Date-Tamarind Chutney- Khajoor chi ambat goad chutney-Brown chutney for Chaats.

Hello Dearies!!! Now that we are in the middle of the summer months, I am back with a series of chaat basics. Indian women and chat ( spelt  as Chaa-aat) have a deep and strong bond. They need no pregnancy hormones to enjoy a plate of gol gappas/pani poori or bhel or dahi sev poori, although most pregnant girls seem to enjoy these tangy and spicy treats all the time. They need no excuse and no time-sense in that. Ask any girl her wildest food fantasy, she will be saying having pani poori at 2 am. I am not sure as to why eating chaats is a girlie girl thing; I have seen most boys jump and run for the chats as well. Yet its a thing they say like crying, only women folk do. I am going to post  a series of must haves to make chat at home, be it dahi wade, sev poori or behl puri or any chaat, you need to have the  Chutneys ready.

 One is the basic green chutney and other is date and tamarind chutney or Khajoor chi chutney. If I have these 2 chutneys in my fridge, any time of the day or night can be turned into a chaat night. My Mom loves and loved chat. It is our mom and mi thing, to enjoy bhel at the famous Chaya Bhelpoori store in Goregaon. It was a really small store where he sold peanuts, and all bhel related items, he regularly roasted dals and penuts for us over sand. and we enjoyed the bhel later. Now My mom tells me, it is no longer a small shanty it used to be, His son took over the business and everything has changed from then. Everything including the peanuts are still roasted in sand but prepackaged for convenience. Oh How badly will I miss the smell of sand and roasted peanuts and how will I introduce my kids to these simple pleasures, beats me. But no worries, I can still keep them interested in sinful delights from back home. Living in NJ has eased that so much for us, that we are spoilt for choice for all things Indian. We get things unimaginable from north south east and west of India. So if you are not so lucky to get them ready made, I am sharing with you my moms recipe for this chutney. Now you have no reasons to not make any chats at home, do you? Good then, lets begin.

You will need;
1 cup dates soaked in 1/2 cup water
1 tbspn tamarind Concentrate-Tamicon--
**The Portion of Tamicon would depend on how sweet the dates are and how tangy you would like the chutney to be
1 cup water
1/2 cup jaggery + 3 tbspn Brown Sugar
1 tbspn Roasted Cumin powder
1 tspn Cayenne pepper powder
Salt to taste

Grind the soaked dates and the tamarind pulp together to get a nice smooth mixture. Take this mixture mixed with 1 cup water in  a deep saucepan, and heat over medium, to this add the jaggery, the cumin powder and the cayenne powder and salt, Keep Stirring till the mixture gets coked and sticky and starts to gather and froth near the spoon. The Chutney is ready. Switch off the stove and  cool down. Once cool, fill in the sterile glass jar and store in a refrigerator. I always have this and the green chutney ready to enjoy chats in no time at all.