Bihari ke chai-samose aur bharva tamatar bonda : memories from our BHU days

This is not going to be a recipe post but a major food related nostalgia. I was in Banaras last month and I went to the few places we used to throng during our college days and later during research days too. Bihari ki chai, samose and alu chop were universal gourmet food for us and we had the digestive fire to eat it all. Now after almost a quarter of a century gone by the chai and samosa is still the same, he has introduced a few more items to his menu and a few more hands on work. We saw alu stuffed kachoris and masala stuffed tomato fritters simply called 'tamatar' at his shop this time.

It did not help that we were with some of our M.Sc. classmates. We had a reunion of class and enjoyed each oter's company, went to our department, met our teachers etc but Bihari ki dukan brought back the hidden child in all of us.

All of us wanted to spend more time at Bihari's shop just watching at the things flying off the shelves, even though the shelves were just a makeshift tin to stock the fresh samosas for a few minutes. Till they landed in leaf donas and were lapped up hungrily by youngsters.

I just couldn't resist taking out my camera and clicking a few pictures of the men at work. Looks like this tea stall has been doing great business continuously and has been feeding students ever since. Their repertoire has enriched but the taste and the freshness is still the same. You just cannot pick a single favourite out of these simple snacks or mini meals the students enjoy every single day. All of us friends remembered how we used to pester each other for these simple treats :-)

An old man was stuffing masala in emptied tomato halves. This tamatar bonda used to be such a favourite on rainy days I remember.

See how spicy and yummy this filling looks. It has loads of green coriander, roasted peanuts and green peas along with potatoes and spices.

This 'tamatar' is a limited edition snack as it is labour intensive and probably getting similar sized tomatoes would be additional effort too. They fry it in 2-3 batches around lunch time and it is available for just about an hour or so. We were lucky to see them being made and then returned at the right time to have a bite too. I find these kind of street foods healthier than any packaged foods and very satiating and filling too. And when these are deep fried at such high temperature there is no issue of hygiene as well.

The frying oil can be a concern if you are eating them everyday and if the shop is frying the snacks in acrid burnt oil. I saw the oil looked transparent and fresh when I took pictures. A good thing to discover.

See this huge pot of 'matar chhole' being tempered with a spice mix. This is served with a round potato stuffed kachori they make.

See the kachoris being shaped.

How do they find such popular combinations and keep selling them for years, to generations and make such classics. Street food needs some more recognition I feel. It evolves along the changing palate of patrons but the core flavours remain the same.

We did not taste any other snacks this time but had 2 rounds of the famous chai. Bihari ki chai as we used to call it.

The chai has a smoky flavour to it, very milky and just rightly sweet for the temperament one gets when visiting such places.

I missed not having those samose. But then we visited another classmate the next day who is a Professor in Agriculture department and he made us eat those samose :-) there are few things that make a way to reach you at the right time.

One samosa found its way to me too :-)

Keema waala Samosa : deep fried indulgence...

A plateful of piping hot something is not a particularly inviting idea in this smouldering heat. But just think of someone talking about samosa all over twitter and facebook and the husband has already demanded a keema paratha you would definitely be tempeted to some heat and deep frying.

So a friend was talking about baked samosa that I find awful to be honest because the fat in the shortening of pastry dough would not be any less if you want a crisp pastry on samosa. Why not deep fry it because anyway you have them very occasionally only. And then I decided for a Keema samosa dinner that day. Any such heavy snack becomes a dinner for us always. I had this Khajur Imli ki chutney in the fridge and the Samosa took me about 40 minutes from scratch.

recipe of the keema stuffing....

ingredients...

(for about 20 small samosas)
keema (mutton mince) 250 gm
finely chopped onions 1/2 cup
finely chopped(minced) ginger 1 tbsp
minced garlic 1 tsp
garam masala 1 tsp or to taste*
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
ghee 2 tsp
whole cumin 1 tsp

*I used 2 tsp of my everyday curry powder and 1/2 tsp of the special garam masala

procedure...

Heat ghee in a kadai and tip in the cumin seeds.

Wait till the cumin seeds crackle and then throw in the garlic, ginger and then the chopped onion in that order. Fry till pinkish brown, adding salt at this stage would help in hastening the process..

Tip in the powdered spices , mix and then add the mutton mince. Mix and keep stirring. It takes about 15 minutes to get cooked and dry. Cook longer if the keema (mince) is coarse.

Check seasoning, adjust and let it cool.

recipe of the cover pastry...

ingredients...
maida (white flour)200 gm or one cup
ajwain seds 1 tsp
salt to taste
ghee 1.5 tbsp for shortening
ghee for deep frying


procedure...

Mix maida, salt and ajwain seeds.

Rub in the ghee and mix well.

Add water and make a firm dough.


Make 10 portions out of the dough and roll out small discs.

Halve the discs in half moons and make a cone with each semi circle, folding the straight side up.

Then stuff the keema inside , crinkle the edges and seal with pressure. Repeat with all the discs..

