HARE CHANE AUR PANEER KI KARI / CHOLIYA AUR PANEER KI KARI/ HARBHARA AUR PANEER KI KARI / FRESH WHOLE GREEN CHICKPEAS WITH CRUMBLED COTTAGE CHEESE IN GRAVY
Sony TV airs one of my favorite serials, “Kuch tho log kahenge” in which the heroine makes hare chane ki kari methi muthia ke saath for the hero with love.
This spurted my search for the recipe of hare chane ki kari and I stumbled upon Tarla Dalalji’s site and found this recipe. But my recipe has a twist from the original recipe as it doesn’t follow the same ingredients and also because I added crumbled paneer to the dish.
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Fresh green sorted whole chickpeas-Image courtesy Wikipedia |
Now for many like me who didn’t know what’s hara chana, they are whole green chick peas packed with a lot of nutritional value. Typically, these are available only a few weeks a year.
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Fresh green whole chickpeas-Image courtesy Wikipedia |
Whenever I go to Pune, my husband always buys harbhara (choliya/ hara chana/ fresh whole green chick peas). It comes in a bunch and you have to split open the pea like thing and get the harbhara in it, he eats it raw. I saw many people on the roads grabbing onto bunches of fresh harhara and eating it like peanuts.
Yo(my husband) asked me to try some, I somehow didn’t like the taste. I guess you need to develop a flair for it.
This dish is specially made for my dear husband and my little one who troubles me zillions to eat.
When you are using the fresh ones, you have to pick the peas, open them and sort them, after which you have to rinse them through a colander, it’s a very lengthy process and to get a decent quantity of chickpeas you have to pick a few bunches of the plant.
Since the fresh chick peas are not available in Singapore, I used the frozen ones available in Mustafa (a shopping mall which has a lot of Indian products). It’s known as Choliya under the Greentech brand.
For those who are unable to get the frozen ones you can find the dry green chanas in any Indian store all through the year. When you are using the dry ones, you have to soak them overnight and pressure cook them up to 3 whistles before you follow my recipe.
Since I am not too fond of the taste of the green chickpeas I tried to lace it with as many spices as I could lay my hand on and also added some crumbled paneer and when the dish was done it was so yummy that I would never say that I don’t like the green chickpeas much and I am looking forward to making it and relishing it again and again.
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Hare Chane ki kari |
Ingredients
1 ½ cups hare chane (whole green chickpeas)
Spinach (Palak leaves) - 4-5 for color/alternatively use green food color-1-2 drops.
Onion - 1 Big
Tomatoes – 2 red and ripe ones
Green chillies – 2
Ginger – ½ inch
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Badi elaichi – 1
Cinnamon stick – 1
Star Anise – 1 tsp
Kasuri Methi powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Chole Masala – 1 tsp
Chaat Masala – 1 tsp
Asafetida – a pinch
Paneer (Cottage Cheese) crumbled 3-4 heaped tablespoons
Salt as per taste
Oil – 2 tbsps
Fresh Green Coriander leaves for garnish
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A close up of the dish |
Method
Finely Chop the onion and tomatoes. Make a coarse paste of the ginger and green chillies in a blender. Soak the frozen paneer in some warm water. After a while crumble and keep it aside. Blend the spinach leaves with some water and keep aside.
Rinse the frozen choliya (whole green chick peas), drain and keep aside. For those who are using the fresh green chickpeas or the dried ones kindly read above the ingredients list, the method to cook it.
Heat oil in a wok(kadhai), add the cumin seeds, badi elaichi, cinnamon stick & star anise.
Once the cumin is fried, Add in the coarsely grounded ginger and chilly paste and fry, after a minute add the finely chopped onions and sauté, once the onions are transparent, add the finely chopped tomatoes and sauté until it is totally squashy and fried. Add in the Kasuri Methi powder, Coriander powder, Cumin powder, Garam Masala, Chole Masala and Chaat Masala, asafetida and salt and fry for a minute. The masala should get fried well, At this point add in the blended spinach leaves paste, sauté until the oil comes out of the puree. Now add the whole green chickpea without any water and mix well with all the masala. If you are not using spinach for color, you can add in 1-2 drops of green color just for the color (this is optional)
Cover and cook in a low flame. Let the green chana cook in its own juices. When you see the water is getting dried. Add in 2 teacups of water and let it cook on a slow flame. Keep adding water everytime you see that the chana is dry until you can see that the chickpeas are cooked. Once the chickpeas are cooked and can be mashed easily with the back of the spatula, add the crumbled paneer, cook covered for a while. While cooking, keep mashing a few chickpeas with the back of the spatula for a mushy thick gravy. Cook for about 10-15 minutes on a slow flame. Ensure that the mix has gravy by adding water and letting the mix boil. When you see that it is an even mix and has enough gravy to your heart’s desire. Put off the flame. Garnish with finely chopped fresh green coriander leaves and serve hot with fulkas or rice.