Good morning, and welcome to Vittles! Today, Thomas Zacharias writes about three of his favourite snacks - prawn chemmeen fry, muji chetin, and keema ghotala to whip up for friends. Editor’s note: read writer Uzma Falak’s 2023 essay about eating tsyot (a recipe similar to one in this series) in miltarised Kashmir here.
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Thomas Zacharias’ regional South-Asian party snacks
tamarind-laced prawn chemeen fry, Parsi keema ghotala, and Kashmir walnut and radish muji chetin on crackers
Whenever I have people coming over, I start thinking in snacks. I like to feed friends a few things to anchor the evening: something crisp, something creamy, something warm and a little indulgent – the kind of food you can eat with one hand, with a drink in the other. In India, hosting friends has suddenly started implying cheese boards, dips, olives, crackers. I’ve often found myself wondering, Where’s the South Asian food? Why should we only bring out our recipes when it’s time for dinner?
That’s what this set of recipes is about. These three appetisers come from different parts of the subcontinent, and represent different facets of my life. One – chemmeen fry – is based on a dish served in toddy shops in Kerala, where I grew up. Consisting of prawns fried in coconut oil with kodampuli (Malabar tamarind), curry leaves, garlic, and chilli, still crackling in the pan, I’ve eaten countless versions over the years, no cutlery in sight.
The second, muji chetin, is a chutney I first encountered during a meal in a Kashmiri home in Srinagar. It’s usually just a quiet side on the table: grated radish, yoghurt, walnuts, and green chilli – cool, punchy, and quietly elegant. Here, I serve it as a dip for savoury crackers. You could also spoon it onto pani puri shells, if you’re feeling whimsical, for a surprising little canapé.
The third recipe is based on something I love eating in Bombay: parsi kheema ghotala, a slightly chaotic, deeply satisfying mix of spiced mince, scrambled eggs, green chillies, and (sometimes) cheese. In Irani cafes, it’s eaten with pav, but I wrap it in flour tortillas, which I then crisp up in ghee and cut into triangles. It’s the perfect beer-snack.
Toddy Shop Chemmeen Fry
Picture this: a toddy shop by the backwaters in Kerala, where the smoky scent of local fish frying in coconut oil fills the air. In toddy shops, plates of ‘touchings’ – flavourful, often spicy side dishes – are crafted to complement the mildly sweet and sour toddy, a freshly tapped alcoholic drink made from the sap of coconut palms. More than just casual eateries, each toddy shop is a culinary reflection of its surroundings, with menus shaped by hyperlocal traditions and the availability of fresh, seasonal ingredients. Travelling through the region, I have eaten everything from naadan beef fry to smoky karimeen pollichathu and hearty crab roast. But the dish I find myself returning to time and again is the ever-popular chemmeen fry.
When this dish is made in toddy shops, prawns are hauled in the same morning from nearby waters, and coconuts and curry leaves plucked from trees just outside. But chemmeen fry also translates beautifully to the home kitchen – with fresh or frozen prawns, good-quality coconut oil, and a handful of curry leaves, it’s possible to capture its bold, robust, and addictive flavours. Best of all, it’s quick and fuss-free to make.
