Street food is like oxygen for us Indians. we just cannot live without it. Our usual golgappa and momos seller has been shut too and you cannot wait for the lockdown to get over, so you can just go on an eating spree. Well, lockdown or no lockdown, you can make these 5 street style snacks at your home with a simple ingredient – maida (refined flour).
Table of Contents
1) Paapri Chaat
Thin, crispy paapdis made at home and dunked in a pool of dahi and chutneys will feel like a gourmet meal at a seven-star property right now. No kidding! Make a dough with maida, roll out on a flat surface. Using a small round cookie cutter or a small katori, cut out several paapdis from the dough. Poke small holes with a fork so that it doesn’t puff up like a puri. Deep fry till crisp and golden. You can store paapdis in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Add whisked curd on top, saunth chutney, green chutney, juliennes of ginger, coriander leaves and chaat masala. Satisfaction guaranteed!
2) Samosa
Samosas are eternal. With the crazy food trends, samosas have been experimented on, throughout the world with different fillings like noodles, macaroni, dal, chicken and corn. But we can say this with absolute certainty that the aloo filling is unbeatable. Nothing comes close to the spicy aloo stuffing in that beautifully crunchy samosa. Making samosas at home is not hard at all, in fact, our team member made some at home to combat the MASSIVE samosa cravings!
Image Credit – Surbhi Sharma
3) Momos
Momos have been a part of our North-Eastern states for so long but have gained recognition in the other parts of the country only in the last decade. Now, momos are available in every nook and corner of the country with the iconic spicy momo-chutney. They can be stuffed with chicken, mutton, other meats, paneer, vegetables or even corn and cheese. Momos can be steamed, fried or pan-fried. So, get set and start kneading some maida because we cannot wait to eat some oddly-shaped homemade momos! A few of us at Mishry tried making veggie-paneer momos at home and trust us when we say, they were over before a picture could be clicked.
4) Spring Rolls
We miss gobbling up oily, thick spring rolls with some chaat masala on top and a spicy chutney on the side. Spring rolls sheets are available in the market but they never produce the road-side styles spring rolls. Roll out thin maida rotis and cook them on a girdle before stuffing them with an Indo-Chinese veggie mixture. Deep fry till golden. You can add boiled noodles to the mixture too. Make sure the oil is very hot before frying because spring rolls have a tendency to absorb a lot of oil.
5) Choley – Bhature
Are you drooling too? Ah! Chole Bhature tends to have that effect on most people. Chole (Gravy chickpeas) cooked in aromatic masalas, onions on the side with a gajjar-kachalu achaar and beautifully puffed up bhaturas are haunting us in our dreams now. If you are planning on frying up some bhaturas at home, make sure your dough is well rested for 2-3 hours before rolling them out. If you are using baking soda/baking powder as a leavening agent, the dough needs to be rested. If you want to make bhaturas immediately, use fruit salt (Eno) instead.
Which street food are you missing the most? Let us know in the comment section below.
About The Author
Nishtha Asrani Sethi, born and brought up in Delhi, is a content writer who has previously worked with NDTV and Resolver. Her roots are deep within the food industry, thanks to her family business and a keen interest in contemporary food products. Nishtha loves to serve her articles with a side of humor. Her Bachelor’s degree in Home Science comes in handy while researching the science behind the food. When she is not trying to win a battle of fries vs fruit with her daughter, she is busy experimenting with her huge joint family with crazy recipes.