For higher or for worse, everybody has encountered bitter fruit. Many farms choose 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 beautiful strawberry just for it to tase your tongue, typically life provides us bitter fruit — and admittedly, it sucks.
However moderately 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 consists of dried mango powder or amchur, dried pomegranate seeds also called anardana, toasted cumin seeds, black pepper, pink salt, pink chile powder, and asafoetida or hing.
Throughout the subcontinent, folks bathe (or in case you’re me, enshroud) uncooked and cooked greens, fruit, and kebabs with chaat masala. It will get its identify from the pantheon of South Asian avenue meals that mix crisp fried dough, recent greens, yogurt, and vibrant chutneys. However chaat masala’s energy to animate most something is greatest showcased via the clean canvas of tasteless fruit.
Even earlier than chaat masala reaches your tastebuds, you may 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, “pungent” tofu, bleu cheese, and brussels sprouts.
The preliminary be aware 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 may 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 exhibits 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 moderately than wishing for the fruit on my counter to ripen magically, I add chaat masala to rework 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 may 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 rooster breast marinade. Fruits that lend properly to pickling, like tomatoes and cucumbers, can be bolstered with a mixture of chaat masala, salt, and vinegar.
In case you’d moderately not eat bitter fruit instantly, chaat masala provides a punch to Padma Lakshmi’s gingery kumquat chutney. You may 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, pink pepper flakes, salt, vinegar, and peppercorns are a formidable 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 optionally available, chaat masala rim necessary.) In case you’re nonetheless craving dessert, you may also 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 well-liked model of chaat masala is Burlap & Barrel, Diaspora Co. and Spicewalla additionally make wonderful variations. Indian supermarkets carry mainstay manufacturers comparable to MDH and Everest, and making your individual is much less intimidating than it appears. The following time life arms 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 residing in Brooklyn, New York.
