been a part of. We had no plans and with the jet lag worn off, it wasn't like we would sleep the entire weekend either. Didn't feel ready to entertain and when we called up a few places, everything was already booked and not a decent hotel was available. So we resigned to stay home and thought of finishing up the errands that always get piled up on the list but we never get to :-). Good plan but then life has a way of playing tricks on the best laid plans right? First it was the sun, did I tell you he has been shining way too much and too bright & hot that is unusual for this part of the world? It has already gone way above the tolerance limits of most locals here. Sky continues to look completely clear and temperatures stay put at a steady 80+F even after a week now. There is no sign of rains anywhere on the weather map. So with the unexpected extra dose of sun and hot weather, I decided to make some sandiges. Oh, I have already shown you how to make the most popular and tastiest of all sandiges here. What I have today is an equally tasty sandige variety made from rice flour. Very simple ingredients and a little bit of patience, you get to eat these home made delicacies and enjoy them over a year.

Nammamma and doddamma (my mom's older sister) are experts in making these summer condiments. Though a little labor intensive, these are fun activities for the entire family and foster bonding time. I love making them whenever I can. BH chips in too and takes care of all the set up process while I run the cooking side of the job. This dish is an inbetween for a papad (a flat, thin and wide wafer) and a sandige (more rounded, glops) and since there is a rice papad (akki happala) recipe that is different (will feature on the blog sometime), we called this as rice sandige.

With my sandige project occupying the early morning of Friday, I had a good surge of dopamine in the system and we were ready to get out and have some fun :-). Believe me when I say outdoors, fresh air and sun shine can solve most problems in life, the ones that are left behind will be solved with family, love and good food :-). While my sandiges were out drying, I had a very unexpected call from classmates I had not met in over 2 decades. The couple called up to say they were in the area and would like to visit, so we met late at night and that made a perfect ending for a day which had already started off promising.

We did go out for the rest of the weekend to some picturesque mountains, did some hiking and came back home feeling wonderful. Also watched the new Pixar movie, "Inside out" - well made movie about relocations, uprooting - sounded all so familiar to us. Pixar continues to amaze me with their animation skills with every one of their movies, I think their characters emote so much better than some of the human actors/actresses. It  all started with a simple sandige and the positive vibes continued and flowed through the weekend. Now I am ready to get back to work tomorrow. Ah, that reminds me there is a heat advisory in the area with temperatures soaring at 92F tomorrow but it should be alright :-). But I am done with sandiges for this year, rather BH has made it clear he is done. So until next year..

Here is the recipe for the delicious akki sandige, if your weather is still hot, go ahead and make them, store them away for a cooler day later in the year. We brought all the sandiges (yes, I made more than the akki sandige but a couple of recipes are already on the blog - aralu sandige, baalaka)inside today, stored them in separate boxes for each variety. With the heat wave, we are mostly eating drinking buttermilk and salads for our meals at home but since I made a quick vegetable uppittu for the visiting friends, I also fried some of the freshly dried sandiges to go with the leftover uppittu the next day. It was delicious, more than delicious! Rest of them are now stored away until the weather cools down to bearable temperatures (may be in November or December). Stay happy, stay positive, enjoy what life gives you.

What do you need to make akki sandige? 
1 cup rice flour
7 cups water
1 Tsp asafoetida
8-10 green chilies
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp oil

Other requisites:
Bright, hot sun for atleast 30 hours (think 80F & above)
a place to dry sandiges (without intruding birds, rabbits or other curious animals :-))
clean plastic sheets or wraps to spread
2-3 Tbsp buttermilk

How do you make akki sandige? 

• First get the place you are going to dry sandiges clean, make sure it has a continuous supply of hot sun for an entire day and half. 
• Spread plastic sheets and secure them at ends from flying or folding off.
• Cut green chilies into half, blend them into a paste along with cumin and keep aside.

• In a wide bowl/pan, heat 1 cup of water with 1/2 Tsp oil, salt until it comes to a gentle boil. 
• Take the remaining 6 cups of water in a big bowl, add rice flour to it and using your fingers, mix it well until it is a watery liquid without any lumps. 
• Once the water starts to boil, add green chilies paste and asafoetida. 
• Add the rice flour mixed in water slowly into the boiling water while constantly stirring the mixture. 

• Lower heat to medium and keep stirring for about 10 minutes until the mixture thickens up. It should be pouring (between flowy and dropping). 
• Switch off. 

