Ragada :Recipe

Ahhaahaaa!!!!

If you are an Indian ,and that too from Pune or Mumbai, what do u smell on the streets ???

Precisely during Ramadan,the evenings boast a festival of mouth watering smells and sights.!!

Everything from Pakodas, wadas, chaat from bhel puri to samosas,and Ragada ought to make your mouth water,it's kind of a magic spell that draws you and everyone else to the carts and shops selling them.

Chaat is something what none of us can say a "Nah" for. 

All those puris, chana, mashed potaoes, shev, the Chaska of tangy tamarind, and the sweetness of jaggery,,onions,tomatoes,coriander, yoghurt!!!! Oh My My!!!!!

While typing this,my mouth doesn't stop watering.

Frankly, an evening out with friends, and how can you escape a Chaat????

Seriously,if you did escape it,, you lived nothing my dear friend,, you are missing alot of fun food if you haven't yet given your taste buds a tour of Indian chaat.

Bang on!!! you agree right??

Let's jump to the recipe now.

Ingredients:

White or green peas 250 gms (after soaking overnight it should be 1 big bowl)
Boiled and peeled potatoes (2 medium)
Tamarind (1 small bowl)
Jaggery (1 small bowl)
Yoghurt 100 gms
Onion
Coriander
Shev


Method:

• Boil the soaked peas in a pressure cooker,side by side, you can boil the potatoes in a microwave oven.
• Once,both peas and potatoes are boiled,peel the potatoes,chop them into very small pieces and mix them to the peas.
• How to make the Imli-gud (tamarind & jaggery) syrup:

1. Wash the tamarind and take into a container,add some water to it.(around half a small tea cup).Bring this to boil and then keep aside to cool.
2. Once it's cool,squeeze all the pulp from the tamarind and seperate it from the leftover tamarind residue.So now you have a tamarind pulp ready.
3. Repeat the same step with jaggery ,let the jaggery dissolve in water, just don't let it cool too much otherwise the jaggery will start collecting back in to solid.
4. Mix both the tamarind pulp and jaggery syrup you made.
5. Check the taste, if you find it too sweet add some more tamarind pulp by soaking tamarind residue in water for a minute and again squeezing it. If you find it too tangy add some jaggery syrup.
6. Now for some more spicy taste, add black salt, red chilli powder/ paprika, coriander pwder, cumin powder,all according to taste.You can even add green chilli paste,but that's optional.
7. The syrup is ready,

• Now add this syrup to the peas and potaoes mixture,not all at once little by little and keep tasting it. Once you realise it's perfect just let it heat on medium to low flame. This is done so that all flavours meet and greet eachother.

• Bring to a bowl,and switch off the flame.The Ragada is ready. But you need to wait, as garnishing is very important in chaats.
• Garnishing:

1. Pour the ragada in serving bowls, add a tspn of yoghurt to it.(you can also add little sugar to the yoghurt).
2. Now add finely chopped onions and coriander to it.
   
   
   
3. Lastly, the Don of all chaats, add the Shev.Ready to serve.

*You can store the leftover syrup for about two weeks, you can even freeze it if you want it to last longer.
*During Ramadan I usually make 1 litre of this syrup and store it for the entire month.

Please do try it, also it's healthy too,it does not use any oil, and contains peas which are good for health.

Yumm!!yumm!!yumm!!