LUCKNOWI BASKET CHAAT (TOKRI CHAAT)
I feel really proud to share this recipe with you all. The reason being, this recipe has been shown on television,back in my country in India!! Go ahead and try it for yourself and you will realise how yummy it tastes!
Ingredients:
For making the baskets:
Potatoes (Big and old) : 4;
Oil for deep frying;
For the stuffing:
Potatoes( any variety) peeled and boiled: 2 ;
Garbanzo beans ( Kabuli chana) soaked and boiled : 1 cup;
Onion (finely chopped) : 1/2 cup;
Sev: 1/2 cup;
Yogurt: 2 cups;
For garnishing:
Sweet Tamarind chutney;
Green Chutney;
Pomegranate seeds: 1 tsp for each basket;
A pinch of : Pomegranate powder, black salt powder, cumin seed powder and chat masala.
Salt to taste
Method:
For making the baskets:
- Wash and grate the big potatoes using the widest grater. Now wash them 3-4 times in ice-cold water, so that they loose all the starch. Then spread them on a cloth napkin as shown.
- Try to use another cloth napkin and dry these grated potatoes till they seem to be dry.
- Now take a steel tea strainer and place the grated potatoes in them such that it forms a bowl like structure but inside the strainer. Please try to put some grated potatoes along the sides of the strainer too, else the bowl (tokri/basket) won't be formed .
- In a frying pan, keep some oil for heating. It should be sufficiently hot to fry these baskets.
- Now over this strainer, place another steel strainer and press it a bit so that the grated potatoes don't come out of the grip of the strainer.
- Hold these two strainers in very hot oil. After 2-3 minutes, try removing the upper strainer and see if it comes out clean. If yes, then remove it and let the tokri fry for some time, till its is slightly golden brown. Place them on tissue paper to allow absorption of excess oil. The fried baskets are shown below.
- After cooling down, place the tokris in a plate. Stuff them with mashed boiled potatoes, garbanzo beans and chopped onion.
- Prepared some flavoured yogurt by adding 1/2 tsp of cumin seed powder, red chilly powder and salt. Pour this yogurt over the stuffed tokris.
- To garnish, add some sev followed by sweet tamarind chutney, green chutney, some more chopped onion and the other ingredients and chopped cilantro.
- Tip: I usually make a lot of fried baskets and store them for use in future. This saves a lot of time and effort. Enjoy!
