Traditional Chole Masala

Chole Masala is a traditional dish of India and is prepared by cooking White Chickpeas / Kabuli Chana in a tomato onion gravy spiced with basic Indian dry spices.

My style of this recipe is very simple and can be cooked quickly and easily. I will show how to prepare this dish in other ways in future.

INGREDIENTS :



(1) 200 gms of White Chickpeas (Called Kabuli Chana in Hindi)

(2)Water for soaking white chickpeas and while cooking

(3) 3 Medium sized Onions

(4) 2 Tomatoes

(5) 15 cloves of Garlic

(6) 1 inch sized Ginger piece

(7) 1 tea spoon of Coriander seeds

(8) Half tea spoon of Cumin / Jeera seeds

(9) Half teaspoon of Turmeric powder / Haldi

(10) 1 teaspoon of Kashmiri Red Chilli powder

(11) 3/4 tea spoon of Cumin / Jeera powder

(12) 1 tea spoon of Coriander / Dhaniya powder

(13) 1 teaspoon of Kitchen King garam masala

(14) 1 teaspoon of Chole masala

(15) Half tea spoon of Black Pepper powder.

(16) 2 pinch of Asafoetida / Hing

(17) 4 table spoon of Vegetable / Cooking oil

(18) 3 Tej Patta / Bay leaves

(19) 1 inch sized Cinnamon Stick

(20) Salt to taste

(21) Coriander leaves for garnish


Cuisine : Indian

Serves : 6 - 10 persons

Time required : 12 hours for soaking the White chickpeas / Kabuli chana, 20 mins for boiling White chick peas and cooking it while other ingredients are being made ready at the same time. 40 mins for preparing the Chole gravy and cooking the chickpeas in it.

Total time : 12 hours/ Over night for soaking White Chickpeas and 1 hour for cooking.

PREPARATION :

(1) Soak 200 Grams of white Chickpeas (Kabuli Chana) in water for 8-12 hours or Over night. I soaked it for exactly 12 hours. 

White Chickpeas (Called Kabuli Chana in Hindi)

(2) After soaking 12 hours. Drain away the water and keep the soaked chana aside.

Soaked Chickpeas

(3) Take the soaked Kabuli Chana in a pressure cooker. Add 2 cups of water for one cup of Kabuli Chana and in this proportion add water to the soaked chana. Add 1 tea spoon of salt and half tea spoon of Turmeric powder / Haldi. Cook this in a pressure cooker until it gives 7 whistles on a full gas flame. After 7 whistles, turn off the gas flame and let the pressure of the cooker come down naturally. After which open the lid of the pressure cooker. If the Chickpeas / Kabuli chana is not cooked as required ..... cook until it gives 2-3 or more whistles.
If a pressure cooker is not available and one is trying to cook in a deep pan or any other utensil, one can cook, but it will take more time.
Note : It took me 20 mins to finish the boiling of chick peas and the pressure of the cooker to come down naturally.

(4) Break the boiled kabuli chana with finger tips and check if they are properly cooked. If they break and form a smooth piece...then they are cooked. If they are hard to break...then you will have to boil it more and cook till required point is reached. In my case.....it took me 7 whistles to cook Chickpeas / chana and they were soft while breaking using finger tips as shown.

(5) While the Kabuli Chana is being boiled in the previous step that required 25 minutes, we can get ready rest of the ingredients to prepare the gravy. Chop 3 medium sized Onions into thin long slices as shown.

Chopped Onions

Chopped Onions, 15 cloves of chopped Garlic, 1 inch sized Ginger finely chopped and
1 tea spoon of Coriander seeds.

(6) Take Chopped Onions, Coriander seeds, Ginger and Garlic in a grinding jar and add 1 cup of water. Then grind the mixture into a smooth paste.

(7) Chop two Tomatoes into cubes and put them in the grinding jar and grind into a smooth puree as shown. No need to add water while grinding Tomatoes.

Onion ginger garlic coriander seeds paste, Tomato puree, Coriander leaves chopped, Bay leaves (called Tej patta in Hindi) and Cinnamon stick (called Dalchini in Hindi).

From left to right, from top to third row..... the ingredients are Cumin / Jeera powder, Coriander / Dhania powder, Garam masala (I use Kitchen King Garam Masala),
Chole masala, Black Pepper powder, Asafoetida / Hing powder, Turmeric / Haldi powder, Kashmiri lal mirch powder / Red chilli powder and Cumin / Jeera seeds.

