Jhaal Muri

For me, Calcutta is synonymous with jhaal muri. I had my first jhaal muri there and though the mustard oil taste was a bit strange at first, I fell in love with it. There were jhaal muri walas everywhere – at bus stations, inside local trains, at all cross roads. I never missed a chance to grab a small sack of jhaal muri from a seller right across the street from where I lived. He even had hot sand in a kadhai going on one side, where he made fresh muri (mamra/kurmura/pori) by popping rice in the hot sand. He would then sieve the sand out of it. I remember for 2 rs. I used to get the “medium” sack which could last a quick chat with friends. And for 5 rs. we got the “giant” sack, which even I couldn’t finish by myself.

This is such a simple recipe and even though it is kind of like bhel, it has a mind of its own.

Mix muri (mamra/kurmura/pori), finely chopped onions, pieces of boiled potatoes, chana (the roasted kind), roasted peanuts, sev, finely chopped green chillies, salt, red chilly powder, jeera powder, a few drops of lemon juice and most importantly mustard oil. Mustard oil is what defines muri for me. You can play around with the rest of the ingredients you can add tomatoes, cucumber and remove a few, but you just can not compromise on mustard oil. And “jhaal’ means teekha/hot in Bengali, so you can make it as “jhaal” a muri as you like by adjusting the green chillies, red chilly powder.

This cone of jhaal muri goes as my 30th December entry at the one week recipe marathon from December 25th to 31st at Nupur’s One hot stove. .

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