QUICK CHOTPOTI

Chotpoti is the prime street food in Bangladesh, especially when filled into crispy fuchka. Gosh! Just the thought of it makes me salivate. And it has been so long since I last had the authentic fuchka. Back in Bangladesh, you can find a fuchka or chotpoti stand in almost every other alleys, even in front of supermarkets and not to mention, one right in front of my home. So, in an attempt to move away from all the unhealthy snacks, I wanted to try chotpoti with chickpeas. Although chickpeas aren't the right ingredient for chotpoti, but my dad tried it once and it wasn't as bad. Just like my dad, I had no idea what the exact ingredient was. To get a clear idea of the recipe, I moved on to YouTube and picked out the easiest possible recipe. Without any further ado, let's get on with it.

First off, my hubby boiled some eggs and chopped them up along with some onions, green chili, and cilantro. Yup! My hubby is slowly getting better at these. I, on the other hand, started working on the chickpeas. I drained out the chickpeas from the can and gave it a thorough rinse. Next, I added the chickpeas to a pot with a few cups of water along with my seasonings: red chili powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, and salt. While allowing the chickpeas to cook on medium heat, I moved on to the sauce which is the star element of the dish. To prepare the sauce, I soaked some tamarinds in water for about 10 minutes and squeezed out as much juice as I could. Next, I added in some salt, sugar, chopped up chili, and some crushed up fried dried red chili. After mixing it well, I made my hubby taste it a little. At first, the sourness of the tamarind hit him a little too hard, he almost looked like he had a brain-freeze! I am creepy enough to find that cute. So I added a little more sugar to balance it out. Now, back to the chickpeas, once they were cooked to my liking, I took it off the heat and added in my hubby's chopped up eggs, onions, green chili, and cilantro along with crushed up fried cumin seeds. If you read my blog on pickled apple, you will know how I hammered my cumin seeds in fine powder. Just kidding! Do check out that blog to get a glimpse of what happened. After mixing everything up really well, I topped it off with a generous amount of the sauce and there you have it, chotpoti ready in 15 minutes or so. And, I literally couldn't tell the difference between the real ingredient and chickpeas, so you can guess how good it was. For a little bit of crunch, I added some crushed chips - talk about keeping away from unhealthy snacks!

Ingredients:

For the chotpoti:

1 pcs canned chickpeas

2 pcs boiled eggs

2 tbsp chopped onions

1 tbsp chopped cilantro

3 pcs green chili

0.5 tsp each turmeric powder, cumin powder

1 tsp red chili powder

0.5 tsp salt

2 tsp fried and crushed cumin

For the sauce:

4-5 pcs tamarind

2 pcs fried and crushed dried red chili

2-3 pcs chopped chili

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar