Let's Have a Chat About Watermelon Chaat

 

While cooking and learning about Indian food for the last 30 years, I've made a variety of chaats. If you've never had a chaat, it's an Indian snack food. Chaats can contain a variety of ingredients, and most of the chaats I've made over the years have been for movie nights, big parties, any place one would serve popcorn, nuts, or my moms favorite the dreaded every-party-no-matter-what... Chex Mix. Believe me Chex Mix is a pale imitation of a good Indian chaat, even though it might contain some of the same ingredients.

Here's a sample of how it can be served and the recipe I used is  here 

This chaat recipe is one of the first, if not the first post I ever put up on this blog 11 years ago . This was back when I was cooking and holding the  camera in my teeth. The pictures certainly reflect that. Since then, Alan has taken over the photo duties and he really knows what he's doing as evidenced  above.

A chaat can even be turned into a salad, even the infamous Chick Sal...hold the sandwich part just make it a chaat instead. The recipe for this is here.

 But now it's Summer. We're in the middle of a heat alert, temperatures are expected to reach 107 tomorrow and that calls for something cool and refreshing, and NOT chicken. That's when I found out about Watermelon Chaat. It showed up in the NY Times cooking section and I have to admit I was intrigued, and I had to try it. I don't buy watermelon very frequently, but this had me out looking for one. A small one, seedless is just the right size, and believe me a small watermelon makes plenty of chaat.

So grab your watermelon and let's go chaat.

Watermelon Chaat

 Here's What You Need:

1 Watermelon (about 2 lbs)

3/4 tsp cumin seeds 

1/4 tsp sweet paprika

1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper

1/4 tsp amchur powder (dried green mango powder)

1 pinch of cayenne , I use Kashmiri chili powder

1/4 tsp fine sea salt, or kosher salt

1/3 cup of fresh squeezed orange, clementine or mandarin juice

3 or 4 fresh mint leaves

 

Here's What To Do:

Cut the watermelon into 1 inch cubes.

put them in a large baking dish, or serving dish. They should be spread in a single layer.

In a small pan dry roast the cumin seeds for a couple of minutes until they darken a bit and become fragrant.

When they've toasted, grind them with a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Don't grind them too fine, as you want that texture in the dish.

Put the ground cumin in a small bowl and add the other spices.

Juice the orange and add that to the bowl and stir it well.

Pour the mixture over the watermelon cubes.

Chop the mint leaves and sprinkle them over and mix them in.

Make sure the watermelon is coated with the seasoning, then cover the dish with plastic wrap...

...and pop it into the fridge to chill for 1 to 6 hours.

Serve well chilled and enjoy!!

 So that's what we're  planning on enjoying later this evening. Right now it's 105 so you know we're not playing. If you're doing any sort of grilling outside this Labor Day weekend you might want to check out  Tandoor Aloo, which is tandoor roasted potatoes on a skewer.....you can also make them on a regular BBQ grill but a Tandoor is so much more fun!

Coming up next, cooking for weather, no matter where you are I've got your shelf stable cooking right here. After I got done with covid back in May, I've taken back the cooking duties, and between us we haven't eaten anything in this house that we haven't cooked or baked ourselves since the end of February. So follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Tandoor Aloo Potatoes With Spices Done With Fire!!!

It's been crazy up here in wine country. actually it's crazy everywhere but since this is where I am presently this is my crazy. We've been laying low since I recovered from covid. We were laying low before too. What that means is we haven't socialized, eaten out, (even contactless pickup) or gone anywhere (we are walking the dog) except to a hospital or doctor's office since this whole thing started. Meanwhile, my cooking muscle since I've been up and about again, is really getting a pandemic workout.

If that isn't enough, we've had lightning strike wildfires, rolling blackouts, and temperatures in the 100+ category. We're trying to get a script turned in and it's hard to work under those conditions. We've had our bags packed to run, and fortunately we didn't have to. We were also told to limit water / power use, and NO fires no way no how. So no outdoor cooking, not that anyone would want to stand in 103 degree temps over a fire pit. So far so good.

Last weekend we got a break, when more lightning was predicted, meaning the possibility of more fires, but the weather gods/goddesses decided to cut us a break, sent a a bit of rain and held the lightning. The fires are still burning but are much more contained, and people who had to flee their homes in the evacuation zones are being allowed to go back home. We're not out of the woods here yet, but hopefully the woods will not still be on fire.

I took advantage of pleasant temperatures and the ability to use my Homdoor Tandoor oven to do a little Indian cooking, and one of the dishes worked beautifully with the tandoor oven. It involves potatoes and is one of the simplest dishes  there is. Potatoes aka Aloo, simple boiling potatoes, basted with spices and then roasted on skewers in the tandoor till they are charred on the outside, spicy and soft on the inside. There are a lot of ways of doing this dish, this is how I do it.

Tandoor Aloo

Here's What You Need:

Several medium sized yukon gold or boiling potatoes

2 Tbs vegetable oil

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 serrano chili finely chopped, either seeded or unseeded (depends on how hot you want it)

2 tsp mashed coriander seeds

1 tsp red chili flakes

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp amchur  (dried mango) powder

1/2 tsp cumin ppowder

2 tsp lemon juice

salt to taste

a handful of chopped fresh cilantro

 

Here's What To Do:

You can par boil/ partially cook the potatoes to soften them a bit before skewering them, just don't cook them all the way through.

After they are cooked, you can leave the peel on or not, as you wish. Set them aside.

What we do here is prepare a basting sauce that will be used on the potatoes as they cook and then the remains of it drizzled over the finished dish.

First, get your spices ready.

Dice the chili pepper.

Crush the coriander seed with a mortar and pestle.

In a skillet or kadhai heat 2 Tbs vegetable oil. When the oil is hot toss in the cumin seeds.

Let them toast. As soon as they get fragrant (less than a minute) toss in the  serrano chili, and crushed coriander seed.

Now add chili flakes, turmeric, dried mango powder (amchur), roasted cumin powder, and salt. Stir these around and cook them for a few seconds. This is your basting liquid. Set it aside

Rub the potatoes with oil and thread the potatoes on oiled skewers.

Fire up your Tandoor Oven. The potatoes cook at 400 degrees for about  5 minutes, if you are doing these on a grill the same applies.

Brush the potatoes with the spice marinade

Place the skewered potatoes in the tandoor or on your grill.

Let them roast for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes take them out and brush them with the spice mixture again . Put them back in the tandoor for another 5 minutes.

When they are done, take them out and off the skewers.

Place them back in the kadhai with the marinade, coat them. 

 Drizzle them with lemon juice.

Sprinkle them with the chopped cilantro.

Ignore curious fans....

and serve them up!

Serve these spicy potatoes alongside any dish, meat or veg. Scoop the insides out of the charred skins and enjoy. 

I'm really enjoying the tandoor and especially enjoying cooking stuff fresh out of our garden in it. 

We're supposed to have more record breaking temperatures up here this Labor Day weekend.  Reports are of 102-104 degrees so I've got something cool planned. Watermelon Chaat. so stay tuned! Follow along on Twitter at @kathygori