29/6: Chick pea Masaledar

Some of the best ways of cooking chick peas can be found in Indian cooking. This dish has a lovely deep hot, sweet and sour flavour and plenty of sauce. Madhur Jaffrey, as always, is a great source for Indian food and this recipe is based on her Chana Masaledar in An Invitation to Indian Cooking , It comes from the Punjab and is originally intended a snack food but I've made it with a tomato based sauce as a side dish for lamb and spinach.

• 500g cooked chickpeas
• 3-4 tbsp veg oil
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 medium onion, thinly spiced in half moons.
• 1-2 tsp home made garam masala
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2-3cm square piece of ginger
• 10 fresh red chillis or to taste
• 1 tsp amchoor powder (dried sour mango) or juice of 1 lemon
• 1 pint Tomato passata
• salt to taste

Garnish 1 fresh green chilli and half and onion thinly sliced.

Heat the oil in a wide heavy pan and when hot add the cumin seeds and stir, after a few seconds add the onion slices. Lower heat and cook until the onions are starting to brown. Add the garlic, ginger, garam masala, fresh red chillis and coriander. Stir and fry for a few minutes more then add the passata and amchoor powder and cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes. Add the chick peas stir and cook for another 15 minutes or until they are nice and tender but still have a bit of bite. Serve with a scattering of sliced chilli and raw onion.

Notes on changes
I added 10 mildish red chillis, more garlic and ginger and 1 pint of home made passata (instead of 1 tbsp tomato paste and 1/4 pint of water as I wanted a dish with sauce.  
COOK'S TIP
I usually have some cooked chick peas in the freezer if you are starting from scratch soak the chickpeas over night then cook in a roomy pan with water for 1 hour or used canned chick peas and be very careful not to over cook them.