Indian/Pakistani Chickpea Curry: Channa Masala, Chole Masala

Updated just a bit 5-1-22

This curry is common in the Punjab region, which transcends the border between northwestern India and eastern Pakistan.* It is called "Chan(n)a Masala," but also, "Chole Masala." There are many recipe variations, and some variations produce a dark color in the curry. Some recipes make the chickpeas pretty dry, while other recipes, including mine below, have more of a sauce for the chickpeas, making the dish good for serving rice or chapatis** (flatbread) as an accompaniment.   

I know the list of ingredients may seem intimidating, but many recipes from the Indian Subcontinent have a long list of ingredients, although many are various wonderful spices. "Garam masala" is a spice mixture and there are a number of variations. You can easily find it in supermarkets or Indian/Pakistani grocery stores. Just a point: the people of the Indian Subcontinent aren't usually sparing in their use of spices and other seasonings in their dishes, including "hot" spices and seasonings, like hot chilies. I'm not saying you will necessarily want to mimic this, but also keep in mind, Indian/Pakistani restaurants in other countries, like in the U.S., are not likely to serve food buffet style (a somewhat common style in many Indian/Pakistani restaurants in the U.S.) with the same level of "heat" as it would have if it had been prepared in their homeland or in their homes in their adopted countries. So, with this recipe, you can make it as tame or as "hot" as you want. As for the chili powder and cayenne pepper in the recipe, when people of the Indian Subcontinent say "chili powder," it is much more like cayenne pepper, rather than the chili powder we Americans most commonly buy to make chili (aka, "chili con carne"***) in the U.S., which is almost always to the mild side on the heat level, unless it is specified as "hot." Of course, if you live near an Indian or Pakistani grocer, or order online, you can buy "chili powder" from India or Pakistan for your cooking, and it will be "hot." So for this recipe, you have a couple of options: if you aren't especially fond of "heat," you can follow the recipe I have below, and mix some American chili powder and cayenne pepper; if you like "heat," forget the American chili powder and just use all Indian chili powder or cayenne pepper. (Note: If you want to start cooking Indian/Pakistani foods at home, you will need to buy Indian chili powder. Further, you will need a second type of Indian chili powder, referred to as Kashmiri chili powder, which has great red color, but far less heat, although still more heat than typical American chili powder, and the people of the Indian Subcontinent use both types.)  

Ingredients:

2 to 3 tablespoons oil
1 onion, chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, chopped
2 inch piece peeled ginger, chopped
1 to 3 green chilies, chopped (seeded if you don't like heat, jalapeños or serranos are great)
2 cans (14 to 15 ounce cans) chickpeas, rinsed
1 can (14 to 15 ounces) diced tomatoes with juice
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (I used ancho chili powder)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons garam masala 
1/2 cup water, then another 3/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, cook briefly, then add the garlic, ginger and green chili pepper, cook another couple of minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chickpeas, ground cumin, ground coriander, chili powder, cayenne pepper, turmeric and the 1/2 cup water; stir well to mix. Cook for about 2 minutes, then add the diced tomatoes with juice, garam masala, salt and the 3/4 cup water. Mix well again. Cook for another 3 minutes, then reduce heat to low, add the chopped fresh coriander, stir and cook another 2 or 3 minutes (you can actually cook this over low heat until it reaches the thickness you want, but just stir it often to prevent sticking). 

* Pakistan became a separate country from India in 1947, so there was no border before that time. 

** For the easy recipe for homemade "Chapati" (also known as "Roti"), here is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/easy-flatbread-of-indian-subcontinent.html 

*** Americans have "generally" come to spell the word as "chili," with one "l," but in British English it is most often spelled "chilli," with a double "l" ("ll") and that spelling "generally" has carried over to countries with somewhat more recent strong ties to the United Kingdom, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and others. In the U.S., however, I have seen the spelling "chile," a spelling that matches the spelling of the nation of that name in South America, but to which the spelling is coincidental, as "chile," the pepper, and "Chile," the nation, have no connection in meaning or in word origin. And, by the way, non-Spanish speaking Americans usually pronounce "chili/chile con carne," as if, "chilly con carnie/carny."  

I made chapatis to have with my Chickpea Curry...

