Friday, April 5, 2013

Chana Masala

I have tried various methods to prepare Chana Masala. The typical Kerala style versions (Recipes coming soon) worked out very well for me. But none of the North Indian recipes turned out satisfactory to my taste. May be I was doing some thing wrong in those recipes. After talking to one of my friends, Today I started trying out the chana masala again. This time adding the various masalas that I thought should be there and skipping or substituting the ones that I didnt have. It turned out perfect and I am storing the recipe in my blog for keeps :). 







Chana Masala:

Wait Time: 8 hrs
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Total Time: 9 hrs

Ingredients:

2 cups Chana ( Chickpeas) 
1 big Onion
1 big Tomato
1 inch ginger
1/2 Green chilly
4 cloves
2 Green Cardamom 
2 dry red chilly
1 small cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 Tbsp Fennel seeds
3 Tbsp Coriander Seeds ( Didnt have any. So I used coriander powder) 
1/4 Tbsp Turmeric
1/2 Tbsp Chilly Powder
1/2 Tbsp Garam Masala
1 Tbsp Oil
Coriander Leaves for garnishing
Salt

Prepping:

Step 1: Soak chickpeas overnight. (Makes the wait time of 8hrs)
Step 2: Pressure cook the chickpeas in the morning adding water and salt.
Step 3: Dry roast dry red chillies, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and fennel seeds till aroma starts coming out. (Around 3 - 5 min). 




Cool and grind them in a blender with out adding water.




Step 4:Cut onion, tomato, ginger and green chillies.
Step 5:Heat oil in a pan and add ginger when the oil becomes hot.  Fry for a minute and then add green chillies and saute.




Step 6: Now add onions and saute till they are translucent.




Step 7: Add Tomatoes and saute till they start becoming mushy. Switch off and keep aside. Once cooled, add some boiled chickpeas to the mixture and blend in a mixie to a smooth paste adding little water slowly to the mixture. 








Method of Preparing: 

Step 1: 

Add some more oil in the pan used to saute onions and once it is hot, add the grinded onion - tomato mixture to it. Saute for around 5 min till oil starts coming on top. (Here it means mixture slowly starts turning colour) 

Step 2:

Add the dry roasted powder, turmeric, salt, chilly powder, garam masala and mix well. Cover and cook for 3 min.



Step 3: 

Add the boiled chana along with water (You can add the water used to boil chickpeas. Add more water. You can also add milk or coconut milk for a different flavor). Mix well.  Cover and cook for 10 - 15 min. 




By that time water would have reduced to your required  consistency. If not, boil for some more time if you get your consistency. Switch off.Serve hot with Rice, Idiappams, Rotis or Parathas. 










1 comment:

  1. This looks like a yumm combo. Never tried. We eat idiappam with mutta curry or milk

    ReplyDelete

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