Vegetable / cooking oil and salt.

All ingredients set together to prepare Chole masala

Note : By the time the Kabuli chana is boiled and kept aside, all our ingredients are ready.

METHOD :

(1) With this size of table spoon..take four tablespoons of cooking oil in a kadhai/wok.

(2) Add half tea spoon of Cumin seeds / Jeera to the oil and allow it to splutter. Add 2 pinch of Asafoetida /  Hing. Add Tej patta and dalchini. Add Onion Ginger Garlic paste now. Mix well.

(3) Sauté / stir fry the Onion Ginger Garlic paste till they turn golden brown. This took me 12 mins on a low flame.

(4) Add Tomato puree, mix well. Add 1 cup of water. Mix well. Stir fry for 4 mins.

(5) Add all the dry spice powders now.

I added half teaspoon of Haldi, 1 teaspoon of Kashmiri Red Chilli powder, 3/4 tea spoon of Cumin / Jeera powder, 1 tea spoon of Coriander / Dhaniya powder, 1 teaspoon of Kitchen King Garam masala, 1 teaspoon of Chole masala, and half tea spoon of Black Pepper powder.

After that, cook for 2 mins till the spice powders mix well with the onion tomato paste, get cooked and release aroma and flavour.

(6) After stir frying the gravy for 2 mins after adding masala, add 1 glass of water and let it simmer.

(7) Take 1 cup of boiled Kabuli Chana and mash them with finger tips. Add the mashed chana to the boiled gravy. Mashed chana when added to the gravy....it makes the gravy thick.

Add rest of the whole boiled Kabuli Chana to the dense gravy.

(8) Add 3 glasses of hot/warm water to the gravy after adding boiled Kabuli Chana. Add salt to taste. Add chopped coriander leaves and mix well. Cook for 15 minutes on a medium flame.

By now the chana would have absorbed the masalas / spices.

And blended in the gravy.

(9) Our Chole Masala is ready.

(10) Transfer the Chole masala into a serving bowl.

(11) Garnish the traditional Chole Masala with Coriander leaves.

(12) CHOLE MASALA can be served with Pooris, Chapatis, Phulkas, Rotis or with Rice.

Banana Milkshake (Without ice cream)

This is a quick and easy milkshake to make if you want to quench your thirst but don’t have too many ingredients. All you require is some Bananas and Milk. I used skimmed milk. 

I had some slightly over riped Bananas, too ripe and mushy for my taste that I would not like to eat it, but did not want to throw away so used them to make milkshake. There are many recipes for over ripe Banana use. This is just one such way of utilising such Bananas.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 4 medium sized Bananas

(2) 400 ml of chilled skimmed Milk.

(3) Sugar (Optional)

(4) 1 pinch of Cardamom powder (Optional)

METHOD :

(1) Peel the Bananas and chop them.
(2) Put the Bananas and skimmed Milk into the blender.
(3) Blend until they turn smooth. Our Banana Milkshake is ready
(4) Pour the Banana Milkshake into a serving glass.
(5) Sprinkle Cardamom powder (Optional) and garnish it with a piece of Banana (As shown in image).

I did not use Sugar and Cardamom powder in my preparation, however you may add them if you require.

Mushroom Matar Curry (North Indian style)

Hi everyone 😊

Here's Mushroom Matar Curry recipe today. When I prepared this dish and my family tasted it, my husband rated this as my best preparation so far. The appearance might be simple, but it tasted really yummy .... so please try this one and relish the dish. I avoided butter and milk cream in this recipe, although I added cashew nuts, which my mother had given me when I last met her. This is what caused the curry to be of the light colour instead of red. Also the curry tasted rich due to cashew nuts.

Mushroom Matar masala is a typical North Indian side dish, wherein, tasty and nutritious vegetables like Mushrooms and Peas are cooked in spicy onion tomato gravy. The addition of cashew nut paste to this gravy adds to its richness and gives it a nutty, creamy and mildly sweet taste. Even though this adds fat, I like it because of its richness and taste. This recipe is quite popular in all the food joints, if you travel in the North of India like Delhi NCR, due to its taste and health benefits. I like eating Mushroom Matar curry with simple phulkas / chapatis or plain steamed rice.

INGREDIENTS :

I write table spoon in short as tbsp and tea spoon as tsp.

