Mumbai chefs share tips on how to ace pink sauce in Indian food

Chef Pii’s pink sauce. Pic courtesy/Instagram

Boom and whump. If we were to illustrate the abrupt journey of the pink sauce on TikTok through a sound graph, we'd use those words on the flanks. Chef Pii, who goes by the moniker The Flavour Genie, took social media by storm in June. She was seen dipping a piece of tender chicken in a runny pink sauce that resembled yields from a custard machine in the cartoons. Piqued by its mysterious taste, netizens gravitated to the condiment. But soon after, they were found dissing the product for irregularities in its ingredients label, overly acidic taste after shipping and broken plastic packaging.

Keni's dip can be paired with rice and fried fish

Pii's sauce is now being resurrected by an American hot sauce company. As per reports, with the intervention of experts on preservation techniques for a dip free of flavouring or colouring agents, the product can soon be found in stores and on e-commerce platforms. But that's seven seas away; how do curious Indians dip their toe into a disputed trend for good? Two chefs in Mumbai browse through homegrown ingredients for an easy desi pepto-pink dressing.

Boombay's kokum dressing

Call of the purple berry

Aditi Keni, executive chef and chief of product, Boombay
In terms of colour and texture, two main ingredients work best for an Indian version of the pink sauce - kokum and beetroot. The kokum fruit that has an agreeable sweetness and tartness to itself, is widely used in Maharashtra. I have prepared something called the kokum and green chilli dressing for our label that can be paired with dishes such as corn on the cobb or fried fish with kokum curry rice. Kokum and beetroot pachadis (fresh pickle sides in South India) will give you that striking hue and texture, and they taste amazing, too. I suggest making two versions of the pachadi - a sweet one and a savoury one. While the savoury dip can be enjoyed with fries, the sweet version containing honey or jaggery powder can be consumed with your morning cereal, granola, smoothies or just lathered on a slice of toast.

Test with caution

Chef Ankita Fernandes, who co-helms Bandra-based restaurant Fresh Catch, feels that food is extremely personal and she always encourages people to push themselves and try out seemingly bizarre combinations. However, she stresses on being safe as most home experimenters aren't nutrition or preservation experts. She talks about a savoury condiment that sounds delicious from the very mention of its components. Fernandes uses a purée of two large beets and adds it to Greek yoghurt, garlic paste, mayonnaise, ricotta cheese and chopped walnuts. She crowns it with a dash of olive oil and salt along with chopped mint leaves. Fernandes says this easy-peasy side goes best with nachos and all kinds of deep-fried dishes.

Kokum and roasted beet dip

Aditi Keni

Ingredients
. 2 beetroots boiled/oven roasted
. 10-12 cashews soaked in water for one hour
. A pinch of salt
. 1/2 tsp ginger
. 3 tbsp Boombay kokum and green chilly dressing

For tempering
. 1 tsp Oil
. 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
. 5 Curry leaves
. 1 Dry red chilli

Method
Wash and peel the beets. Roast the beetroots in an oven and allow them to cool down. Now, grind the ginger and soaked cashews into a paste in a mixer, adding a scoop of the kokum dressing. Blend at full speed until light and airy. Then, add the beetroot to this and continue blending. Refrigerate the mix in a covered bowl so that it sets. Heat oil in a tadka pan, add mustard seeds, red chilli and curry leaves. Once the ingredients splutter, take it off the flame. Pour over the chilled beet mix
and serve with your preferred mains.