Kadala Curry For Puttu-Kerala Style/Chickpea Curry

Kadala curry is a kerala style chickpea curry made with coconut base. Its rich and yummy with bold flavors of spices. Usually its served with puttu, a steamed variety of rice cake. But m says they also serve it with kerala parotta. M likes them with rotis. I like them with appam. Anyways they taste good. This time I paired them properly with puttu. The recipe for puttu will be posted sometime soon!

Ingredients:

Dried Chickpeas/Channa (black/white)-1 cup

Onion-2, roughly chopped

Green chilies-2

Turmeric powder-/4 tsp

Coconut pieces-3 tbsp (optional)

Salt-as needed

To Roast & Grind:

Grated coconut-3/4 cup

Small onions/Shallots-5

Ginger-1 inch piece

Garlic-4 cloves

Coriander seeds-1& ½ tbsp

Dried red chilies-4

Whole Black peppercorns- ½ tsp

Fennel seeds-1 tsp

Clove-3

Cinnamon-1 inch stick

Cardamom-1

Star Anise-1 petal

Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, add the above mentioned ingredients one by one and fry until they waft nice aroma. Lastly add the grated coconut and fry until they are golden brown in color. Switch off the flame and let them cool. Grind them to a smooth paste by adding little water.

To Temper:

Coconut oil-2 tbsp

Mustard seeds-1 tsp

Asafoetida/hing-1 big pinch

Curry leaves-1 sprig

How It Happened:

1. Wash and soak the chickpeas overnight/up to 8 hours. Then pressure cook them with salt for 3 whistles in medium flame/until cooked. Let it rest and set aside.

2. Heat coconut oil in a pan, add the ingredients given for tempering and when they pop, add the onions and green chilies and fry until glossy.

3.  Then add the turmeric powder and salt (you have added salt in chickpeas so add accordingly) and mix well.

4. Add the ground coconut paste and cook for a minute. Then add 1 cup of water and let it cook until it starts bubbling.

5. Toss in the cooked chickpeas along with the water in which it was cooked, adjust the salt and let it boil in medium flame for 10 minutes. Stir in now and then to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pan.

6. When the mixture has thickened switch off the flame and serve hot with puttu.

Notes:

* Traditionally black channa is used for this curry in Kerala. Since I didn’t have them I used the regular one. If you are using black channa then pressure cook them for 2 more whistles.

* Instead of onions you can use 1 cup of sliced shallots for more taste. As I was lazy I used a mixture of onions and shallots. But for grinding shallots is a must.

* Coconut pieces add a crunch but you can skip them.

* The preparation has green chilies, pepper and red chilies. The measurement here makes a moderately spicy curry. Adjust the red chilies as per your taste.

* Coconut oil is used for flavor. You can use a mix of vegetable oil and coconut oil else you can skip coconut oil completely.

* All the ingredients should be roasted well before grinding especially the ginger and garlic else they will give a raw flavor to the dish.

* Adjust the consistency of the curry by adding more or less water. Also if you have added more water then boil them for more time to get desired consistency.

* You can garnish with coriander leaves.