Dried Peas Chaat (Matar Chaat)

This is a delicious yet easy snack to make, using from dry peas that are light brown in colour. They look almost like chickpeas. Normal dry peas are green in colour and called ‘matar’ in Hindi, a feminine term. This particular type of large dry peas are called 'matara' or 'matra', a masculine.

There are two types of dried peas- yellow and green. In this recipe I shall use Green Dried Peas.

Ingredients......................

• 
  
  2 Bowl pre-soaked (dried whole peas)
• 
  
  A pinch of asafoetida
• 
  
  Tamarind chutney
• Plain Curd with mix sugar-150gm
• 
  
  2 Potatoes (boiled, peeled and chopped)
• green chili chopped-1
• 
  
  1 large onion (finely chopped), optional
• 
  
  1 tomato (chopped)
• Ginger grated- 1tbsp
• 
  
  Lemon juice
• 
  
  Salt to taste
• 
  
  Red chilies powder-1 tbsp
• 
  
  Garam masala powder- 1 tbsp
• 
  
  Black salt (kala namak)- 1/2 tbsp
• 
  
  Ground roasted cumin (jeera)- 1 tbsp
• 
  
  Mango Powder- 2 tbsp
• 
  
  Some Chips Packets for flackes
• Corriander Leaves 

Method........................

1. 
   
   Wash and soak peas overnight.

2. After soaking peas will turn double size like ...........

 3.      Place in a pressure cooker with enough water to cover plus half an inch above. Cook in a               pressure cooker under full pressure for 15-20 minutes. at this time you can add tomatoes(optional) and asafoetida powder and salt, If you do not have a pressure cooker, boil briskly until soft.

3. Allow the cooker to cool down before opening, check that peas are soft. If not, cook some more.

4. Add chili powder, roast cumin powder , mango powder (amchoor), chopped potatoes and a little water if they look too dry.

6. Place portions in individual plates, garnish with coriander leaves, ginger, chopped green chillies, ginger and red onions and a wedge of lemon in each plate. Spoon a little Tamarind Chutney and Sweet Curd over it. If you do not have tamarind chutney, squeeze a little fresh lemon juice, after that crushed some potato chips.