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It was one of the Saturdays, only my kids & me were at home, then my FIL had also not come down here, my hubby was away for his work, I got up so late and was thinking what am I going to cook super fast, and then my eyes fell on the long forgotten tinned chickpeas, God only knows when, why, who had bought it ? !!!, So that's it..., I made this chick pea Dal and we ate it just like that in the plate with lot of cucumber, cherry tomatoes and onion to go with the pulkas, all the four of us had a hearty brunch (breakfast + lunch) and I had a cup of nice strong tea and kids had an orange juice and enjoyed a movie which my kids wanted me to watch it was called pink panther !!, well, it was a nice entertaining movie.
But, now & then they keep watching the same movie saying all the time, mummy likes it !!, she enjoyed it, shall we watch again, I feel like crying now..., Once or twice is ok not the same thing again & again.., these kids have got a list of movies which they never get bored to watch, like the King Kong, Godzilla, Jurassic park series, Pink Panther I & II, Iron man, James Bond series.. etc., I sometimes scream, when it goes on & on again.
Sorry for bugging, let me come back to the recipe, this is a very simple recipe... & here it goes...
CHICK PEA DAL
Ingredients:
- 1 cup pre-soaked chick peas (I used tinned)
- 2 medium sized tomato
- 1 medium sized onion
- 2 to 3 pods of garlic
- 1'' ginger
- 4 to 5 green chillies
- 1/4 cup green gram dal
- 1 medium sized potato
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 5 to 6 sprigs of coriander leaves
- salt as required
- 5 to 6 tbsp of oil
METHOD:
- I used already cooked chick peas in a tinned can but you can use pre-soaked chick peas, soak chick-peas previous day or 6 to 7 hours with a bit of Baking soda (optional) helps the peas to cook very soft.
- cook the green gram dal with turmeric and potato with enough water so that the dal cooks well and mash the dals & potato nicely . (Don't forget to peel the skin of the potato).
- chop the onions, tomatoes, green chillies and garlic pods, Take a wok pour a tsp of oil add the chopped green chillies fry, then add chopped garlic and onion fry until they turn transparent and fry the chopped tomatoes until it is cooked well grind them into a smooth paste with ginger and keep aside.
- Take a wok heat 3 to 4 tbsp of oil and a tsp of mustard seeds when it splutters add the ground paste and fry nicely until the oil separates out.
- Then add all the masala powders and fry for 2 to 3 minutes then add the cooked chick peas and the cooked dal and mix well
- Allow it to cook well together so the masala powders are well absorbed by the chick peas & dal. Add the required amount of salt
- Just remember if you have used salt when cooking the chick peas be careful when adding salt.
- Add water if necessary as you would have used water of the chick peas too.
- Make it into a gravy .
- Then garnish with washed finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
- Serve it with a touch of lime juice which is optional with pulkas or chapatis or nans
PS: Here I would like to tell you that as I do not like to use too much of oil, I always fry the ingredients before hand so the water in them is evaporated and when I make the gravy I would not be needing too much oil. As we know if we add the smooth paste of the raw ingredients and then fry until the oil separates out it requires more oil which makes the dish more tastier just like you eat in the restaurants
