Sweetcorn Chaat / Indian Street Food

S U M M E R ! Celebrating the first arrival of organic sweetcorn with this quick & delicious snack. Its lip ‘smackingly’ tasty with lots of vibrant flavours bouncing in your mouth.

Chaat is a savoury snack served on the streets in India, usually as a starter before a main meal or as a quick ‘fill me up’ before supper. Because it is only served in small amounts it needs to pack in all the flavours quickly. Kinda like a flavour explosion – well here is my East-meets-West version including locally grown cape gooseberries.

Crunchy chickpea noodles or ‘crackles’ are the crunchy bits in Indian bombay nuts – they are gluten free and totally addictive! (see kitchen note)

Make your Chaat your own by adding or reducing things that you love or don’t.

Swaps: You can use pomegranate seeds, blueberries (not too sweet) or any other fruit that is firm and kinda sweet and sour.

Getting Ahead: You can make and chop all the elements of the salad separately and only assemble once you are ready to eat.

The salad is good on its own as a salad but I think scooping it with a poppadoms and while we are mixing things up between traditional east vs west, lets just admit that nachos will be a great alternative.

A large frying pan

Pestle & Mortar

• 4 corn cobs, leaves removed
• 30g coriander, leaves picked (freeze the stems – see note)
• 2 limes, zest & juice (more to serve)
• 1 green chilli, halved, deseeded and chopped
• 1/4 red cabbage (any colour) core & outer leaves removed, very finely sliced
• 1/2 red onion, very finely diced
• 1/2 cup cape gooseberries, halved
• handful radishes, topped & tailed, finely sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
• rough handful chickpea crackles/cev
• salt & pepper
• rapeseed or oil of choice

Spices

• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder (I used Kashmiri for its bright red colour)

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the corn and boil for 8minutes or until the corn is tender. Drain and cool the corn down in cold running water. Set aside.
2. While the corn is cooking, toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan (no oil) until fragrant, tip into a pestle and mortar and crush.
3. Shuck the corn by using a sharp serrated knife to strip the kernels into a bowl (preventing the kernels from going everywhere) scrape the cobs with a butter knife to release some sugary juices too.
4. Add some rapeseed oil to to a large frying pan to hot, smoky even, being very careful (hot oil can spit) add the corn kernels to the pan. Don’t stir too often as you want the corn nicely charred, be brave here, colour is flavour! The corn will ‘pop’ a bit so stand clear, alternatively you can add a lid to the pan. (see note)
5. When the corn is slightly blackened, turn the heat down, add the ginger, garlic, fresh chilli, chilli powder & cumin stir till fragrant.
6. Add the lime juice and 1 teaspoon of salt, stir and taste – season to perfection. We are looking for a ‘POW’ in the mouth. Remove and cool down slightly.
7. You can either serve the chaat in individual bowl or one large bowl. Sprinkle with chopped coriander, red onion, a pinch of chilli powder and the crispy chaat. Enjoy!

Indian Crackles or Chickpea Sev – You can find this at any local Indian shop. If impossible to source you can use roasted salted nuts, chopped finely or even a better an Indian Bombay mix.

I like to freeze the stalks of parsley and coriander to use in stocks, stews and pastes.

Charring the corn: I find placing a smaller heavy pot ont op of the corn helped to get a good ‘char’ or colour on the corn.