Amritsari Chole
Chickpeas boiled dark with tea and amla, then simmered into a thick, glossy, near-black masala sharp with anardana and amchur. Kulcha, raw onion, done.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 1 cup (200 g) kabuli chana (white chickpeas), soaked 8 hours or overnight
- 3½ cups (840 ml) water, for boiling
- 1 black tea bag, or 1 tsp black tea tied in a small muslin cloth
- 4 pieces dried amla, or 1 tsp amchur added later
- 1 black cardamom, 3 cloves, 1 inch cinnamon and 1 tej patta
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 4 tbsp Cold Pressed Groundnut Oil
- 1 large onion (about 130 g), chopped very fine
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 2 medium tomatoes (about 200 g), pureed
- 1½ tsp Stone Ground Red Chilli Powder
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp roasted cumin powder
- 1 tsp anardana (dried pomegranate seed) powder
- 1½ tsp amchur (dry mango powder)
- 1 tsp garam masala, and ½ tsp black salt
- 1½ tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 inch ginger in thin strips, 2 slit green chillies and coriander leaves, to serve
Quantities are scaled up. Taste as you go and adjust the salt and spice.
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A dhaba on the Amritsar bypass, mid-morning. The chole in the karahi is almost black and there is a shine of oil sitting on the surface. The man cracks a kulcha open on the tawa, ladles the chole into a steel plate, drops on ginger cut into thin strips, two slit green chillies and a raw onion cut in four. It is sour before it is spicy, and it stays sour all the way to the end of the plate. Most people eat it standing.
Wooden cold pressed groundnut oil suits this because the masala has to fry for a long time. It holds ten to twelve minutes of hard frying without going heavy or catching, and it stays clean enough that the anardana and amchur come through instead of being buried. When the chole is ready you will actually see it lift and float on top, which is the sign a Punjabi cook waits for. Our Stone Ground Red Chilli Powder is ground slowly on stone, so it gives depth of colour rather than dusty heat.
The one thing that decides this dish is the onion. Fry it for ten to twelve full minutes until it is a deep golden brown, not pale gold. Half the colour and most of the body of Amritsari chole comes from that one stretch of patience, and nothing you add later will make up for stopping early.
How to make it
- Drain the soaked chana and rinse it well. Put it in a pressure cooker with the water, the tea bag, the dried amla, the whole spices, the baking soda and ½ tsp salt.
- Cook for 6 to 7 whistles on medium, about 20 minutes, then let the pressure fall on its own. Squeeze one chana between two fingers. It should flatten with no effort. Fish out the tea bag, amla and whole spices. Keep the dark stock, you will need it.
- Heat the groundnut oil in a heavy kadhai on medium. Add the onion and fry for 10 to 12 minutes till it is a deep golden brown. Do not stop at pale gold, this is where half the colour and taste come from.
- Add the ginger garlic paste and fry a minute till the raw smell goes. Pour in the tomato puree with the red chilli powder and coriander powder.
- Cook on medium for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring often. The masala will thicken, go dark and pull into a lump, and the oil will separate and shine at the edges. That is your signal.
- Add the boiled chana with 1½ cups of its dark stock. Add the cumin powder, anardana powder, amchur, black salt and the rest of the salt. Stir well.
- Simmer uncovered on low for 20 to 25 minutes. Halfway through, mash a big spoonful of chana against the side of the pan to thicken the gravy. It should turn glossy and dark, not watery.
- Sprinkle the garam masala over, cook 3 minutes more and switch off. Cover and let it stand 10 minutes so the sourness settles in.
- Serve topped with ginger strips, slit green chillies and coriander, with kulcha, bhatura or plain rice and a slice of raw onion.
Tips
- Storage: chole is better the next day. Keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days and reheat with a little hot water. It also freezes well for a month.
- Make ahead: boil the chana with the tea and amla a day early and store it in its stock. The rest takes 40 minutes.
- No anardana or amla? Use 2 tsp amchur in total, added at the end, plus a squeeze of lemon off the heat. The chole will be lighter in colour but just as tangy.
- Go easy on the baking soda. A quarter teaspoon softens the chana. More than that makes it mushy and leaves a soapy taste that nothing will fix.
- For a richer dhaba style finish, stir in 1 tbsp Gir Cow's A2 Ghee right at the end, off the flame.
