Really, it feels like I am eating street-side dahi-bhalle in Chandni Chowk.
That is what I feel from its texture and fragrance.
Namaskar friends! Welcome to Visa2explore!
This is your host, Harish Bali!
Today, I am going to share my top street food experiences of India with you.
I will start with my favorite - Dahi Bhalla!
I've eaten it at a lot of places.
My most favorite of those would be the one we ate near Bhagirath Place in Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi.
In any case, you must already be aware that Delhi's dahi-bhalla is quite famous.
About 3 years ago, when I had started exploring Delhi street food....
....I remember, we had visited Paharganj area and eaten Chur-Chur Naan there.
I've never eaten such delicious Chur-Chur Naan every again.
This naan is filled inside with potato-onion mixture.
After that it has been cooked inside a tandoor.
After it is taken out of tandoor, you can see, how it is being crushed by hand.
But before that, it is slathered in butter.
After it is crushed, another layer of butter is added to the top of it.
The best part is that it looks so tempting and appealing that.....
...sometimes you have to just forget about dieting and just enjoy Chur-Chur Naan.
Now I am going to talk of Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
When we went to eat Kachori in Jodhpur....
....at first I was surprised to see no potato curry served with the kachori.
But the taste of that onion kachori is still fresh in my mind!
That kachori was so tasty, full of flavors that I didn't miss the potato curry even remotely.
What an amazing combination of spices in it!
I mean the first feeling that comes to my mind, with the very first bite, is that....
I haven't had a tastier kachori than this ever in my life.
Now I am going to share the street experiences of Indore, Madhya Pradesh with you.
The top of the mind recall that I have is to visit the "56 Dukaan" area and eating Khopra Patties there.
Really unique taste!
These patties have such an immense fan following in Indore that....
....a huge crowd gathers every evening when these patties start selling at the shop.
We've just had patties here, which are very tasty!
The patties were delicious and now we are eating this piping hot jalebi!
If you want to eat delicious patties in Indore, there is just one shop, "Vijay Chaat."
When you will explore street food in Indore....
...you will begin your journey with Sarafa Bazaar.
Once you can go there during the day, you will see lots of shops selling gold and diamond ornaments.
After that, you can visit again at 8 or 9 pm.
You will be amazed that the whole market gets transformed and every shop has....
...a street food stall in front of it.
You will also be surprised at the hustle-bustle in the market.
Gararu Chaat (Sweet Potato Chaat)!
Bhutte ka kees (Maize chaat)!
Coconut crush!
These were some of the street foods that I ate for the first time in Indore.
And all the foodies of Indore visit Sarafa Bazaar at least once or twice a week.
One more place in India has the same concept as Indore's Sarafa Bazaar.
The place is Manek Chowk in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
During the day, you will see the jewelry shops and if you go after 7 or 8 pm....
....you will be amazed to see the crowd of street food lovers roaming the market till 12 am!
There are a lot of street food stalls.
If you visit Ahmedabad, you wouldn't want to miss Manek Chowk.
I had never imagined one could put ice cream into bread to make a sandwich.
This is the first time and it happened at Manek Chowk.
And the amazing thing is the combination of cheese with ice cream and bread!
These three ingredients are giving the ultimate combination with this slice of pineapple.
You already know about the discussion we've had around the food variety of Surat, Gujarat.
Let me tell you when you'll go there, you'll be amazed at the variety of egg dishes available.
The extent of menu items are evident from the fact that each stall sells at least 100 egg dishes.
These dishes are sold within the range of Rs. 25 to Rs. 250.
I am trying to understand the innovation in this egg dish.
One layer of this dish has the flavour of green chilis in it.
Then there is the flavor of raw egg, because it was half-cooked.
Then the top layer is that of boiled eggs.
Amazing! I feel like I should continue eating just this dish.
I want to eat pav (bread) later on.
At least after eating another 5-6 bites of it.
This dish also has the flavor of red chilies in it, a lot of red chilies have been added here.
It is garnished with green garlic on top.
We all know about the famous Misal-Pav of Maharashtra.
When we visited Mumbai, we ate Misal-Pav at Vinay Health Home in Thakurdwar Area.
Let me tell you about those amazing flavours!
What freshness, what flavors!
I don't have words to describe it to you!
I've come from Rajkot, specially after 25 years, with proper planning,....
.....I've come to Vinay Health Home, to eat the special Misal sold here.
I started eating here 25 years ago and they serve the same taste even today.
Same service, same quality and same style!
We all know about the famous pav-bhaji of Mumbai.
I remember, when I was in Mumbai, I explored pav-bhaji at a number of places.
Every place had some difference in taste!
I liked the pav-bhaji served at Sardar Pav-Bhaji shop.
It had awesome spices. Though butter was a bit too much but the overall taste was rocking!
After pav-bhaji, I am going to take you guys to Hyderabad.
