SBDP or Sev Batata Dahi Puri - anytime delight!

Chaat is that Indian delight which can awaken your senses any time of the day, month or the year, whether its sweltering heat outside or a snowy blizzard. It has several taste elements such as hot, sour, sweet, salty and is probably an acquired taste. I remember eating bhel and pani puri even as a kid, with eyes and nose streaming but still enjoying the experience. It's always been something of a forbidden delight, since it is readily available by the roadside, is very tempting and a complete cleanliness/hygeine disaster. Chaat is made up of a myraid of simple ingredients that are mixed together in various proportions, by hand!!

With an iron will to overcome aching tummies and infections, my mom took over making this stuff at home a long time ago. And over the years, we have added to our chaat repertiore. The SBDP is a popular name mostly in western Maharashtra, and is called Sev puri or dahi puri elsewhere in the country, depending on how many things are added. Sev is fried chickpea flour noodles, available anywhere, Batata or potato is your typical boiled spud, Dahi is of course yogurt, and Puris are small deep fried hollow - puris. All these are readily available in India of course, and in any Indian grocery store in the US.

There are a lot of small ingredients that make up this whole dish. You absolutely need Chat masala ( black salt giving the unique flavor here), unless you make your own. Everest, MDH, Badshash are some of the popular brands. I would stay away from Shan here.

You will need an optional or highly recommended green chutney, which is mostly cilantro/coriander with chili, and gives color and heat.

The Date-tamarind chutney will add a sweet and sour component and is an essential ingredient. Its easy to make this from scratch and store it in a jar in your fridge, or you can safely go with Deep brand Tamarind-date chutney. Several other brands like Swad etc. also offer this. Deep frozen foods also has a coriander/cilantro chutney that you can buy and use here.

Once you have all your stuff lined up assembly line style, its easy to put this together. Unless you are up to speed here, I recommend only plating 3-4 at a time so that they don't go too soft and lose their crunch. The detailed method is as follows. I have tried to post step by step photos as much as possible.

Ingredients -

Ready made round puris - 25-50 or more

3-4 boiled medium potatoes

Sev - thin and plain salted only

plain yogurt - 1 lb

sugar, cayenne, chat masala to taste

Garnish -

1 cup finely chopped onion

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

Tamarind-date chutney -

1/2 cup dry tamarind

1 cup chopped dates

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

salt to taste

sugar/brown sugar if needed

Greeen chutney -

1 bunch cilantro

1/2 deseeded jalapeno or serrano

salt to taste

pinch of sugar

1/2 lime or lemon squeezed

Method -

1) Boil and mash potatoes. Add a dash of cayenne and salt to season them per choice. Keep this aside.

2) For the yogurt mix - Make this beforehand, as this will taste better when very cold. Take a container, at least the 1 lb one of your favourite low fat PLAIN yogurt. The fat free ones are very sour and the full fat can be too heavy taking away from the taste, so I recommend low fat for this. Add salt to taste, and enough sugar - yes, plain white sugar- to make it sweet. Whisk this or beat it with a fork to make a smooth mixture and set aside. Please do not use a stick blender etc.

Refrigerate this!

3) For the green chutney - Blend cilantro, chili, salt, sugar and lemon juice in a blender or a food processor until you have a fine paste. This need not be very liquid. You will need very little of this anyway.

4) For the Tamarind - date chutney -

4.1) Soak the tamarind for some time in hot water. Remove all seeds and other fibre type matter.

4.2) Soak the dates in warm water.

4.3) After the above two are soft enough to brave your blender, blend them together and transfer to a small stock pot.

4.4) Add the salt, cumin, cayenne and bring to a boil. Simmer until slightly syrupy or until it coats the back of a spoon. Taste it and add some jaggery/brown sugar/sugar per your taste. This should taste sweetish but still have the tang of tamarind.

Alternate crude method -

This is my latest favourite. Dump all ingredients in a pot. Add enough water to cover it. Bring to a boil and let simmer. Add more water if needed. Eventually the dates dissolve and everything comes together. Then just strain it and your chutney is ready!

You can store this chutney in a jar/container and keep it in a fridge for a week or two, or even better, Freeze it.

Note -- Please take care that this cold at the time of assembling the main dish. If you have just made it, add some ice cubes to bring down the temperature, or pop in the freezer for a few minutes.

5) Have your sev ready in a bowl or container. This is the easiest thing, you just have to pour it out of a packet :).

6) Now to assemble the whole thing -

If you have those fancy ketchup/mustard type bottles with spouts, you can now fill 3 of these with green chutney, tamarind chutney and yogurt each. I used an old fashioned spoon. Its OK to be sloppy here!

