Chole chaat

Blogging would be the last thing on my mind on a Sunday morning. Why then am I posting something now? Well, I'm actually waiting for several things ...

1. for the tomato pulp to cool, so that I can grind it
2. for the chutney (1) so that I can have my breakfast
3. for my husband, so that I can go out shopping
4. for my sister, who gave me an appointment at 10:30 to call her

Now that I have nothing else to do, I decided to post my first recipe. Something I made yesterday for evening snacks. Chaat with Badam milkshake.

Call it channa masala, chole chaat, whatever, its essentially a delicious curry made with chickpeas/garbanzo beans. We either have it with chapathis or just as a light snack. This is one "fast to cook, good to eat" dish. When I made it the first time using my mom's recipe, I was like "Is that all?". Very very simple recipe, yet very very tasty.

Ingredients:

1. Chickpeas/garbanzo beans
2. Tomatoes
3. Green chillies
4. Onions
5. Dhania-jeera powder
6. Channa masala
7. Lemon juice
8. Coriander leaves

Procedure:

1. Soak chickpeas for atleast 8 hours and boil them with a little salt. If you use the canned beans, you can skip this step.
2. Puree tomatoes (quantity depends on the amount of chickpeas) and keep it ready.
3. Heat a little oil (I just use 1 tbsp for a cup of chickpeas) in a pan and fry the tadka (mustard and jeera).
4. Add little turmeric to the oil and fry green chillis.
5. Add the chopped onions to the pan and saute them.
6. Tomato puree to be added next along with some salt.
7. Add the boiled/canned chickpeas to the puree and some dhania-jeera powder, little sugar, any store-bought chole masala.
8. Cover the pan and let the contents cook for about 10 minutes. If the gravy is too thick, add some water.
9. Add some lemon juice and garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and onions.

That's all it takes for a bowl of chatpata chaat to land on your table.



I've got something to say about dhania-jeera powder. Store-bought powder neither has the taste nor the aroma of home-made powder. I use it in most of the curries, particularly the ones with gravy. Once in a while, when I'm really jobless, I grind equal quantities of coriander seeds (dhania) and jeera along with few red chillies to a fine powder. This stays fresh for about two weeks when stored in an air-tight tin.

Along with chaat, we also had a glass of chilled badam milk. For the recipe, well, buy a packet of MTR badam feast and DAD (do-as-directed) :). Blend milk and the MTR powder along with an ice cube or two and savour the drink.