WORD HISTORY: 
Bouillon-This word is closely related to "boil." It goes back to Indo European "bhel," which had the notion of "swell, bloat out, to bulge," which gave Latin "bulla,"^ meaning, "knob, bubble" (that is, "air filled swellings") and this produced Latin "bullire," a verb meaning, "to bubble." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "bollir" ("to bubble, to ferment, to boil"). The participle form produced the noun, "bouillon," meaning, "broth made from boiling meat or vegetables." English borrowed the word in the mid 1600s.

Note: "Bouillon" in American English generally has come to mean "powdered or crystallized soup/broth base," but in other languages and elsewhere, it means "broth." I don't hear of "bouillon cubes" as much in recent years, but when I was a kid, "bouillon cubes" were little cubes of dried, concentrated beef or chicken broth wrapped in aluminum foil, if I remember right, and sold in small jars. A cube could be dissolved in a cup of hot water to make broth, and they were especially used for people who were recovering from illness, like the flu, a cold, or stomach upset. They had a good deal of salt, and thus, they helped soothe a sore throat. Now, I believe, they are more crystallized in form.  

Visit the Riviera at Home: Socca/Farinata

"Socca," also called, "farinata" in Italian, is a flatbread made from chickpea flour and it is a specialty of the Liguria region in northwestern Italy and also across the Franco-Italian border into the city of Nice in France. "Nice" in French, and "Nizza" in Italian, the area was part of Italy (actually the Kingdom of Sardinia, the forerunner of the modern united Italian nation) after Napoleon's defeat until 1860, when a treaty allowed it to be annexed to France, then under Napoleon III. The modern Italian border lies a little less than 25 miles away. This flatbread has its roots in the Liguria region of Italy, the coastal area of northwestern Italy, also known as the "Italian Riviera," which has Genoa as its most prominent city, as well as its capital, but it is also a specialty of Nice. The outside is crisp, but the inside should be soft and kind of creamy. You can eat the bread with a little salt and olive oil, or you can use any number of toppings on it, even making it into a pizza, which if you use the Italian form of Nice, you could call, "a Nizza pizza," and you could say, "Give me a piece o' Nizza pizza."

Ingredients:

1 cup chickpea flour
1 cup barely lukewarm water
1/2 tablespoon olive oil (more for pan & topping)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 teaspoon salt

Mix together the ingredients (a whisk is good to use), slowly adding the water while whisking, taking care to eliminate any lumps. Cover the batter and let it stand for about 45 minutes. Turn on the broiler of your oven. Also turn on the large burner of your stove top to medium high. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a 9 inch to 10 inch cast iron skillet.* Heat the skillet on the stove top until it just begins to smoke. Swirl the hot oil around in the pan, so that it coats part way up the sides of the skillet. Add the batter into the hot skillet, swirling the batter to form an even layer over the entire bottom of the skillet. Once the batter is "set" in the skillet and the edges begin to sizzle, remove the skillet from the stove top and place it on the oven rack about 6 inches from the broiler. Broil until the top is brown and it has some dark brown to even blackened spots on it. Serving: cut into wedges, sprinkle each with a little salt and pepper, then add a few drops of extra virgin olive oil onto each wedge.   

* In the Riviera region they have special pans for making socca/farinata, which are typically cast iron pizza pans. 

WORD HISTORY:
River/Riviera-These words are distantly related to "riven" and "rift," both of North Germanic origin from the Germanic form from Indo European. "River" goes back to Indo European "reip," which had the notion, "to tear, to tear through, to tear apart, to cut into." This gave Latin "ripa," meaning, "seashore, embankment/bank of a river," both from the idea of "land forms made by water 'cutting' through or into land." This then produced the Latin adjective, "riparius," meaning, "of or from a (river)bank (and also, 'a seashore?')," which then produced the noun  "riparia," meaning, "a riverbank, a seashore," but also the idea of "riverbank" began to be applied to the "flowing water that formed the banks;" thus, the meaning, "river." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "riviere," meaning, "river, riverbank." This was taken to England by the Normans as "rivere," meaning, "river," and this was borrowed into English in the first part of the 1200s. The Old French word was taken by Italian as "riviera," with the idea of "embankment/bank," taking the meaning, "shore, coast" in Italian, "seemingly" especially applied to the coast of the Genoa area by the mid 1600s, including in English, but then expanded to mean the coastline in northwestern Italy and into southern France in the 1800s, as this overall general area was a retreat many well to do Europeans used in winter.