Oosurd recipe (a.k.a. sabudana khichadi)

It’s time for another installment of Cooking with Thriftygal! I’m pretty sure my family is the only one that calls this dish “oosurd.”  After 10 minutes of googling to check the spelling and using a harsh tone with Google — “No, I do NOT mean ‘absurd'” — I finally asked my mom for alternate names. Apparently everyone else calls this recipe “sabudana khichadi.” I’m sticking with oosurd.

I made this deliciousness frequently when I lived in Sydney, even going so far as to purchase a blender from a store to make the peanut powder because I was craving a reminder of home. Crazy, right? I’m allergic to peanuts though, so it was always a bit dicey and I tended to eat with my epi pen clutched in the other hand. Worth it.

Dry tapioca in the bag. This cost about $1.

Tapioca after it’s been soaked on the right. Roasted peanuts in the back bowl. I think the proportions in this picture are off.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of tapioca pearls
• 1 cup of peanuts
• hot pepper to taste
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Place the tapioca pearls in a bowl and wash them.
2. Let the bowl sit for 2-3 hours in a little bit of water (a few handfuls).
3. The pearls will get bigger, soaking up the water.
4. Don’t leave too much water in the bowl after step one. It will just become one giant block of tapioca if you do.
5. In a pan on the stove, roast the peanuts lightly over medium heat.
6. When the peanuts are cool, put them in a blender and blend coarsely.
7. Add the peanut mixture and salt to the tapioca pearls you washed several hours ago.
8. Mix well.
9. Dice the hot peppers.
10. In a pan, pour some oil and the diced hot peppers.
11. Let cook for several minutes.
12. Add in the peanut and tapioca mixture.
13. Mix well.
14. Let cook covered for 10 minutes or so.
15. Check on it occasionally. If it’s too dry, add a handful of water.
16. Enjoy with yogurt.
17. I eat thecha with this too, but I think I’m a weirdo.

Now I’m hungry.

Acceptable alterations

1. Some people put boiled potatoes in this dish.
2. Or coconut flakes.
3. These people are wrong.