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Sathu maavu kanji
Sprouted grain and nut porridge
சத்து மாவு கஞ்சி: home-roasted millet, wheat, gram and nut powder cooked into a creamy toddler porridge (makes about 300 g powder)
Ask a Tamil grandmother about sathu maavu and she will tell you exactly which grains go into her tin: ragi, kambu (pearl millet), cholam (sorghum), wheat, a little rice, green gram and roasted gram, with almonds and cashews for richness. Each one is dry-roasted until fragrant, cooled and milled into a fine, beige 'health powder' that keeps for weeks. A couple of spoonfuls cooked with water and milk make a nutty, mildly sweet kanji that toddlers in Madurai and Coimbatore eat for breakfast or after their afternoon nap, and older children drink from a tumbler. The texture should be smooth and creamy, never gritty. Sweeten it with jaggery or karupatti (palm jaggery), or make it savoury with buttermilk and salt for grown-ups. This version contains wheat, so it is not gluten-free. Chef's tip: roast every grain separately; small seeds like ragi brown in minutes while wheat and green gram need longer, and roasting them together leaves half burnt and half raw.
- Total time
- 40 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 2
Ingredients
For the sathu maavu powder
- 1 ¾ oz whole ragi (finger millet)
- 1 ⅜ oz kambu (pearl millet)
- 1 ⅜ oz cholam (white sorghum)
- 1 ⅜ oz whole wheat grains
- 1 oz raw rice
- ⅔ oz almonds
- ⅔ oz cashews
For 2 bowls of kanji
- 1 ¼ cups waterdivided
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ⅞ oz jaggery or karupatti (palm jaggery)grated
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Method
0/10 doneStep 1: Pick over 1 ¾ oz whole ragi (finger millet), 1 ⅜ oz kambu (pearl millet), 1 ⅜ oz cholam (white sorghum), 1 ⅜ oz whole wheat grains, 1 oz raw rice and 1 oz whole green gram (moong) for stones. If you like, many families rinse the grains and dry them in the sun the day before; they must be bone dry before roasting.
Step 2: Heat a heavy pan over a medium-low heat. Dry-roast 1 ¾ oz whole ragi (finger millet) on its own, stirring all the time, for 4–5 minutes until it crackles and smells toasty. Tip it onto a plate.
5 minStep 3: Roast 1 ⅜ oz kambu (pearl millet), then 1 ⅜ oz cholam (white sorghum), then 1 ⅜ oz whole wheat grains in the same way, one after another, for 4–6 minutes each until each is a shade darker and nutty. Spread them out on the plate to cool.
15 minStep 4: Roast 1 oz raw rice for 3–4 minutes until it turns opaque white and just begins to colour, then 1 oz whole green gram (moong) for 4–5 minutes until it crackles. Warm 1 oz pottukadalai (roasted gram), ⅔ oz almonds and ⅔ oz cashews together for 2 minutes only; nuts scorch quickly.
8 minStep 5: Toast 4 green cardamom pods for 30 seconds, then let everything cool completely, about 20 minutes. Warm grains ground straight away turn the powder damp and lumpy.
Step 6: Grind everything to a fine powder in a dry mixer jar in small batches, then sift through a fine sieve and regrind the coarse bits. Store in a clean, dry airtight jar for up to 1 month.
Step 7: For the kanji, whisk 4 heaped tablespoons (about 40 g) of the powder with half the ¾ cup water in a saucepan until smooth.
Step 8: Add the rest of the ¾ cup water and cook over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for 5–6 minutes until it thickens and no longer tastes floury. Common mistake: walking away; sathu maavu catches on the bottom within a minute.
6 minStep 9: Stir in ¾ cup whole milk and simmer for 2–3 minutes until creamy and pourable.
3 minStep 10: Take off the heat, stir in ⅞ oz jaggery or karupatti (palm jaggery) until dissolved and serve warm. It thickens as it cools, so loosen with warm milk for small children.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 230 kcal
- Protein
- 8 g
- Carbs
- 34 g
- Fat
- 7 g
- Fibre
- 4 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does sathu maavu kanji take?
- About 40 minutes in total: 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 2 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of raw rice?
- Any long-grain rice, same amount.
- What can I use instead of whole green gram (moong)?
- Any whole pulse, such as moth beans or chickpeas (for sprouting; times vary).
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