CHOLE PURI (KABULI CHANA)

Best days of my life have to be my school days. Happy ....free from worries, true freedom !!
I studied at St Mary's High school , Bombay under the watchful eyes of 'sisters' nuns and lovely teachers. When we walked passed the corridors sisters would ask us to 'walk on your toes like ladies and not run like horses'. She would pinch us for mistakes in grammar ..My school always gave importance to personality development , skill development in all areas sports, arts , public speaking and academics.

I am so so grateful to my school for making me what i am today........

We had an annual picnic routine and how we would look forward to it. So the only time we were allowed to turn into horses was in the picnic bus. 'In the morning In the morning In the morning by the seas ' still echoes in my ears. I remember the thrill of buying an icecream on my own from the pocket money for picnic..

Beautiful memories...Puri chole was my all time favorite picnic snack . Dad would buy me lots of 'Picwick ' a then popular biscuit wafer coated with cream, wafers and chocolates to share. And mom packed puris and rice with chole ...

So here i share the recipe ....

For Puri
Wheat Flour 2 cups
Salt
Oil
Water

Mix all the ingredients. I let it sit for 10 minutes, feel dough is softer.
Roll out small thick circles. Heat oil in a pan. Check the readiness of the oil, when u add a piece iof dough it must sizzle and come up. If it sticks to the bottom of the pan oil isnt ready yet !
Fry puri and serve garamagaram !!
Puris go well with sabzis like potato gravy, sweets gajar halwa and chole.

For Chole
Soak 1/4 kg white kabuli chana overnight. Strain from water and add in pressure cooker. For 1/4 kg chole add 4 cups water. Add turmeric, salt, 2 cloves and 2 cardomom
to chana. Pressure cook for 6-7 whistles.Strain from water and set aside chana

To prepare the gravy we need
Onions 3 big
Tomatoes 4
Ginger 2 tsp
Garlic 4 pods
Green chilli 4
Red chilli 1 tsp
Garam masala 1 tsp
Saunf fennel seeds 1/2 tsp

Grind 2 onions , green chilli, ginger and garlic to a fine paste.
Chop tomato to fine pieces.
Heat 2 tbspn oil in a pan. Add fennel seeds , ground onion masala . Cook for 5-6 minutes till raw smell of onion leaves.
Add in chopped tomatoes, red chilli powder, garam masala powder. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 5 minutes . Stir in between to check how gravy thickens.
When oil seperates add in chana and little stock from it. Mash the chana slightly. Cook well
for 7-10 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves. Enjoy with puris.