Sabudaana Khichdi- Sauteed Sago pearls

(Above: Prepared in the Gujrati style)

Serves 3 as a light meal. Preparation time: 10 minutes.

Ingredients:
2 rice cooker cups Sabudaana, called Saggubiyyam in Telugu (Sago pearls)
Salt to taste
2 tbsp ghee
1 tbsp green chillies chopped fine

Additional ingredients: 

Marathi style:
2 rice cooker cups roasted peanut powder (roast peanuts & then powder them)
Red chilli powder to taste 

Gujrati style:
1 small onion chopped fine
1 tsp Jheera seeds

Method: 
Soak Sabudaana pearls overnight, the pearl should collapse into a soft crumbly paste when pressed. Soaking time depends on the quality/size of the pearls: 6 hours, or even 3 hours is okay for some beads.

Dry roast the peanuts (you can add a drop of oil), let cool and powder into coarse granules. 
The sago pearls swell & increase in volume, we need nearly an equal volume of peanut powder.

Marathi style: 
Heat ghee in a cauldron. Add green chillies. 
As they fry, drain the Sabudaana pearls in a colander. 

Mix in the peanut powder and red chilli powder, the peanut powder coats the Sabudaana pearls. Also add salt.

When the green chillies brown, add in the peanut coated Sabudaana pearls. Stir well & cover. Cook until the Sabudaana pearls turn translucent. Cook longer if you want the pearls fried. (5 to 10 minutes)

Gujrati style: 
Heat ghee/oil in a cauldron. Add jheera, when it splutters, add the green chillies, onion & salt. 

When they brown, add the drained Sabudaana pearls. Stir, cover & cook until the pearls turn translucent. 

Trivia:
I learnt the Marathi recipe from my mother-in-law, having spent years in northern Andhra Pradesh (should I call it northern Telangana now?) on the border with Maharashtra, my mother-in-law is familiar with Marathi cuisine and has incorporated several of their dishes into her cooking over the years. She cooked it when she was visiting Summu in Jersey City, Summu's papa had a great time eating his mother's yumyum food while I assisted & clicked pics! 
I have seen the Gujrati style made by some Gujrati aunties I know, they used oil instead of Ghee though.
Both styles have their own unique flavours, I make according to my mood. 
Sabudaana is just starch, the addition of peanut powder makes it a better balanced meal by adding protein. I also like adding more vegetables (green peas, potato, bell peppers). Do try to cook this in Ghee, Ghee lends an amazing flavour to this dish and I am a ghee addict :-)
I never knew Sabudaana could turn out so delicious, I absolutely loathed it as a child, as I only knew watery gummy Sabudaana gruel, a yucky preparation eaten with yogurt when one got the runs LOL!!
Then I discovered this yumyum Khichdi, which reminds one of the flavour of saggubiyyam vadiyalu!
This is a quick, delicious snack which can be had for breakfast or a light dinner.