Papri Chaat

Papri Chaat is a street food from North India and most people love its magical, addictive flavor. It is a comfort food which is made from papri chips (fried dough), plain boiled chickpeas and potato, spicy yogurt, sweet and green chutney, garnished with pomegranate and pickled ginger.

It's a perfect appetizer for any dinner party and actually quite easy to make.  You can prepare it even a day before and just assemble it on the day of the party. It's sweet, tangy and savory flavor not just warms the palate but makes it a fun food.

This past week, we had some guests over for dinner and  I assembled the papri chaat  in a jiffy.  People were quite impressed how I made everything so fast. The secret was that I had prepared green and sweet chutney two days before and prepared the tortilla a day before.  That morning I cut the triangles of the tortillas and fried them.  I prepared the yogurt just half an hour before the guests arrived.  Basically only assembly was needed.  Folks loved it so much that almost every one asked for the second helping.

Ingredients for Papri:
¾ cup wheat flour, 1 ¼ cup white flour, ½ tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp caraway seeds(ajwain), 4 tsp cooking oil for the dough, ½ cup water, oil for deep frying.
Method:
Mix flours, salt, baking powder, caraway seeds, 4 tsp oil. Make crumbs with your fingers.  Once it becomes crumbly, add water little at a time to knead into a stiff dough.  Cover it and put it aside for 20 minutes.  Divide dough into 6-7 small balls.  Take every ball, flatten it and roll into a chapati or tortilla with rolling pin. Heat the griddle on medium flame and cook all the chapatis lightly from both the sides. Once they become cool, wrap them flat in an aluminum foil and refrigerate them overnight.  Next day, cut each chapatti into small triangles and deep fry them like nacho chips. Put these fried chips on paper towel so excess oil is soaked.  

Ingredients for Yogurt sauce:
2 cups plain yogurt, ¼ cup of water, 1 tsp roasted cumin seeds powder, 1 tsp black salt(or any table salt), red pepper ¼ tsp, garam massala(curry powder) ½ tsp, coriander powder ¼ tsp, chaat masala ¼ tsp.
Method:
Beat yogurt and water and put all the spices. For making roasted cumin powder, take 3 tsp of cumin seeds, roast them on medium flame.  Once they turn dark brown, turn off the flame.  When they cool off, grind them into a fine powder. You can bottle them and use them for a long time.

Ingredients for garnishing:
2 medium potatoes, ½ cup chickpeas(garbanzo beans), 1 pomegranate, ginger medium size, 1 tsp salt, 2 small lemons.
Method:
Boil potatoes, peel them and cut into cubes. Soak chickpeas overnight and next day boil them, drain the water and keep them in a box, Peel off pomegranate and take out the seeds and box them.  Peel off ginger, cut into thin small slices, put these into a bottle, squeeze lemon juice on these slices and add salt.  Shake it and keep it aside.
This ginger pickle helps digest the papri without causing any acidity or stomach issues.

Ingredients for Green Chutney(Sauce):
1 cup of fresh coriander leaves, cleaned and washed, ½ cup fresh mint leaves cleaned and washed,  1 medium onion peeled and cut into slices,  1 medium tomato, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 green chilies, 2 tsp plain yogurt, 1 tsp salt, juice of one medium or two small lemons, ¼ tsp sugar.

Method:
Grind all the ingredients in a mixer.  Taste the salt.  If you eat more salt add as per your taste. Transfer it into a covered bowl or Tupperware.  This green chutney can be preserved for one week easily in a refrigerator.

Ingredients for Sweet Chutney:
½ tsp dry ginger powder,  2 ½  tbsp dry mango powder, 1 ½ cup water, 2 tbsp brown sugar, ½ tsp white sugar,  1 tsp black salt, ¼ tsp red pepper, ¾ tsp  roasted cumin powder, ¼ tsp coriander powder.

Method:
Mix all the ingredients and cook on a medium flame till a boil.  Stir it so that sugar blends well.  Cool it and bottle it. 
This sweet chutney is also called saunth  as the most important ingredient in this is dry ginger powder, known as saunth.  This sweet chutney can be preserved in the refrigerator for two to three weeks.

Assembly of Papri Chaat:
Once papri chips are cool, set them in a plate.  Place boiled potatoes and chickpeas on the top of the papri.  Pour one or two tbsp of spicy yogurt. Now drizzle one tsp of green chutney and two tsp of sweet chutney on the top of the yogurt sauce.  Garnish with some pomegranate and pickled ginger pcs.
Enjoy.