My parents-in-law always keep a big jar with puffed rice in their storage and almost every afternoon they fill a little bowl with it and have it with their 5 o’clock tea. Also in other bengali households you’ll always find a jar filled with muri. For breakfast you can eat it together with dahi (indian jogurth) and juicy mangos (which tastes great!), poor people have it instead of a meal and if you you are a hungry in between you’ll always find a jhal-muri-wallah somewhere, a spicy-puffed-rice-seller.
He’ll quickly mix a handful of puffed rice with several other ingredients and you suddenly have the most amazing snack – a salty, crunchy, spicy, fresh salad which offers a new taste with every bite.
If you got puffed rice at home, you are easily able to mix up this fantastic snack in no time. Just eat it quickly so the rice doesn’t get soggy.
Puffed Rice Salad
A light snack, enough for 2 people.
Ingredients
Wet ingredients:
- 1/4 onion
- 1/2 tomato
- 1 small piece cucmber (5cm)
- a few sprigs coriander
- 1 tablespoon raisins or pomegranate seeds (optional)
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 small handfull salted chips
- 1 cup puffed rice
- 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts
- 1/4 teaspoon saltTL Salz
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
Dressing:
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard oil
Instructions
In case the puffed rice is not crispy anymore you should lightly roast it in a dry pan.
Then cut the onion, tomato and cucumber in small cubes. Wash the coriander leaves, pat it dry and cut it finely (I always use the whole coriander - leaves and stem).
Crush the chips by hand and mix them together with the puffed rice, peanuts, salt and garam masala.
Once you are ready to serve mix the dry with the wet ingredients and dressing. You should eat it immediately as the rice gets soggy quick.
Notes
In India we use Sev (a very fine deep fried lentil noodle) instead of potato chips. If you can get it somewhere you can use it instead of the chips.
Mustard oil gives the dish a particular savory aroma. If you don't get it, just leave it out (also I do believe it's worth buying a bottle of native mustard oil).
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