"rustic" recipe needed

[tryska]

Well i've been craving a food that harkens back to my toddlerhood in South India - Sangati and Drumstick Sambar.

does anybody have any ideas on ingredients and how to make this? This is something my mother never made, but that my grandmother's cook used to make, i guess because ti didn't involve a whole lot of chewing and i had very few teeth in my head at the time...or soemthing.

i believe i can get drumsticks at my local farmer's market, so i've at least got that ingredient.

Edited August 7, 2003 by tryska (log)

[tryska]

too obscure?

[BBhasin]

What is 'sangati' ? tryska.

I am not much of a south Indian expert, just curious.

[tryska]

some sort of rice concotion....like a soft mushy ball of rice, but reddish -i'm not sure if it's a different grain of rice, or if some other grain is combined. it has no flavoring.....except that brown rice taste - fiber i guess.

[Vikram]

Sorry, I've got a recipe for sambhar with drumsicks from Samaithu Par (Cook & See), the classic Tamil cookbook with me, but its a bit long since Meenakshi Ammal gives all the details, and I'm a bit busy at the moment. I'll type it out and send it a little later, OK?

I haven't heard of Sangati and the books I've got don't list it, but then a lot of very local dishes and terms are often not described. Where exactly is your family from? That could help pinpoint it, or I could ask Praveen Anand of Dakshin, who's the real authority on South Indian food.

Could you mean Sandige, which is from Karnataka and described by Achaya as "irregular lumps of spiced rice-urad batter"?

Vikram

[tryska]

thanks vikram - nope it's not sandige

it's a very very soft mushy rice preparation used as a starch accompaniment for sambars and dhals. easy to chew, so good for babies and elders, i guess. and bland.

My grandmother's house is outside of Bangalore - Madnapalli - near Rishi Valley School.

[tryska]

i don't know how much help this is but here is something i ran across that has a reference to sangati:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/T0818E/T0818E0g.htm

i think they mgiht be slightly off - it is a thick porridge i guess, but it includes rice.

[gingerly]

i'm guessing the thing you're looking for is made with RAGI-that's the millet commonly grown and used in karnataka.a search for sangati+ragi might help confirm that.didn't turn up any recipes though.

[tryska]

it is Ragi, Gingerly! thanks - i wound up asking my mother. I've yet to find any around here tho.