Dahi Gujiya/Stuffed lentil dumplings with yogurt and chutneys

elieve it or not, up until very recently I was totally clueless when it came to that room in the house called the kitchen. My metamorphosis began almost half a decade ago with me meeting the man of my dreams. Before that in the kitchen I used to be as clueless as a  camel at the north pole. The only experience I had, boiled down to (literally) making the occasional hot tea for everyone. Anyway, when I got serious about getting married and settling down, mom realized cooking could be a skill I might need and took the challenge to show me how. Daily she would take the time to walk me through what she was cooking that day for lunch or dinner and would occasionally make me write the recipe down in my little notebook. I gradually built a liking for the art which very quickly grew into a passion. I was amazed to find that a skill that is so often taken for granted required such dexterity. As I grew into it, I developed a new found respect for my mom who would make three square meals for us every calendar day of the year and alter her menu on demand depending on our mood swings (yes bro and I both were picky eaters).
Yes I still have that little recipe notebook. This is one of the recipes from one of the now yellowing pages. This is one of mom's specialities that she was often requested by friends and neighbors to make and re-make.
This dish is a twist on the classic Dahi-Vada, the only difference being the dumplings are stuffed with a nut mixture and is shaped like a half moon rather than the traditional round vadas. It is kind of street food that borders on the exotic. The fried lentil dumplings give it an amazing texture and topped with the spiced up yogurt  with the tangy sweet tamarind chutney makes for an amazing flavor profile that is totally addictive.
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Papdi Chaat from scratch with Tamarind and Date Chutney

his again is a story related to me coming to the US after getting married.

Ask anyone who has grown up or lived in India for a while (especially the female kind :) and they will swear by the taste of this roadside delicacy and will have a story or two to tell you with a twinkle in their eye (while their taste buds start to tingle). And my dear friends, that is no exaggeration.

During my college days, I got my fix of chaat atleast once every week. I took it for granted as it was available everywhere. When I got married and was preparing to come to the US with hubby, he gave me this shocker (among a few others). Very calmly he announced that I should get my fix of as much chaat as possible as I would not find it in the US. I was taken aback but underestimated the truth in his statement, after all there were Indian restaurants in the US and they sold chaat... I was gonna be okay. Never had I been so wrong. I found the so called chaat here to be not even close to being worthy of being called chaat. It simply was some papdi with boiled potatoes and a chutney that tasted like tomato ketchup :o

Anyway, long-story-short, I decided to make my own. Here goes the recipe. If you really want your chaat to taste awesome, pay special attention to the chutney recipe.

Chaat is a generic name for a plate of savoury, spicy, tangy snack, typically served at road-side stalls or carts in India. Originally a street food, now it can be found in high end restauarants too. There are dozens varieties of chaat like pani puri or phuchkas, dahi bhalla, sev puri etc. All these are made with almost the same ingredients (with a different base), main one being the tamarind dates chutney. It is a thick tangy, spicy, sweet and sour sauce made out of tamarind pulp, dates and jaggery. Papdis are deep-fried pastry roundels that add the crunch to the chaat.

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