Sandage, or the little fryums made from chana, moong and urad dal have a slightly earthy, umami flavour. Made by blending the dals into a coarse paste to make little rounded shapes or sandage which are then dried in the sun for 2-3 days, these snacks are indeed an acquired taste. Sandage, a Maharashtrian fryum, have a distinct flavour of their own that is amplified when they are deep fried into little brownish nuggets. A lot of times, sandage are added to subzis like steamed French beans or curries like pithla to add a layer of flavour and texture to the dish.
The fryums are made during summer so that they can be dried in the scorching heat of the sun and stored away in cool, dry containers for use during the year. Sandage may have their roots in heirloom Maharashtrian cuisines and carry a cultural and ritualistic significance. In many homes, sandage are made before a thread ceremony or marriage as a marker of starting preparations for these important events. In many households, sandage are then considered extremely auspicious.
These fried foods are also easy to cook with. They can be shallow or deep fried or even steamed to add to any vegetable or curry and can be part of a plateful of other fried goodies like papads, kurdai and mirgunda, served as sides in any Maharashtrian meal.
However, one lesser-known delicacy made using sandage is an amti or curry that contains these nuggets as well as small papads and is relished with warm, steamed rice. This dish carries influences of the southern Indian regions which share borders with Maharashtra. A presence of shared culinary cultures is visible in the use of curry leaves and tomatoes in the amti recipe accompanied by goda masala and crushed garlic.
The sandage amti is sheer comfort food, in fact, it is an ideal curry to make during monsoons as a warm hearty dinner filled with the protein-rich, nourishing properties of different kinds of dal. Add to it the flavours of crushed peanuts and some delicious urad papad, and the amti becomes an explosion of many different kinds of tastes coming together in one bowl. Read on below for a simple recipe to make the sandage-papad amti that can be relished on rainy evenings:
Ingredients:
1 cup sandage
4-5 small urad papad or poha mirgunda
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp hing
½ tsp cumin
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp goda masala
7-8 curry leaves
4-5 crushed garlic cloves
1-2 tsp crushed peanuts
1 finely chopped onion
1 finely chopped tomato
Salt to taste
Lukewarm water as required
Freshly grated coconut and chopped coriander for garnish.
Method:
1. Heat oil in a pan and add sandage to fry them until they attain a nice golden-brown colour. Take them out of the pan and set aside. Fry the papads and set them on a wire rack to drain excess oil.
2. In the same oil add mustard seeds and once they pop, make a tempering by adding cumin, hing, curry leaves and garlic.
3. Fry a little and add chopped onion to the tempering. Let the onions sizzle for a while before mixing in the chopped tomato.
4. Add goda masala, red chilli powder and roasted peanuts. Mix this masala well until the onions start cooking.
5. Add fried sandage, lukewarm water and salt. Mix well and bring to a boil.
6. When the amti is cooked garnish with freshly grated coconut and coriander. Add the papad to a bowl of amti while serving. Enjoy the amti warm with a helping of steamed rice.