• Sprinkle spoonfulls of buttermilk all over the sheets and using a spoon, scoop out the rice mixture on to the sheet. Leave a mm gap between 2 sandiges. 
• Once you drop the mixture on to the sheep, flatten them slightly with the back of spoon.

• Let it dry until the edges start to fold upwards. 
• Flip them over and let the other side dry completely before storing them in airtight containers. 

• Once dry, the sandiges become almost half their original size. 

How to use sandiges: 

• Once the sandiges are completely dry, heat up enough oil in a pan to deep fry them. 

• On medium heat, check if the oil is hot enough by dropping a small piece of sandige, if it comes bubbling up to the surface immediately, you can start to fry the rest. 

• Always fry sandiges in batches dropping only a few at a time into the pan so they have space to expand, they usually become double to 2.5 times their dried size. 

• Enjoy as a side for any meal. 

Notes: 

• I always remember the flour to water proportion as the # of week days - 1 cup flour to 7 cups water. It is important to start the liquid thin and let it cook to a thicker consistency. 
• If you like the sandige plain, skip green chilies.
• For a different flavor, use red chili flakes instead of green chilies.  
• Stored in dry containers in moisture free, cool places, sandiges stay good for an entire year. 
• Always take a wide pan to heat oil and enough oil to provide free space for sandiges while deep frying them. 
• Tip of the day: Put a small amount (1/4 Tsp) of asafoetida in a plastic bag and put it in the sandige container to keep it fresh for longer. 

Lemon Pickle - jump start those lost taste buds after a bout of seasonal cold, cough, flu and blah, blah, blah

I refuse to indulge in self pity today, so I am not going to tell you how bad my sinus infection was this past week or how I am still sniffling :-(. But I did have a bad one which mercilessly brought me down for most of last week. I am slowly getting back into routine and my constant pig like snorts have thankfully become occasional and my co workers who found excuses to run away from me last week are finally considering me harmless to talk to. Here is my golden rule for sinus infections, it is an inseparable pal in my life who loves to visit me every so often and all I can do to return that love is to surround myself with boxes of tissues (softer the better, ah my poor nose :-)), steam, steam and steam some more, drink lots of kashaya and keep chanting the eternal truth "this too shall pass". But on the brighter side, the more frequent bouts of cold and sinus seem to make BH the better kashaya maker :-), the man turns dry spices and herbs into magically soothing drink now. Ahem, very proud of my own coaching.

Did I say I won't tell you the gory details of the past week? And you believed it? You should know better than that after more than 2 years of reading my blog. Yap, yap and yapping is what I do best and any subject will work, even a sinus infection :-)

The worst part of last week was that my taste buds took the worst beating and have been totally lifeless. Everything I eat tastes bitter or absolutely tasteless. I tried eating lotsa different stuff just to jump start those taste buds but to no avail and that is when I started craving for those aged, ripe, lemon pickle nammamma made :-(. When I was whining about my cold & infection with a colleague and told her about my immediate need to eat lemon pickle, she looked at me quizzically to ask the very obvious question everyone seems to think of (apparently). So I had to explain to her that I was not an expectant mother but just had this unexplainable urge to eat some of those lemon pickle from my mom's jaadi (porcelain pickle container) which was perfectly normal (for people like me who were not pregnant either) :-). I am not sure she bought it though she offered a suggestion and asked if I could have BH prepare some for me since I looked too sick to make anything. Not a bad idea but I didn't have the energy to teach and bring BH upto speed on making lemon pickles.

Normally, I have a whole stack of pickles in the refrigerator and most of them are Andhra pickles and mostly imported from India, while I make small quantities of the Karnataka variety and my other unusual pickles here. But just last month, we cleaned up the fridge, gave away some and threw away some really old stock and I didn't have any lemon pickles at my reach. And I don't have hopes of getting nammamma to make me a batch of lemon pickles urgently to quench my urge either. So, I had to get to the kitchen myself and make a small batch, I had everything I needed - juicy, yellow lemons, rich, red chili powder, kosher salt, mustard, fenugreek and good quality asafoetida. Yes, necessity is the only motivation needed here.

