Sometime ago there was a wave among bloggers about Amritsari wadi. There were recipes some authentic some experimental. My blogger friends who have tasted them went gaga about it. I said to myself yet again the charm of Punjabi entrepreneurial skill won over the Marathi who don't seem care much about popularizing their cuisine.
Well if Punjab has its wadi then Maharashtra has its Sandage. I made these this summer and Manisha just reminded me about them I am looking forward to her recipe too. She would probably have a Nagpuri version.
These are preserved Dal drops used as flavor and protein enhancers in a bhaaji.
To make sandage there is some preparation required.
1. Keep a 1 square meter clean plastic sheet at hand.
2. A 1 square meter muslin cloth to cover
3. Soak equal amounts of 5 dals of your choice in water early in the morning latest by 7 am. I used 1/4 cup of Chana, Tur, Udid, Masoor, and Moog dal.
4. Keep the following spices ready to be ground
1 teaspoon each of red chilli powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds.
1/ 2 teaspoon hing
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
4-5 green chilies
salt as per taste.
fresh ginger 1 inch
5. At 9 am once the sun is out. Put all the ingredients in a wet grinder. The soaked dals should be drained and added in. Minimum amounts of water should be used. Grind together to get a rough paste.
6. Spread the plastic sheet in the Sun. Now with a small spoon drop the ground paste on the plastic sheet or use 1/4 spoon to get same sized drops. Leave them to dry. The batch should be completed and left for drying max by 10 am so it gets the full day's sun to dry nicely on the first day itself. Cover with muslin cloth to keep of dirt and holder to keep it there.
This is a very important tip to remember any drying must start at max 10 am to get long sun exposure especially on the first day. This will take care of any fungus threatening to form on it.
7. In the late afternoon around 3 pm carefully turn over each and every sandage to dry the underside.
8. At 5-6 pm bring them in.
Never leave anything you are drying out in the night. Condensations, dew can wet the stuff and your labor would be wasted.
9. Keep for drying for couple more days to get hard rocks of dal.
10. Once dried completely store in airtight bottle.
I will post on how to incorporate these protein powerhouses in your bhaaji in the upcoming post.
Well so that is Sandage(Marathi), can be defined as dal dropping literally!
hmmm - this brings back so many lovely memories of summer time preserves - kurdya, sabudana papadya, sandage etc. we used to sneak it off the plastic sheet as mom would put them out in the sun to dry-. i think they taste the best when half dried :)
ReplyDeletedon't we know how to utilise the precious proteins from the endless varieties on dals! in tamilian cuisine too we make a similar one but only with urad dal. i think it's more of a Tam-bram recipe and is called 'vadagam' or 'kuzhambu karuvadam'. A particular recipe my mom makes with a combination of tender eggplants, tamarind, coconut with these vadagams is mind-blowing. The batter is ground as for a vadai with dry red chillies, salt and hing.
ReplyDeleteI bought some Amritsari Wadis from the store.This is lot better to make at home.Thank you so much for the recipe:))
ReplyDeleteI have these at home right now, tried it last night, but am not sure it was authentic.. look fwd. to ur post on the same
ReplyDeleteAga, I don't have a recipe yet. I was too busy eating to note it down. :-D But I will get hold of the recipe and it won't be from Nagpur. What it will be is pukka GSB. The Amritsari wadi is more complex than our sandage, apart from being huge in comparison!
ReplyDeleteVinaya nako ga athavan karus...I don't have the time to make anything more ;).
ReplyDeleteLatha in chennai I had some dal dumplings in tur dal sambhar any idea what it is called. It was very tasty.
Asha Manisha says AWs are more complex. I got to try them myself though.
Manisha GSB is fine atleast we will have two recipes.
anjali.. you must have had what we call 'paruppu urundai kuzhambu', literally curry with lentils balls. check out viji's version... http://vcuisine.blogspot.com/2007/03/parrupurundai-kozumbu-parupurundai.html
ReplyDelete