Today's Special Choley Batura - Indira's chole and Vee's Batura

Its time for another celebration...!

Hi there all of you. I am so sorry I couldn't post any recipe yesterday. In future will try to post one recipe one day.... except weekends... hehe...Anyways, today is a very special day. Today my brother Karthik and sweet sister in law Ramya Celebrate their First wedding anniversary. I am missing them so much wanted to join them in their celebration. So here is wishng them a very very happy First wedding anniversary. Well I didnt make any sweets for wishing them due to time constrains so I am sharing a lovely italian lunch as my bhabhi loves italian food.(will post the recipe later.) And my sooji halwa once again. You can see the recipe here.

Wish you both a Lovely First Wedding Anniversary !

My special lunch for my brother and bhabhi.:)

Italian lunch - Spicy Pasta, Spring onion Pilaf, Warm vegetable salad

Yummy Sooji Halwa with chocolates.

Now, coming to my daily food blogging. Today's special is Chole batura.

My Lunch platter - Choley, green salad and batura.

My today's special is Choley batura. My hubby loves choley and I would also like to add that he makes very good choley. I wont say that its the most perfect choley but it is very good with its natural flavour. Infact I can say he is the one who taught me to cook with the natural flavours in the vegetables and pulses... than overflowing the bhaji with masalas, which I used to before I got married. So I really want to post this dish for my sweet husband.

So coming to the topic, both me and my hubby r ardent fans of choley Bature.... I dont enjoy Bature that much but I love choley. Whenever I make choley I dont stick to one recipe. I keep changing my concoction by adding or minusing something.... just to see how it tastes.

Well, when talking about experimentng with choley who can beat my "Choley Queen" Indira of mahanandi. Yeah I have named her the choley queen. why?? hmmm...If u peep in her site and just type choley u will be amazed to see the varieties she has there... and above that the different and unique combinations of vegetable with the tiny garbanzo bean (choley bean - kabuli chana).

Ohh my god, choley with so many different vegetables.what creativity....Choley with eggplant, choley with aloo, choley with doodhi,with methi, with tinda..... hmmmm and many many more other yummy recipes.

When I saw her choley recipe I was so inspired to make it.. mainly because of its simplicity. Its so simple with very subtle masala flavour and so easy to make. I wanted to try her recipe from a long long time, but due to time contrain and other stupid reasons I never could. Thanx to my new theme (vacation plan...;)..hehe) to try other fellow bloggers recipes I remembered to make Indira's choley. So here goes the recipe. I just have made few changes like adding some extra tomatoes and lemon juice... as we like our choley a bit khatta (sour)....:P. You can find Indira's Choley Recipe here.Thanx Indira for the lovely recipe. It turned out amazing... very mild flavoured yet so authentic and healthy.Here goes my choley.

You need :

Garbanzo beans / Chickpeas -2 cups (I used canned - if ur using dry ones please soak them overnight in warm water)

Roma Tomatoes - 4 finely chopped

Onions - 1 medium finely chopped

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tsp

Chole Masala / Chana Masala - 1 tbsp ( I used Punjabi choley masala )

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

oil - 1 tbsp

Fresh Coriander leaves for garnishing

lemon juice - 2 - 3 tsp

Butter - 1/2 tbsp

Method :

If you have soaked the garbanzo, pressure cook it with some water and salt. Dont over cook it. drain the water and keep aside. Alternatively, if ur using canned garbanzo, microwave it with some salt and water for 3 minutes. Keep aside.

Put a handful of garbanzo bean in a blender and make into a smooth and thick paste adding some water.This is done to make the choley a bit thick.

In a pan, heat the oil and add the jeera and mustard seeds.When the seeds splutter, add the onions and saute for a minute or two on medium flame. Let the onions cook well until they become transparent. Now, add the tomatoes and saute well till the tomatoes are tender and pasty.Add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder and chana masala. Mix well. The tomatoes should cook very well and become mushy. The raw smell of the masala should go.

Once the tomatoes are cooked well, add the chickpeas paste and saute well. Add rest of the chickpeas and 1/2 a glass of water and cook well.

