10/11/2012

Chole Masala (Quick cooking Jhut-Put Indian Style Chickpea Curry)

Hi everyone,
I had Chole Bhature in breakfast today at my office.
Both were ok, well to be honest, eat it & get going! Nothing to enjoy about.
But during breakfast, or for that matter at any time, cooking such delicacies takes a lot of time, and time is what working women like me don't have. So what do we do? Just eat anything we get or order from outside? Nah!

So here is my jhut-put  quick & easy to cook Chole masala recipe!


Chole Masala:( 3-4 ppl)


Ingredients:

1. Chickpea/ Kabuli Chole, about 2-3 handfulls soaked n washed over night

P.S I never like using 200gms, 300gms etc in my recipe, coz let's be honest, most of us don't have those measuring instruments at home, and even if we do, its too much work to take them out from their hard to find hiding places, hehe :-) so here I am using easy to get measuring systems, hope you all like it.

2. Any Chole Masala available in Market, I prefer to use MDH.

3. Three medium size Tomatoes & Onions or two Large ones.
4. Sabut Garam Masala (cumin, cinnamon, cardomom, black pepper, bay leaf, cloves all solid)
5. two Tbsp ginger garlic paste (more garlicy if you are a fan like me :) )Try not to get those ready made one's, the preservatives just ruin the taste for every one, just have some fresh hand peeled.
6. Green Coriander/Cilantro leaves. Humaara pyaara Haraa dhaniya, arey iske bina to Indian khaana adhura hai( Translation: our beloved green coriander, without it our Indian food is incomplete! )
7. two medium or one large potato

Method:


All right, ill write in paragraphs here as the method is a little different then traditional recipe


1. If you can, try to dry roast all sabut garam masala( whole spices)You get a nice smell and then gently pound the roasted spices when cool enough, mmmmm the aroma. Don't powder, just break into pieces of desired size.


2. Peel and wash the onions, tomatoes, coriander, Cut onions and tomatoes into 4-8 pieces as desired.Remember to take out the white part near the end of onion, this does not taste good and spoils the curry.Put in the mixer grinder, add a little water and wwwwrrrrrrrr, start the grinder, make a paste and keep aside.

3. Heat 7-8 tbsp oil in a Pressure Cooker( preferably sunflower, soya bean or any similar tasting less flavored oil)

Once the oil is hot, add 1tbsp mustard seeds, add the pounded garam masala(spices) and roast a little, mmmm the spicy smell again, add the ginger garlic paste and roast nicely till the paste just starts to develop brown specs( remember taking it beyond this point over cooks ginger and garlic and we loose the flavor)

4. Add the onion, tomato, coriander mixture and go away, coz my dear it splatters in hot oil! once the splattering has stopped, mix the oil and masala, now I know that strong onion smell, well we have a solution for that as well, add just a pinch, not more then that to the mixture and mix, after a few secs the smell is gone, now nicely roast the mixture and add 1/4 tbsp turmeric, 1/4 tbsp red chilly or 2 Green chillies( Split into 2 parts, else it bursts and you might get a burn) and 1 tbsp chole masala.

5. Roast nicely till you get that nice roasted smell of masala, that is the true sign, for color sign the color should be slightly brownish. And the masala will start leaving the oil.


6. Wash/Drain the Chick peas/ Kabuli chole and add to the roasted mixture, mix well and let it stay like that for 3-4 mins mixing occasionally. 


7. Add salt to taste ( i guess about 1 to 1 and half tbsp salt should be enough).


8. Add desired amount of water. Cut the potato in half if using one big one, do not peel, just wash thoroughly. Cover the lid of cooker nicely and safely and put flame on high.


9. Wait till you get the first whistle, then keep flame at minimum and let it stay like that for 15-18mins. Turn off the flame and let the cooker loose the pressure and heat.


10. Once cool and safe, open the lid gently, don't force. Once open take out the boiled potato and check to see whether chickpeas/Chole are done or not, if not, cover and put on flame for another 5-7mins. 


11. Mash the boiled potato nicely.

12. Put the cooker on low flame and add the mashed potatoes, add 1/2 tbsp chole masala and mix nicely.

13. Let it sit that way on flame till you get desired consistency. turn on the flame

14. Chop the coriander and if desired half medium size onion finely.

15. Add to the cooked chole masala and Tadaa! :D


The time saving shortcuts:
no need to boil potatoes and chole seperately
no need to cut onions and tomatoes finely
the grinded mixture gets roasted quickly if u dont add too much water and does not require monitoring constantly.
The chole are flavored better coz they were cooked in masala water so no need to cook it long like we do in traditional method

Ok so i hope you all will like it and enjoy it. 

If you have any comments pls feel free to post them. Good or bad I would love to hear them all :)
So have fun and happy cooking everyone :)

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