Long back I was working with an advertising agency, and person helping with advertisement was amazed with the fact that India Channa (Indian Chick pea) is so versatile, there are so many recipes with whole channa, with dehusked, splitted channa dal, flour from whole roasted channa (sattu), flour from dal (besan); All these can be used for savory as well as sweet recipes.
In Indian Summers, when green vegetables are scarce, gravy made out of besan are very popular, here I share another recipe. Ghatte refers to boiled, shallow fried besan dumplings.
Ingredients for ghatte
1 cup besan
1/2-3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and red chili powder, each
salt as per taste
Ingredients for gravy
1 cup water
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 bay leaf
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 green cardamom pod
3-4 cloves
1 big onion sliced thin
2 tablespoon of oil
Method
Add all ingredients listed under ghatte except water and mix with hand, then by slowly adding water make a sticky dough. Grease your palm and take handful of dough and between palm roll into thin cylinders. Boil water in a wok, once water is rolling boil, slowly dip these cylinders, after 5-7 minutes color will change, then slowly take them out. Once, little cool, cut them into individual discs. Take oil in a wok and shallow fry these disc batch wise.
Add some more oil in the same wok. Add bay leaf, cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves, let it splutter. Add onions, fry till brown, mix garlic paste, coriander, cumin, red chili, turmeric with 1 tablespoon of water and add. Fry till oil separates, then add sauteed ghattas, mix to ensure all ghattas are nicely coated with spices, then add water, let the gravy simmer for 7-10 minutes, adjust water quantity according to consistency you need. Ghatte ki sabji taste best with plain rice.
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