45 Min

GF

Cream Chaat

This dessert is inspired by a street sweet of India called ‘Daulat ki chaat’ (daulat means rich). It is rich but incredibly light and essentially just a whipped cream but the incremental addition of sugar and saffron makes all the difference.

Share this recipe

Cook Time

45 Minutes

Serves

2

Directions

Step 1

Soak the saffron in 1/4 cup cream for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.

Step 2

Using a stand mixer, whip one cup heavy cream with powdered sugar, salt, and kevra water on high speed for the first 3 to 4 minutes then lower the speed until the cream is fluffy. Transfer to a serving dish.

Step 3

Pour the saffron cream into the mixing bowl and whip with kevra water, sugar, and salt until fluffy. Spoon over the plain whip and garnish with chopped pistachios.

Notes & Variations

This dessert keeps for 2 to 3 days.
Adding more sugar will result in the cream being less fluffy — the lack of sugar contributes to the light texture.

Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy cream

Generous pinch of saffron

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Few drops of kevra water

Pinch of sea salt

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

Step 1

Soak the saffron in 1/4 cup cream for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.

Step 2

Step 3

Pour the saffron cream into the mixing bowl and whip with kevra water, sugar, and salt until fluffy. Spoon over the plain whip and garnish with chopped pistachios.

1/2 cup heavy cream

Generous pinch of saffron

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Few drops of kevra water

Pinch of sea salt

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

Notes & Variations

This dessert keeps for 2 to 3 days.
Adding more sugar will result in the cream being less fluffy — the lack of sugar contributes to the light texture.

Tags:

45 Min

Stock Your Pantry

Saffron Box (with Saffron)

$50

Crafted brass box with saffron.

Saffron Box

$40

Crafted brass box to store saffron or anything you wish!

Nut & Seed Masala Dabba

$250

A handmade spice box containing masala cashews, spiced walnuts, pumpkin & sesame seeds, pine nuts, masala pistachios, hazelnuts & almonds.

Tags:

45 Min

Stock Your Pantry

Saffron Box (with Saffron)

$50

Crafted brass box with saffron.

Saffron Box

$40

Crafted brass box to store saffron or anything you wish!

Nut & Seed Masala Dabba

$250

A handmade spice box containing masala cashews, spiced walnuts, pumpkin & sesame seeds, pine nuts, masala pistachios, hazelnuts & almonds.

Kewra/Kevra Water

Also known as screw pine or pandan, kewra water is extracted from the highly aromatic screw pine flowers. It is used in India to flavor milky sweets & to add floral notes to intense curries.

DELICIOUS FRAGRANCE

7 Vegetable Stew

Carrot Halwa

20 Min

GF

NF

Cherry Mushroom Chaat

Chaats are beloved savory snacks that originated in India and are usually available at roadside stalls or food carts. At the core, they are salty, sweet, spicy, crunchy snacks usually involving vegetables, lentils and herbs with drizzles of chutneys and yogurt. It’s the food from India most of us transplants miss the most. Over the years, I have tried dozens of variations from corn mint chaat to the quintessential pani poori and loved them all. Here is a salad loosely based on the idea of a chaat. The yogurt provides the creamy touch, mushroom the meaty, cherry the sweet and tarragon the herbaceous finish.

45 Min

GF

NF

Corn Mint Chaat

As we said our final goodbye to Indika, the restaurant I opened in 2001, this past week, I was reminiscing about Corn Mint Chaat, a popular summer salad. Renditions of street food from India, with magical combinations of fresh vegetables and aromatic herb-infused sweet, spicy and savory chutneys with crunchy tidbits in almost any form — and sometimes turned on its head into a salad — bring on tastes that make most of us transplants from India swoon. One of the unusual flavors common to chaat is black salt, a sulfurous salt native to India. It smells funky (imagine boiled egg aroma), appears pink but turns blackish when it hits food or water and is absolutely delicious on chaats. Over the years, I have experimented with dozens of chaat combinations — from using potato or tortilla chips for crunch to grilled kale and basil leaves for herbs — but making one is no easy task. However, here is a take on the corn mint chaat that may be relatively easy to execute at home.

15 Min

GF

V

Cucumber Bhel Poori

Bhel poori is a common Indian street food native to Mumbai and cities in Gujarat. Usually made with puffed rice (a very common snack in India) and varying mixes of seasonal vegetables, herbs, chutneys and crunch bits of chickpea flour or wheat flour. This is an instant ‘salad’ so put it together just before eating. The ‘bhel’ refers to puffed rice and ‘poori’ refers to bits of pooris (fried wheat puffs) crushed just before mixing. Here we are replacing the poori with sev, a crispy chickpea noodle found in most Indian grocery stores.

