Yummy Recipes 4 All

Chole bhature is a popular dish from the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. This Punjabi dish is a combination of chana masala (spicy white chickpeas) and bhatura, a fried bread made from maida flour (soft wheat).

Chole bhature is often eaten as a breakfast dish, sometimes accompanied with lassi  or raita, however, it can also be a street food or a complete meal, and may be accompanied by, for example, onions, carrot pickle, green chutney and achaar.

Chole bhature is a popular dish, that is also prepared on some special occasions in India. It is very delicious in taste. It is one of my family's favourite dish. We make this on special occasions like on birthdays, Diwali etc.

I got and learned the chole recipe from my mother. This is one of my all time favourite dish.

The main dish of chole bhature is quite filling and heavy, so only two bhaturas are enough to make you feel full.

Chole is a dish made of white chickpeas. Chickpeas are soaked overnight and then cooked in Indian spices. Chole has spicy flavours. They are made in many ways, with or without tea bags, Here I am sharing the chole recipe using tea bags.

Bhatoora (also known as Batoora, Bhatura, Batura, Pathora or Tamil puri) is a fluffy deep-fried leavened bread from the Indian Subcontinent. It's very popular in North India and is usually served in breakfast.

Bhatura is a kind of leavened bread, because we use baking soda to raise it and the deep frying of bhaturas makes them crispy.

Variations include aloo bhatura (bhatura filled with potato) and paneer bhatura (bhatura filled with cottage cheese).

A typical recipe includes white flour (all purpose flour/maida), dahi (yogurt), ghee or oil, and either yeast or baking powder. Once kneaded well, the dough is left to rise, and then small balls of it are either hand-rolled or flattened using a rolling pin. Then the bread pieces are deep fried until they puff up into a lightly browned, soft, fluffy bread, which is elastic and chewy.

A non fried variant is the kulcha, which can be baked or cooked on a flat pan and is garnished with coriander leaves. It is cooked from the same dough.

Once my husband and I visited Berlin and we had chole bhature in one of the Indian restaurants, we liked it and after coming back we wanted t have it, we actually missed it a lot, so started making it at home because here we don't get it in restaurants.

Here I am sharing the plain bhature recipe without any filling.

Ingredients

Preparation

Making Chole

• Take a pressure cooker and add overnight soaked chickpeas into it. Add tea bags, 6-7 cups of water and salt into it, cover and cook for 5 minutes on high flame and about 15-20 minutes on medium flame or till fully done and soft.

• The softening of chickpeas depends on itself and also on the pressure cooker, so cook till you get soft chickpeas.

• Now drain the chickpeas and discard the tea bags but reserve the stock.

• Heat ghee or oil in a non-stick pan or a kadai. Add cumin seeds (jeera) and green chillies into it and sauté it till the cumin seeds begin to crackle.

• Add finely chopped onions and sauté till the onion gets translucent. Stir in between so that the onions won't burn.

• Then add ginger-green chilli paste, mix well and sauté for another 30 seconds.

• Now add coriander powder, cumin seeds powder and red chilli powder and mix it well again.

• Add chole masala, dried mango powder, roasted and coarsely crushed dried pomegranate seeds, garam masala powder and mix it. Then add reserved stock, mix it well and bring the mixture to boil.

• Add the stock as per the gravy you want to have in chole/chickpea.

• Now add already cooked chickpeas (kabuli chana) and mix well. Add some water if needed.

• Cook covered over low flame for 10-15 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.

For Bhaturas

• Take all purpose flour/maida, baking powder and salt in a big bowl. Mix them well and pass it through a sieve. Add yogurt and sugar into it.

• Add water and mix gradually to make a soft dough by light kneading.

• Now add 2 tablespoons of oil into the dough and knead again. Cover the dough with a wet cloth. Keep it aside for an hour. For better results, keep it overnight.

• Divide dough into sixteen equal portions. Roll them into balls. Cover and keep to ferment for around 10 minutes.

• Grease your palms with a little oil and flatten the balls.

• Roll out into five-inch diameter diskettes.

• Heat sufficient oil in a kadai or a pan. When the oil is hot enough, place the rolled bhatooras into it. Deep fry the bhatooras on high heat till light brown. Flip it and fry till the other side also turns light brown.

• Drain on an absorbent paper or kitchen towel so that excess oil gets absorbed. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.

For Serving

• Heat the checkpea/chole before serving.

• Garnish the chole with finely chopped onions.

• Serve hot chole bhaturas with raita, salad and pickle.

• Enjoy this delicious dish with your loved ones.