I remember each time my mother made kheera raita, she would have to keep some of the curd aside to whip up another bowl of boondi raita for me. I also thought that there was no other way of eating boondi. However, as I grew up, not only did I open up to many different kinds of raita but also to ways in which boondi can be repurposed and consumed. If nothing else, you can just toss it up with Schezwan sauce, chopped onions and tomatoes for chilli boondi. Very recently, I came across a post by journalist Barka Dutt, who posted an image of Boondi Samosa that she tried while covering UP elections. UP’s penchant with dahi and dairy of all kinds is evident from their range of eclectic chaats, but this was something new and intriguing to me.
Samosa, as most of you may know is not native to India. It came here via the middle-east, where it was known as sambusak. Over the years, sambusak became samosa. In India, it was adapted in many ways across different regions. Punjabi samosa has an inclusion of thick cut, boiled potato masala, while Gujarati samosa is characterised by a certain sweet aftertaste that is hard to describe. Similarly, now we have many fusion samosas. From noodles to tandoori soya chaap and macaroni, what have we not snuck into our humble samosa? What makes most of these preparations work is the sheer nature of samosa. It is a deep-fried, stuffed pastry. In a typical samosa, a masala made of potatoes and mixed spices is stuffed in thin dough and rolled in the shape of a cone and the bottom, open part of the dough is pressed using thumbs. This gives a nice, sealed triangular shape to the samosas, and when they are fried, they come out crispy and flaky, while on the inside, everything is hot, soft and delicious. This play of textures is taken up a notch in the dahi boondi samosa.
The delish Uttar Pradesh street food has two components. To some, it can appear as samosa chaat, but many people in Uttar Pradesh refer to this snack as dahi boondi samosa. Piping hot samosa filled with aloo masala is crushed, and slathered over with yoghurt, followed by a sprinkling of chaat masala, salt, amchur, rock salt. A range of sweet and spicy chutneys are added next and finally, it is garnished with crunchy boondis
These boondis are obviously khara (or savoury) boondis made with besan. These boondis add another crunch to this already crispy snack. The curd helps blend all contrasting elements together. Have you tried this funky snack? Do let us know.