Its official, yes ladies and gentlemen, the blog is 100 posts old J it took me a year and four months to reach this milestone and I am glad I stuck around.
Now how does one celebrate a special day like this, I have no clue. I thought of doing a spectacular Cake but I had no energy and frankly speaking I was scared. Then I thought I would do a Dessert, but again who am I kidding Desserts is not my forte either. I did not want to start something that would make me fall flat on my face.
So I scratched my head for days and could not come up with anything. Then I realized I needed to go back to my roots and make something that was close to my heart. Being a Punjabi I have grown up eating a lot of “Chole / Chickpeas / Garbanzo beans”. They come in different colors Brown, White and Green and we eat them in Curries, Salads, Rice and even snacks. And how we love them, I think I can write odes in the memory of Chole.
There is no Punjabi household complete without them. I had done a post a few moons ago about Punjabi Dreams which were made of Chole Bhature, which the husband and I love. And since this was a special post by a Punjabi blogger, how could I not celebrate without the proverbial Chole. So this time I am using the darker version of Chole. This dark beauty is called “Kale Chane” or “Black Chick Peas”.
They can be made into a curry or a very dry version which tastes yummy as well. I have opted for a dry version which can be served with hot steaming pooris. The best thing is they can be cooked under 40 – 45 minutes provided they have been pre soaked and boiled.
So a pat on the back for me and here is the recipe for “Chatpate Kaale Chane”.
Recipe: (Cooking time 45 minutes , serves 6)
For the Peas:
1 ½ cup Black Chick Peas
Salt to taste
For the Masala:
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
2 Tbsp Coriander Seeds
8 Peppercorns
4 Green Cardamoms
1 Mace blade
1 long Cinnamon stick
4 Dry Red chilies
2 Bay leaves
1 tbsp Pomegranate (Annardana) seeds
For the dry Gravy:
4 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 tsp Garlic paste
1 tsp Ginger paste
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 Tbsp Oil
Salt to taste
1 Red chilli powder
For the Garnish (All the garnish is optional)
1 tsp Dry mango (Amchur) powder (optional)
Freshly chopped Coriander
Finely slice Onion
A few Green chilies (slit)
Fried or Roasted Potatoes
Soak the Chickpeas overnight or for atleast 8 hours. Throw the water in which they were soaked and use fresh water to boil them in a pressure cooker with Salt for 8 – 9 whistles.
Dry roast all the ingredients for the masala and grind them to a fine powder once cooled down.
In a deep bottomed pan add the Oil. Once it has heated up add the Cumin seeds and the Tomato puree and let it cook for 5 -7 minutes on a medium flame. Add the masala powder, Red chili powder and Salt to taste and saute for a minute. Put the Chickpeas in this dry gravy (don’t add the Water in which the Chick peas were cooked, keep the Water aside). Mix them well and now start adding water to the dry gravy. This depends on how dry you want the curry to be. I added almost all the left over water in which the Chick peas were cooked and then let the water evaporate on a medium flame for 15 minutes or less, till it had completely dried out.
Once the water has dried up, turn the heat off and serve the dish with some Dry Mango powder (I skipped this as the curry was nice and spicy the way we like it), some chopped Onions, Slit Green chilies and Roasted or fried Potatoes.
Enjoy
yummmmm!!!
Thanks Deepa
congrats on your century and chole is awesome. do visit my space too.
Thank you for visiting my blog Kitchen Queen
Thanks will surely do
Congratulations on completing 100 posts!! I like this way of savory celebrations, i am going to complete a year as well and looks like am going to go the savory way too! Wish you many many more years of successful blogging!! Hugs <3
Thanks Gauri
lakh lakh vadaiyaan … i can kill for kale chane!
Thanks Swati. Hope your Australia trip was fun.
hearty congrats on the milestone; best wishes
Thanks priya
Being from Delhi we waited for Kaale Chane on the ninth day of navratri! Thanks for reminding me about it..going to cook this very soon!
Yeah my mom always made it for navratri