Karnataka pickles differ from Andhra pickles in a couple of ways. The former uses salt as preservative while the latter relies on a combination of salt and oil. Also, the former uses mainly powdered fenugreek and mustard is used as seasoning but you will find a substantial quantity of mustard powder (raw or roasted depending on the pickle variety) in the Andhra pickles. But both are yummy and irreplaceable accompaniments in any proper Indian meal :-). While I am at it, let me also tell you that amma makes lemon pickle differently by drying out the salted lemon pieces in sun before adding the spices, it tastes very different from what I am going to show you today and is usually mixed with hot, white rice along with a spoon of ghee. Yumm..

Back to nammamma's lemon pickle or nimbe hannina uppinakayi as it is called in Kannada, as far as I can remember, hers was the best tasting pickle. She had these tall porcelain containers called jaadis which held pickles year long (lemons, gooseberries, mangoes were the common varieties) and the older stock used to get put into smaller containers to make way for the new and fresh pickles every season. As far as lemon pickle went, I loved the oldest. As she used rock salt (which is the preferred salt in pickling), over time the salt would get crystallized and form into small, white, crunchy bites which tasted heavenly while the lemon slices would be so soft after marinating in the salt and juices for months that they would simply dissolve & disappear if you licked them a couple of times. That kind of ripe pickle with a bowl of yogurt rice is the ultimate comfort meal. If you had a cup of saaru on the side, you could consider yourself the luckiest person in this universe.

I made a small batch (just 2 lemons) of lemon pickle and waited only 3 days (since I couldn't wait any longer) but one lick of that lemon pickle and a long distance phone call to nammamma made me get back to my bouncy self again in no time :-), the power of pickle is such. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of cut lemon or the layers of salt & lemon - you see, I was too sick to take pictures the first day and my goal was to make the pickle. And I do not have pictures of the really ripe, almost dry pickle either. I will try and update the post next time and make them.

Pickling is a really simple process and gives you many days of joy if you just keep in mind a few things. So, if you are new to making pickles, please pay attention to the notes below and internalize these as the cardinal rules of pickle making (if you don't want to end up with bottles of rotten pickles - been there, done that, so take my tips seriously).

What do you need to make lemon pickle? 
2 big, fresh lemons (see notes below)
1/4 cup kosher salt (see notes below)
1 Tbsp red chili powder
1 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp oil
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
3/4 Tsp mustard

How do you make Lemon pickle? 

• Wash and thoroughly wipe the lemons to rid of all moisture from outside. 
• Get the gadgets out - clean dry cutting board, knife, spoon and jars to hold the pickles. 
• Remove the tips from the lemon (only if they are hard and sticking out), cut them in half and cut each half into bite sized pieces. 
• Put 1/2 Tsp of salt as the first layer in the container. 
• Now add the lemon pieces in a layer on top, add more salt on top. 
• Keep repeating until all lemon pieces are used up. End it with a top layer of salt. 
• Close the lid (if the lid is pressing down on the lemon pieces, use a thin cheese cloth to tie up the top instead of the lid). You want to avoid all metal contacts to the acidic juice. After a couple of days, the volume reduces and you will have space on top to easily use the lid. 
• Keep aside in a cool, dark place. 
• For the next 4-5 days (depends on the quality and quantity of lemons) or until the volume decreases by about 1/8th, every day using a clean spoon, mix the lemon pieces well so that salt gets to all of them. 
• By the 5th day, the pieces would have softened quite a bit. 
• First add the dry red chili powder. 
• Dry roast the fenugreek seeds stirring constantly until they turn light brown and fragrant. 

• Once cool, make a fine powder and add it to the pickle. 
• Heat oil in a pan, add asafoetida and mustard. When mustard pops, switch off and keep aside to cool. 
• When the seasoning has cooled down completely, add it to the pickle. 

• Mix well, and let it ripen for a couple of days or if you can't resist, go ahead and eat a slice or two (or more) of the fresh pickle like I did :-)
• Lemon pickle turns darker in color as it ages and mellows down considerably in terms of the tanginess. 

Notes: 

• I used big lemons I get here (almost tennis ball size), it made 4 cups of bite sized pieces
• I prefer kosher salt in pickles as it is closer to the rock salt used in India. Kosher salt is about half as salty as table salt. So adjust the quantity of salt if you are using other varieties. 
• I prefer using sunflower oil as Nammamma used it, you can use the mustard oil but beware that it will leave its own flavor which I don't like much in the lemon pickle. 

