🌽 "Bhutta" Ravioli

🙋 The what

I was on a flight flying from LA to Dubai thinking about what I wanted to eat once I got home and for some reason my mind went straight to a "bhutta".

Bhutta is what we call street style charred and grilled corn in India. Think "Elote" but without the cream/mayo/cheese aspect of it? Image for reference 👇.

The eating experience though... is... kinda messy? So my mind went to how it'd look if I were to re-invent it and given I have this thing for combining Indian and Italian food (my favorite being using my "Not Butter Chicken" Sauce with Spaghetti), my mind went straight to Ravioli.

I scribbled down a makeshift recipe in my trusty old notebook followed by failing to sleep for the remainder of the flight.

🛒 The ingredients

  • 5g oil

  • 150g of corn kernels

  • 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 1 tsp black salt

  • 1 lime (to juice)

  • 1 tsp chaat masala

  • 1 tbsp butter

  • Fresh pasta dough for ravioli

    • You could also get by with store bought fresh lasagna sheets

🧑‍🍳 The how

  • Spread the corn kernels on a sheet pan and add the oil, chili powder and salt.

    • If you're using cobs, grill them as is with the seasonings and then cut off the kernels after.

  • Grill for 5-10 minutes under the broiler setting on high mixing/turning them half-way through.

    • The time here really varies based on the strength of your oven so keep an eye out. It goes from charred to burned pretty quick.

  • You want it looking something like this.

  • Next, blend about 80% of the corn. Depending on the strength of your blender, you might need to add some water but ideally you want to avoid adding any liquid here.

    • If the resulting mixture is wet, you might want to cook it down after so it doesn't leak into your pasta dough.

  • Once blended, transfer to a bowl and fold in 10% of the whole corn kernels. This introduces a bite and a pop into your mixture.

  • At the same time, you also want to fold in the chaat masala, lime juice and black salt. Feel free to mix and match and adjust seasoning as per your taste.

  • Grab your sheets and add maybe a teaspoon of filling per ravioli. You don't want it to be so full that it might burst and make sure you're sealing them well. Brushing water on the edges usually helps with this.

  • Place the ready ravioli in a floured sheet pan and get some water boiling with a generous pinch of salt. You don't want a rolling boil, you want it strong enough to cook but not so strong that it'll break your beautiful pasta.

  • Fresh pasta should be super quick to cook, maybe 3 minutes tops? The ravioli should float to the top once ready.

  • While the pasta cooks, set up a second pan on the heat and add some butter.

  • Once the butter starts foaming, add chili powder and optionally a slit green chili per serving. Feel free to grab a splash of pasta water if you think the chili powder or butter will burn.

  • Transfer the pasta to the pan and baste it with the butter.

  • Once cooked, transfer to a plate.

  • To "season", you can use the remaining 10% corn, the slit green chili, maybe some coriander leaves or even some parm if you're feeling it.

  • Serve.

📸 Photos

I did one plate without the reserved corn and sent it to Claude and then Claude suggested adding the corn both for appearance and as a textural element. Thank you, Claude. 💞

📝 Notes

As a footnote, this is the first recipe I've "imagined from scratch?". If you read this, try making it? If you make it, @me on Twitter and tell me how it went?