15 Min

DF

GF

V

Fruit Chaat

In New Delhi, for almost a decade, there resides a sweet fruit chaat vendor tucked away near the famous Janpath street market. Depending on the time of year, his choice of fruits and vegetables varies. He rides his bike every morning with a fresh load of fruits and vegetables, hands out fruit chaat all day until his stock is over. Mango, melons, cucumber, papaya, pineapple, apples, or bananas are cubed and laid out on a banana leaf plate and sprinkled with chaat masala. Sometimes, strawberries will show up in the mix. A squeeze of lime and he hands it to you with a smile. If it can be eaten raw, any vegetable or fruit is fair game for fruit chaat. Usually, chaat masala is a combination of toasted ground cumin, chile powder, amchur (dried mango), salt and more. Black salt, a sulfurous rock salt native to India, is a common but not essential component of chaat masala. It’s an explosion of flavors – give it a try this summer with the fruits and vegetables at hand!

120 Min

GF

Garbanzo Chaat Salad

The garbanzo beans are seasoned to a spicy richness with cumin, black pepper, ginger and asafetida and then added to the salad.

45 Min

GF

V

Patra

This is is one of the most iconic and utterly delicious snack foods from the state of Gujarat.

90 Min

GF

Purple Potato Chaat Salad

Chaat — a family of roadside salty, sweet, tangy and crunchy snacks in India — come in many sizes, shapes and flavors. After leaving India, this is the food I missed most and, over time, taught myself how to make versions of it. These days, I can pretty much turn anything into a chaat if I just have the right sauces, which usually comprise of a creamy yogurt sauce flecked with cumin, a bright herby cilantro chutney or just a handful of herbs and something sweet — perhaps diced mango or peaches, or just a dash of sugar. The crunch can come via crushed nuts, tortilla or potato chips. Top it off with a sprinkle of black salt and roasted crushed cumin seeds and there you have a chaat.

GF

Coconut Jaggery Pancakes

These pancakes have been on the menu since day one and remains one the most requested recipes at Pondicheri.

40 Min

DF

GF

V

Persimmon Tapioca Pudding

The common American persimmon grows wild across the South and as far west as the Colorado River in Texas. Pondicheri chef Anita Jaisinghani says it took her some time to understand how to enjoy the strange yet delicious orange fruit, and she discovered that the astringent varieties need to ripen and soften before eating. In this recipe, combined with coconut and cardamom, she says, the tapioca pearls pick up the flavor of persimmon, making for a simple, sweet aromatic finish. The pudding can be enjoyed warm or cold.

70 Min

DF

GF

NF

V

7 Vegetable Stew

Every region eats different treats for Diwali from decadent meat curries, kebabs, & pilafs to sweet laddus, mithai and dried fruits. The Sindhis from the province of Sindh typically eat a 7 vegetable stew with pooris (fried balloon bread) and halwa.

60 Min

GF

Carrot Halwa

This halwa has a slightly sweet, caramel flavor from the carrots. Halwas involves some patience and attention, but it’s worth it.

GF

Kulfi

Indian ice cream. Need we say more? Kulfi isn’t whipped so it’s much denser and thicker than regular ice cream.

20 Min

GF

NF

Cherry Mushroom Chaat

45 Min

GF

NF

Corn Mint Chaat

15 Min

GF

V

Cucumber Bhel Poori

15 Min

DF

GF

V

Fruit Chaat

120 Min

GF

Garbanzo Chaat Salad

The garbanzo beans are seasoned to a spicy richness with cumin, black pepper, ginger and asafetida and then added to the salad.

Drinks

Drinks

Hot Drinks

Cold Drinks

Cocktails

Condiments

Condiments

Raita

Chutneys

Pickles

Masala

Grains

Grains

Buckwheat

Khichri

Millet

Noodles

Quinoa

Rice

Whole Grains

Dough

Dough

Roti

Paratha

Naan

Bread

Crackers

Pizza

Batter

Batter

Dosas

Pancakes

Crepes

Savory Baked

Savory Baked

Biscuits

Bread Pudding

Soups

Soups

Light Soup

Creamy Soup

Dal Soup

Stews

Cold Soup

Snacks

Snacks

Chaat

Spreads

Fried Snacks

Nosh

Legumes

Legumes

Dal

Beans

Salads

Salads

Veg Salads

Non-Veg Salads

Land & Sea

Land & Sea

Eggs

Birds

Meat

Fish

Shellfish

Paneer

Paneer

Paneer

Vegetables

Vegetables

Sabzi

Potatoes

Mushrooms

Eggplants

Cauliflower

Squashes

Root Vegetables

Vegetable Curries

Green Vegetables

Okra