COOK-A-THON- Chole Masala

Whenever we hear of Chole puri the foodie inside all of us cannot resist from taking a bite. The taste of chole puri can be enjoyed by sitting at your home  Whenever you get the urge to have some delicious yummy spicy. Not so difficult to make a chole puri at your home. Yes it takes time but patience is all you need to keep to enjoy a sumptuous bowl of chole.

Recipe:

1. Soak a bowl of chole(Chick peas or Kabuli Chana) in a pressure cooker overnight. We want the chick peas to soak the water as much as possible and it wont take much time while cooking. If you get the craving of having chole and you don't have much time all you need is cook chole for more whistles than the soaked ones,

2. In a pressure cooker put these soaked chole add 1-2 tsp of salt, 1 large indian bay leaf(tej patta), and 1-2 tea bags( to give the lovely black colour to the choles while they cook). Now if you donot have tea bags so in a small pan you can boil some tea  let it come to boil strain it and then put that water to the pressure cooker. You have to be carefull with the amount of tea you use you don't want too much of black colour taking away the natural colour of the chick peas.

3. Now we have to cook these chickpeas for atleast 5 whistles. After that we will take the lid off and check whether the chickpeas are properly cooked.

4. you have to take out some amount of chickpeas that has cooked take them out on the plate and mash them up. This helps in getting the gravy that thick consistency we usually see in the Punjabi chole.

5.We need to take a tava or any pan put some cumin seeds, dalchini sticks(cinnamon stick), 2-3 green cardamom, 2-3 black pepper, little bit of turmeric, some red chilli powder, some garam masala and dry roast it. we don't need to burn it . we just want that roasted masala fragrance to get mixed with our chole. This is my way of cooking these.

6. Now in a kadai take some 2-3 tsp of ghee and heat it.

7. Once the ghee is hot we will add some 2 green chillies finely chopped, and 2 medium sized onions chopped length wise, some ginger garlic paste and cook the onions for 2 minutes until they are soft.

8. Once the onions are soft we will add 2 tomatoes roughly chopped and keep cooking till the ghee starts leaving the masala and tomatoes become mushy. Now the seasoning add some salt, 1 tsp of coriander powder, some finely chopped ginger too(I love the taste of whole ginger), 1 tsp garam masala, 1/2 tsp of amchur powder(raw mango powder) you can use some lemon incase you don't have amchur powder, 1 tsp of fennel powder(saunf optional it is saunf is good for digestion and makes the gravy thick too), 1 tsp red chilli powder.

​​​​9.Add the dry roasted masala to the mixture. 1-2 tsp of Everest Chole Masala.

9. Cook the masala on a low flame for 3-4 minutes. Mix the masala with the cooked chick peas. Add 2 cups of water and let it cook for some 5-10 minutes on low flame. Keep Stiring in between until the gravy gets thick.

10. Garnish with some freshly chopped coriander leaves and serve with bhature, puri or some plain rice.

- MANOJ PANDITA