Fatima's Fabulous Kitchen

I don't eat to live. I live to eat.

Ramadan

Afghani Mantu

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Mantu is my favorite thing to order at my local Afghan restaurant. Not only are these dumplings incredibly delicious, but they’re also quite the show-stopper making them perfect for a dinner party.

The mantu contain a ground-meat filling cooked in spices and copious amounts of diced onions. They are then steamed and layered with two different sauces – a yogurt and mint sauce and a tomato-lentil one.

Afghani Mantu are indeed a labor of love but you can certainly take a short-cut like I did with wonton wrappers.

Also vegetarians just know I made this once with impossible plant-based meat and it turned out amazing. Go ahead and try it!

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Afghani Mantu

Ingredients

  • 1 pack of wonton wrappers or homemade mantu dough

Mantu Filling

  • 3/4 lb ground meat (beef, lamb, or plant-based)
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 2 tsp coriander
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp cardamom
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 2 cups diced onion
  • 3 garlic cloves (minced)
  • salt (to taste)
  • 2 Tbsp cilantro
  • 2 Tbsp oil

Yogurt Mint Sauce

  • 1 cup yogurt
  • 1 Tbsp dried mint (or to taste)
  • 1 garlic clove (finely minced)
  • salt (to taste)

Tomato-Lentil Sauce

  • 1/4 cup diced onion
  • 2 tsp tomato paste
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 1/8 tsp turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp cumin
  • 1 garlic clove (minced)
  • 2 tsp channa daal (yellow split-peas soaked overnight)
  • salt (to taste)

Instructions

Filling

  1. In a pan, heat up some oil. Add in your ground meat.

  2. Once the ground meat turns brown, add in your salt and diced onions. Allow the onions to soften and cook down.

  3. Now add your spices. Cook for a few minutes. Taste and adjust for seasonings. Toss in the cilantro. Set aside and allow to cool.

  4. Once cooled, it's time to fill the wrappers. Take about a teaspoonful per wrapper. Fold the edges using water.

  5. Steam the mantu in a metal or bamboo steamer until the wrapper becomes translucent and almost clear.

Yogurt Sauce

  1. Combine the yogurt, mint, and minced garlic. Add salt and taste and adjust for seasonings.

Tomato-Lentil Sauce

  1. Add a tablespoon or so of oil into a pan. On medium-high heat, sautee the diced onion.

  2. Add your salt. Once the onions turn transluscent, add the tomato paste. Allow it to cook down and caramelize.

  3. Now add your spices and chopped tomatoes. Add water and bring to a simmer.

  4. For the channa daal (also known as yellow split-peas), make sure to wash and soak it in water overnight. You can add it to the tomato sauce or boil it separately. (Note – the daal can take longer to cook in the tomato sauce, so I would recommend quickly boiling it in a small pot separately and then adding it to the tomato sauce).

  5. Taste and adjust for seasonings.

Assembly

  1. In a serving dish, add a layer of the yogurt sauce, then the mantu, then top with more yogurt sauce and the tomato-lentil sauce. Finally top with a little bit of olive oil and more dried mint. Your mantu is ready to serve.

Chicken 65 Wings

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I thought I’d switch it up a little and adapt my Chicken 65 recipe for wings!

The wings are deep-fried in a cornstarch and egg batter and coated in a sweet and sour sauce and traditional bhagar ingredients – mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, ginger etc.

Feel free to use a short-cut with a store-bought Chicken 65 spice mix (Shaan is fine) or make your own (I’ve listed the spices I used in the recipe instructions).

It’s nothing short of a show-stopping appetizer – especially for an iftar party!

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Chicken 65 Wings

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs chicken wings
  • 1 Tbsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 1 Tbsp chicken 65 spice mix (store-bought or homemade)
  • 1 Tbsp yogurt
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 Tbsp water
  • salt (to taste)
  • oil (for frying)

Sauce

  • 2 tsp oil
  • 6 curry leaves
  • 1/8 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1/8 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 jalapeno or serrano
  • 1 tsp ginger (cut into matchsticks)
  • 1 tsp chicken 65 spice mix
  • 1 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 2-3 Tbsp red chili sauce

Instructions

  1. Combine the wings, ginger-garlic paste, chicken 65 spices, cornstarch, yogurt, water, and egg. For the spices I use about 1/4 tsp of turmeric, paprika, chilli powder, black pepper, garam masala, cumin, coriander, and onion powder each. (If you are using a store-bought spice mix, go easy on the salt because most already contain it.)

