Chole Bhature Recipe

Ingredients For Chole:

1. 250g chole (chick peas) - soaked in water overnight
2. 1 tomato (pureed)
3. 2 onions (finely chopped)
4. 1 tablespoonful peppercorn
5. 1 tablespoonful cumin seeds
6. 1 tablespoonful turmeric powder
7. 1 tablespoonful fennel seed (saunf) powder
8. 1 tablespoonful coriander seed powder
9. 2 tablespoonful red chili powder
10. 2 1-inch cinnamon sticks
11. 1 black cardamom
12. 2 green cardamoms
13. 2 fresh teabags
14. 5-6 cloves
15. 1 mace (javitri)
16. 2 tablespoonful garlic paste
17. 1 tablespoonful ginger paste
18. 1-inch piece of ginger (grated)
19. 4 tablespoonful ghee
20. 2 bay leaves
21. 2 tablespoonful lime juice
22. 1 tablespoonful sugar
23. 1/2 tablespoonful amchur (dried mango powder)
24. 1 tablespoonful anardana powder (pomegranate seed powder)
25. 2 cups water (or more as required)
26. Salt

Ingredients For Bhature:

1. 2 cups refined flour (maida)
2. 1 cup wheat flour (atta)
3. 5 tablespoonful semolina (rava/suji)
4. 2 tablespoonful baking powder
5. 3 tablespoonful vegetable oil
6. 1/2 teaspoonful salt
7. 10 tablespoonful thick curd
8. 1 cup warm Water
9. 3 cups oil (for deep frying)

Method:

To make bhature dough, mix both flour, semolina, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add curd and 3 tablespoonful vegetable oil to it. Mix everything well using your fingers and then, add about 1/2 cup of warm water to it and knead the flour mixture into a dough. Add water little by little while kneading the dough with your fingers until you get a smooth dough. Cover it with a damp cloth and place it in a humid place for 3-4 hours.

Meanwhile, empty soaked chole along with water in a pressure cooker, add teabags and black cardamom to it and pressure cook it over medium flame for 8-10 minutes or until 6 whistles. Let it settle for 5 minutes, open the pressure cooker and empty the contents in a large bowl. Set it aside and discard the teabags.

Take a nonstick pan and heat it over low flame. Dry roast cumin seeds, cloves, peppercorn, mace and cinnamon sticks for a few seconds and then add red chili powder, fennel seed powder, turmeric powder and coriander seed powder to it. Roast it for 10-12 seconds and remove from the heat into a small bowl.

Heat the pan again and add 2 tablespoonful ghee to it. When heated, add bay leaves and chopped onions to it. Saute them over medium flame for 5-6 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Then, add grated ginger along with garlic paste and ginger paste to it. Saute them for another minute and add the roasted ingredients to it. Give it a good stir and add tomato puree to it. Stir-fry the masala for 2-3 minutes over medium flame.

Next, add cooked chole to the sauteed masala and mix them well. Using the back of a spoon, mash some of the chole to make a thick gravy. Add 2 cups of water and salt to it, and cook the gravy for about 8-10 minutes over medium-high flame. Add more water if required, but don`t make the gravy too watery.

Once cooked, remove from the heat and add lime juice, anardana powder and amchur powder to it. Chole are ready, empty them into a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Remove the cloth from the bhature dough and make small balls of equal size - about 2-inch is perfect. Then, using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a flat disc of about 5 inches. Ensure that the bhature are slightly thicker than the chapatis.

Once all the bhature are rolled out, heat oil in a deep wok (kadai) over medium flame. When the oil is smoking hot, carefully place one bhatura in it and fry it while putting some pressure on it with the back of a slotted spatula. Fry the bhatura from both sides until it turns golden brown in color and remove it from the wok into a newspaper to remove excess oil. Now, repeat the process with the remaining bhature. Serve them hot with chole and chutney.