Chickpea Curry

Chana Curry was the very first dish I made after deciding to start cooking Indian at home. The dish looked super easy to make, but mainly, I was lurked in by the amazing combo of spices - the sweet ones (cloves, cardamom, cinnamon) and the spicy ones (cumin, chili or bay leaf). I was convinced it was going to turn out just fine, but honestly speaking, I was amazed by HOW well the curry turned out. I know it looks like a helluva lot of ingredients to bother, but trust me, this is the best dish to start your curry making carrier:

CHICKPEA CURRY:
(Chana / chole)
Recipe adapted from Camellia Punjabi´s 50 Great Curries of India

serves: 6 hungry diners

• 250 g dried chickpeas
• 3 large onions
• 2 cm fresh ginger
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 big red chili
  
• 250 g tomatoes
• 2 black cardamom *
• 8 cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 15 peppercorns
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• salt
• pinch of asafoetida
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp ground chili powder
• 3/4 tsp amchoor (dried mango powder)
• fresh coriander leaves (to garnish)
  

* Note: Cooking the chickpeas together with whole spices is a really great method of absorbing all the flavors immediately, while cooking. However, at the end, the spices stick to the chickpeas which can be unpleasant during the meal (biting into cardamom pod is not particularly my favorite experience). The easiest way to avoid this is to make a pouch (a "tea bag") from a piece of thick cheese cloth with all the whole spices inside, cooking that together with chickpeas and water, so once cooked, straining becomes a matter of three seconds.

Soak the chickpeas overnight in 5 cups water.
In a blender, process 1 of the onions together with the garlic, fresh chili and ginger. Chop the tomatoes and the remaining 2 onions.

Transfer the soaked chickpeas (together with the soaking water) to a big casserole and add one of the chopped onions, all of the whole spices,* salt and asafoetida powder. Bring to boil, cover and cook for about 50 minutes or until the chickpeas are soft. Set off the fire, drain, reserving the cooking liquid.

In a heavy pan, heat up the oil and brown the third onion. Add the purreed onion-garlic-ginger-chili paste and sautee for about 10 minutes. Add the powdered spices and cook for another minute.

At last, add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they resemble a thick sauce. Mix in the chickpeas, stir well, so each of them is well coated, add the cooking liquid and cook until well absorbed. Adjust the salt to taste and garnish with coriander leaves.


Great job and it didn't even take so much time, eh? Now with this wedding of flavors, next time someone screams: "Waiter, there is something in my... Pulses", just nod your head and say, : "True, tons of spices..." This one is for you Joanna of Cook Sister :-)

(We had ours with rice topped with Peanut Podi and Vegetable Berbere )