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CHICKEPEA
CURRY
(CHARAS
OR CHOLE (SINDHI STYLE)
| Chickpeas are known as kabuli chanas
or grams from Kabul. They are popular among Punjabis
who call them chole, and eat them with flour panacakes,
bathuras. They are made in a sort of blackish spice mix with
a dominant flavour of cumin. The Sindhis eat this curry too,
but heaped on sliced bread, and the flavour has a slightly sour
tang.It can be eaten as a centerpiece with roti, rice or bread
, or as a side dish instead of dal.With raw chickpeas
you have to start the night before by soaking them. |
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| Serves
6 as a main course |
2
cinnamon leaves |
| Serves
8 as a side dish |
15
peppercorns |
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1
teaspoon cumin seeds |
| 250g
dried chickpeas |
salt
|
| 3
large onions |
a
poinch of asafoetida |
| 1
inch fresh ginger |
1/3
cup oil |
|
5 cloves garlic |
1
teaspoon turmeric powder |
| 250g
tomatoes, skinned or |
1/2
teaspoon garam masala powder |
| pureed |
1
teaspoon coriander powder |
| 2
balck cardamoms |
1/2
teaspoon ground black pepper |
| 8
cloves |
3/4
teaspoon dried mango powder (amchur) |
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| 1 Soak the chickpeas overnight in 5 cups
water (if cooking in a pressure cooker, use 4 cups).
2 Chop 2 of the onions and resersve. In a food processor,
puree another onion with the ginger and garlic. Puree the tomatoes
separately.
3 Placed the soaked chickpeas (and the soaking water) in
a presure cooker or ordinary cooking pot with the last chopped onion
the black cardamoms, cloves, cinamon or bay leaves, the peppercorns,
cumin seeds, I teaspoon salt and asafoetida. Bring to the boil.
In a pressure cooker, cook for 20 minutes and in an ordinary pot
for at least 50 minutes. Drain and reserve
the cooking liquid.
4 In a separate cooking pot, heat the oil. Add the reserved
chopped onion a dsaute for 15-20 minutes or until brown. Add the
pureed onion, ginger and garlic mixture and saute for 10 minutes.
5 Add the turmeric, garam masala and coriander powders,
pepper and mango powder and stir thoroughly. After 1 minute add
the pureed tomato and saute for a few minutes.
6 Add the cooked chickpeas and stir gently. Add the water
in which the chickpeas were cooked (you can strain away the spices
since theri flavour is already extracted ) and cook until tender.
Add salt to taste at the end of cooking.Serve on pieces of sliced
bread and top with sliced onion cachumber dressed with lime juice
and coriander leaves. |
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