Aloo chaat
Ingredients
400 g salad vivaldi potatoes, washed and cut in half
4 tbsps flavourless oil
4 generous pinches of chaat masala, plus extra for seasoning
200 g jarred chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 tbsps wild garlic chutney (see below)
1 large red onion, finely chopped
5 tbsps Tamarind & Date Chutney (see below)
5 tbsps sweetened Greek yoghurt
salt, to taste
a handful of sev
1 small pomegranate, halved and seeds scooped out
Wild garlic flowers
Ingredients for the tamarind and date chutney (makes 500g)
250g tamarind paste
1 cinnamon sticks
½ tsp black peppercorns
1 Indian bay leaf (or ordinary bay leaf)
150ml water
1 tbsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
5 fresh dates, roughly chopped and covered with 5 tbsps boiling water
100g jaggery or caster sugar
½ tsp salt
Ingredients for the wild garlic chutney
125g fresh parsley leaves
125g wild garlic leaves
1 green chillies
1 tsp fresh ginger root, roughly chopped
1 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
50ml vegetable oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp sea salt, to taste
Ingredients for the spice mix
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp black peppercorns
Method
Start with the dates, chop them fairly small and cover them with 5 tbsps of boiling water. Leave for 20 minutes, roughly mushing with a fork every 5 minutes.
Put all of the tamarind and date chutney ingredients in a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat for about 1 hour until well blended and thick. Put into sterilised jars and keep in the fridge.
Put the parsley, wild garlic, green chillies, ginger and garlic in a blender, then, gradually pour in the oil until you reach a smooth consistency. Add the lemon juice and season to taste with sugar and salt.
Preheat the oven to 180c. Pour the oil into a large baking dish and put into the oven.
In a large pan of salted water, bring the potatoes up to the boil on a medium heat and cook for around 12 minutes until just tender. Drain through a colander, put the colander over the original saucepan, cover with a tea towel leave to cool for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, crush the potatoes gently with a fork to break the skins.
Put the potatoes into the oven for 15 minutes then turn and cook for a further 10 minutes. They should be nicely golden.
Remove the potatoes from the pan, drain on kitchen paper, then season with chaat masala.
Put the chickpeas in a bowl along with the mint chutney, red onion, one-third of the tamarind chutney and one-third of the sweetened yogurt. Season well to taste with salt and chaat masala.
To one side of the plate, lay down a couple of spoonful's of the chickpeas. Top with the potatoes, cut in half if large. Dot through the remaining tamarind chutney, yoghurt, the sev, pomegranate seeds and garlic flowers.