• Pickle rule 1: Use porcelain containers or glass bottles to store pickles for longer storage. No plastic or steel containers please. 
• Pickle rule 2: Dry out the containers before using them, here is how I do it - I wash the containers along with lids in soapy water and rinse them multiple times until all soap runs out. Air dry it completely (if you have bright sun and a clean space to keep containers, it works best). Once all the water is gone, use a dry towel to remove any moisture from the nook & cranny of the container and the lid. Finally if it is a glass jar, put it in the microwave for a 30secs to 1 min zap. The idea is that there should ABSOLUTELY no water content anywhere in the container. 
• Pickle rule 3: Use clean, dry spoons, knife and cutting board to mix, cut and serve pickles. 
• Pickle rule 4: Keep them in a cool corner (away from hot stoves, grinders etc) and store in refrigerator for longer storage. 
• Pickle rule 5: Add the seasoning only after the oil cools down to room temperature. 

Variations: 

• Nammamma made a mixed veggie pickle using slices of lemon, bitter gourd, carrots and green chilies. Tastes delicious but you need to make sure your vegetables are very fresh and cleaned and dried properly. This will have a shorter shelf life compared to the traditional lemon pickle. 

Menthya Hittu (Fenugreek powder)- nothing bitter about this delicious condiment

Let me start with, "I love this pudi (powder)" which I hope will give you the confidence to read through the rest of the post and may be try it and become addicts just like me. I have seen many people turning their noses up the moment someone mentions fenugreek (including my own DD) because of the inherent bitterness of these seeds. Though this powder is made with a substantial quantity of fenugreek, bitterness is not in its elements, it just lends the powder a distinct aroma of roasted fenugreek and the rest of the ingredients bring down the bitterness. So if you have never had it, now is the perfect time to give it a taste. I will show you two super delicious ways of consuming this powder once ready, choose the one that calls out to you more intimately.

When Nammamma made this powder back in the days, it was always a treat in the evening once all the powders got done and stored in the larger containers for long term storage and smaller containers for table use. I didn't care if she had any other side dish to go with rice at all as long as there was fresh menthya hittu on the table. Amma would make the seasoning with dals & mustard seeds to add to the rice (we called it khat-khata because of the sounds the roasted dals made when you took the bites :-)). A dash of lemon on the hot rice would immediately emit the unmistakable flavor of freshness and elevate the simple dish miles higher. I honestly did not need anything else for dinner. It is great to keep the dinner simple (not necessarily light though) without elaborate cooking sometimes.

One of my little nieces loves this menthya hittu. A couple of years back when I was in India and was visiting them for the 2nd time since she was born, she was really not open to talking with this atte (aunt) whom she didn't remember. I tried all the tricks I knew to make her talk to me for a couple of hours without much progress, she definitely moved from hiding completely behind her mom's dress to peeking at me when I was not looking (or so she thought) at her and whisper something in her mom's ears :-). Then we sat down for dinner. Most everybody in my family knows my love for all things spicy and chikkamma (my aunt) offered me her home made Menthya hittu. As I put heaps of it in my plate, little V's eyes widened and she became interested suddenly and said, "Menthittu, tuppa anna tumba chennagiratte (Menthya powder, ghee and rice tastes very yummy)" :-). So as I mixed it in, she slowly inched her way from her mother's lap to stand next to me and then sit in my lap in no time to enjoy the delicious morsels with her newly acquainted atte. We had a great dinner, eating multiple rounds of menthittu(as V calls it) , tuppa and rice. I was happy, little V was happy and every one around was smiling while chikkamma was complaining that she never should have shown us the powder since all her other side dishes were being completely ignored :-). This delicious powder was instrumental in our bonding and after dinner she stuck to me like glue and chatted away to glory. Here is my home made menthittu for putani V.

We call it Menthya hittu (as the powder is really fine unlike the coarsely ground chutney pudi) and not Menthya pudi. Nammamma used dried turmeric roots in all the powder preparations and not the turmeric powder which gave her pudis a better fragrance and color. I use store bought powder since I don't anyway get good quality turmeric root and my blender seems to have hiccups if I put in too much hard ingredients for it to break :-).

This powder is not something we use with idli or Dose (Dosa) generally but if you are like me and really fall in love with it, you can just about eat it in any form. The list of ingredients may seem a little daunting but they are all in ordinary Indian kitchens every day and is very easy to procure from your local grocery store if you do not have them. When I had asked Nammamma for the recipe of Menthya hittu the first time I made it, she had said that almost every spice in the kitchen goes in :-) which is pretty much true. She used whole wheat kernels instead of the upma rava I have below and it is a substitution she recommended.

