Calcutta is very famous for its street food culture. It’s a place one will fall in love with in terms of shopping and street food to keep you going through all that shopping! Puchka’s as they are called in Calcutta are the best street food you can have in India on a hot summer day, a rainy day, a gloomy day, basically a day you want your mood to be high lightened. A spicy tangy thirst quenching street food, there is so much one can talk about this famous dish which is popular all over the world.

What these are: Little puffed and crips puris, stuffed with spiced poatoes, then dipped in tangy spicy flavored water and eaten as a whole!

Before you try these pucka’s at home, if you are a novice to this dish, then its better you try them on the streets or a restaurant to understand how this dish has to be savored.

Ingredients

• 20 store bought puris’s
• ½ cup chopped onions
• 1 recipe of Date and Tamarind Chutney

Ingredients for the Pani

• 5 cups water
• 1 cup finely chopped mint
• 1 cup finely chopped coriander
• 1 tablespoon chopped green chilli
• ½ teaspoon of chilli powder
• 2 tablespoons tamarind pulp (or 1 cup of freshly squeezed tamarind water)
• 1 tablespoon black salt
• 1 tablespoon roasted and powdered cumin
• 1 tablespoon chaat masala powder
• Salt to taste

Ingredients for the filling

• ½ cup boiled black chick peas/kala channa
• 1 cup boiled and mashed potatoes
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon black salt
• 1 teaspoon moodi masala (optional – but a must for the Calcutta style, the recipe of which is a trade secret to the street vendors)
• Salt to taste

Method for Pani

Blend all the ingredients and strain; discard the residue. Add about 3 to 4 cups of water. Refrigerate before serving or just add ice.

Method for Filling

Mix all the ingredients and set aside.

Serving the Puchka’s/Pani Puri’s

Tap the Puri at the center lightly to make a half inch hole in it.

Add about 1 teaspoon of the filling into the puri.

Now add 1 tablespoon of the Date and Tamarind Chutney. This is optional for people who do not like the sweet taste along with the sour taste. Some like the pani to be chilli hot, some like it sweet and hot, some like it just sweet. So alter it to your taste and have fun.

Dip the filled puri into the chilled pani water, garnish with chopped onions and serve immediately.

Alternative serving suggestions for the filling

You can make the filling healthier by adding boiled green moong and spice it according to your taste.

Or just boiled spiced potatoes. So basically, the filling is a lentil/ potato mixture. Experiment the filling with your imagination with a spiced mixture.