There we ate spot-idli.
This was another new street food for me.
See how they prepared Spot-Idli on this tawa!
You can eat it as a breakfast or a light lunch or as an anytime snack!
While coming to this place in the auto-rickshaw, I was thinking to myself.....
...about the references that I got of this place yesterday....
....I was very excited about the taste of food here.
This is my first experience of the Hyderabad street food so far.
But trust me, this street food is amazing!
Crispy on the outside, filled with tomatoes, and believe me, that gunpowder tastes brilliant with butter.
In India, we all love to drink tea!
Some of us even take 5-6 cups of tea a day.
I remember, in Hyderabad, I went to Nimrah Cafe.
I saw a very unique concept there.
Tea was being boiled in different kettles at different temperature levels.
Kettles are shifted from one stove to another regularly.
A cup of tea is prepared in 35 minutes.
After this, when I tasted the cup of tea there....
...I have to say, I enjoyed it very much.
Talking of Hyderabad, you know how famous the Osmania biscuits are!
This tea is totally different in taste.
I saw them brewing the tea leaves in a covered kettle.
And instead of adding milk as it is, they have boiled the milk till thickened and then added it to the tea.
Now let us talk of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
Varanasi has a lot of street food options.
The top-of-the-mind recalls for me would be 'Tamatar Chaat" (Tomato chaat).
Look at the serving style!
What all they add to this chaat and then you'll get so many flavors in each bite!
You won't be able to forget this taste!
What a taste!
I must have eaten a huge variety of chaat in my life.
I am really fond of eating chaat!
But believe me, in all the experiences of my life so far, this is going to be one of the top 3 experiences.
As I saw it being prepared, it has slight sweetness from the sugar syrup added to it.
It has also been topped with ghee!
That lends its own flavour!
And that paste of potatoes and tomatoes that they have used as base for this chaat....
Everything is good!
It also has the flavors of Garam Masala and Jeera (cumin seeds).
See, this is the jeera I was talking about.
I am sure I will fall short of words while praising this chaat.
This chaat is so tasty and the concept is wonderful!
I've already shared my top-of-the-mind list of street food experiences with you.
Now I am talking about dahi-bhalla, which I discussed earlier,...
...and now I am going to share the recipe to prepare tasty dahi-bhalla with you.
The first step to make dahi-bhalla is to soak Urad dal for 5-6 hours.
You see here urad dal and moon dal.
I had soaked these dals in 2:1 ratio last night.
So, it has been soaked for 12 hours already.
Two portions of Urad dal for 1 portion of moong dal.
This is the soaked dal.
I am going to drain it now.
And then I will grind the soaked dal in the mixer.
The dal has been made into a paste.
One thing you have to take care of.
The resulting batter shouldn't be too thick or too watery.
You need to add one or two spoons of dal while grinding, this should be the consistency.
This is the consistency you should look for.
Since I had soaked more dal, I have taken it in two different bowls.
This and this!
Let us prepare this bowl first & I will prepare that one later.
I had chopped some green chili, which I am going to add to the batter.
I am going to give details of the quantity of ingredients in the video description.
By the way, these were 3 whole green chilies, chopped.
I am adding half a spoon salt, a spoon of jeera, & one-fourth of a spoon heeng (asafoetida).
Now, I have to beat the batter for 10-12 minutes straight.
Meanwhile, I have put oil in a pan to heat over low flame, so that the oil is ready by the time I beat this batter.
Beating the batter will make it light and frothy.
Let us start making bhallas now.
The oil is perfectly hot by the look of it.
I've kept a little water in this katori, so that I can keep dipping my fingers into it, while pouring bhallas into oil.
Otherwise, the batter will stick to my fingers.
Till the bhallas are getting fried, ....
....I am taking about 700 gms of curd in a bowl to which I will add 2-3 spoons of sugar.
Don't beat the curd in a mixer, otherwise, it will turn watery.
I am going to add a little water to this curd, to adjust its consistency.
See, this curd has begun to appear like the one we get to eat with bhallas in the market.
Don't overdo it.
Now, I will keep this curd in refrigerator for 1.5 hours, so that it is chilled.
So the bhalle are ready!
See, how beautiful these look!
It is better to use tissue paper to soak up extra oil, but for now, I am keeping these bhalle as it is.
They look great, and see their shape!
Wow!
Now let me show how spongy are these bhallas. See I am pressing it and it is bouncing back.
Now we have to rinse it in water, 2-3 times, at regular interval of 10 minutes.
I am putting a few bhallas in this lukewarm water.
Like this!
Soaking bhallas into water helps to extract the extra oil.
It is better to soak them in lukewarm water.
We will change water after every 10 minutes, at least twice.
I have soaked the bhallas twice in lukewarm water.
These bhallas have shed a lot of oil in the process.
Now see these bhallas are so soft.
