Some low-key food items take us down the memory lane to childhood. Street food specifically has this magic that home cooking often struggles to recreate, no matter how good the ingredients are. Anyone who’s tried making chaat, pani puri, or roasted snacks at home knows the taste often struggles to match; it tastes fine, but it’s never quite that flavour.The one you get from a roadside cart with a smoky tandoor and years of practice behind it is hard to replicate at home. Turns out, even actors obsess over the same problem in their own kitchens.Actor Divyenndu Sharma, aka Munna Bhaiya in Mirzapur, recently opened up about exactly this kind of everyday cooking struggle, explaining the subtle difference in taste between tandoor-roasted and boiled sakarkandi.
Divyenndu shares his simple home hack for making street-style bhuni shakarkandi
During an appearance on Mashable India’s “The Bombay Journey,” actor Divyenndu, popularly known for playing Munna Bhaiya in Mirzapur, shared a surprisingly simple hack for making street-style bhuni shakarkandi (roasted sweet potatoes) at home, without losing the smoky, authentic flavour that makes the street version so addictive.According to Mashable India, Divyenndu explained, “Most home attempts at this winter snack fail because, while boiling sweet potatoes in water, the taste loses its authenticity and waters down their natural sweetness instead of enhancing it. Street vendors get around this by slow-roasting the sweet potatoes over an open flame or in a tandoor, a method most home kitchens simply don’t have access to.” To solve this problem, he lists a hack to retain the authentic taste and flavour.
Munna Bhaiya reveals a hack to retain the authentic taste of sakarkandi like original street food
Going ahead, he presents a hack to retain the authentic taste, and his workaround doesn’t need any special equipment. Divyendu explained placing a heavy-bottomed tawa on the stove instead of a tandoor, then setting the washed, unpeeled sweet potatoes directly on the hot surface. A deep pot or bowl is then inverted tightly over them, trapping the heat and steam inside, essentially turning an everyday tawa into a makeshift oven.The sweet potatoes are then left to slow-roast on low-to-medium heat for about 25 to 30 minutes. During this time, the trapped steam cooks them through from the inside, while the direct contact with the hot metal chars the skin slightly, caramelizing the natural sugars in the process. This combination gives the dish its signature smoky, deeply sweet flavour, without touching boiling water.
The sweet potatoes are then removed and served
Once the sweet potatoes are fully cooked, the final steps are simple:First, peel them, slice them up, and finish with a sprinkle of chaat masala and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. The result, according to Diveyendu, is quite similar to what you’d get from a street vendor, minus the trip outside and the smoke-filled cart.
