Pages

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Puffed Rice Chat / Charmure Upkari / Konkani Bhel




The other day at 10pm both I and my husband had a craving to eat chaat or anything spicy. In US we don't get chaat food like in India and sometimes we both get bad cravings for Chaats and other Indian street food. I remembered my mom's quick charmure upkari and we had it as a after dinner snack. Here is a quick and easy recipe to satisfy cravings for spicy chaat food.


Ingredients
2 cups crispy puffed rice, murmura or charmuro (if it is not crispy, heat it in a pan
on medium flame till crispy)
2-3 green chilies or red chili powder as per spiciness desired
small piece of tamarind or 1/2 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
2 tablespoon grated coconut
1 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon coconut oil (opional)
5 tablespoon finely cut gur or jaggery
salt for taste

Method

Roast the coriander seeds and cumin for 3-4 minutes or till hot. Put it in a mixer and dry grind it till you find a coarse powder. Add cut green chili, coconut, tamarind and salt. Grind into a paste without adding water. Put the paste into a vessel and mix in the cut jaggery. Mix well with hand, crushing the jaggery into the coconut paste. Adjust salt and sugar and add coconut oil. Mix the paste well with the puffed rice and serve immediately. If you keep it for long the puffed rice may get soggy because of the wet paste. You can garnish it with coriander leaves.


Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2