Now I will leave these bhallas like this in the water, for at least 1 to 1.5 hours.
Let us cover it.
Now we have to prepare the sweet and sour chutney.
Here I have 1.5 cups of water, already boiling....
...to which I am added about 50gms of imli (raw tamarind).
It has already been deseeded.
I will boil this imli in water for 3-4 minutes.
At low flame, of course.
Let us get the spices ready till the imli boils well.
After preparing dahi-bhalla, we also add certain spices to it, which makes it even more delicious.
Let me show you what all I've kept ready.
Dry pudina (mint leaves), chat masala, black salt, red chili powder, white salt, carrom seeds and cumin seeds.
First of all, I will dry roast cumin and carrom seeds on tawa.
I will roast the seeds for 2-3 minutes.
After that, I will add the rest of the spices to it and turn off the gas!
This whole process takes place between 2-3 minutes.
These masalas need to be roasted on very low flame, just for a couple of minutes, not more.
Though we can turn it into powder in a grinder but if you have a manual grinder, it is better to use that.
The spices have been roasted.
It has become fragrant. Now let us grind these spices.
Really, this spice mix is magnificent! Take a look!
The imli water is ready.
Now I am going to remove this pulp & grind it.
While grinding, we can add some of this water too.
I am going to pass this imli paste through a sieve.
I am going to add the imli water too to this process.
If you keep stirring it with a spoon, the process will take place faster.
I've added a bit of oil to the pan, to prepare the sweet and sour chutney.
The oil is less than even half a spoon, to which I will add one-fourth of spoon of heeng.
In fact, less than that.
The heeng is done.
Now after 10-20 seconds, I am going to add tamarind water to it.
Now I am going to add sugar to it.
As I've said earlier, I am going to give you all the details in the description.
So that you can refer to the details, ingredient-wise.
I have here 4-5 spices, you can see.
Red chili powder, black salt, table salt, dry ginger powder and roasted cumin powder.
I am going to add these to the tamarind water.
We will have to simmer this mixture on low flame for about 5-7 minutes.
The Kashmiri red chili powder that we've added to the water will change its color complete, just wait & watch!
Now I will let it simmer on low flame for another 5-7 minutes.
If you want to enjoy dahi-bhalla completely, you should also have green chutney ready.
I have mint, coriander leaves. Coriander is 2.5 times that of mint.
I have green chilies, raw ginger and coriander powder.
I will also add some salt, about one-fourth of a spoon
Although, you can use 4-5 spoons of water to prepare this chutney....
But we usually add curd, like this.
This improves the taste.
I had added a little water and half a spoon of curd as well and see how that has changed the texture.
Half a lemon juice!
Dahi-bhalle are ready to be eaten.
I will show you all the portions one-by-one!
First of all, look at the consistency of curd.
This curd is so delicious, you can eat a bowlful just like that.
This is sweet chutney.
It has lot of sugar in it so if you want to avoid sugar, don't eat too much of it.
Green chutney!
Alright. So I've also kept some red chili powder and salt on the side and this is the dry, roasted spice mix.
Looking at all this, it feels as if I've opened a shop selling dahi-bhalla!
So, what we will do is take a bhalla out of water.
It is full of water, as u can see.
So, we will squeeze out excess water, like this.
We are able to remove 80% of water from it.
I am going to add 3 bhallas to the plate.
In making this dahi bhalla, I forgot to boil a potato.
We could have sliced it and added it here. It makes it tastier.
Dahi-bhalla has lots of curd in it, so while pouring curd, be generous!
Green chutney, sweet chutney go on top of it.
This dry, roasted masala powder is smelling great!
Really, it feels like I am eating street-side dahi-bhalle in Chandni Chowk.
That is what I feel from its texture and fragrance.
I am going to add some salt to it, because I used limited salt while cooking bhallas.
You can add salt to taste.
A bit of red chili powder.
This will improve the texture as well as taste!
Uff!
You know, I seriously feel I could serve this to you and you could tell me how it is!
I've just had one spoon of curd and I can already taste sweet, sour, spicy flavours!
Super!
Really very tasty!
Really, I am so impressed with this dahi-bhalla, which I've made myself!
I cannot even express what I am feeling right now!
The bhalla is so soft, absolutely melt-in-the-mouth!
And the curd is sweet, sour, spicy, tangy, so tasty!
This masala mix that I've prepared, you can even enjoy it with a bowl of curd.
Super!
Now let me finish this plate, savoring each bite!
Tell me your views about today's episode!
As always, I shall wait for your comments!
This is the second episode in the series!
In the last episode, I told you about the top Indian breakfasts that we had explored and experienced.
Along with that, I had shared with you the recipe to cook Indori Poha and today....
...Dahi-bhalla & Street Food!
So, please share your experiences in your comments.
We will meet soon! Till then, bye-bye!
Thanks for your time!
