$\"Chaat$ <\/p>\n

I recently had the pleasure of dining at Rasika, a very popular DC Indian restaurant, and trying their famous palak chaat. This dish is an amazing medley of textures and flavors, with crispy spinach playing off a sour-sweet chutney and sweetened yogurt, and I knew almost immediately that I had to try my best to recreate it. I’ve dedicated this week to a series of posts on recreating all the pieces of Rasika’s palak chaat. This post is the first in a series of three. See post 2: Date Tamarind Chutney<\/a> and post 3: Palak Chaat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chaat masala is a classic Indian spice mix with some unusual ingredients. Along with the more familiar coriander and cumin, black salt features prominently in the mix, adding an interesting mineral taste, while amchur, a powder made from dried unripe mangoes, imparts a tartness. The resulting mix is sour, spicy, and very flavorful. It is great on nuts or fried chickpeas, mixed into yogurt, on a salad, or over fresh fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChaat Masala<\/span><\/strong> (adapted from Vegeyum<\/a>)
\nYield: 1\/2 cup<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/p>\n

\n
1 Tbsp cumin seeds<\/span><\/li>\n
1 Tbsp coriander seeds<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/2 Tbsp black peppercorns<\/span><\/li>\n
1 tsp cardamom seeds<\/span><\/li>\n
1 tsp fennel seeds<\/span><\/li>\n
1 tsp ajwain seeds (optional)<\/span><\/li>\n
1 \u2013 2 whole red dried (or fresh) hot peppers<\/span>*<\/li>\n
1\/2 – 1 inch stick cinnamon, broken up<\/span><\/li>\n
a pinch asafoetida powder<\/span><\/li>\n
1 Tbsp garam masala<\/span><\/li>\n
1 Tbsp mango powder (amchur)<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/2 Tbsp black salt<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/2 Tbsp sea salt<\/span><\/li>\n
1 tsp cayenne pepper<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/2 tsp ground nutmeg<\/span><\/li>\n
1\/2 tsp ground ginger<\/span><\/li>\n
a pinch ground cloves<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
*If using fresh peppers, slit them a few times so that air can escape.<\/p>\n
Method:
\n<\/p>\n
\n
Heat a small pan over medium heat, then, one at a time, dry roast 1 Tbsp cumin seeds<\/em>, 1 Tbsp coriander seeds<\/em>, 1\/2 Tbsp black peppercorns<\/em>, 1 tsp cardamom seeds<\/em>, 1 tsp fennel seeds<\/em>, 1 tsp ajwain seeds<\/em>, 1 \u2013 2 whole red dried (or fresh) chillies<\/em>, 1\/2 – 1 inch stick cinnamon broken up<\/em>, and a pinch asafoetida powder<\/em>. Each should take about a minute (only roast the asafoetida powder for 30 seconds); you will know a spice is done when it becomes fragrant. I simply move each spice to my mortar and pestle<\/a> $\"\"$ as I finish roasting it (you can, of course, use a spice grinder if you prefer).<\/li>\n
Add 1 Tbsp garam masala<\/em>, 1 Tbsp mango powder (amchur)<\/em>, 1\/2 Tbsp black salt<\/em>, 1\/2 Tbsp sea salt<\/em>, 1 tsp cayenne pepper<\/em>, 1\/2 tsp powdered nutmeg<\/em>, 1\/2 tsp powdered ginger<\/em>, and a pinch powdered cloves<\/em> to the roasted spices.<\/li>\n
Grind the spices together until they form a uniform powder. Store in a jar; this masala will keep well for a year although its strength will decline over time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>
Related Posts:<\/h3>
Garam Masala<\/a><\/li>
Madras Curry Powder<\/a><\/li>
Chana Masala<\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently had the pleasure of dining at Rasika, a very popular DC Indian restaurant, and trying their famous palak chaat. This dish is an amazing medley of textures and flavors, with crispy spinach playing off a sour-sweet chutney and sweetened yogurt, and I knew almost immediately that I had to try my best to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[4,126,125],"tags":[138,139,132,134,140,141,51,130,135,133,137,136,104,106],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1OY2q-av","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seletsucre.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}