Pani Puri

Mumbai street-food snack: crisp hollow puris filled with spiced potato and chickpeas, then flooded with tangy mint-tamarind pani and eaten in one bite. Serves 4–6 as a snack.

Ingredients

Pani (spiced water)

1 cup packed mint leaves
½ cup cilantro
1–2 green chilies
1-inch ginger
2 T tamarind paste
1 T lemon juice
2 tsp chaat masala
1 tsp roasted cumin powder
1 tsp black salt (kala namak)
4 cups ice-cold water
2 T boondi (optional)

Filling

2 medium potatoes, boiled and diced small
1 cup cooked chickpeas or kala chana
¼ red onion, minced
½ tsp chaat masala
½ tsp red chili powder
Salt

To serve

40 store-bought puris (golgappa shells)
Sweet tamarind-date chutney
Fine sev

Instructions

Blend the mint, cilantro, chilies and ginger with ½ cup water until smooth. Strain into a pitcher.
Stir in the tamarind, lemon, chaat masala, cumin, black salt and the cold water. It should be sour, salty, spicy and minty all at once. Chill at least 1 hour; add boondi just before serving.
Mix the potatoes, chickpeas, onion and spices; season with salt.
If the puris are not crisp, refresh them in a 300°F oven for 3–4 minutes and cool.
To eat: tap a hole in a puri, spoon in a little filling and a dab of sweet chutney, fill with pani and eat in one bite right away.

Plating

Set out puris, filling, chutney and a jug of ice-cold pani and let everyone build their own. They go soggy in seconds, so fill and eat immediately.