The ingredient lists of chaat recipes repeat the same four preparations in different proportions. Green mint and coriander chutney, tamarind and date chutney, dry garlic chutney and thinned yogurt appear in pani puri, bhel puri, sev puri, dahi puri and vada pav alike. None is difficult to make. What matters is that each has a distinct function in the finished dish, and a cook who understands the function can correct a plate that tastes flat, cloying or heavy by changing one component instead of starting again. This reference describes each chutney in turn, covering composition, purpose, storage and the usual correction when it goes wrong, and then explains how the four are weighted against each other from dish to dish. The final section deals with the order in which they are best prepared.
Green chutney, for herbal heat and freshness
Green chutney supplies raw, herbal sharpness that cooked spice blends cannot reproduce. It is made by blending fresh mint and coriander with green chillies, ginger, salt and a souring ingredient, which may be lemon juice, a little raw mango or a small piece of tamarind. A pinch of sugar is frequently added to soften the chilli without making the result sweet. The usual technique is to blend it thick, with only a splash of water, and to loosen it at the point of use, since extra water dulls both colour and taste. Kept in a sealed container in the refrigerator, it lasts about three to four days, although the colour fades noticeably by the second day. A few drops of lemon juice help to hold it. When green chutney tastes flat, the cause is nearly always too little salt or too little acid and rarely too little chilli, so those two should be checked before more heat is added.
Tamarind-date chutney, the sweet-sour backbone
This is the preparation that gives bhel puri, sev puri and dahi puri their rounded, nearly jam-like sweetness. Tamarind pulp is simmered with dates or jaggery and flavoured with roasted cumin, and often a little dry ginger and red chilli powder, until it reduces to a thick syrup. The length of the simmer is important. It softens the dates completely and lets the sourness settle into the sweetness instead of sitting above it as a sharp note. The correct finish is a body that coats the back of a spoon without running straight off, nearer to a thin syrup than a jam. Sugar and acid together preserve it, so it keeps two to three weeks under refrigeration, which makes it the one chaat chutney that justifies a large batch. A batch that tastes too sour can be simmered with more jaggery, while one that is cloying can be rebalanced with additional tamarind pulp or a squeeze of lemon.
Dry garlic chutney, for pungency and grit
Best known as the filling spread inside a vada pav roll, dry garlic chutney is a coarse powder and not a paste. Garlic cloves are pounded with dried red chillies and salt, frequently with a spoonful of desiccated coconut or sesame to add body, until the mixture crumbles between the fingers instead of sticking to them. The garlic is normally dry-roasted or fried very lightly first, which deepens it and removes the rawest edge while leaving its force intact. Because it contains almost no moisture, it keeps far longer than the wet chutneys, up to a month in an airtight container at room temperature and longer in the refrigerator, and this is why stalls prepare it in bulk. Its contribution is textural as well as aromatic. Smeared inside a bun or scattered over a plate, it adds a gritty, pungent bite that cuts through soft, starchy components such as potato and bread.
Yogurt, the cooling element
Whisked plain yogurt, occasionally sweetened and salted, is the fourth component. It looks like a garnish, which is why it is often undervalued, but its function is to smooth and cool everything else on the plate, tempering the acidity of tamarind, the heat of green chutney and the salt of sev in much the same way raita calms a spicy curry. For chaat it is whisked until entirely smooth and loosened with milk or water to a pourable state, because a thick spoonful sits on top of the dish instead of mixing into each bite. Seasoning matters. A little salt and sugar whisked in just before serving prevents the flat, slightly sour taste that unseasoned yogurt shows beside the other chutneys. Since yogurt keeps souring as it stands, the whisked portion is best used within a day.
How the four function together
No dish uses the four in equal measure, and the skill lies in choosing which two or three lead. Pani puri depends mainly on green chutney, dissolved into the water, with a tamarind water offered as a sweeter, milder alternative. Bhel puri and sev puri put tamarind first and treat green chutney as an accent, because too much green would turn the plate into something closer to a herb salad. Dahi puri gives the leading role to yogurt and adds the other two sparingly as drizzles. Vada pav is the dish built around dry garlic chutney, usually with a thin smear of green chutney and little or no tamarind. This arrangement gives a simple diagnostic. A dish that tastes one-note and sour needs more tamarind sweetness. One that tastes dull needs more green. One that tastes harsh needs more yogurt. One that lacks savoury depth needs the garlic powder.
Storage and order of preparation
Because the four keep for such different lengths of time, they are best prepared on separate schedules instead of all at once before guests arrive. First, dry garlic chutney and tamarind-date chutney can be made in quantity weeks ahead, since both change very little in storage. Second, green chutney is worth making one or two days in advance at most. Third, yogurt should be seasoned shortly before serving. Holding all four in small sealed containers in the refrigerator converts chaat from a cooking project into an assembly task, which is how home kitchens and stalls alike manage to produce a full spread quickly. Labelling each container with the date of preparation prevents the most common storage error, which is using green chutney or yogurt that is already past its best because it looks similar to a fresh batch. Clean, dry spoons should be used each time a container is opened, since a single wet or used spoon introduces moisture and bacteria and shortens the keeping time of every chutney in the set. Containers made of glass or other non-reactive material are preferable for tamarind chutney, as its acidity can taint some plastics and metals over several weeks.