A - Z Indian Street Foods ~ I for Indori Garadu Chaat

One of my sisters-in law lived most of her life in Madhya Pradesh, starting from her college days to until she passed away recently. She lived mostly in Indore and her family still lives there. I had the opportunity to taste the Indore street food in person and so, I had decided early on that I would cook something from there, which is popular for it’s street food scenario. I came across this Indori Garadu chaat while exploring the local street food virtually.

Garadu is a yam that is local to the region and this chaat is prepared by crisply frying the cooked and cubed garadu and seasoning with a special spice mix called jiralu masala and lemon juice. Among the lot of yams available to me locally, I felt that yuca root would be a perfect substitute for the garadu and decided to try with it. Yuca is a yam that grows in the hot, arid areas of Americas and Caribbean. One yuca gave me about 2 cups of cubes. The final dish was so yummy that I had requests to make it again.

Recipe source: Sanjeev Kapoor

Ingredients:

About 2 cups cubed garadu (I substituted yuca.)

Oil to fry

1 tbsp. or more jiralu masala

Salt to taste

Lemon Juice

Minced cilantro to garnish

Ingredients for jiralu masala:

2 tsp. roasted cumin powder

1&½ tsp. dry ginger powder

½ tsp. chili powder

¼ tsp. turmeric powder

2 pinches of asafetida powder

½ tsp. black salt

½ tsp. rock salt

Method: 

* Combine everything mentioned under the ingredients' list for jiralu masala in a bowl and keep aside.

* Peel the yam and cut into thick discs / chunks. (It was hard to dice yuca before cooking.)

* Place them in a microwave safe bowl and add enough water to cover them. Cook in the microwave until just they are done. (Yuca took me about 3 minutes to cook in the microwave.) 

If using stove, place the yam pieces in a sauce pan with enough water and cook until just done. Don't overcook them.

* Pour the cooked yam into a colander and drain. Let it cool and then cut into bite sized cubes.

* Heat oil in a pan or kadai. Deep fry the cubes until they are lightly colored. 

At this point, there are two options.

1. Remove the lightly fried cubes and drain on absorbent towels. Fry them again on medium flame until crisp on medium flame.

2. If serving immediately, continue frying on medium flame until crisp.

* Arrange the fried cubes over a serving plate. Sprinkle jiralu masala and salt to taste over the cubes. Squeeze lemon juice as much as needed. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve immediately. 

So far, on this series,
A for Aloo Kabli
B for Bajra Vada
C for Chooda Matar
D for Dahi Batata Puri
E for Elaichi - Kesar Lassi
F for Fulwadi
G for Ghugni Chaat
H for Hare Chane Ki Chaat

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 87

An InLinkz Link-up

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