Tamatar Chaat

      Tamatar Chaat

Tamatar ki chaat is the speciality of the most ancient city of the world, yes, you guessed it right ..Banaras!

My husband's dadihaal is in Varanasi or Banaras, yet I never had an opportunity to taste it there. My visit to that city were also one or two, but this time when I'll go to India, I must visit there and definitely will devour all the famous chaats and mithais of Banaras.

This tamatar ki chaat I learnt from Abha didi, whose sasural is there and she told me about this finger licking delicacy. Some variation of mine according to our taste and a mouth watering chaat is ready.

I often used to include this in appetizers during our party days, now thanks to COVID 19, no party is being hosted. Hubby does not like chaats much so for me only I refrained from preparing this. But today, just thought to eat it as lunch and there was snow outside and freezing cold temperatures, thus a perfect day to devour hot chaat!

Ingredients:

1- Tomatoes 2

2- Boiled potato 1

3- Ginger- 1" finely chopped 

4- Green chillies- 3-4

5- Cilantro- 

6- Salt 

7- Roasted cumin powder-3-5 tap.

8- Chaat masala-1 tap.

9- Black salt-1/2 TSP.

10- Red chilli powder-2 TSP.

11- Poppy seeds and crushed cashews_ 1-1 TSP (optional)

12- Sugar or honey_2 tbsp.

13- Tamarind- 2 tbsp. Soaked in water 

14- Water- approx  1/4 cup 

15- Desi ghee- 3 tbsp.

16- Cumin-1 TSP.

17-Hing- a pinch

Method:

* Finely chop tomatoes and crush potatoes.

* Heat a pan and add Desi ghee.

*Now add cumin seeds, hing and ginger.

*Saute and also add chopped green chillies.

* Add poppy seeds and crushed cashews, when a little pink, add chopped tomatoes, salt, sugar or honey, all the powdered spices and cover the lid.

* After a couple of minutes, add water and cover and cook till tomatoes get mushy 

* Now add potatoes and mix and cover.

*After 5 minutes, turn off the heat and sprinkle cilantro leaves.

* Serve hot with garnish of your choice. Traditionally, it is served with namakparas.

Note*

Tamatar ki chaat is traditionally made in Desi ghee.

They make a chashni and sprinkle roasted cumin powder and pour it over the chaat while serving. I skipped this step and added sugar and water while cooking tomatoes.

You can also add Tamarind chutney(meethi), but my chaat was already teekhi, meethi and khatti, so I did not need anything else.

I roasted fox nuts or Makhana to garnish as I was out of namakparas.