Trains are often good places to discover new recipes. Moreover, what you find usually falls into the category most suitable for this cookbook - simple, quick and cheap. Train potatoes was one of such recipes, and now here's another.
There are many dishes which could be labelled 'channa chat' and this is only one of them. It's by no means definitive. The train I discovered it on was the Delhi-Chennai Grand Trunk Express. The thirty-three hour journey can be uncomfortable at the best of times but on this particular occasion it was a nightmare. It seemed like half of India wanted to be in Chennai for the New Year period. There were soldiers going home on leave, students on their vacations and whole families going to visit relatives. There were screaming kids everywhere and everyone had huge amounts of luggage. It was blocking the aisles, piled on top bunks and jammed under every seat. Added to this, the usual number of hawkers had doubled, and every five minutes throughout the day and night, the ear-drum-assaulting cries of 'Chaya-chaya-chaya' and 'Coffee-coffee-coffee' could be heard, increasing in volume as the hawkers progressed along the carriage.
Around lunch time, about halfway through the journey, one of the hawker's cries caught my attention. It was just as ear-piercing as the others, which I had long ago become immune to, but this man was shouting 'channachaa, channachaa'. My curiosity aroused, I held up my hand and shouted the customary 'Hello!' and attracted his attention. 'Channa chat - ten rupees', he exclaimed, at a near normal volume level, before I had asked him what he was selling. As I wriggled between my seated neighbours to manoeuvre my hand close enough to my pocket to find change, he filled a small newspaper cone with chickpeas and chopped vegetables from a bucket, squeezed a slice of lime over the mixture and added some salt. A deft shake of the cone with one hand as he received my ten rupees with the other, and our transaction was completed. Being experienced in such matters, I managed to move my head quickly enough to avoid permanent ear damage as he immediately resumed his full-on, million-decibel chant of 'Channachaa, channacha'. The chat was delicious and it was easy to see what ingredients were in it. Here they are…
Ingredients
Boiled chickpeas
Finely chopped raw onion, fresh ginger, green chilli, tomato and carrot
Salt
Lemon or lime juice
You don't need to use newspaper cones for this. Just mix everything
together and serve, on its own or as a side-salad.