6.1) Take 3-4 puris in a small plate. Pierce them with your thumb to break Only the top part. You might destroy a few before you 'get it'.

6.2) Add a little - 1 tsp - of potato mixture to each puri.

6.3) Add some sev.

6.4) Add some green chutney - a dab - or a sprinkle of cayenne.

6.5) Add some tamarind chutney.

6.6) Ladle in the yogurt mixture until the 'puri' is full.

6.7) Now sprinkle more sev, yogourt, green/tamarind chutneys over the top.

6.8) Garnish with chopped onion and cilantro.

6.9) Sprinkle loads of chaat masala and cayenne if you want more heat.

7) Hand this over, unselfishly, to the first person in line drooling over it and start making another batch. Await your turn patiently until you get to taste some.

Sev puri or Dahi sev puri or SBDP or SPDP - anything you call it, is a great pick-me-up that is sure to bring a smile to your lips. This can easily be assembled by using maximum store bought ingredients.

If you are someone who has never ventured into the 'chaat' arena of Indian cuisine, I urge you to try this simple wonder. Bon Appetit!

Makai Tikki - Sweet corn fritters

These makai tikkis are great as appetizers or cocktail snacks and go really fast. They can be simply served with ketchup or any chili sauce of your choice. Makai Tikkis or corn kebabs as some call them appeared on catering menus almost two decades ago, and were a delectable offering that were difficult to ignore. Now we see Makai tikki on almost every restaurant menu, but alas they are becoming unhealthier and tasteless day by day. The versions we get at the few take out places we frequent are mostly laden with some kind of flour, over spiced, and deep fried. You would be lucky to see any actual corn in them.

I had two large corn on the cobs ( or corns on the cob?) lying around, and a lazy saturday evening ahead. Everyone welcomed the thought of fresh munchies while watching a nice movie. The recipe is simple and lightly spiced, since sweet corn has a subtle flavour that can be easily overpowered by spices, and I wanted the natural corn flavour to come through. I am using partially creamed corn, but with a few kernels still intact, and then the usual base of potatoes and grated paneer. Paneer can absolutely be left out to veganize this dish. You can use tofu instead of paneer, though it will not give the same taste and texture. You can use half a cup cashew paste, however, to get a similar rich flavour. I am using fresh boiled corn, but frozen corn or canned corn will also do. The fresh will give the best flavour. Fresh minced garlic, and dried onion flakes along with some coriander powder provide the spice base.

I am using my favourite 'Appe patra ' or Ableskiever pan to make these. This pan is very handy and I get tikkis that are crispy on the outside using only a few drops of oil for each batch. You have to patiently keep turning the fritters or tikkis till you get uniformly crisped balls. You can always deep fry these, if you do not care about how much oil you use. Alternately, these can be placed in neat rows on a sheet pan, sprayed with PAM etc. and baked in a 350 deg oven ( turned periodically). I got about 4 batches i.e 28-30 of these from these recipes, but they disappeared pretty fast.

The detailed recipe is as follows -

Ingredients -

2 large corns on the cob or whole maize

2 medium potatoes

1 cup grated paneer

1 tsp minced fresh garlic

2 tsp dehydrated onion

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 TBsp rice flour or all purpose flour

salt and pepper

oil

Method -

1) Boil or pressure cook the corn so that it is soft and cooked. Alternately you can boil frozen corn or use washed canned corn.

2) Remove the corn kernels from the cob using a knife ( tricky process) or plucking them individually with your fingers. Add this and 2-3 cloves garlic in the food processor and pulse through until most of it is a thick pulp but some corn kernels remain. This should yield about 2 cups of thick corn puree.

3) Boil, peel and mash 2 potatoes and add them to the corn mixture.

4) Add the grated paneer ( or cashew paste or tofu if substituting paneer).

5) Add all the spices as mentioned, flour, lots of black pepper and salt to taste. Use salt sparingly.

6) Mix everything together with a fork.

7)Heat the ableskieverpan and add a drop of oil to each mould.

8) Take some of the corn mixture in your palm and form small balls, slightly smaller than pingpong balls. You can of course, form these like patties and use a skillet or frying pan by all means.

9)Place the 'balls' in the pan moulds. Gradually turn them using a wooden skewer or fork tip until they are evenly browned.

10) Serve hot with ketchup or sauce of choice.

These makai tikkis or corn fritters or corn balls are very soft on the inside and literally melt in your mouth. These are great as a party appetizer and can also be served with a toothpick inserted in them.

I hope you try this recipe for makai tikkis and let me know how it turns out.