Masala Puri - Bengaluru style

Anyone from the Indian subcontinent will agree to one thing about food - there is nothing more tantilising and taste-buds satisfying than a spicy, tangy, fresh CHAAT!! Wheather it is a pani puri from the carts or gobi manchurian from a fancy restaurant or good old sev puri made at home, a good Chaat can bring a smile on anyone's face :) 

Every time we visit Bengaluru we make sure we indulge in one of our favourites, MASALA PURI. Being back home sweet home though, it was too tempting not to re-create that Masala Puri magic..so here it is, my version of the very famous Masala Puri, made in a quick and easy way!

Ingredients (for two servings): 1.5 cups of green peas, 1 potato, 1 red onion, 1 tomato, 2 carrots, corriander, few cinnamon sticks, few cloves, salt, chilli powder, chaat powder, 1 spoon tamarind paste, 1 spoon garlic paste, crisp wheat crackers or papdis (Indian wheat biscuits), sev.

Make: In a pan, lightly fry in a spoon of oil, chopped onion and garlic until golden brown. Add cinnamon sticks and cloves and fry lightly. Add the peas and chopped potatoes and 1 carrot chopped with half a glass of water. Add salt and cover. Simmer in low heat for 15 to 20 minutes and you should see the peas and potatoes have cooked well and become very soft. This can also be pressure cooked. Once cooked let it cool a little and transfer all of it except some cooked peas (which is needed later) to a grinder. Grind to a paste then add salt, chilli powder, tamarind paste, chaat masala, the cooked peas from before and mix well.

To assemble Masala Puri, in a plate, make a layer of crispy crackers broken roughly, then pour the masala all over generously. Make a another layer of grated carrot, chopped tomato, chopped onion and few more crackers. Top with corriander and sev. Not only will it look mouth-watering, it will taste amazing with the mix of spicy and tangy flavours!

Pani Puri - Sweet Potato filled!

Any foodlover of the Indian sub continent is bound to share a love for this famed street snack Pani Puri or Golgappa or Pucchka! Crispy light fried semolina balls filled with mouth watering spicy sweet tangy ingredients..there's nothing not to love about these.

It's a super fun treat at our place and it got a little healthier when I tried it with a Sweet Potato filling instead of the traditional Potato. 

Here it is, PANI PURI with Sweet Potato filling:

Ingredients: Fryable Puris (can buy at Indian grocery stores), 1 sweet potato cooked soft, 1 spoon chaat masala, 1 carrot grated, 1 onion chopped finely, handful chopped coriander, some nylon sev. 

For the pani (juice), 1 tbsp coriander mint chutney, chaat masala, 1 tbsp tamarind juice, chillinpowder as desired, water.

Make: Fry the fryable Puris so they are puffed round. Keep aside to cool. Prepare the pani by mixing all of the ingredients well with the water. Adjust the flavour depending on how strong you like the flavour.  Prepare the Sweet Potato filling by mashing it well with chaat masala 

To assemble Pani Puri, take each Puri and gently poke a hole in the middle. Put inside, a spoon of mashed sweet potato, grated carrot, onion, coriander and sev on top. Assemble all Puris and serve with a bowl of Pani so the lucky people can enjoy these packages of happiness! 

Masala Puri

Anyone from the Indian subcontinent will agree to one things about food - there is nothing more tantilising and taste-buds satisfying than a spicy, tangy, fresh CHAAT!! Wheather it is a vada-pav on the side streets, pani puri from the carts, gobi manchurian from a fancy restaurant or good old sev puri made at home, a good Chaat can bring a smile on anyone's face :) 

Having visited the south of India recently, we made sure we indulged in one of our favourites, MASALA PURI. Being back home sweet home though, it was too tempting not to re-create that Masala Puri magic..so here it is, my version of the very famous Masala Puri, made in a quick and easy way!

Ingredients (for two servings): 1.5 cups of green peas, 1 potato, 1 red onion, 1 tomato, 1 carrot, corriander, few cinnamon sticks, few cloves, salt, chilli powder, chaat powder, 1 spoon garlic paste, crisp papdis (Indian wheat biscuits), sev.

Make: In a pan, lightly fry in a spoon of oil, chopped onion and garlic until golden brown. Add cinnamon sticks and cloves and fry lightly. Add the peas and chopped potatoes with half a glass of water. Add salt and cover. Simmer in low heat for 15 to 20 minutes and you should see the peas and potatoes have cooked well and become very soft. At this stage, add chilli powder and chaat powder. Simmer again for 5 to 10 minutes. This version requires no grinding etc, so is much quicker than the traditional version. 

Remove from heat and serve immediately (remove the cinnamon sticks & cloves before serving), with toppings of grated carrot, chopped tomato, roughly broken papdis, chopped onion, corriander and sev. Not only will it look mouth-watering, it will taste amazing with the mix of spicy and tangy flavours! Double the winner also as it only takes about half an hour to prepare :)