Cover and cook for 7-8 minutes. Now, remove the lid and cook till the choley thickens a bit and all the extra water evaporates.See that ur choley is not watery.

Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with fresh coriander and lemon juice. Mix well and serve hot with Puri / batura or Chapati.

The best indian bread combination to go with choley is the Batura. I will be posting the Batura recipe Next...:) till ten enjoy the lovely choley on my platter :D...

Serve hot with Puri/ Batura or chapati. Enjoy!

Now, a bit about Indira and her Lovely blog. If u wonder what does mahanandi stand for as I wondered when I visited her blog for the first time, Its a beautiful temple town close to Nandyala, India and at the foothills of Nallamala forest range. Its a very very green town surrounded with ponds, lovely forest and century old temples.She has some mindblowing recipes and photographs in her blog. The blog emits amazing creativity in terms of writing, photography, and lovely recipes. I would also like to add that Indira is the brain behind the Jihva (JFI) which is circulating the foodblogsphere now for nearly 2 years. Thanks Indira for the lovely blog and for sharing all your thoughts, ideas and amazing recipes with us. To know more about her do visit her blog. I make a point to check her blog atleast once everyday, yet I cant see I have seen all her recipes. Indira, I enjoyed making your chole amongst so many other recipes I have piled from from ur blog in my "Should try Section".

PS: What is a choley recipe without the batura?... so I am posting that recipe here in this post. Scroll down please.

Batura my hubby's ever favourite, just like the choley. Whenever we go to an indian restaurant, his first order is always puri or batura. So just to satisfy his "batura bud" I thought I will make it at home for him . As I stated earlier I am not a puri or batura fan so I rarely make it at home. I knew that for making this indian bread, U need to prepare before hand. The dough to make batura has to be kept aside for 8 hours or something for fermentation. Hmmm my plans seemed to be doomed, when I came across this amazing and instant Batura recipe. The result was amazing, and just like the Batura u get in restaurants.I found this recipe at Vee's Keep trying. Thanx Vee for the lovely recipe.Here goes the recipe.

You need :

All purpose flour - 2 cups

Yoghurt - 1/4 cup

Potato - 1 boiled and mashed

Oil/ ghee - 2 tbsp

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying.

Method :

Put all the above ingredients in a bowl .Knead lightly so that the baking podwer is evening mixed. Now knead it into a nice dough with some warm water. Adjust the quatity of water in order to make a soft pliable dough.Keep the dough aside for 1 hour.

When ready make to make ur baturas, Heat oil in a kadhai on medium flame.

Roll a small ball size dough into a nice round . Dont make it very thin. The baturas need to be a bit thick. Once the oil is hot enough, slid the batura into the oil and poke it lightly with the laddle until it puffs up. See that u do this very lightly orelse u may spill oil on urself.This is done tonot make the baturas puff well. Once the baturas puff, let it stay for 30 seconds and then flip them over gently (again take care here.... dont spill hot oil on urself....please :D) to the other side. Once both the sides have light brown spots on them... your baturas are ready. Remove them from the oil and drain them on a tissue paper.

Serve hot with the delicious Choley........

................................The way I did....enjoy!

Now about Vee and her Blog "Keep trying" . As her blog name suggests..she keep trying lovely recipes and share with all of us in her lovely blog. The most interesting thing I found in her blog is her archive listing "On the menu" which is listed in alphabetical order....A....B....C....D...E....F.....G.....Guess she is over dosed teaching her kids. Thats y her blog is having this unique menu listing? :D.Hey dont mind, Just kidding..... You have a lovely blog and I love it.:) She is from konkan and her blog intro is so sweet, as she refers about her lovely grand mom and her mom and what all she learnt from them. She has some interesting recipes and lovely photographs in her blog. So check out more about Vee @ Vee's Keep trying.

So for today, thats it.... I will be back with more of my trials from another favourite blogs of this food blogsphere.

Have a happy weekend.....and do tell me if u liked my chole batura...:)