Puchka- An Ever Popular Kolkata Snack...

Be it the rich or the run-down, the shiny  new or the crumbling old, the trendy modern or the time wrapped traditional, the public broad-ways or the narrow back alleys, the tourist hangouts or the residential areas, the bustling bazaars or the busy dock, the west or the east, the old city or the migrant colonies, the riverside or the lakeside--in a city of 4.5 million residents the presence of the ubiquitous fhuchwalla with his mobile stand is a standard feature.

Last summer we held a fuchka party in our home. Sharing with you the invitation to show a mobile fuchka stand.

Who is this fhuchkawalla? 

He is the man who sells the fhuchka, an immensely popular Kolkata street food.  It is a food of extremes, it gives you immense pleasure yet makes you cry with the sharpness of its taste. Its a passionate food, not for the prim or the proper, or the fastidious or the finicky. Its a food which involves all five human senses. Lets just say it's a food which can be compared with the city of Kolkata-- its irresistible, its surprising, it packs a punch yet it is humble, its common, its everyday and its cheap (or used to be). Mostly you would not have to walk more than a 100 yards in the city to find a fhuchkawalla ready to serve you.

What kind of food is this puchka? 

A crisp little puffed wheat ball  dented in the middle, stuffed with potato filling, dipped in tangy tamarind water and served to you in a little bowl made of shalpata/dried leaf. The style of eating this is also pretty interesting. The phhuchkawalla stands in the centre, while the customers (a comfortable three to a jostling five or six) make a semi circle around him, he hands them each a leaf bowl, then proceeds to mash potato, add boiled yellow grams/kala chana, chillies, cilantro, lime juice, taramind pulp, rock salt, red chilly powder and roasted cumin masala. You can tell him how to you want it---really hot, less hot, really tangy, less tangy, more green chillies or less red chilly powder...the list goes on and on. While he is fixing this the air is filled with an awesome smell of rock salt, lime, cilantro, cumin masala, tamarind and the anticipation is high. Once the mixture is ready to each customer's satisfaction (he often divides the potato mix into small proportions catering to each of his customer's individual preferences), he takes these little wheat balls, dents them in the middle, stuffs in a little potato mix, dips them in pre-prepared tamarind water and puts them in each customer's bowl. He works really fast, he moves onto serve others while you finish yours, and then he comes back to you with the next one. The fuchkawallas often work so quickly, that often it is difficult to keep pace with them. When the customer eating the puchka first puts the wheat ball into his/her mouth, it is filled tangy tamarind water, then once s/he bites into the ball, a host of tastes hit at the same time-- the crunch of the crispy wheat ball, the saltiness, heat and sourness of the potato masala, terrific heat from green chillies, tang of lime juice et al. 

When I was young we could get 10 puchkas for INR 1.00. Now it has increased to INR 10.00 for 10 phuchkas or less.

Who eats this snack? 

Well just about everyone in the city-- the school children after school, the housewives out shopping, couples out on dates, friends out to have fun, the tourists, the college/university students while planning a revolution to do away with the bourgeois, the poets and cine-lovers hanging out in Rabindrasadan, the dreary office workers while returning home late in the evening. Men, women, the young, the old, the vegetarians, the non vegetarians, the rich, the poor...If they feel shy eating it out in the streets, they go to fancy restaurants and order fuchkas where the tamarind water is made with Swiss mineral water. It is served in a regular plate and  not even one tenth the fun. Puchka has even weaved its way into the illustrious wedding menus of Kolkata.  Usually a fhuchkawallh stands in one corner serving guests before they hit on the kebabs, biriyanis, fish fries and the desserts.

Away from Kolkata, I satisfy my craving for phuchka by making it at home. Its really simple, let me share with you how.

Ingredients:

• A box of puchka shells from Indian mithai/delicatessen shop [They come in plastic boxes. Usually there are 20 to 30 shells in each box]
• A tin of yellow grams or half a cup of dried yellow grams soaked overnight and steamed with little water for two  to three whistles in an Indian pressure cooker
• 3 large potatoes, peeled, boiled and roughly mashed
• One bunch of coriander, finely chopped, use the stems as well
• Green chillies (numbers of chillies depending on your heat tolerance) very finely chopped (you can de-seed them, but do add them, apart from the heat, they bring in a nice smell and taste as well)
• Juice of a lime, keep another lime or two ready, in case you want more tang! I definitely do!
• 2 table spoons of tamarind pulp (found in Indian grocery stores, Tesco super markets, UK in the Asian section) or 4 to 6 dried tamarinds or even the tamarinds in shells (though these are a little sweet) soaked in half a litre of water
• Rock salt, finely ground, according to taste
• Red chilly powder according to taste
• 4 heaped table spoons of roasted cumin powder (take equal amounts of whole cumin and coriander seeds and dried red chilly. In a hot, dry pan roast these, till they start smelling. Cool down the mixture and grind to a fine powder. If kept in an air tight bottle, this masala stays fresh for  a year or so. I always get my stock from my mother. Its great in all kinds of vegetarian dishes, for me a pinch of this masala makes the food exciting since it brings a whiff of  the Kolkata streets)

How To:

First the tamarind water, dissolve the tamarind in the water, a little pulp will settle at the bottom of the water, let it be. Add juice of half a lime, throw in the lime skins (they smell heavenly), add about 2 heaped table spoon of rock salt and roasted cumin masala each, red chilly powder according to your heat tolerance, few pieces of green chillies and handful of chopped coriander. Mix everything and taste. If needed you can add more lime juice, chilly powder, salt, masala etc.

The potato mix: Add 2 heaped table spoons of roasted cumin masala, red chilly powder and rock salt (both according to taste), scoop out the tamarind pulp from the water and add that too, squeeze in juice of half a lime to the mashed potato and mix really well. Then add the yellow grams, the remaining coriander and green chillies and mix again. Taste it and adjust the balance.

Time for assembly-- get the puchka shells, tap them lightly, some may break, just throw those into the potato mix, stuff the balls with potato mix (ideally one third of the ball should be filled, this again depends on the eater's preference), dip it in water and eat. Some people prefer it without water, some people love drinking the water on its own. I like eating it in a bit of this and that way.

P.S. More on the joys of phuchkka  here. 

P.S.S. In this post I have used various spellings of fuchkas, actually there is no standard English spelling, so tried on different combinations, sorry for any inconvenience caused during your reading.
P.S.S.S. In the rate chart photograph, apart from English, Bengali script is used.

P.S.S.S.S. I have got awards from 5 of my blogger friends, will post about them sooon-ish.
P.S.S.S.S.S. This is my entry to Spice Foodie's YBR March.

Have a great day, till next time.