(1) 8 pieces of Button Mushrooms, chopped into quarter sized pieces
(2) 150 gms of Green peas
(3) Onion - 2 medium sized, chopped into thin long slices
(4) Tomatoes - 2 small sized, chopped into cubes
(5) Ginger- 1 inch sized piece, minced
(6) Garlic - 6 - 7 cloves, minced
(7) Green chillies - 2 pc, minced
(8) Cashews - 2 - 3 tbsp
(9) Asafoetida / Hing powder
(10) Cumin / Jeera seeds - 1/2 tsp
(11) Turmeric / Haldi powder - 1/4 tsp
(12) Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp
(13) Cumin / Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp
(14) Coriander / Dhaniya powder - 3/4 tsp
(15) Kitchen King garam masala - 3/4 tsp
(16) Kasuri methi / Dry Fenugreek leaves - 1/2 tsp
(17) Vegetable Oil - 4 tbsp
(18) Coriander leaves for garnishing
(19) Salt to taste

Onions, Tomatoes and Green Chillies

Shelled Peas / Matar

Ingredients for making Mushroom Matar Curry : 

Cumin / Jeera seeds, Turmeric / Haldi powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder (From left to right in the first row).

Cumin / Jeera powder, Coriander / Dhaniya powder, Kitchen King Garam Masala powder (From left to right in the second row).

Kasuri Methi / dry Fenugreek leaves, Asafoetida / Hing powder and Vegetable Oil (From left to right in the third row)

Button Mushrooms (8 pieces), chopped Onions, chopped Tomatoes (From left to right in the first row).

Matar / Fresh green Peas, Cashew nuts, Coriander leaves (From left to right in the second row).

Chopped green chillies, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped ginger (From left to right in the third row).

Cuisine : North Indian
Serves : 3-4 persons
Time required : 20 mins for preparing and 30 mins for cooking


PREPARATION :

(1) Soak raw cashew nuts in hot water for 10 - 15 mins. Then, remove the skin of the cashew nuts and keep aside.

(2) Cook fresh shelled peas in a boiling water with little salt. When cooked, drain the water and keep the peas aside.

(3) Remove the skin of Onions and chop it into long slices. Wash the tomatoes nicely and chop it into cubes. Wash green chillies and remove stalk. Chop the chillies into small pieces. Peel the ginger and wash thoroughly. Cut it into small pieces (mince). Also cut the garlic cloves into small pieces.

(4) Clean each Mushroom nicely and cut into 3-4 pieces.

Button Mushrooms

METHOD :

(1) Heat 1 tbsp of cooking oil in a kadhai / wok on a medium heat. Once warm, add 1/2 tsp of Cumin / Jeera seeds and allow it to splutter and change colour. Add 2 pinch of Asafoetida. Then, add minced garlic and ginger. Saute till they turn golden brown. Add chopped Onions and green chillies. 

Add a 2 pinch of salt so that the Onions cook faster and sauté / stir fry till the Onions turn translucent. This will take 4 mins. Now add the chopped tomatoes. Stir fry till the tomatoes become soft. This will take about 2 mins. Now add peeled Cashew nuts and stir fry another 2 mins. Turn off the stove and let it cool. Put the mixture in a grinding jar. Grind this onion tomato fried mixture into smooth paste and keep aside.

(2) Heat 1 tbsp of cooking oil in a kadhai / wok on a medium heat. Once hot, add Onion Tomato paste.
Mix it and let it cook till moisture evaporates and oil separates. Add all the dry spice powders - 1/4 tsp of Turmeric powder, 3/4 tsp of Kashmiri Red Chilli powder, 3/4 tsp of Coriander / Dhaniya powder, 1/2 tsp of Cumin / Jeera powder, 3/4 tsp of garam masala powder. Add salt to taste. Mix it well.
Add 1 glass (300 ml) of water. Mix it properly.
This process of cooking the gravy took me 12 mins.

(3) Now add the chopped Mushrooms. Mix well.

After 4 mins, Add the cooked Peas too at this stage.

(4) Take 1/2 tsp of dry fenugreek leaves in hand and crush it and add to the Mushroom Peas curry. After another 4 mins of cooking, turn the gas flame off. Mushroom cooks in about 5 - 8 mins depending on gas flame intensity. Peas was already cooked but I still cooked it another 4 mins in gravy so that it blend with the gravy.

(5) Our Mushroom Matar Curry is ready. 

(6) Transfer it onto a serving bowl. Garnish with fresh Coriander leaves.

(7) Serve the Mushroom Matar Curry with Chapatis / Phulkas / Naan / Rotis or with Rice Daal combo as a vegetable dish.