Chola Kulcha & Bhatura - Chickpeas Recipe

Chola Kulcha / Chola Bhatura or Chole Kulche / Chole Bhature, is a well known food from the punjabi cuisine and a must street food of Delhi (capital of India). Though this dish has something which was not from India but today India is the largest harvester of the same.

Chola / Chole or as called in english Chick Peas or Garbanzo Beans, Indians also end up calling them dollars. Chickpeas originated from Mesopotamia in the Arabian Desert somewhere in the Middle East and dates back to 750 years or more, but today 7.1 million tons of chickpeas are produced in India which results or accounts to 64% of production done all over the world.

There are lot of dishes that can be made using chickpeas, different countries have different ways of using chickpeas for making eateries, like in Italy they have a famous dish known as "hummus" which are eaten with pita breads and in India the Punjabi community extensively used chickpeas or chola / chole and gave it a whole new taste and variety like Amritsari Chola, Pindi Chola & Punjabi Chola.

So let us see how to make Chola / Chole which is best had with Bhatura or Kulcha, so today we will make Chole Bhature and Chola Kulcha. I am breaking up the whole process of this recipe into three parts

1. How to make Kulcha / Kulche
2. How to make Bhatura / Bhature
3. How to make Chola / Chole (Chickpeas)

Let's Begin.....

How To make Kulcha:

Ingredients:

• 250g Maida (All purpose flour)
• 5g Salt
• 15g Sugar
• 10ml Oil
• 10g Dry Yeast
• 120ml Water
• 200g Sour Curd / Yogurt
• Some fresh fine chopped coriander leafs

Preparing the Kulcha:

In a cup.

1. Take water
   
2. Add sugar to it
   
3. Let the sugar melt
4. Add yeast to it
5. Stir properly
6. Let it rest

Now in a mixing bowl.

• Take Maida
• Add Salt to it
• Mix it properly
• Then add Yeast & Sugar water
• Add Curd / Yogurt
• Knead the dough
• Make a soft dough
• Add Oil

Let it rest for proving, cover it with a cloth and leave it for 45 to 60 minutes.

Once dough has puffed up.

1. Grease your rolling station or platform with little oil, the place where you would be rolling the dough.
2. Make small balls out of the dough using a scrapper or a knife.
3. Put little oil on top of a ball
4. Put little coriander leaf
5. Start pressing from the center and spread it while turning sides to make a circular shape
6. Let it rest, cover it with a cellophane or plastic
   

(TIP: Spread more for a thin kulcha and less for a thick kulcha, thickness depends on how you want it to be).

Now we need to bake the kulcha (half cooked process)

You can use an oven to do so, I am showing you how to bake the kulcha without oven.

Take a deep pan (kadai).

• Put 1 kg salt or dry sand to cover the base (you can re-use this)
• Put a metal stand (will act as a separator)

Close the lid and hit on high flame for 15 minutes.

• Put your raw kulch on a baking tray or plate
• Place it inside the kadai on top of the metal stand

Close the lid and cook for 10 to 15 minutes.

When you see the kulcha puffing up, turn it for the other side to cook.

Both side once turns little brownish, take them out.

Kulcha is half ready, now time to dry fry it on a frying pan.

• Heat a frying pan or tawa
• Place your kulcha on it (bottom side down)
• Put butter on top and turn it so that both sides gets evenly fried

KULCHA is ready.

(Note: The half cooked kulcha has a self life of 3 to 4 days, store it in a air tight box, wrapped in cotton cloth in a refrigerator).

How To make Bhatura:

Ingredients:

• 250g Maida (All purpose flour)
• 5g Salt
• 15g Sugar
• 10ml Oil
• 10g Dry Yeast
• 120ml Water
• 200g Sour Curd / Yogurt
• Some fresh fine chopped coriander leafs

Preparing the Bhatura:

In a cup.

