Tiny Chef

Reusing old tweets 🤭
But still 💯 true. This reminds me to buy new crockery.

[crockery, fancy, food, tweet, x ]

Beetroot Chaat with Raw Mango-Papaya Crunch
~ my first attempt at feeling like a fine-dine chef at home 🍽️

I’ve always wanted to try plating food like they do in fancy restaurants - clean, thoughtful, and a little dramatic. But more than the looks, I wanted the dish to have something unique… while still feeling familiar and full of flavour. Something you’d happily eat again - not just admire.

This is my first dish in that direction, and I want to take you through how I built it.

They say every good dish should have three things - fat, acid, and crunch. That’s what makes it exciting. So I kept that in mind and started building:

🔸 Base: A simple whipped yogurt mixed with grated garlic, lemon juice, salt and just a bit of sugar. It’s creamy, slightly tangy and balances all the bold flavours on top.

🔸 Main element: A thick, crispy beetroot tikki - made with beetroot, potato, ginger, green chilli, spices and bread crumbs. Earthy, sweet, spicy - it hits all the right notes.

🔸 Fresh crunch: A bright salad of raw mango and raw papaya, tossed in lemon, red chilli and a bit of honey. It adds that zingy freshness and some texture.

🔸 Finishing touches:

A drizzle of mint oil (fresh mint blended with olive oil)

Some balsamic reduction (reduced with brown sugar for that sweet-tangy glaze)

And a few microgreens and peanuts for colour, crunch and a touch of bitterness

Honestly, the plating was a mess at first - I even had to start over on a new plate 😅 But once it came together, it really felt like something special.

Not perfect, but packed with flavour, and fun to create. That’s a win for me.

Would you like to recreate this?