Chana Masala - can't seem to get it right.
Posted by brokenbyHislove on Jan 14, 2007 · Member since Jan 2007 · 1 posts
hey guys :) I have been trying to imitate the Chana Masala I eat in Indian restaurants and I am finding it really hard to get it right. Anyone have any tips?
If you have a South Asian grocer nearby, do make it with chana dal (halved tiny black chickpeas). It makes all the difference.
My recipe isn't handy right now but I seem to remember adding lots of whole spices that could be fished out later... cardamom pods, slices of ginger, whole chiles (pricked to let fluid in and out), cloves... if I find it later on I will post it.
i have a recipe i use, but it's not authentic. it's one of those super quick meals i throw together when i don't feel like cooking for more than ten minutes. duckalucky's sounds far more promising
I really like this recipe:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5060.0
chana is actually chickpeas (garbanzo beans), not dal. there are a million different kinds of dal and i find their names often get mixed up. there are two recipes you could be talking about, one is a curry dish and one is a snack (sort of sweet and sour?). the curry dish is more common, so i'll assume that's what you're talking about. i grew up making this in pakistan, so it's about as authentic as you can get.
soak 1 cup dried chickpeas over night
heat veg oil in a thick pot
fry 1 tbsp tumeric and 1 tbsp cumin seeds (i usually use more, and often throw in chili powder and maybe corriander seeds too, you can adjust the spices later if you're not sure)
add 1/2 bulb peeled and mashed garlic
add 1 inch peeled and mashed fresh ginger root
when the spices start sticking to the pan, add 1 cup chopped white onion
fry until onion is soft
add drained chickpeas and fry until coated with spices and oil
add 1 can diced tomatoes or 1 diced tomato and 1 cup water
cook off the water.
this is where you should adjust the spices... for the right taste, ginger and tumeric should be the dominant flavours, whereas other dal curries have a dominant cumin and garlic flavour.
once the tomato water is cooked off, keep adding water and cooking down until the chana is soft and their skins are coming off. the longer you do this, the better, but of course, you can eat it as soon as it's fully cooked. the "authentic" taste comes from the curries being cooking over a long period of time, even all day.
you can do all sorts of fun stuff with this dish. diced fresh or canned mango added (reduce the tomato a little), diced peach, strong brewed black tea in place of water are amoung the variations out there.
the snack channa masala is also delicious... it's a tea snack, and usually sold at outdoor stalls. it's usually room temp and is similiar to a lebanese chickpea salad, only with a spicy sweet and sour sauce. i'll ask my mom for the recipe if you think thats what you're looking for.
mdvegan: i've never made this myself, but i have fond memories of eating it when i was a kid. I also remembered that we called it channa chat, not channa masala. Here is one of the recipes that we used to use, but different places in India and pakistan use different ingredients. Coconut, cucumber, and mango are possible additions.
Tamarind Sauce:
Soak one block of dried tamarind (if you can't find this, you'll have to figure out how to use fresh tamarind) with a piece of ginger and cinnamon in a bowl of water overnight.
Strain out the pulp, leaving a syrup.
heat with a half cup of brown sugar and a dash of paprika. add more water if neccasary until you have a syrupy consistency. add more sugar if it's too sour.
Soak 1 cup chick peas overnight, then boil until soft.
Boil 2 potatoes and dice into 1cm cubes.
Fry the potatoes and chickpeas in a pan with oil and 1 tbsp tumeric until browned.
Cool the potato chickpea misture slightly, then toss with chopped coriander, chopped tomato, and any of the additional ingredients.
If you can find a chat masala at the grocery store, toss 1 or 2 tsp (if you can't find it, here is a recipe for it: http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/3925/recipe_spice_10.html)
finally, mix in the tamarind sauce, or you can add it to individual portions.
the tamarind sauce sounds like a lot of work, but you can soak it at the same time as the channa, plus it's a good addition to many indian curries.
2 potatoes
Chick peas
1 Small onion
Pinch Turmeric
1 Tomato
Chopped Coriander
Pinch Chat Masala
Pinch Salt
1 Block dried Tamarind
Brown sugar
1 Litre of Water
ginger
Cinnamon
Paprika