UPSC Wali Chaat
There is a legendery chaat (street snack) shop called prabhu chaat bhandar near upsc in delhi. It is commonly known as UPSC wali chaat. It has been doling out chaat for 80 odd years.
We have never been to Delhi ….Yet! Surely we can and we will go someday. Meanwhile we keep watching videos of the food made there. And sometimes we cannot resist. Sometimes we try to imagine the spirit and flavors of Chaat and try to recreate it ourselves.
We came across a video on youtube by DilSeFoodie. They are a site that is so full of passion for food and it translates in all their captures, something we absolutely resonate with.
We saw their video of Aloo ki Chaat being prepared, Pieces of Potato fried golden crisp in a wide tawa skillet, and brought to the edge away from the pool of oil when done. The crispy potatoes are then seasoned and dressed with green chutney only for those who like it hot and sweet and sour tamarind chutney. The acidity is made complex with squeeze of lemon juice.
We could imagine the layered flavors of same type – the acidity. The tang coming from lemon, from chat masala , anardana powder, tamarind. This creates some very complex sour flavors balanced with sweetness of tamarind chutney and the funk coming from some black salt. The texture is from crispy potatoes, which melt into hot creaminess and the mint is there to contrast the mouthfeel with a feeling of cool refreshment. If there is one description for this it is – “chatakdar” – fresh and uplifting tang!
Local Potatoes
We got some medium sized potatoes of different kind. We got the purple variety, the red skin and the golden ones as well for good measure.
We steamed them till cooked through barely, then cut them with skin on.
Did we tell you we dig potato skin!
Lightly oiled and salted they went into a pan in a preheated oven for 30 to 40 mins at 375F till they were crispy on the edges and when you shook them you could tell by the noise they make against each other that they are crispy.
Then they went into a pan and got a seasoning of chat masala, black salt and anardana powder (pomegranate seed powder)
Then splash some mint chutney on top as well as the tamarind chutney. and then a generous squeeze of lemon. Mix and serve finished with some chat masala or lemon juice as one likes and we added some cilantro and pomegranate seeds because we had some on hand!
If you have chutneys ready from a chaat night before this cooks up later in the week in a breeze. Want to cheat? Get fried potato wedges from places like KFC or Buffalo Wild Wings, re-crispen them slowly in oven for 10 minutes and give this a try, you won’t regret. Then it will convince you to make it yourself.
Aloo ki Chaat
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Yield: Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1 cup steam cooked potatoes chopped into potato pieces or half wedges with skin on
- Oil to dress
- 0.5 tsp black salt
- 1 tsp chaat masala
- 2 tsp mint chutney
- 2 tsp tamarind chutney
- 2 tsp fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1 tsp anardana powder (optional but recommended)
- 1 tsp pomegranate seeds (optional)
- 1 tsp chpped cilantro (optional)
- For Mint Chutney (makes more than required by recipe):
- 1 cup loosely packed mint leaves
- 1 to 2 tsp mild chopped green chili (adjust according to heat of chillies)
- 1 clove garlic (optional)
- 1 tsp ginger
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 2 tsp yogurt
- 0.5 tsp lime juice
- Grind with some water all ingredients except yogurt and lime juice and then stir in the yogurt and lime juice
- Sweet and Sour tamarind chutney (makes more than required in recipe)
- Soak 0.5 cup tamarind in 1.5cup hot water for 30 mins. Squeeze pulp by hand and strain
- Add 7 Tbsp jaggery and salt to taste and reduce, then cool down
- You can optionally season with 0.5 tsp cumin powder, 0.5 tsp dry ginger powder, 0.5 tsp red chili powder, 0.5 tsp white pepper powder, 0.5 tsp heeng. But for this dish we like to keep it simple.
Instructions
- Pre-Heat oven to 375 F
- Add the potato pieces to an oiled pan, drizzle them with some oil and seasonw ith salt
- Bake till crispy for 30 to 40 minutes
- Add them to a large bowl
- Add black salt, anardana powder, chat masala powder by sprinling over, add mint chutney, add tamarind chutney, add lime juice, half the cilantro if using and mix thoroughly dressing the potatoes
- Taste and adjust seasoning, then serve in two bowls
- garnish with cilantro and pomegranate seeds if using
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 60 mins
- Category: Appetizer
- Cuisine: Indian
