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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Bhuna this....

A couple of unrelated things have played a part in the putting together of this dish. First, Tata Sky has this irritating channel where the same ad keeps getting repeated over and over again. That's right....there's no program on this channel....it is just one ad that gets repeated for an entire slot of 30-60 minutes. So, one day when I switched on the TV, I got to see this Maggi bhuna masala ad (several times) before I changed channels. I took a fancy to the name bhuna and decided that I too would make bhuna masala minus the unhealthy preservatives and the price-tag. I did no reasearch to see how to "bhuna" something, and so I must warn you right at the outset that this recipe is totally based on a vague recollection that I had of reading somewhere that bhuna means frying in hot oil until all the moisture evaporates. Based on that memory,some onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and cardamom got pureed in the mixie. Oil was duly heated and this puree was bhuna-ed(I love saying that).
The other thing that led to this is the fact that the only things I had on hand were cauliflower and some soaked black channa. So these were cooked and added to the bhuna masala with some salt, turmeric powder and a teeny bit of sugar. That's it....no additional masalas.


Here's what you need:
Black chana/chick peas - 1/2 cup, soaked for about 8 hours and then cooked
Cauliflower - a small one, separated into florets and boiled till just soft
Onion - 1 large, chopped into large chunks
Tomato - 3, medium sized, chopped
Green chilli - as per taste
Ginger - a small piece
Garlic - 6-7 pods
Cardamom - 2 pods
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt

Grind to a smooth mixture all the ingredients except the chana and cauliflower. Heat oil in a kadai. Stir in the ground mixture. Cover and cook, stirring every now and then, until all the moisture evaporates(about 10-15 minutes on low heat) and the oil separates. Then add the cooked chana and cauliflower. Also add salt, some sugar and turmeric powder. Stir well. I added some water at this point and boiled it for another 5 minutes to get a slightly moist gravy, but you can serve this dry. Garnish with some fresh corriander. Enjoy with roti, puri or rice.

12 comments:

FH said...

Bhunaoed veggies looks delicious with chick peas. Same repeated ads every other minute, must be boring to watch. Yikes!

Jayashree said...

That's a quick comment...thank you. You bet it's boring...wonder why they do it.

Unknown said...

thats a nice combination of veges and chickpeas..looks yumm

sra said...

Interesting combination! And I know it as Bhuno, I just thought it meant sauteed.

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Black channa and Cauliflowers mmm thats a new combo for me!!! Looks very interesting and tempting too!!!

http://memoryarchieved.blogspot.com

Dhanya Ganesh said...

Curry looks colorful and delicious.

Renu said...

good combination...actually bhuna.is a hindi word.means roasted.

in the north many vegetables are cooked this way only....but you combination of chana and cauliflower is unique..try sometime pureed spinach and chana cooked this way..will be very tasty.

jayasree said...

Looks delicious. Good idea to pauir black chana with cauliflower.

Hema said...

Wow..that is an interesting combination..Will try it with vegetables available at home (I too have the habit of picking vegetables just like that, especially if they look fresh and colorful:))

Mythreyi Dilip said...

Very interesting curry with cauliflower and black channa dear!

Cynthia said...

You know, I have some black channa dal... I have to cook it soon. Thanks for the inspiration.

Cool Lassi(e) said...

A delicious different combo of black channa and cauliflower. Looks yummy.
Hey, BTW I finally posted my writeup for "By the book" tag of yours.Check it out:
http://pangravykadaicurry.blogspot.com/2010/02/by-book-tag.html