Dinner in 20 minutes: Chaat with mom

Serve this warm salad of black chickpeas and potatoes with roti and dal, or with a cup of chilled yoghurt for a light meal

December 19, 2014 06:40 pm | Updated April 04, 2016 11:28 pm IST

I was a moody cook and an unwilling learner, but my mother never lost her patience in her quest to teach me a few of her favourite recipes. She never forced me to learn cooking just because that’s what good Indian girls are supposed to do. She wanted me to learn the basics of cooking techniques as she wanted me to stay independent and never depend on others for my survival. According to her, cooking is one of the many essential life skills that one has to learn in order to not only survive, but to successfully make healthy eating choices and hence take full control of the food that nourishes one’s body and soul.

When the time came for me to pack my bags and leave home, I was eager to live an independent life where I was solely responsible for making decisions about my study hours, night curfew times and food choices. For the first month, I indulged in eating junk food. But by the end of the month, all I craved was simple home food! My incessant complaints and whining stopped whenever she asked me to sit in the kitchen and watch her cooking.

Although I was not overly eager to master the art of cooking or gave much attention while she went on creating magic in her kitchen, the little spark of interest in cooking was ignited in a corner of my mind. Little did I know that I was already picking up basic skills while chatting and munching on the goodies prepared by my mother as I watched her cook with love.

Years went by and I continued to walk on a path I ambitiously carved for myself in academia. While I buried my head in between the textbooks and lost myself among the characters of storybooks, cookbooks remained the great mystery of my life. When I got married and moved to a different country, I found myself eating the same food cooked by my husband every day. It didn’t take a long time to find out that my life partner had not only survived, but also flourished eating the same food for the past two years of his student life! That’s when my adventure in a tiny 6 feet by 8 feet kitchen began. I will not go into details on my (mis)adventures, but all I can say is it was not as bad as I imagined it to be. I was fortunate to have what many call ‘beginners luck’, but importantly I had three cooking experts in my life — my mother, grandmother and mother-in-law — sitting thousands of miles away and living in different time zones, who taught me patiently over the phone everything I needed to know.

With never ending love for food, spice and life, Sia Krishna is passionate about making Indian food less intimidating and more fun which reflects in her food blog "Monsoon Spice" (http://monsoonspice.com). Her cooking style has strong root in Indian culture and at the same time embraces the world cuisine with equal passion.

Today’s recipe of Aloo-Kala Channa Chaat is probably one of the very first recipes I learnt from my mother. Quick and simple, this dish of warm black chickpeas and potato salad with spiced tamarind dressing is perfect for the kind of weather which we are having these days with spells of sunshine in between rains. On days when I am not very eager to cook something elaborate, this comes to my rescue. You can serve this with chapatti/roti and dal, or simply enjoy this bowl of chaat with a cup of chilled yogurt or a tall glass of spiced buttermilk as a light meal.

Aloo-Kala Channa Chaat

Serves: 4-5 people

Ingredients:

3 cups boiled/cooked kala channa/black chickpeas (I used canned ones)

1 cup boiled/cooked potato, diced into bite-sized pieces

1/2 inch ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated

1-2 green chillies, slit (adjust as per taste)

1 small marble-sized tamarind pulp or 1/4 tsp tamarind paste

1/2 tbsp jaggery/brown sugar

1-2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

Salt to taste

Spices Used:

1 tsp roasted dhania/coriander powder

1/4 tsp roasted jeera/cumin powder

1/4 tsp haldi/turmeric powder

1/4 tsp chaat powder (optional)

For Tadka/Tempering:

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds

1 dried red chilli, halved

A sprig of curry leaves

A pinch of hing/asafoetida

1/2 tbsp oil

Method:

1 Soak tamarind pulp in 1/4 cup of warm water to extract its juice. Discard the pulp once the juice is extracted.

2 Add roasted coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder and chaat masala, if using, to the tamarind extract and mix them well. Keep it aside until needed.

3 Heat oil in a pan on medium flame and add mustard seeds to it. When it starts to pop and splutter, add cumin seeds, dry red chilli, hing and curry leaves.

4 Once the cumin seeds start to change colour and sizzle, in about 20 seconds, reduce the heat to low. Mix in slit green chillies, tamarind dressing and mix them well. Let it cook on low flame for a minute.

5 Next, add jaggery, finely chopped ginger and salt to taste and let it cook for a minute or two until the jaggery dissolves.

6 Add cooked black chickpeas and sauté them for about 4 to 5 minutes so that the spices coat them completely and the chickpeas are heated through.

7 Now add boiled and cubed potatoes and gently fold into the black chickpeas mixture, taking care not to break the potato pieces. Adjust the seasonings and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes before switching off the gas.

8 Serve warm, topped with a sprinkling of chaat masala, finely chopped coriander leaves and a wedge of lime. Enjoy!

Tips:

You can use this as a filling for wraps or pita bread with salad leaves and sour cream.

Replace black chickpeas with garbanzo or kabuli chana for a different flavour.

You can also garnish the bowl of chaat with a spoonful of finely chopped onion, tomato, cucumber and fried sev for taste and texture.

With never ending love for food, spice and life, Sia Krishna is passionate about making Indian food less intimidating and more fun which reflects in her food blog "Monsoon Spice" (>http://monsoonspice.com). Her cooking style has strong root in Indian culture and at the same time embraces the world cuisine with equal passion.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.