This weekend, I made bhel puri and my version of an Indian street food sandwich. I cook this sort of way all the time back in Vancouver, but I never thought that I could make such things in Tokyo!
I few weeks ago, I posted about making burritos at a friend’s house. She invited me back again, and I was excited to share these dishes with her. This was my first time serving bhel puri and Indian sandwiches to a Japanese person, so I was a bit worried that she would not like the bold flavours, but she loved it!
When I arrived, she had just finished making a pot of hot chocolate, so we sat for a bit and chatted while we sipped on our cocoa and tried the whiskey chocolates that I brought. (We poured a bit of whiskey in our hot chocolate, too.)
This is what went into the bhel puri:
- Bhel puri mix (found it at a Nepali shop)
- potatoes (diced and boiled)
- sweet onions
- tomatoes
- cilantro
- chaat spice
- sev (crunchy little noodles made of chickpea flour)
Normally, this would be topped with green chutney, red chutney and tamarind chutney, but I didn’t have access to a blender, so I made do by topping it with raita! So, it was sort of like a fusion between bhel puri and dahi papdi chaat, which is another very popular North Indian street food. Dahi is yogurt, papdi is those fried crunchy bits, and chaat is any roadside savory snack.
The raita was a simple recipe:
- plain yogurt
- finely diced tomatoes, onions and cucumbers
And for the delicious sandwich, I used:
- white bread
- cucumbers
- onion
- tomato
- cilantro
- cheddar cheese
- mixed veg chutney
- butter
Normally, green chutney and chaat spice would also be included, so if you have access to those, I highly recommend adding them as well.
I spread the chutney on both slices of bread, and then buttered the other side of each slice. Then, you just layer on all the toppings and grill it in the pan like a grilled cheese. Bahut bahut achha hai! (Really, really good!)
Oh, and we washed this all down with a selection of imported beers that she had bought just for the occasion!
Elle's Room 