Chana/chickpeas dosa

I had grand plans for the second day of the blogging marathon under the theme cooking with chickpeas. I had decided even before I started this marathon that each day I would post something I had not tried making before. So, today's post was supposed to be something from another cuisine for which I needed white kabula chana/garbanzo beans. However, fate had other plans. Yesterday in the afternoon  Bal Thackeray passed away. Within 30 minutes, the always busy city, came to a grinding halt. All shops were shut down, autos and taxis went off the road and the roads themselves wore a deserted look. This, to me, meant - no way of procuring kabuli chana. I had to make do with what I had on hand - black chickpeas- and thus, resorted to making something that is all too familiar in our household - the humble dosa, this time, using chickpeas.
 
What you need:
Kala chana/black chickpeas - 1 cup
Parboiled rice - 1 cup
Red chillies - 3 or 4
Ginger - 1 large piece
Onion - 1
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - for grinding

Soak chickpeas and rice in plenty of water for 6-8 hours.
In a blender, take all the other ingredients and grind coarsely. Add the soaked chicpeas, rice and enough water to grind into a batter of pourable consistency.
Heat a dosa tawa/griddle. Pour a ladleful of the batter and spread into a thin circle.
Drizzle with oil on top. When the bottom starts to brown, flip over and cook for a minute.

Serve hot with chutney/sambar.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other marathoners doing BM#22.
This goes to Kalpana who is guest hosting Priya's event - Fast & Quick Healthy dishes.

Quick and easy masala chana/chick peas

One of the recurring themes in my blog is quick and easy recipes. I had soaked black chana in the morning with the intention of making my usual kadala curry to go with aapam. However, as I was looking through my cookbooks, wondering what else I could make for the blogging marathon, I chanced upon this recipe in Mallika Badrinath's 100 Vegetarian Gravies. As the name suggests, it is easy to make - and is cooked entirely in one pot, which makes cleaning that much easier.

What you need:
Black chana/chick peas - 1 cup, soaked in plenty of water for 10 hours. (The original recipe uses white chick peas, but since I had already soaked these, I used them)
Cardamom - 3
Cloves - 5
Cinnamon - a small piece
Oil/ghee - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Grind together:
Onion - 1
Tomato -2
Garlic - 5 or 6 cloves
Ginger - a 2 inch piece
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Corriander - 1 small bunch
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Black peppercorns - 1/4 tsp

Heat oil in the pressure cooker. Add cardamom, cinnamon and clove. Add the ground mixture and fry on a low flame until oil separates. Add chick peas, sufficient water and salt and cook until one whistle. Then lower the heat and cook for another 10 minutes.
Serve hot.
Check out the blogging marathon page to see what my fellow marathoners are cooking.

Kadala (Chickpeas) curry

Kadala curry is one of my favourite breakfast accompaniments. Hot, steamed puttu or lacy aapam served with some spicy kadala curry is my idea of a perfect breakfast. Despite the fact that both my husband and mother tell me in no uncertain terms that puttu tastes like mud, they are quite fond of kadala curry. Kadala curry is nothing but brown chickpeas cooked and then simmered in a gravy of spices, onions, tomatoes and coconut.

What you need:
Brown chickpeas - 1 cup, soaked overnight and cooked
Onion - 1 large, chopped into large chunks or a handful of shallots, peeled
Tomato - 3, juicy ripe ones, chopped into big pieces
Ginger - a small piece
Red chilli - 3 (adjust to taste)
Corriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Cardamom - 3 pods
Grated fresh coconut - 1/4 cup.
Coconut oil - 4 or 5 tsp
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Heat oil in a pan. Fry the red chillies, cardamom and corriander seeds. When they are nicely browned, add in the ginger and chopped onions and fry until translucent. Now add the grated coconut and heat till it turns reddish brown. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and fry until they soften. Once this cools, add salt and grind to a smooth paste adding water as needed.
Heat a tsp of oil in the pan. Add a tsp of mustard seeds and a handful of curry leaves. Once the seeds pop, transfer the ground mixture back to the pan, add the cooked chickpeas(along with the water in which it was cooked) and some turmeric powder and let it boil for about 8-10 minutes.

I like the curry to be slightly thick, which is why I boil it for so long. Most people make it quite watery and if that's how you prefer it, just heat it for a few minutes so that the chickpeas absorb the flavour of the spices and then serve.

Do remember to send me your entries for MEC-Celebrating bloggers before the 31st of the month.

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.