1. Take water
   
2. Add sugar to it
   
3. Let the sugar melt
4. Add yeast to it
5. Stir properly
6. Let it rest

Now in a mixing bowl.

• Take Maida
• Add Salt to it
• Mix it properly
• Then add Yeast & Sugar water
• Add Curd / Yogurt
• Knead the dough
• Make a soft dough
• Add Oil

Let it rest for proving, cover it with a cloth and leave it for 45 to 60 minutes.

Once dough has puffed up.

1. Grease your rolling station or platform with little oil, the place where you would be rolling the dough.
2. Make small balls out of the dough using a scrapper or a knife.
3. Put little oil on top of a ball
4. Start pressing from the center and spread it while turning sides to make a circular shape
5. Let it rest, cover it with a cellophane or plastic
   

(TIP: Bhatura are mostly thick)

Now time to deep fry

• Take a kadai (deep frying pan)
• Heat Oil in it (we need the oil to be super hot)
• Deep fry the bhatura

BHATURA is ready.

(NOTE: The difference between Kulcha and Bhatura is, kulcha is baked then dry fried and bhatura is deep fried - my shortcut method to prepare both kulcha and bhatura at home).

How To make Chola (Chickpeas):

Ingredients:

• 500g Chola (Chickpeas)
• 500g Tomato
• 5 big size onions
• 4 - 5 cloves of garlic
• 2" ginger
• 2 - 3 green chilli
• 200g paneer (cottage cheese - optional)
• 3 tsp coriander leaf (fine chopped)
• 1 tsp caraway seed (sahi jeera)
• 4 tbsp sour curd / yogurt
• 4 tbsp oil
• 1 pinch of asafoetida (hing)
• 1 tsp cumin seed (jeera)
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp anar dana (dry pomegranate - crushed)
• 2 tsp dhania powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• Salt to taste

Preparing the Chola:

Soak the chola in water for 8 to 10 hours or overnight.

Stain in properly and pressure cook it.

In a pressure cooker.

• Add chola
• Add 2 tsp salt
• Add 2 tea bags
• Add 3/4 tsp baking soda
• Add 2 cups of water
• Add a pouch made of muslin cloth containing 2 dried red chilli, 1 black cardamon (bari elaichi), 2 to 3 bay leafs (tej patta) and 1" cinnamon stick (dalchini) - [Tie the knot properly so that nothing spills out]

Pressure cook it on high flame until one whistle then cook it on low flame for 6 to 7 minutes.

Take it out and stain any leftover water. (Do not throw the water)

Keep it aside.

Now take a mixer grinder.

• Add 2 onions
• Add 2 clove of garlic
• Add 3 - 4 green chilli
• Add 1" ginger
• Add tomatoes

Grind them to get a fine tomato paste.

On the other hand

Heat up a pan.

• Add oil in it
• Once oil is warm
• Add jeera (cumin seeds)
  
• Add anardana (dry pomgranate)
• Add hing (asafoetida)
• Add dhania powder (coriander powder)
• Add 3 onions (fine chopped)
• Add 3 cloves of garlic (fine chopped)

Saute everything.

• Add tomato paste

Cook until the gravy starts releasing oil.

• Add sahi jeera
• Add 1" ginger (cut into fine julienne)

Mix well and let it cook until the oil is completely released from the gravy.

• Add red chilli powder
• Add salt to taste
• Add 2 cups of water (We kept the water after boiling chola)

Cook with lids covered.

Bring the whole gravy to a boil.

Once gravy starts boiling.

• Add boiled chola (chickpeas)
• Add garam masala
• Add paneer (cut into small cubes - optional)
• Add dhania patta (coriander leafs)

Mix slowly so that the paneer pieces do not break.

Close the lid and cook slowly for 5 - 7 minutes.

Lovely Chola / Chole are ready.

Yahoo!!! Chola Kulcha and Chola Bhatura are ready to be served.

Garnish the chola with fine chopped coriander sprigs, julienne cut ginger and some onion rings. Enjoy friends.......

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