Ashadhi Ekadashi (An Auspicious start to blogging again)

A very big Hello to all my dear readers. Yes, I am back with Food-n-More after a year long break . And boy what an year it's been. It's brought about  huge changes for me and my family. As I already mentioned in my previous post, Food-n-More now comes to you from India and you bet I am very excited about that. Blogging from my home in India is going to be great fun for me. There is so much more I can experiment with here. I have my mom close by from whom I can take live demos from for all those dishes that I find daunting and besides having access to all the brilliant  ingredients available at my local grocer , I am also very excited about all the loads of crockery I have in my cupboards that I can use in my pics. My crockery is one thing I used to miss very badly when I was away.So much so that hubby used to say that I miss it more than I miss my parents, but I think most of my culinary buddies will relate to that feeling we have about our precious possessions in the kitchen.

Let me tell you that I spent a lot of time thinking about what I could blog about in my first post after so long. I kept thinking it had to be something extraordinary , something that would blow everybody way but then I altered my thinking and felt that it was also so much nicer to share something that I love eating myself, which is basically what I have always done  . And it is this thought that made it so much easier for me to start off.

I started writing this post yesterday as it was Ashadhi Ekadashi .Although not a very religious person at heart I thought it was a  good auspicious day to restart blogging. That's the reason behind the picture above of Lord Vitthal and Rukmini.. Ashadhi ekadashi is a religious procession festival and is celebrated during the months of June- July.  People consider the two eleventh days, "Ekadashi", of every month to be of special importance. But the eleventh day (bright) of Ashadh is known as the great Ekadashi or Mahaekadashi. This Mahaekadashi is also known as Shayani Ekadashi, because on this day Vishnu falls asleep to wake up four months later on Prabodhini Ekadashi in the Kartik month. This period is known as Chaturmas and coincides with the rainy season.

Now Ashadhi Ekadashi is a day of fast and on this day people go walking in huge processions to Pandharpur singing the Abhangas (chanting hymns) of Saint Tukaram and Saint Dnyaneshwar to see their God Vitthal. The yatra starts in Allandi and ends on Guru Poornima day at Pandharpur.

For me and my family Ekadashi is a day on which we enjoy all the foodie treats that are allowed on a day of fasting. Not for us a fast which comprises of eating only fruit or having only liquids .... oh no we love our "fast" food too much :)) So I made a couple of things yesterday, out of which I managed to photograph only one and that is my favourite Dahi Sabudana.

Now inspite of being my favourite it's surprising how rarely I make this dish. I don't know why. But I made it a point to make it yesterday and we all loved it, even my 9 year old who had it for the first time. It's one of those things which prove the saying "The simplest things in life sometimes give you the most pleasure" Well Dahi Sabudana definitely ticks all the boxes for me. What you need is:

Ingredients:

1 cup sabudana (Sago seeds)

1/2 cup crushed roasted peanuts

3/4 to 1 cup plain  yogurt

1/4 cup milk

4 tblspns finely chopped coriander

2 tspns sugar 

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

3 tblspns oil

2 green chillies finely chopped

2 tspns Jeera (cumin)

Method:

• You need a bit of prepping the day before you make this dish or in the morning if you would like to serve it in the evening .
• As this is a dish eaten cold and the sabudana is not actually cooked we need to roast the sabudana well before leaving it to soak.
• So roast the sabudana on a low to moderate flame for at least 15 to 20  minutes.
• Let it cool off completely before soaking it
• Once it has cooled soak it in water (water level should be only 1/2 a cm above the sabudana) for at least 6 to 7 hrs or overnight.
• To prepare the dish first prepare the tempering and leave it to cool.
• In a large bowl mix all the items listed under Ingredients and then add the cooled tempering to it. It is very important to have cooled the tempering before mixing it with the sabudana.
• Garnish the dish with more chopped coriander and crushed peanuts
• And that's it really .Dahi sabudana is ready to eat .  

Eat it at breakfast, as an evening snack or even as a light supper on the day of fasting. Or better still don't wait for a day of fasting enjoy it anyway. :))