What do you need to make Menthya Hittu?
1/2 cup Toor Dal
1/2 cup Chana dal
1/2 cup Moong dal
1/4 cup Urad dal
1 Tbsp Dhania/coriander seeds
2 Tsp menthya/fenugreek seeds
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
2 dry red chilies
1/2-3/4 Tsp black pepper
1 inch cinnamon
2 cloves
1 Tbsp Upma rava (in place of whole wheat)
1 Tsp rice
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder
salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make Menthya hittu?

• Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium heat. 
• Dry roast the 4 dals one by one stirring frequently until they turn crunchy and a deep pink in color. Do not burn any ingredients. 
• As they get toasted, put them aside on a plate to cool down. 
• Warm coriander seeds for a minute or two until you get the aroma and it heats up nicely, this doesn't have to change color. Keep aside to cool. 
• Roast rava until it turns light pink. 
• Roast rice until it turns brittle and transparent. 

• Roast the remaining ingredients except red chilies until fragrant. Add red chilies, salt and turmeric powder at the end, switch off the stove. 
• Once everything has cooled down completely, make a fine powder in the mixer or coffee grinder. 
• I use the small sieve to sieve the powder, return it back to the mixer for another round of grinding to get a fine powder. 
• Store in a dry, air tight container for upto 2 weeks, the freshness reduces  over time and I prefer to make small quantities. You can refrigerate it for longer shelf life. 

Now that we have the menthya hittu, how do we consume it? Here are a couple of delicious ways to eat this yummy condiment. 

Menthya hittu anna(rice): 

• Mix 2 Tsp of the powder into a bowl of warm, cooked rice (cook rice so the grains are separate, tastes better than using mushy rice) along with 1/2 Tsp of ghee or oil. 
• Make a seasoning of Tsp of oil, mustard, urad dal, chana dal and a few small pieces of dry red chili (Byadagi variety works best as it is not too hot and you can bite into the crunchy bits :-)). 

• Pour a Tsp (or more to taste) of the seasoning on top of the rice.
• Add 1/2 Tsp of lemon juice and a Tsp of finely chopped onions. 
• Mix everything together with light fingers (very important not to mush up the rice), adjust salt or powder as needed and enjoy :-)

And here is an extremely easy gojju that is a favorite with akki rotti in our home. It is equally tasty when mixed with rice. 

Menthya hittu gojju: 

• Soak a gooseberry sized tamarind in 1/2 cup water for 20 minutes and extract the juice. 
• Make a seasoning of 1/2 Tsp mustard, pinch of asafoetida, a few dry red chilies and a couple of curry leaves. 
• Take 2 heaped Tbsp of Menthya hittu in a bowl, add seasoning it to the bowl along with a Tbsp finely chopped onions, mix well. 

• Add the tamarind extract, 1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery or brown sugar. 
• Adjust salt, jaggery or consistency of the gravy (it is slightly runny than a dip but not flowing). 

Notes: 

• Seasoned cast iron pans work best for all powder making as they spread heat evenly, you get a heavy airplane body material pan in India which works very well too, do not preferably use non stick pans.
• Nammamma has gained the experience over years of making the powders to mix and roast ingredients as she understands which 2 (or more) take the same roasting time, Given my heavily multi tasking nature, I prefer to roast the ingredients one by one and give the passing attention they need :-), choose whichever method works for you. Bottom line is to roast them well and never burn any of them. 

Aralu Sandige - Condiment Home made and Sun dried, of heartaches, nail biting wait and a lesson in risk management

Did I mention we are were having some real Summer weather and temperatures for the past week? Our trip to the beach was glorious this past weekend and as we were driving back home, BH casually mentioned that the 90s temperature would hold up for another week. The cook in me can only think of one thing when I see abundant Sun shine and scorching temperatures. So we made a quick turn around and went to the store to pick up a few raw materials for the project that was to last a week and more :-). So here is what I have been doing for the last several days - my labor of love. But then the finicky Seattle Sun decided to play hide & seek, so I watched every morning with bated breath as the Sun rose to see if the clouds came right along too. One of the days in the midst of the cloudy skies, I was frantically picking my brains to find alternate sources of heat to dry my condiments but then all of a sudden the moving ball of heat in the sky took pity on me and decided to stay put right on top of my front yard and I came of out the project smarter, wiser and happier :-)

