MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Fruit Chaat

Fruit Chaat

Fruit Chaat is one of my favourite recipes and serves as a delectable party dish. It is a nutritious and full of vitamins as fresh fruits are used, a good recipe for all health conscious folks. I learnt this recipe from my friend’s family. The story goes a long time ago. We had a school fete during our middle school and we had a food stall selling Paani Poori and Fruit Chaat. Both the items were made by my friend’s family and I had chipped in my efforts for cutting fruits etc. Our stall was great hit and all goods got sold in no time. Since then, fruit chaat has been one of my most liked dishes.

This recipe is very easy and the basic fruits required are those that are easily available all through the year, they are bananas, apples, papaya and guavas. You may add other fruits too like the sweet lime, oranges, grapes etc, it is left to your choice. The fruits need to be just ripe and firm.

Ingredients

Apples- 2 medium

Bananas - 2 medium

Papaya - 1 medium

Guava - 1 medium

Lemon juice - 2 teaspoons

Sugar - 2 teaspoons

Chaat Masala - ½ teaspoon

Method

Mix lemon juice and sugar and set aside the solution. Peel papaya and cut into cubes. Cut all fruits into cubes and add the lemon juice and sugar solution. Sprinkle chaat masala and mix well.

Note - This quantity should be enough for 3-4 people. You can make your own chaat masala at home by making a mixture of equal quantities of cumin, coriander, black pepper, red chilly, salt and rock salt powders. 

MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Aloo Tikki Chaat

Aloo Tikki Chaat

Aloo Tikki Chaat is one of the easiest chaat dishes to make and a tasty one too. It requires minimum ingredients and simple to assemble. I love aloo tikki chaat for its sweet sour tangy (chatpata) flavours and am sure that you all are going to try it too after reading this recipe.

Ingredients

Potatoes – 3 medium

Bread slice – 1½ nos

Tamarind Chutney – 3 tablespoons

Curds – 150 gms

Green Chutney – 2-3 teaspoons

Oil – 2-3 tablespoons

Salt – As per taste

Chaat Masala – ¼ teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder – ¼ teaspoon

Cumin Powder – ¼ teaspoon

Coriander Powder - ¼ teaspoon

Sugar – Approx 2 teaspoons

Method

Boil potatoes and peel and mash well. Add salt as per taste, a pinch of cumin and coriander powders and coarsely ground bread slices to form soft dough. Make small patties (tikki) and shallow fry in a non stick pan with little oil till they become crispy on both sides. Flavour the curd with sugar and salt. While serving, spread the crispy tikki in a plate and top it with sweet and salty curd. Top this with tamarind and green chutneys. Sprinkle with a pinch of each - chaat masala, red chilly, cumin and coriander powders. Aloo Tikki Chaat is ready to be served and relished. 

Note – The green chutney is a mix of coriander and mint leaves with green chillies and salt.

MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Ragda Patties

Ragda Patties – Chaat Special

Chaat is the Indian street food and each and every one of us have enjoyed it once in a while and some of us do it on daily basis. There is a wide variety of chaats like the Bhel Puri, Paani Puri, Papdi Chaat, Aloo Tikki Chaat, Dahi Bhalla, SPDP, Wada Paav, Misal, Paav Bhaji,Ragda Patties, Kachchi Dabeli and so on. Chaats are loved for their eclectic tastes – mix of sweet, sour, spicy, tangy flavours(chatpata swaad) that tickle the taste buds. Chaat recipes satiate totally and completely. People love the ambience that goes with the roadside chaat stalls…the cool breeze, vehicles plying up and down the streets, laughter and chatter of people around.

During my childhood, I used to enjoy eating Bhelpuri and what I loved more was to see the Bhelpuriwala go about making the bhel. Such a methodical process- firstly he would take the clean stainless steel utensil and add each ingredient one by one and then mix it with a spoon by making a particular music with the utensil and spoon. Afterwards, he would add a dash of the green and tamarind chutneys and again a musical mix.  I was so impressed with the Bhelpuriwala that I always wanted to become one when I grew up. What aspirations….!

