Chotpoti and Fuchka , The most popular Street Food in Bangladesh

Nothing can be more popular in Bangladesh than chotpoti and fuchka!!! Be it winter or summer. dull or bright day , whether you are in good or bad mood , it is chotpoti and fuchka that makes your day !! 😀

Chotpoti:

Part A :

1 and 1/2 cup of white vatana or white peas , soaked in water overnight with 1/2 tea spoon baking soda

Part B:

1 tbl spoon – 1 and 1/2 tbl spoon Chat Masala
1 and 1/2 tea spoon dry roasted cumin powder ( bhaja jeera gura )
1 tea spoon coarsly grounded lightly roasted whole coriander powder ( asto dhonia gura )
3/4 or around 2 tea spoon dry roasted dry red chili powder ( you can add more , depending on your taste)
1 tea spoon rock salt ( bit lobon)
Salt to taste

For the Chat masala recipe , please click the link below
https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/06/28/homemade-chaat-masala-2/

Part C:

Boiled 2 potatoes, cut in small cubes
2 boiled eggs , cut in small cubes
Onion chopped
Mint chopped
green chilies chopped
Cucumber chopped
Crushed Fuchka shell or anything crunchy
Tamarind water or tetuler tok

For tamarind water , soak the tamarind in water . Then take out the starch from it . Add dry roasted cumin powder , salt , dry roasted dry red chili powder, little sugar or jaggery , chopped cilantro .

Procedure:

1. Soak the chotpoti daal in water overnight with baking soda . Baking soda helps to soften daal easily . Bt if you have good quality daal , you can skip that part . But don’t forget to soak in water .This is must . Wash the daal cery well .

2. Boil the daal until creamy, little mushy . If your daal is not creamy , chotpoti won’t taste better . Not only boiled , you need to have the thickness and starch coming out from daal . Don’t add salt at this point as it prevents the daal to be boiled properly .
What I do , I always prepare the daal in a slowcooker or crockpot . Those who have a slowcooker , please use it . Use less water than usual than set the temperature to high for 2 hours , then to slow for another 3- 4 hours . Most of the time , I do it before going to sleep . I set the temperature to low before going bed , in the morning chotpoti looks just perfect . 🙂
Those who doesn’t have slow cooker can use pressure cooker too . Faster !!!

3. When it is done , add the ingredients mentioned in Part B. Depending on your taste , you can add the dry roasted masalas more or less .

4. Don’t mix the ingredients mentioned in Part C until you serve . I always mix them with little amount of chotpoti served , as these ingredients will cause bad smell if kept for longer . Better always serve separately .

Fuchka:

Fuchka shell
A little more condensed chotpoti ( The chotpoti daal neds to be very mushy) , mixed with all the ingredients mentioned in part B
Boiled potatoes
Chopped onion
Chopped green chilies
Tamarind water

For the Fuchka shell , please click the link below
https://khadizaskitchen.com/2014/11/28/fuchka-shell-2/

Mix all the ingredients except tamarind water . Stuff inside the fuchka shell . Serve with tamarind water .

Note:

!. Many complains that their chotpoti gets darker after adding the masalas . For that , please dry roast every dry spice separate so that they are not burnt . Not every spice are roasted at the same length of time . So It’s better to dry roast them seperately , specially the cumin and dry chilies . If they are black and burnt , the chotpoti would be black . And if they are not nicely roasted , the flavor won’t come out .