My little trick to flash fry the samosa is to microwave a batch of samosas placed on a greased plate first for 2 minutes and then dunk them immediately in hot ghee so they get fried in minimal time and come out as crisp as the street side shops or college canteens.

Did you check out the samose I saw live demo almost daily while in university and tried making them later? 
Those are the real potato stuffing samosa that is a college time favorite of all Indian students I guess.

These keema samosa are more of a specialty of a few places and mostly are made at home because very few people trust the meat at street shops. They are best home made.

The khajoor imli ki chutney was perfect with the spicy heavy stuffing. We had our dinner earlier than normal that day and it was worth having a deep fried indulgence in a hot summer day.

These are small samosa almost the size of Indian limes. The reason I make them small is that I have to fill the pan less for deep frying them. Bigger samosa would need deeper oil/ghee to deep fry. Reusing the ghee is not harmful because of high smoking point and more stable fatty acids but if you are using other cooking oils you must be careful about reusing the oil. Using lesser in the frying pan makes sense.

Smaller samosa are cuter and crisp too.

Do you see that dark and thick khajoor imli ki chutney?

That bowl was licked clean.

We had some samosas as leftovers the next day with tea.

Reheated in MW they were not as crisp as fresh but as tasty. Those who love keema would know how leftovers are guarded with utmost care.

How often do you have such fried goodies as your dinner?

samose....VT waale

what do you like in a samosa??
the outer pastry or the inner aaloo stuffing.....or both....

i remember the college days when i actually started having samosas.....we were not allowed any outside food in our childhood and samosas were a rare sight in our house........the college canteen served the yummiest samosas i had tasted till then.........and then when i joined the Department of Botany in BHU , i was introduced to the samosas made by the VT guys ( anybody from Banaras would know what i am talking about....VT is the Vishvanath temple inside the university campus and there are many snacks shops there....bihari ka samosa is phenomenal).....

whenever we got there for tea....samosas were a natural accompaniment....though sometimes we settled for the crispy patties, idlis or vadas or even dosas....but samosa was an all time favorite........while the guys ( n most gals too) were busy gossiping or may be preening themselves, i used to watch how the samosa wala guys rolled the samosa pastry, made the masala, stuffed it n fried it........they used to sprinkle black salt over the samosas as soon as the samosas were out of oil.......i am drooling right now.......i got my samosa lessons from there...day after day.......fo almost 7 yrs......yes i did my PG and research and learn samosas on the side....lolz.......

but.......i had never tried making samosas at home till i got married....( though i used to cook earlier)........i knew that Arvind is also brought up on those yummy samosas ( he is born n brought up in the same campus) and he'd like it....made it for the first time n it turned out perfect.........after that , whenever we wanted to have samosas i made them at home n we were never able to appreciate any other samosa..

as time passed ( now after 10 yrs)...we started avoiding fried food but i still make this samosa ....the pastry is a little less crispy cuz i use less ghee for shortening now.....but the taste remains the same.......as both of us like the inner aaloo stuffing more..........lolz..........so if you like the outer pastry more ...you know what you need to do...add more shortening to the pastry dough n you'll get crispy shell which breaks as you hold it to your mouth.....aaah....


so the ingredients...as i watched all those years ..are.......

for the outer shell (pastry)
maida or all purpose flour 200 gm( i make thin shell of the samosa, if you like a thicker shell, you may need more maida)
salt to taste
ajwain seeds 1/2 tsp
ghee 1 tbsp or more if you like crisp shell
water to make a stiff dough

for the stuffing
potatoes boiled , peeled and cubed ..about 1 1/2 cup
mustard oil 1 tsp
asafoetida 1 pinch
methi seeds ( fenugreek seeds) 1 tsp...you can omit this if you don't like bitter
cumin seeds 1 tsp
red chilly powder 1 tsp or more
turmeric powder 1 tsp
coriander powder 1 tsp
black pepper powder 1/2 tsp
cumin powder 1 tsp
amchoor powder 1 tsp
salt to taste

oil to fry

procedure

heat oil in a pan and throw in asafoetida , methi n cumin seeds in that order...let them splutter and then throw in the powder masalas quickly n stir with a tbsp of water to prevent burning.....add the cubed potatoes and mix well ...cooking while mashing the potatoes....add salt and amchoor powder n it's ready within 2-3 minutes.

now take out lemon sized balls from the dough....i make smaller samosas so that they need less oil in the kadhai to be fried...( i avoid reused oil so it's better to use minimal oil while frying every time).......roll it into a circle...cut to make 2 semicircles.....make cone from each semicircle and fill the cooled aaloo filling in each cone and seal with a moist hand.........make all the samosas like this .......the filling may be more or little ..as you like it....i like more filling in each samosa.......


fry the samosas in medium hot oil for the first 3-4 minutes...turning them now n then............and finally on very low flame till they get crispy........it takes about 15 minutes on low flame n this is the secret of crisp samosas even if you use less shortening in the pastry dough........( tip of the day)..

drain.....and don't wait......

and don't forget to sprinkle kaala namak n a green chutny....or no chutny...doesn't matter.

enjoy with garam chai.........masale wali....

wanna have it now.......