Pani Puri/Puchka/GolGappa

Hello Dearies!!! Now that we are at the start 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. 

Pani puri is one of my 2 Am snacks. I mean I usually don't eat at that time of the night, but if I ever wake up for food, it has to be pani puri.  Its easy to make if you have basic stuff handy. 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. Another staple is a recent find in my local Indian grocery store; the microwaveable Pani Puri puris. 

They are super easy and a minute or so in the micro puffs them into nice rounds of puris. They are way off from the deep fried semolina puris, but hey its the thoughts that count. 

The assembly was so easy, that my kids served these gol gappas/pani puris. They might have forgotten adding the chutneys in a few, but for me they were the best I have had so far.

You will need;
 1 packet the microwaveable pani puris or ready made puris. ***Deep fried ready to use are also  available in packets in 50-100 count in any Indian grocery store. 
Sprouted Moong/Mung bean- Lightly steamed
Boiled Potato- mashed + sprinkled with some pani puri masala
Green chutney
Date and tamarind Chutney

To Make Spicy and tangy pani
1 Litre cold water
few mint leaves
1 tbspn green chutney
1 tbspn date and tamarind chutney
Black Salt and
Pani puri masala as per taste

In a pitcher, combine the ingredients from the list to make tangy water and muddle the mint leaves and  set aside in a cool place. I usually do this ahead of time and usually keep this water for 3-4 hrs in a fridge  for all flavors to mix well.

Serving;
In a plate arrange the puris, make holes in the centers fill the hollow with spouted moong bean, boiled potatoes, green and date chutney and dip this whole puri in the tangy water and eat right away. The stuffed puri fill the mouth and makes it fun to eat. Levels of heat can be adjusted by using the sweet date or  spicy green chutney in the stuffed puri.

The way my mom served us was make us sit around her in 2 pairs on each side and  go in a pattern serving one kid at a time, by the time the first pair stuffed its mouths, the second pair was served.  This was a tedious job, but she oh so lovingly did it and even does it so today!!!

I, for a change was served by my boys with one stuffing the puris and other filling it with water. Using hands to dip in tangy water freaked my son and he used a deep spoon to fill the puris. However slow and  meticulous job he did, with stopping in between, cleaning every drop that spilled; it brought great pride and pleasure to a moms heart. Thank God for such loving Kids!!!

Mumbai Special-Bhel Puri- 300th Post

Hi Sweetpeas!!!! Summer has set its feet strongly in NJ and we have had some very hot and rainy days. The rain is more than I can ask for at this minute, but I am a Mumbaikar @ heart so June and rain is kind of salt and pepper for people like us. 

Some lazy Sundays, I am in no great mood for cooking Lunch, Snack and dinner, so for snack we kind of have such chat items. They are easy to put together if you have the basic chutneys ready. 

Also to be noted is that this is my 300th published post. What better way to celebrate this milestone than by spicing up with Bhel Puri.

I have a stock of these in my fridge most times. Unexpected guests are so common when you live close to the Indian street and grocery stores. These come as life savers for people like me.


You will need;
3 cups Bhel Mix, its basically a mix of some kurmura, shev and papdi(Bhel-Puri)
2-3 tbspn Date Tamarind Chutney
2 tbspn Green Chutney 
** The chutney proportion is an eye mark, depending on how sweet or spicy you want the bhel to be.
1 Medium Onion chopped fine
1 Tomato chopped fine
Cilantro to garnish
1 tbspn Raw Mango diced finely

In a big bowl, Take the bhel mix and add all the above lastly the chutneys and mix well. Serve immediately, as the wet chutneys will soak the murmura or bhel mix and it would not taste the same. Soggy bhel is not an inviting dish.

Garnish with cilantro and shev and enjoy with a glass of chilled aam punha/Raw Mango drink.

Shev Batata Puri

Hello dearies, So are you ready with the 2 chutneys that we made earlier. Great, now we are set to make the shev batata poori and the en-number of tasty chaats and mouth watering treats by mixing and changing few ingredients. We will make bhel, pani poori and even dahi ragda poori in the coming posts. so now lets get started. A quick recap of the 2 star chutneys before we get to making shev batat poori.

Green Chutney- Mint chutney

You will need;

2-cups of fresh washed cilantro leaves

1 cup Fresh Mint leaves

2-3 green chilies

2 tspn jeera/cumin seeds

Salt to taste

1 Tbspn Lime Juice

2 Tbspn oil

water as needed for grinding into a thick paste

In a grinder/food processor take all of the above cilantro, chili, cumin, lime juice and salt and take little water enough to grind it into a thick paste, grind it and when storing add the oil and mix well. The oil along with the lime juice prevents the cilantro from turning black and increases the shelf life. Store in a refrigerator, it would stay good for about 7-10 days.

Dates-Tamarind Chutney-Mithi/Sweet chutney

You will need;
1 cup dates soaked in 1/2 cup water
2tbspn tamarind Concnetrate-Tamicon
1 cup water
1/2 cup jaggery or 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.

To Assemble the sev puri's,
You will need;
 Boiled poato, mashed
onion finely chopped
green chutney
Date Chutney
Fine Shev
Lightly cooked Moong Sprouts
Chat Masala to sprinkle
Store Brought poori';s

In a plate arrange the store brought poori. Break the poori to make a small opening. add in the boiled potato mash, lightly boiled moong sprouts, onion and the 2 chutneys. sprinkle the fine shev over the pooris along with   little chat masala. Enjoy the Shev batta poori anytime of the day or the night or even for breakfast.

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.

Dahi Wade/Dahi Balle

So here we are, all relaxed and fresh after the Thanksgiving break. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, I went to Visit Atlanta in GA In USA. We went to the CNN center, Coke Factory where we tasted around 60 different flavors of Coke. I was super thrilled to taste all of the 60 flavors they offered yet was sad to find India missing on the Flavor chart. We also visited the GA aquarium where the Dolphins and the Penguins won my heart. They are very interactive and playing with them was  a fun experience. I had made Dahi wade or Dahi Balle before I went on my mini vacation. I am not good when it come to Dahi Wade, I have made them a few times only, but each time, they turned out to be hard and not soggy enough.. not the melt in your mouth types..I was skeptical/ scared and made only one cup batter. They turned out to be very good, that sooner than expected, I got demands to make them again. The trick to make them soft is I guess to add little amount of Moong Dal to the Urad dal when soaking.


Recipe tweaked to my like..( Orig is by Masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor)


You will  need;
1 Cup Urad Dal 
1/2 Cup Moong Dal
Salt as per taste
1Tbspn cumin/Jeera seeds
2 Cups Oil for frying


To Sprinkle
Rock Salt
Red Chili Powder
Tamarind chutney
Chopped Cilantro Optional


Soak dal for three to four hours. Drain and grind, using very little water, to a thick, coarse batter. Add salt and cumin seeds and mix well with hands to make a well blended mixture. Heat 2 cups oil in a kadai. Fry a small portion of the batter in hot oil to test if the batter holds well.. Gently drop the batter with the help of the spoon into hot oil. Repeat with remaining batter. Fry till wadas are golden brown. Drain and soak in cold water. Squeeze out wadas and arrange on a serving dish. Pour chilled yogurt over them and serve garnished with rock salt, red chilli powder, cumin powder, sweet tamarind chutney and black pepper.


Life is sweet and tangy, Hope you do make them today.


Love Ash.