Sabudana Tikki | Sabudana Cutlet

Preparation

1. Rinse and then soak the sabudana pearls in water covering them above 1 inch, for 5 to 6 hours or overnight. Depending on the quality of sabudana you can even soak for 2 to 3 hours. 
2. When properly soaked, the sabudana pearl, should get mashed when pressed. If you feel some hardness in the center, then soak for some more time.
3. Then drain the soaked sabudana pearls very well in a strainer.
4. Boil or steam 1 large potato in a pressure cooker, steamer or microwave oven. The potato has to be well cooked. Drain all the water from the boiled potato.

Making sago mixture

1. When the potato is hot or becomes warm, peel and mash it very well in a bowl. Let the mashed potatoes become lukewarm or cool at room temperature.
2. Later add the sabudana, chopped green chillies, chopped cashews and raisins to the mashed potatoes.
3. Add cumin powder, dry mango powder. Also add rock salt (sendha namak) as required. You can also use roasted and slightly crushed peanuts instead of cashews.
4. Mix very well.
5. Then form flat patties from the mixture. Keep the width of the patties to ⅓ inch as when cooking they cook quickly from outside. If you make thick tikkis, then the outsides become golden, but the center will feel raw. Since we are pan frying the sabudana tikki and not deep frying.

Pan-frying sabudana tikki

1. Heat 2 tablespoons peanut oil in a skillet or frying pan. Place 4 to 5 sabudana tikki in the pan. Fry them on medium heat.
2. When the base is lightly browned, flip and pan fry the other side. Flip again with a spatula when the second side is golden and crisp.
3. Flip a couple of times more till they are crisp and golden from both sides. If required you can add 1 to 2 tablespoons more oil.
4. Place the fried sabudana cutlet on kitchen paper towels. Fry the remaining batch in the same way adding 1 to 2 tablespoons more oil.
5. Serve sabudana tikki hot or warm with fasting a satvik green chutney or coconut chutney.
6. You can also serve sabudana cutlet with curd (yogurt) sweetened with some sugar.