  2. Allow the chicken to marinate for about a half-hour or so. (Optional, may skip this step).

  3. In a heavy-bottom pot or pan, add your oil. Fry the wings in batches at 375 F until golden brown.

Sauce

  1. Now let's make the sauce for the wings. In a pot or pan, add a teaspoon or two of oil.

  2. Toss in your cumin and mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, drop in your curry leaves, ginger, and sliced jalapeno. Sautee for a minute or two.

  3. Now add the remaining sauce ingredients – soy sauce, more spices, red chili sauce. Stir and combine. Note – if you like your wings on the sweeter side, feel free to use a sweet chili sauce.

  4. Now toss the wings in the sauce (you can also individually dip each one) and serve!

Chaat Fries

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If you love chaat and you love fries, you will absolutely these chaat fries.

These fries are perfect for iftar – they’re cheesy, spicy, and incredibly addictive. Forget the samosas, everyone will go straight for these and ravage them in seconds.

I made my own oven-baked fries by using a method I learned off of Adam Ragusea’s youtube video where you boil your fries first and then bake at 450 for an hour. No frying required and you get the crispiest fries!

But if you’re pressed for time or want to take a short-cut, feel free to a buy a bag of frozen fries and season them a little bit with your favorite seasonings (I recommend garlic and onion powder, a bit of tandoori masala) – it will work just fine.

For these chaat fries to be extra delicious, I melted pepper-jack cheese over the fries and topped them with rajma chaat.

Rajma are basically red kidney beans and although they are perhaps less commonly used in chaat than chickpeas, I think they go really well on fries.

To make the rajma chaat, I sautéed some onions in ginger-garlic paste and added a couple of spices: turmeric, chili powder, cumin, coriander, and lots of chaat masala.

I added the layer of beans to the fries and then all the regular chaat fixings – tamarind chutney, cilantro chutney, onion, tomato, cilantro, yogurt, sev.

This is a fun appetizer where you can make everything from scratch if you’re up for it (homemade fries and chutneys, fresh red kidney beans) or everything store-bought if you want to spend a little less time in the kitchen (frozen fries, jarred chutneys, canned beans). Either way it will be delicious!

***Note – I didn’t take pictures of the step-by-step process because I made a Tik Tok video for it that I’ve uploaded to instagram as well. Follow me on Tik Tok: fatimasfabkitchen and IG: fatimasfabulouskitchen (video is in my highlights).

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Chaat Fries

loaded chaat fries – rajma chaat on top of cheesy fries

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 28 oz fries (store-bought or homemade)
  • 8 oz pepper-jack cheese (may substitute with mozzarella or cheddar)

Rajma Chaat

  • 1 12 oz can of red kidney beans (or 1 1/2 cup freshly boiled beans)
  • 1 Tbsp oil
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
  • 2 tsp tomato paste (may also substitute 1 chopped tomato)
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp chilli powder
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp coriander
  • 1/2 tsp amchur
  • 1 tsp chaat masala
  • salt (to taste)
  • lime juice (to taste)

Chaat Fries Toppings (feel free to use whatever chutneys you'd like)

  • 1/2 small onion (diced)
  • 1 tomato (diced)
  • 2 Tbsp cilantro
  • 3 Tbsp tamarind chutney
  • 3 Tbsp cilantro chutney
  • 3 Tbsp yogurt
  • 2 Tbsp sev

Instructions

Rajma Chaat

  1. Drain and rinse your kidney beans. Add your oil to your pan and sautee your diced onion in ginger-garlic paste.

  2. Add your tomato paste and allow it to cook down. (You can also use a regular tomato instead.)

  3. Add your beans and spices. Add a little water to loosen it up. Cook for a few minutes and set aside.

Fries

  1. Season and cook your fries however you'd like. If you want to take a short-cut, feel free to use store-bought fries. (I made my own oven-baked fries using a method that requires you to boil the fries first and then bake at 450 for 45 minutes. The fries are wonderfully crispy!).

  2. Add your fries to a baking sheet and top with cheese. Melt in the oven using the broiler setting until cheese has melted.

Assembly

  1. Top the cheesy fries with cooked rajma beans. Then add your diced tomatoes, onions, cilantro, chutneys, yogurt, and sev. Fries are ready to serve!

    (*note – melt the cheese and top the fries a few minutes before serving so the cheese remains melted and hot when eating).