Cook in a Curry

There are simple pleasures in giving something that is homemade or even better home cooked! Easy to make, delicious and absolutely festive is what comes to mind when I put together a few treats for family and friends. It gets me in a festive spirit too. I have some perfect gifts for all those on your Christmas list.

There’s my favourite Pineapple & cracked black pepper chutney, Tomato & fennel chutney and also some warming cardamom & blueberry biscotti. All wrapped, jarred & labelled I guarantee they will be an instant hit!

Here’s a look at my recipes on the ITV FOOD website. Hope you & your guests enjoy the treats. Happy Christmas!

My fondness for all things street food continues! Frankly I think it’s not something I’ll ever let go. Like a lot of people; the fact that I only get a few chances to eat the real thing in India; the next best option is to cook it for family & friends introducing everyone to the flavours you reminisce about. And sharing the experience of how delicious a dish can be when you step outside the box.
Bhel puri is one such street food dish that is available everywhere you go in Mumbai/ Bombay. Every street corner, outside colleges, at Indian fast food restaurants you’ll find this ‘signature’ dish and it does help that it’s an all time favourite. Like a lot of dishes in India a few regions have their own variety of Bhel. The east of India has a similar version known as ‘Jhal Muri’.

What makes this dish so special is a mix of ingredients lending something different in every spoonful. Crispy puffed rice & puris with crunchy red onions, soft potato, tangy raw mango, sweet and sour tamarind chutney & a hint of spice with the minty flavour of green chutney. Gorgeous!  
I have to say THIS Bhel puri is as close as you can get to the Bombay Bhel! Once I made the dish I really couldn’t contain my excitement of sampling it and also realising how close I was to the real thing (a compliment from an Indian friend who popped over to sample some chaat). It’s a dish that’s easy to assemble once you have done all the prep work. But to get the most out of it Bhel puri must be eaten straight away for the crispy crunchy flavours. Once all the chutneys get soaked into the puffed rice, potatoes, onions they tend to get soggy if left any longer. Though saying that it still wouldn’t stop me from eating it!

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Eating “chaat” in India is something I will never get tired of. It has to be one of my favourite foods that I have experienced as a young girl. And even today one of the first things I do when I get to India is follow my MUST HAVE list; chaat is first on the list followed by a Frankie/ sandwich roll. “Chaat” essentially is a kind of food that encompasses a variety of savoury dishes that are eaten at street stalls primarily.
I frequent India often enough to hear people say that it must be eaten from clean & hygienic places; where they would use mineral water. And I must admit; I do try but I am equally guilty of eating it in places that just remind me of my experience when I was younger. One such place is most definitely Chowpatty in Bombay. But lets face it half the fun of eating street food is the fact that there is that rustic quality to it. The idea of sampling all these delights; in crowded areas with commotion around and traffic. The energy, hustle & bustle is in my opinion half the fun.  A lot of families even cook all the chaat dishes at home. Some of the best home chaat I remember having is at friends who were Gujarati/ Marwari. That’s not to say no one else makes it well but they just make it that tad bit better. This is the kind of food that most vegetarians would definitely make part of their fare but it’s equally popular with meat eaters too.

It is cheap & cheerful, makes a good meal and after you’ve sampled a few bites it’s the sort of things that keeps you wanting more. By the time you get to the end of the meal you’ve tried most things on the menu. There usually is Bhel Puri, Pani Puri, Dahi Batata Puri and also some fruit chaat for those who fancy something healthyish. The dishes could be endless to be honest but most stalls would definitely stock these dishes.

You might be wondering what the all these names above signify in terms of dishes. Trust me having eaten all of them I can vouch for how utterly delicious they are and can’t even begin to tell you the number of times I have tried to replicate them at home. Quite successfully at that! But one thing I would say is how hard it is to actually explain what each dish is. But I’ll try – here goes…

The puris generally used in chaat are small & crispy. My post is Dahi Batata Puri; which is yoghurt with potato filled in these crispy shells. There quite a few more components to the dish. Once the puris are filled with potato, onion and yoghurt, it is topped with ‘sev’ fried crispy noodle, tamarind chutney & mint chutney. I also put a sprinkle of red chilli powder and some black salt.

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