Monday, February 4, 2008

Chole Aloo (Chickpeas with Potatoes)

I created this dish with the desire to do something with one cup of leftover chole masala. The secret to this recipe is that the leftover chole should be a gravy based chole and not one with visable pieces of onion and tomatoes.

Ingredients:
1 cup leftover chole masala
2 tbspn olive oil
2 cups diced potatoes
2 tsp chenna masala spice mix
1 cup water
salt to taste
pinch asafeteda


Method:

1. Boil the potato with skin on it. After it is boiled, slightly cooled and peeled (I like to slightly cool the potato after it's boiled and peel with fingers, peel comes off easily and no potato peeler needs to be washed!), dice into 1/3 inch cubes.
2. Heat a large wok like pan and keep the olive oil in it. When it heats, add the diced potato. Turn the heat down to one-quarter heat.
3. Lightly fry for a few minutes, add the left over chole mix well.
4. Add the water, chole masala spice mix and asafeteda. Mix well and cover.
5. Stir every few minutes. The mixture will become like a gravy or thick stew. This is good. It should not burn to the bottom of the pan if you keep mixing it and making sure the heat is low.
6. After about 25 minutes, the spices should all combine well, evening out between the chole and potatoes.
7. Taste for and add salt as you like.
8. Eat with rotis, chapati or rice as per your liking.

4-5 servings.