Alu kabli/Alu Chat/Potato-Chickpeas Salad

As the spice adds the taste in your meal, tasty snack adds the spice to your daily life . Choice of snack everyday for me is a difficult job. Although we keep in home a lot of ready made snacks but nothing can compare with chat. The tangy and spicy taste literally waters mouth when ever we even talk about it. I make often dahi bara (lentil dumplings in yogurt sauce), papri chat, fruit chat, samosa chat, raj kachori and fuchka at home, but the easiest one is alu kabli or alu chat. This item is a healthy snack, too. This can be served as a salad item, too, in a lunch or dinner party.

 

Remember the tiffin time in our school days. We used to have a line of snack providers outside the school gate. Only two vendors were allowed to enter inside our school campus during the tiffin time. One was samosa seller and the other was the alu kabli seller. Though I never got a chance of buying any of those items during my school days as my parents being very strict did not hand over to us any pocket money but my friends being very generous and close to us used to share the tasty tangy alu kabli chat in a shalpata shell (one kind of container made out of shaal leaf) served with kathi/sticks. Those pieces of tangy salty and spicy potato and bites of chickpeas made our chitchat during lunch break memorable forever.  Till now everywhere in India out of all street food corners alu chat or alukabli is one of the hot selling chat item amongst all.

Ingredients

1. Boiled potato: 2 cups
2. Chickpeas: 1 cup
3. Tamarind date chutney: 1/4 cup
4. Black salt: as per taste
5. Green chillies : 3/4
6. Onion: 1 small
7. Ginger: 1 teaspoon (optional)
8. Cucumber: 2 tablespoon
9. Bhaja masla (roasted spice): 2 teaspoon
10. Lemon juice: 2 teaspoon
11. Jhuri bhaja : 2 tablespoon for garnishing

Steps:

1. Boil the potato. I boiled medium sized two potatoes. Don't over cook the potato. While boiling please add a spoon of salt into the water. This will actually help to let the salt enter inside the potato. Cool the potato before you make the alu kabli. Hot potatoes don't add the taste needed here.

2. You can soak chickpeas overnight or for 6-8 hours and boil it in water. Make sure they are soft but not mushy. This should also be cooled down completely before you make the chat. You can also use canned cooked chickpeas. You need to strain away the liquid from the chick peas, Wash it before you make the preparation.

3. To make the bhaja masla, dry roast cumin and whole red chillies. I used 2 whole red chillies and 3 teaspoons of whole cumin seeds. When you see the color of red chillies and cumin changes to darker shade and nice aroma comes out, take the pan out of heat immediately. Don't let it burn. Cool it and grind it in a mixer. I used my coffee grinder for this purpose. You can store this masala in an air tight container for future use.

4. Chop cucumber, onions, green chillies into fine/small pieces. Also finely chop ginger but this input is optional. If you do not like the taste of ginger, you can skip it. That does not differ the taste a lot.

5. You can make tamarind chutney fresh at home or you can also use regular store bought tamarind or tamarind-date chutney. I have used this time tamarind-date chutney of  Deep brand. I love this chutney. For chat preparation this ready made chutney saves a lot of time.  To make Tamarind chutney at home follow this steps:

    a. Soak 1 cup tamarind (without seeds) in two cups of warm water for half an hour.
    b. Extract pulp and strain to remove fiber.
    c. Take a heavy-bottomed pan, add the tamarind pulp and 1.5-2 cup jaggery .
    d. Cook on low heat.
    e. Add salt as per your taste.
    f. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
    g. Store in an air-tight container.

6. Now your job is to mix all the ingredients. In a bowl first add the potato, then the chickpeas or kabuli chana, then the chopped vegetables like cucumber, onions and green chilies. Add the lemon juice, black salt, and the tamarind chutney. Mix them well. Check for salt taste. Adjust as per your requirement. You might add chopped cilantro if you like. I did not add it, so I did not mention in the ingredients list.

7. Your alu kabli is ready to serve. Garnish it with some jhuri bhaja or bhujia.

Enjoy!!!!!