Poori Chole

Poori and Chole

When Anita of "A Mad Tea Party" announced the celebration of Indian Independence Day week with Poori and bhaji, I was already exhausted making them last weekend and top of that I did not capture them on my camera, pity! touring NY/NJ was already taking toll on me. I had to make my presence in this event as I forgot to email for JFI-Chillies to Nandita. So made sure that we had poori's today for brunch this way I won't miss to post on this event. Its party time at Mad Tea Party, so please gals dress up and see you all there.

We generally make potato/aloo curry to go with it, but pooris are so friendly and can be accompanied by variety of side dishes like shrikhand, amras, pickle, kesar halwa and many more. Pooris are cooked almost in all states across India. Since last week only I had pooris with aloo/potato curry, I made Chole (chickpeas/Garbanzo beans curry) this time. You can see in the last photo my DH is enjoying a *Nivala* (bite).

Source: Myself
Cuisine: Indian
Makes: 4 people

For making Poori's
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
2½ cups of whole wheat flour
2 tsp sour cream or home made yogurt (optional)
½ water or accordingly
salt as per taste
oil for deep frying

Method

1. In a large vessel mix wheat flour, salt first and then add sour cream and little water knead into a soft dough.
2. Cover and leave it for ½ hour. Make this into smooth round even sized balls. Using a roller pin flatten the balls one by one to make it round and flat of medium thickness.
3. Deep fry this in oil till the poori pops fully and then drain and remove it from the frying pan.
4. Serve hot with Chole or any favorite side dish.

For Chole / Chickpeas masala curry
Soak time: 8-12 hrs
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
2 cups of Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans, soaked in water overnight or for 8-12 hrs
2 red onions, grated
3 green chillies, cut lengthwise and chop
2 tbsp crushed tomato paste or tomato puree
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
½ tsp of chilli powder
½ tsp of turmeric powder/haldi
1 tsp of chole masala powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
2-inch cinnamon stick
4-5 cloves
few bay leaves
salt as per taste
1 tbsp of oil

Method

1. Pressure cook the soaked chickpeas/garbanzo beans with little salt for about 5-6 whistles or you can use canned ones too.
2. Meanwhile grate the onion and heat oil in a large sauce pan.
3. To this add bay leaves, cinnamon stick and cloves saute till the aroma fills the room.
4. Add the grated onion, chopped chillies, ginger paste, garlic paste and saute for 5 or more mins so that the raw taste of onion is gone.
5. Then add all the powders and fry for a min or so, add crushed tomatoes/puree and salt.
6. Lastly stir in the cooked chickpeas/garbanzo beans, saute till everything is mixed well.
7. Serve hot with pooris.

DH enjoying his share of pooris and chole