Flashback a few several years back, end of school year heralded a very promising Summer Holidays packed with fun and frolic. While it was a time of unending play time for us kids, nammamma would be as usual busy in the kitchen, more so since the hungy monsters with no schools to keep them away would raid the kitchen at all hours, unannounced and demand that they be fed something yummy :-). I don't know how she managed, probably had an unlimited supply of energy source hidden somewhere in the back of her kitchen. In addition to the usual cooking, cleaning Summer contrary to being a Holiday time, meant more work for her as she would get busy making the Summer delicacies like the happala (papads) and sandiges (I have not found an equivalent word to describe this delicious genre in English), it is called Wadi, vadi, pyalala vadiyalu in other Indian languages. If I were to give you a one word description of what most people would understand is that these are home made spiced 'chips' not necessarily with potatoes.

Being an educator, my father used to get Summer Holidays too though it was much shorter than ours since he had many valuation, tabulation related responsibilities and other University defined obligations. But he did get to stay home for a couple of weeks atleast every Summer. Nammamma planned her condiment preparation during this time as it was always a team work for both my parents. I believe my dad had a wonderful cook hidden inside him that came out only on certain special occasions. Two of them together made some of the best dishes I have ever had, but more than the taste of the dish, it is their team work, planning, organization and execution of things that I covet most. I can not imagine myself doing these things on a scale nammamma did year after year but I love to do a little bit of it whenever possible and relive those days.

There is a plethora of happala and sandige nammamma made and each one required different kind of prep work, some had to be started way early in the morning and be out in the Sun as soon as possible, some needed really scorching Sun while some were made in Summer though dried in shade..so she chose different days for each of the different varieties. Aralu Sandige is a special and extremely delicious condiment (if I had the rights, I would 'knight' them in the world of condiments). Aralu Sandige is made with Aralu (Paddy puffed rice) and Nammamma made two variations of it - one with ash gourd pieces and the other with onions. Both had the same exact other ingredients except for this difference. Infact she would mix everything else and then add ashgourd to one half and onions to the other half.

Huge vessels or new buckets would come out the previous evening, washed and put out for drying. Aralu would be cleaned over a week or so to remove any paddy skins (this is bad if you get it while eating the Sandige as it can poke you in the mouth and tastes like dried grass). The previous evening, green chilies would be washed, stems removed and spread on a thin cloth to dry inside the house. Coriander (Indian equivalent of cilantro) leaves would be cleaned and rolled in thin, wet towels to keep them damp and fresh.

Early morning, Nammama made a paste of green chilies and cilantro, this is a thick chutney consistency with no water added. Chopped the onions, peeled and chopped the ash gourds. A big bucket would be filled half with water and the cleaned Aralu would be dumped into it(small portions of it at a time), pushed down by hands so it soaks for about 45 secs to a minute, taken out in handfuls by squeezing out all the water and put into another big bucket. My father sat on a small stool in the kitchen and did this and as soon as she had enough quantity of the damp aralu in the bucket nammamma would mix in the chili-cilantro paste, onion or ash gourd pieces, required amount of cooked saabudana, salt and mix it all well. Then we would carry the bucket outside where a huge, white cloth would be spread in the Sun, get the mixture into our own smaller vessels, sit in different corners just outside the cloth and start putting out small amounts of the mixture into a round or oval shape on the cloth. The competition was to see who made the most number  of sandiges, whose sandiges had even shape and size and whose sandige lines were uniform and parallel. Yes, my dad taught Mathematics and sneaked in our Geometry lesson in Summer :-). Once the bucket got empty, we would head back and repeat the entire process until all the raw material was used up. This was done quite early in the morning as the sandige needs one good day of Sun to start with so it doesn't become hard in the center.

After the sandiges were put in the Sun, we were assigned the watchman's job of making sure no flying crows descended on the inviting sandige platter and eat them. We had to sit there close by in shade and keep shooing away any aspiring birds. That was a great time to read books, play board games etc. Nammamma would come out every once in a while to make sure her kids were not getting sun burnt or bring in glasses of seasoned butter milk to keep us cool and also to chide us if we were caught eating the yummy sandiges :-).

