It is my son’s second birthday today (August 12th) and we are celebrating it since 10th. 10th because it was my husband’s off day from work (we did a small celebration at home), 11th as it was Janmashtami and I love dressing him up as Krishna. He is our little Kishan Kanhaiyya who brought flood along with him during the Kerala floods in August 2018.

I remember those scary days every year and pray that no one has to go through it again. But yes, God has been really kind upon us and we survived the days well.

My parents shifted back to our native Udupi in Karnataka after that as they wanted to be closer to their siblings and the days in Cochin are a beautiful memory to cherish.

One among the food memory from Cochin is piping hot masala puri that we used to enjoy from a small chaat stall behind the Ernakulam Shiva temple. Me and Amma used to sit in our car (as I was very shy to eat in front of other people 😁) and my dad and brother used to bring them to us. The flavours of the masala puri is still in my taste buds. So so delicious. I have never eaten a tastier masala puri than that.

But I am glad after many trials, my version of masala puri does taste almost same to that. I make it during special days and since it was my son’s birthday, I made it for our evening special snack and we all enjoyed it. Hope you all try and enjoy too. Happy and healthy cooking!

RECIPE:

Ingredients: {Makes about 4 plates}

For the curry:

1 Cup dry Green peas (soak overnight)

1 medium sized Potato

1 medium sized Tomato

1 tsp Garam masala powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

1 Tbsp Oil

To grind:

1 medium sized Onion

3 Green chillies

1/2 inch Ginger piece

1/2 Cup Coriander leaves

1/4 Cup Mint leaves

For garnish: finely chopped Onion, tomatoes and coriander leaves as desired

For assembling the chaat: {In one plate}

3 to 4 Puris, 3 ladles of the curry, 1 Tbsp Date Tamarind chutney, Green chutney if desired, finely chopped onions, tomatoes, coriander leaves and bhujiya or Sev.

Step by step recipe:

1. Pressure cook the soaked green peas (soak for atleast 8 hours) along with potato and turmeric powder till it turns soft.

Note: It takes 4 whistles at high flame in my electric stovetop.

2. Mash lightly and keep aside.

3. Take all ingredients to grind in a mixer jar.

4. Grind with little water to a smooth paste. Keep aside.

5. Heat oil in a pan and fry finely chopped tomatoes till it cooks.

6. Add the ground masala paste and cook till it reduces and leaves the sides of the pan. Add garam masala powder and salt.

7. Add the cooked and mashed peas and potatoes.

8. Now cook till it thickens and turns into a gravy like below. Remove from flame.

9. For making masala puris, take puris in a plate and break into pieces.

10. Now add two to three ladles of the curry, top with date-tamarind chutney, onions, tomatoes, coriander leaves and bhujiya. Serve hot.

Notes:

* You can also make green chutney for a spicier masala Puri. Since I make it for my kids, I skip and make the curry mildly spicy for them to enjoy.

* For the green chutney, just grind green chillies with coriander leaves, mint, salt and little water to a smooth paste.

* I also use Mother’s recipe date tamarind chutney. If you don’t have it, just grind dates with tamarind and salt with little water to a smooth paste. That’s your sweet chutney.

* For the puris, I have bought these ready to be fried puris long back (more than 2 years actually) and still they are good. I just microwave it on high for 1 minute and they are ready. No need to deep fry at all.

* The curry can be used as an accompaniment to rotis and rice meals. If you add paneer to it, it becomes matar paneer. I do the same when I have leftover curry.

* You can grind tomatoes if you don’t like tomatoes as it is in the gravy.