SAHAJAHANI KABULI

Since childhood, Sunday's have witnessed a surge of gastronomic celebration at my home. It is that day in the entire week, when we eat till we drop, and feasting starts from breakfast. People who have been patiently following my moderately tolerable posts on Instagram, must not be new to my Sunday ritual that I am talking about. ( For those of you, who want to follow me there, search for my page as #thebegunichef).

The breakfast menu on most Sunday reads like: Luchi, Dim-kosha aka egg curry, Jalebi. Once in a while do we replace that spicy egg curry with Chickpeas cooked with chicken or mutton mince aka Keema-Chana. I cooked this particular dish, taking a que from that one!!

Ma had been complaining of the unbearable heat for days now, and frankly I have lost all interest in listening to all those blabbering. You are allowed to call me callous, but since I have to battle the heat outside, adding to the plight of availing public transports, I am not ready to give in to the complaints of a home maker, who happily gets to enjoy the comfort of being at her home.

Now, Now..... I will stop blabbering here. No one like's to read about such complains!!

And before you judge me as a bad ward of my parents, here is what I did to ease her discomfort.

I decided to cook on Sunday, (this was last to last Sunday)!!

Now my mother happens to be one of those, who has never been a lover of pottering around the kitchen (that's what I have gathered over the years), and cooking  has been a chore she is used to for the last thirty one years of her life!! On a very different note , many would agree with me on this ( I believe so), for many women, with her family lazying around at home on a Sunday, adds to her agony of kitchen chores, while combating the heat (Now very few of us are blessed with a kitchen like the domestic goddess: Nigella),!! So half of breakfast, that weekend was on moi, Luchi on Ma of-course!! Jalebi bought in from the local shop.

And here's how it all happened in the kitchen:

1.Start by soaking 1 cup each of Kabuli chana or Chickpeas + Lobia aka Haricot beans or Pea beans, the night before, in two separate bowls. I added a teaspoon of baking soda to the chickpeas, while soaking them. Forget about them, that night, only to remember them next morning, by which they will be all swollen and sturdy. Need I remind you to cover them?!

2. Next morning, boil the chickpeas with adequate water (Do use your expertise in judging the amount of water required) & salt uptil 2-3 whistles in your pressure cooker ( the time required depends on the quality of water and your chickpeas). Similarly, I boiled Lobia with water in pressure cooker till 3 whistles, till it was soft, yet holding it's shape. Cool both of these, and bring them to room temperature.  With the help of a wooden spoon I mashed the chickpeas  roughly ( do it only by hand, because you will love that semi mashed texture. Atleast I did!!)

3. Boil 3 potatoes, peel them and cut them into cubes, and keep aside. Chop 2 tomatoes, kind of finely and keep aside. Also chop up 4-5 green chillies, you are allowed to slit them in the middle as well, though had chopped them finely.

4. Heat a pan, and add 2 tsp ghee + 2 tsp vegetable oil. Add in 3-4 dry red chilies (broken), in the cold oil. Once it starts to heat up & change colour, add in 2 tsp Shahi-Jeera, followed by 2 no. Black Cardamom, 1 fat & big Cinnamon stick, breaking them into two pieces. Wait till it turns aromatic.

5. Time to add in spice powders: Add in 2 tsp Red Chili powder, 1 tsp Coriander powder, 1.5 tsp Cumin powder, Green Chilies chopped, Turmeric 1/2 tsp. Now fry the spices till the raw smell disappears. 

6. Time to add in the boiled Lobia and the roughly mashed chickpeas, not to forget the potatoes to the pan. Add in the tomatoes at this stage. Give a good mix, so that all those jumbled up seeds get a good kiss from the spice mix. Once well mixed, add in salt to taste, I added in 1 tsp sugar (you can add in more depending on your tastebuds), and mix again. Pour in some water, since gravy is required for Luchi or Paratha or Roti, and cook covered for 5- 7 mins, covered on low-medium flame.

7. Do check once in a while and stir lightly to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once the gravy reaches the desired consistency, add in 1/4th cup chopped fresh coriander leaves (only leaves please, and not the stems here) and 2.5 tsp Shahi Garam Masala powder. Increase the flame to medium-high & give a good mix, cook for 2 more mins and it's ready to be devoured.

NOTES:

* It is easy. Do not be alarmed by the fact that the cooking process starts the night before. You literally have to soak in the pulses around the same time you apply your night-cream before going to bed. Trust me soaking them takes in much lesser energy and time than massaging that cream, into the crevices of your face. And mine!!

Also this recipe is from my personal collection, collected long back from the pages of a Bengali daily newspaper.  While the recipe directed to blitz the chickpeas into a coarse paste and cook it more like a daal: I changed the route and decided to follow my heart. Lobia was also my addition, Why? Because I bought it, and wanted to cook with it ( my first time, now you can read the enthusiasm, right??) !!! On second thoughts, Since the Lobia is also a part of this dish now, may be it will be an interesting texture to have the chickpea paste against the completeness of the humble Lobia ( I wonder if anyone else is, thinking so much about this humble seed. Moreover I also like the name Lobia. Lol !!!) That's another story, let's keep it for some other day.

Remember to satiate your taste-buds first, and then the others, so add in spices and seasonings according to your choice. If you add in adequate love, which I am sure you will, any damn dish that you cook will taste delicious. Trust me on that. Ma said she had liked it.

*** In case you have leftovers, warm it up the next day, add some chopped onion, some more of chopped fresh coriander leaves +  green chilies, and  squirt of lime juice, and your evening snack is ready without any effort.

"If I can, we call can!!"