Most of the chaats have some essential ingredients that include some crispy element like murmura, papdi or bhujia, green chutney, sweet sour chutney, some potato, curd, fresh onions, tomatoes, coriander to name a few.

Homemade chaat has its unique advantages – it will be more hygienic and you can enjoy good family and friends’ time within the comforts of home. It is quite exciting to go about assembling a Chaat Dish.

Ragda Patties is one easy chaat recipe to make. Ragda meaning a homogenous mixture and it is essentially made of dried peas. The patties are made of potato.

Ingredients

Dried Yellow Peas – 200 gms

Potatoes – 5-6 medium sized

Onions – 3 nos

Tomatoes – 2 nos

Bread Slices – 2 nos

Cumin Powder- 1 teaspoon

Coriander Powder – 1 teaspoon

Ginger garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Turmeric Powder – 1 teaspoon

Garam Masala – ½ teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder – ½ teaspoon

Fresh Coriander – 6-7 sprigs

Oil – 4-5 tablespoons

Water – 1 and ½ litre

Salt – To Taste

Tamarind Chutney – 1 cup (Boil 50 gms tamarind pulp and 50 gms jaggery in one and half cup water. Add more jaggery if required.)

Method

Soak the dried yellow peas for about 5-6 hours. Cook them in a pressure cooker with about 1/2 to 3/4th litre water, ½ teaspoon each of turmeric, cumin and coriander powders along with salt. Cook till the peas are cooked well and soft. Make a paste of 2 onions and 1 tomato. Heat oil in a pan and add the onion tomato paste along with ginger garlic paste and fry well till oil separates. Add garam masala, red chilly powder, little salt and the cooked peas and bring to a boil. Add some water and cook on low flame to allow a nice homogenous ragda to be formed.

Boil the potatoes, cool , peel and mash well. Add ½ teaspoon each of turmeric, cumin and coriander powders along with salt and two bread slices (ground to a coarse mixture in the mixer) to the mashed potatoes and mix well. Then form patties (cutlets) with your hand and shallow fry till golden brown.

Chop one onion and tomato very fine. Chop the coriander leaves. For serving the Ragda Patties, place the patties at the base of the plate and pour the ragda on over it. Add some tamarind chutney and top with chopped onion, tomato and coriander. Ragda Patties is ready to be served and relished.

Note  - In case yellow dried peas are unavailable, dried green peas can be substituted in their place.

MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Papdi Chaat

Papdi Chaat

Papdi chaat is one of my most favourite of all the Chaat preparations. It needs a bit of organizing and planning and would do well if you plan and prepare a day earlier.

I generally keep my tamarind chutney (homemade) ready in the fridge. Readymade papdi from the market has made it easier to make this dish nowadays. Earlier, I used to make the papdi also at home. I will share the recipe of papdi also sometime in the future. For now, I am using the readymade papdi.

Ingredients

Papdi – 1 packet of 200-250 gms

Potatoes – 3 large

Curds – 400 gms

Chickpeas (Chole) – 100 gms

Green Chutney – Mix of mint+coriander leaves+green chilllies+salt + water

Tamarind Chutney – Mixture of tamarind pulp boiled with jaggery and water

Chaat Masala – ½ teaspoon

Cumin Powder – 1 teaspoon

Coriander Powder – 1 teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder – ½ teaspoon

Salt – To taste

Sugar – Aprrox 3 teaspoons

Plain Sev(Bhujia) – 100 gms

Method

Soak chickpeas overnight and pressure cook well along with water, salt, cumin and coriander powder. Boil potatoes, peel, cut into small cubes and sprinkle lightly with salt, cumin and coriander powders. Flavour the curds lightly with sugar and salt. For the green chutney, grind mint leaves, coriander leaves, green chillies and salt along with little water. While arranging the Papdi Chaat, place the papdi as lowermost layer, then on top add potatoes and chickpeas. On top of this pour curds and then add some green chutney as well as tamarind chutney. Sprinkle chaat masala, cumin, red chilly and coriander powders. Top the papdi chaat lightly with plain sev/bhujia and the lip smacking dish is ready to be served.

Note -  This quantity is enough for about 4- 5 people.