Pani Puri Chaat

Pani Puri is one of the most loved Indian street foods or “chaat”. The puri (small, round, crispy puffed shells made from semolina) is stuffed with potato mixture, tamarind chutney and a spicy, tangy water, or pani. 
Eat it in one big bite and experience the explosion of flavor. Absolutely one of my favorite chaat. They go fast so be sure to make plenty with this easy pani puri recipe.

serves 5 - 6 people

Ingredients: 

For Pani (Spicy Water): 
2 cup mint leaves (Pudina) 
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
3 to 5 green chilies (adjust to taste) 
3 tablespoons tamarind paste (Imli) 
3 tablespoons lemon juice 

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Bombay Chatt - 21st Meet!

What a gorgeous fall day it was. Vaishali hosted our Bombay Chatt Exchange. As we all know Jalpa welcomed a baby girl about 6 weeks ago so we had a special visitor, Mohini Jhoom, this month. MJ was fasting for Navaratri so she only had milk. Vaishali served us baraf gola (snow cones) with a modern twist. Unlike traditional gola’s these were severed in cup which I am sure most of us preferred. I still have very vivid memories of buying these gola’s off a street vendor and enjoying them as a child. They would have different flavors and although I cannot remember what specific flavors I had enjoyed, I just remember enjoying them. 

We had Jalpa’s Channa Dal next. She served it just the way you find it in India: in paper cones.  You would find channa dal again sold by street vendors. Nishal recounted a really funny story – she remembers traveling by train in India and these merchants selling the dal to train goers. Even if you didn’t want to have any, the sight and smell of the channa dal tempted you every single time and you would end up buying a pack or in this case a cone full of it! 

We moved on to the Bombay Sandwich that I served cold and hot (grilled). There are many variations of the sandwich and it’s a personal preference as to how to serve it. I remember being in India a couple of years ago when we were shopping for my cousins wedding and enjoying these sandwiches. I remember a couple of days we would purposefully not have a formal lunch because we would want to order these sandwiches; you can partially find these on every street corner.  

We also enjoyed the Pani Puri that Nishal made. What surprised me the most was that she made the pani (water with mint and other ingredients) from scratch. It was so good! I think most people would agree with me that no matter how hard you try you can never get the pani puri like the street vendors in India. Again I remember being in India 10 years ago and telling my cousin I will risk getting sick just to have a serving of pani puri. And so I did. And no, I didn’t get sick. 

And finally we ended the afternoon with Kulfi made by Parul. She somehow found a way to make it where it wasn’t too creamy but savory enough to be called a Kulfi. Yum!

 
Hetal will no longer be attending due to scheduling conflicts. 

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Apple fennel salad

This is my favorite salad at work, and finally dared to make it! Similar to the other salad post (stacked salad), I have to find other ways to make salads.  Although I've enjoyed eating all salad recipes posted on our blog :) Check them out

Here is another very simple recipe.

Ingredients:
3-4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1-2 teaspoons honey
Juice of 1/2-1 lemon
Pinch salt and black pepper

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Banana Coconut Cream Parfait

Quick and easy dessert you can whip up (literally) in no time!

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1 cup fat free cottage cheese
4oz Neufchatel cheese, slightly softened (Find it right next to the cream cheese)
2/3 cup canned coconut milk (see note below)
1/2 cup powdered sugar (add more if needed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 banana (sliced)
1/2 cup sweeted shredded coconut toasted
Vanilla or chocolate wafers, chopped small

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Masala Burger

Ingredients:

1lb of ground chicken (or turkey or beef)

1 CGG cube or 1 tbsp of chili, 1tbsp of ginger, 1 tbsp of garlic

1 medium onion

½ tbsp of oil

½ tbsp of turmeric

1 tbsp of garam masala (or any meat masala)

Salt to taste (a little more than ½ tbsp)

1 cup chopped spinach

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20th Meet!

Hostess: Nishal

What an exchange!

We met this past Sunday at Nishal’s house. She made the most amazing mango drink. I am not a big drink drinker (yes, I just said that). I like Wine, Water, and Vodka. But this mango drink, I can see myself drinking this in the cold and dreary Connecticut (okay it’s not cold and dreary all the time, but work with me people) while imagining myself on a tropical island. I close my eyes and I am back in Jamaica. White sand. Cool breeze. Turquoise water.  My beach chair is halfway pulled in the ocean; the sun is beating down on me and small fishes are swimming right around me. I have my favorite book in one hand and in the other Nishal’s mango drink. Everything is alright. It was so cold and refreshing. She served the drink with some mango pieces in it. I could go for one right about now. 

We decided to prep everything and eat everything at once (versus eating one item and then going and prepping and then eating). Jalpa served us this really cool and refreshing salad. It had less than five ingredients and she made it fun with the coconut shells she served it in. Parul and I made burgers – Parul’s  was a quinoa burger that looked like a oatmeal cookie and tasted like deliciousness and mine a chicken burger that tasted like curry burger… because.. Well... it was. We ended the food part of our exchange with a scrumptious coconut crème parfait that Vaishali whipped together. I couldn’t stop talking about it for two days. It was that good. 

With a group of six and growing (with babies, not new members) we realized that we had to set some ground rules. This exchange cannot and will not be successful if we are on different pages about it. Big take aways were: this a “me” time (so no kids or husbands unless invited), always communicate with the entire group, act not react, when the date/time is set it should become a priority for all (no canceling if something else comes up), and no canceling unless a dire emergency comes up. We understand that this is for fun and adding rules to things like this takes away some of the fun, but we also understand and respect each others time. This will just make it even that much better. *winky face*

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Sweet Peach Tea

Yields: 8 Servings

INGREDIENTS

7 bags Earl Grey tea

1 lemon, sliced
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut in chunks
4 cups boiling water
8 cups ice cubes
2 peaches, peeled and diced
1 peach, sliced
½ cup sugar (or ¼ cup sugar and ¼ cup agave nectar)- adjust as wanted
8 sprigs mint

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