Roasted Gram Chat

My tongue was itching for a chatpata (sour and spicy) snack after I came across the photoblog of Sephi Bergerson. Sephi is a photographer who’s currently based in Indiaand was awarded ‘best cookbook photography’ title for his book Street Food of India by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2010. To look up pics from his book, see here. He stresses the importance of food photography being all about making the viewer hungry and not over-styling food.

His street food pics definitely made me go crazy and I was foraging my pantry looking for stuff I could put together to make some sort of a chat, a healthy one at that, which I could also post for the ongoing BM#12 event being hosted by Srivalli of Spice Your Life. This meant some sort of a lentil had to be the star ingredient (since I’ve chosen to blog on the theme Delicious Dals for seven days in a row).

I found a half-used packet of roasted gram (bhuna chana/pottu kadalai) and I wondered if I could make something really appetising with this. Roasted gram is full of protein and fibre and has very little fat content. But it is normally consumed as an evening/on-the-go snack only by the elderly. The other common use it is put to is, of course, in coconut chutney.

So I made a sort of bhel puri, using roasted gram instead of puffed rice (murmura/pori). I also added whatever vegetables I had in the refrigerator along with the typical chat sauces and spice powders to come up with this:

Yummy...dig in!

Roasted Gram Chat

(Serves 2)

Ingredients:

Roasted gram – 50 gm

Grated carrots and radish – ¼ cup

Capsicum (finely chopped) – ¼ cup

Sweet corn – 2 tbsp

^Green chutney – 2 tbsp

^Khatti-meethi (Sweet & sour) chutney – 2 tbsp

*Beaten rice – 1/8 cup

Green chilli (finely chopped) – 1

Chopped coriander leaves – 2 tbsp

Sev – ¼ cup

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Amchur (Dry mango) powder – ½ tsp or Lemon juice – 2 tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

* Thin variety, roasted to make it crisp

^Recipe at the end

Method:

Spread a layer of roasted gram on your serving plates

Mix all chopped vegetables and green chilli in a bowl

Take a small cup and fill it up with the vegetables

Upturn it bang in the centre of the roasted gram layer

Sprinkle beaten rice all over

Spread some more roasted gram

Top it with a tbsp of green and khatti-meethi chutney

Sprinkle red chilli powder, amchur powder (or lemon juice), salt and sev

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve

Green Chutney Recipe

Grind together ½ cup chopped coriander leaves, ¼ cup mint leaves, 1 green chilli (or half if it is too hot), juice of half a lemon and salt with minimal water into a smooth paste

Khatti-meethi chutney/Sweet & Sour chutney

Grind together 1/8 cup of dates and 1 tsp tamarind paste with a little water into a smooth paste

About these ads