For higher or for worse, everybody has encountered bitter fruit. Many farms decide unripe fruit to increase its shelf life, however that apply leaves us with piles of unappealing fruit in produce aisles. Whether or not you grabbed an icy fruit cup at an airport espresso chain, picked out a pale-as-a-Victorian-child watermelon for a last-minute picnic, or bit into a stunning strawberry just for it to tase your tongue, generally life provides us bitter fruit — and albeit, it sucks.
However fairly than tossing unripe fruit with sugar and baking it right into a dessert, I depend on the spicy and bitter flavors of chaat masala to rescue it. This powerhouse South Asian spice combine usually contains dried mango powder or amchur, dried pomegranate seeds often known as anardana, toasted cumin seeds, black pepper, pink salt, crimson chile powder, and asafoetida or hing.
Throughout the subcontinent, individuals bathe (or for those who’re me, enshroud) uncooked and cooked greens, fruit, and kebabs with chaat masala. It will get its title from the pantheon of South Asian road meals that mix crisp fried dough, recent greens, yogurt, and vibrant chutneys. However chaat masala’s energy to animate most something is finest showcased by means of the clean canvas of tasteless fruit.
Even earlier than chaat masala reaches your tastebuds, you’ll be able to odor its distinct scent because of asafetida, a gum resin from ferula, a flowering plant that belongs to the carrot household. Portuguese colonialists in India dubbed the spice “satan’s dung,” giving it a agency place within the canon of pleasantly odiferous, polarizing meals à la durian, “smelly” tofu, bleu cheese, and brussels sprouts.
The preliminary observe of chaat masala is the acidity of dried pomegranate; a spicy sensation creeps in a second later. Lastly, you’re met with a jolt of sourness and lasting umami. You possibly can think about chaat masala because the Indian equal of tajín (a lot to the wrath of anybody who owns a masala dabba.)
Salting fruit lifts it to new heights, and analysis reveals that including salt to fruit inhibits the detection of bitterness and enhances its sweetness. In South Asia, we add chaat masala to each fruit below the solar, together with bananas. Different cultures additionally enliven unhappy fruit with spice; in Mexico, for instance, there’s Tajín, whereas in Thailand it’s customary for distributors to promote fruit with pouches of chile powder and sugar. The apply of including salty flavors to reinforce the style of fruit is loved elsewhere, too, suppose salted cantaloupe within the Midwest, salted watermelon within the South, and MSG in salads to make fruit style “extra like itself.” Salt is the primary ingredient listed on the labels of chaat masala, which can be why it shines on fried meals.
So fairly than wishing for the fruit on my counter to ripen magically, I add chaat masala to remodel it from tart to transcendent. I’ve used it to punctuate peach and tomato gazpacho and bhelpuri, a puffed rice chaat, that I pair with unripe strawberries; paired it with pineapple pico de gallo; and, for a much less fussy summer time staple, used it on watermelon wedges with feta and olive oil (swapping cottage cheese for feta additionally works as a high-protein substitute.)
For a summery salad, I combine bland mangoes, tomatoes, and onions for a fruit chaat with chaat masala, lemon juice, roasted peanuts, and serrano chile. For a fruitier tackle kachumbar salad, I’ll use insipid melons, cucumbers, mint, lemon juice, and extra of the chaat masala. You possibly can pair chaat masala and fruit for zesty marinades: my father marinates pork shoulder with blitzed peaches and chaat masala earlier than grilling it, and I add chaat masala to Eric Kim’s pineapple hen breast marinade. Fruits that lend effectively to pickling, like tomatoes and cucumbers, can be bolstered with a mixture of chaat masala, salt, and vinegar.
In case you’d fairly not eat bitter fruit instantly, chaat masala provides a punch to Padma Lakshmi’s gingery kumquat chutney. You possibly can swap out onions for plums for a play on laccha pyaaz, or the recent pink, sweet-hot pickled onions tinged with beetroot. Fast-pickled, anemic cherries made with chaat masala, crimson pepper flakes, salt, vinegar, and peppercorns are a powerful addition to charcuterie boards and turkey sandwiches. The salt in chaat masala additional will increase the fruit’s shelf life, and its heat spices add richness to any dish.
It’s value ingesting your awful fruit too, as blitzing unripe fruit erases its gritty or mealy texture. I puree and pressure chunks of boring pineapple for the bottom of a tropical-inspired banta, the glowing masala lemonade bought in Codd-neck bottles throughout South Asia (tequila non-obligatory, chaat masala rim obligatory.) In case you’re nonetheless craving dessert, you may as well make a sweet-and-sour blackberry or mulberry sorbet impressed by kaala khatta (the tart, ink-black South Asian syrup constituted of Java plums) or try masala orange popsicles for a grown-up Freeze Pop.
Whereas my most popular model of chaat masala is Burlap & Barrel, Diaspora Co. and Spicewalla additionally make glorious variations. Indian supermarkets carry mainstay manufacturers reminiscent of MDH and Everest, and making your personal is much less intimidating than it appears. The following time life palms you bitter fruit, resist the urge to make jam and as a substitute embrace the bitter with chaat masala.
Mehr Singh is a meals and tradition reporter based mostly in New York. Her work seems in Bon Appétit, Food52, and different publications.
Dilek Baykara is a Turkish-American illustrator, print designer, and adventurous gastronome dwelling in Brooklyn, New York.