The sandiges would be carried inside the house once the Sun set and brought back the next morning, turned over and let to dry completely. Aralu sandige usually takes a good 3-4 days of drying before they can be put in oil and deep fried. That wait is torturous but becomes slightly bearable as you keep eating the raw ones which are equally yummy :-)

When my neighbors ask me what I am doing every morning infront of the garage laying out tables, wood planks, spreading aluminium foil, parchment papers, plastic sheets and putting funny looking things from big vessels, carrying them back into the garage for the next 3-4 days, I jump into a detailed and long winded explanation of what all the fuss is about in an effort to spread my knowledge of these home made condiments from Desh. I have found that it makes for a very interesting discussion especially when you are surrounded by neighbors from different countries and cultural backgrounds. I get to learn stuff from them in the process.

I have been making small quantities of these almost every Summer since Nammamma's large scale kitchen shut down a few years ago, it is just my way of reliving those Summer joys and thinking about my parents and childhood. These were lessons in planning, organizing, delegating, managing the resources, assigning tasks according to the individual's capabilities, team work - a perfect project management effort with delicious rewards.

Sandige making is a simple process - just needs some prep work. If you are making it for the first time, I suggest you do it in small quantity to get a hang of the different steps involved and then expand into large scale productions :-)

All photo credits on this post belongs to BH, he took the plate out to the garden and clicked many, many pictures among our blooming Daisies and Hibiscus. I was wondering about the enthusiasm to click for the blog and then realized the hidden motive when the plate came back empty into the kitchen :-), but the man deserves a pat on the back.

What do you need to make Aralu Sandige? 
Makes about 80 sandiges - this is not a big number :-)
1 - 400 grams packet of Aralu(Paddy puffed rice)
1/4 cup sabudana/sago (tapioca, any variety other than the nylon sabudana)
1 medium sized onion chopped into small pieces or 1 cup of chopped ashgourd/winter melon
1.5 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
20-25 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1/4 Tsp asafoetida
a big bunch of cilantro

How do you make Aralu Sandige? 

• Open the Aralu packet and pick any non-Aralu particles (usually a stray paddy skin hanging on)
• Wash the sabudana twice in water scrubbing the pearls with fingers as you wash, add 1.5 cups of water and cook it for 20-25 minutes on medium heat until the grains are soft and mushy and the entire thing reaches a sticky ganji consistency. Cover and let it cool to room temperature. 
• Make a coarse paste of green chilies, cilantro, salt and asafoetida - do not add water.
• Take a big vessel, fill it half with water. 
• Pour the aralu into the vessel and let it soak in water for about 1/2 minute. If you have a smaller vessel, do this in batches. 
• Pick the soaked aralu in handfuls, squeeze out the water completely and put it into another vessel.
• Add the chili paste, salt, chopped onions or ash gourd pieces, mix well. 
• Add the cooked, cooled sago into this and mix - this makes the mixture moist and you can hold a handful without it falling apart.
• Take spoonfuls of the mixture, lightly press it together and lay them on a plastic sheet or a thin cloth and put them out in the Sun to dry. 
• Turn the sandige over after a day or so of drying and continue to dry for another 2 days until they reduce in size and become brittle. 
• Store in dry containers, these stay over a year and can be deep fried any time in oil. 

How do we enjoy Aralu Sandige? 

• Heat oil in a pan, make sure there is enough oil for the Sandiges to take a full body dip. 
• Once the oil is hot (test by dropping a tiny piece of Sandige, if it comes up right away, you are good to go), drop 3-4 Sandiges at a time and turn them over to get an even light brown color on both sides. 
• Take them out onto a paper towel lined plate to drain off excess oil. 
• Enjoy the crunchy sandige with plain rice and dal, yogurt rice, sambar rice, lemon rice - you get the picture :-)

Notes: 

• Cooked sago acts as a binder in the sandige mixture but use it just as needed. If you happen to cook more, add salt and a little bit of cumin to it and lay out spoonfuls on a parchment paper to dry. This gets dry sooner than the sandige. It can fried and eaten as a yummy sago papad (see the pure white crispies in the below picture)
• You can make sandige sans onion or ash gourd pieces but these are the traditional varieties. Sandige with onion turns a little bit brighter brown when fried than the ash gourd ones. 
• Typically sandige is in an oval shape but I flattened it a little bit to make it dry faster :-)
• Do not keep the mixed sandige mixture for too long, prepare the sheets on which you will place the sandige before mixing in.
• Aluminium foils, parchment paper, plastic sheets, thin cotton cloth can all be used to put sandige for drying. 
• Keep the heat on medium while frying the Sandige, and turn them around in oil with a spoon. It takes all of a minute for it to be done. Do not let them blacken as they taste bitter, Light brown on all sides is good.