Kaale Chane

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun. I'm quite big on fitness and how my body looks. Okay, fine, you got me. I'm obsessed with it. For years, I've been hitting the gym nearly every single day, with the sole purpose of pushing myself until I find my breaking point. And not just the gym, I played football twice a week, went swimming, I even did the Insanity workout! Twice! Fortunately for me though, my body has a tendency not to put on weight, so it's been easier for me to sculpt my body the way I like, without me having to give up on eating certain foods, or drinking certain beverages. I do however, try to avoid things that I know are bad for the body and that I can do without. For instance, I avoid fizzy drinks, or anything with too much sugar; I've swapped sugar for honey in my milkshakes, and I've cut back on processed foods. I'm not a fanatic by any means, I still eat and drink this stuff, but a lot less than I used to, simply because it's easy to.

I've worked out with a lot of partners, and taken advice from a lot of trainers, and despite their different approaches to training and nutrition, they are all united in their advice on protein intake. Simply put, your body needs it. You can get protein from a variety of sources like meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and even supplements like whey. Whey is pretty good and I've used it intermittently after workouts where I've really pushed myself, but I'm not big on supplements so I tend to stick more to the natural things. Also, a steak dinner is heaven after a long, hard workout! But if you're vegetarian, or not keen on eating chicken and eggs all the time, it helps to have alternatives that taste good. (I mean peanuts taste good, but how many can you eat?) A lot of my recipes, are protein rich (if you hold back on the fat), and are most excellent to eat after a weekend morning workout. Rajma, dal, chicken, the works. 

Today's recipe is an addition to the long list of things that are rich in protein that you can eat that taste pretty darn good if you ask me!

For my Kaale Chane, you will need the following:

Kaale chane (black chickpeas)	250 gms
Onion	1 large
Tomatoes	2 large
Ginger garlic paste	2 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	2 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	1 tsp
Red chilli powder	2 tsp
Garam masala	1 tsp
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Soak the kaale chane in water overnight.
2. Grate the onion.
3. Pureé the tomatoes. (Or just use tomato pureé.)

Method:

1. Toss the floating chane.
2. Drain the water from the chane.
3. Grab a pressure cooker.
4. Bounce the chane in.
5. Add water until the chane are submerged 3 fingers deep.
6. Pinch in some salt.
7. Lock the pressure cooker.
8. Turn the gas on. 
9. Crank it up to high.
10. Bung the cooker on.
11. Wait impatiently for the first whistle.
12. Drop the heat on the cooker burner to low and leave it for 30-35 minutes. (Ignore all the sounds your cooker makes in this time.)
13. Turn the burner off.
14. Wait for the steam to escape the cooker. (Don't open it!)
15. Put on another burner.
16. Bung a saucepan/kadhai on.
17. Splash in some oil.
18. Count to 20.
19. Slap in the onions.
20. Cook the onions until brown. (The onions, not you. Otherwise I would end up cooking the onions for 0 seconds.)
21. Pop in the ginger garlic paste.
22. Cook until the onions get dark brown.
23. Sprinkle in the coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, and garam masala.
24. Mix.
25. Add in a dash of water.
26. Mix until the powders blend in with the onion.
27. Pour in the pureed tomatoes.
28. Cook until the oil separates from the tomatoes.
29. Drop the heat to low.
30. Shift your attention to the pressure cooker.
31. Lift the weight to let out any lingering steam
32. Open the cooker. (The chane should be soft; not quite like white chickpeas or rajma, but soft nonetheless.)
33. Fish out the chane and add them into the tomato-onion base. (Don't pour the water away. That is liquid gold!)
34. Add salt to taste.
35. Cook for a minute or two.
36. Pour in the chane-water from the cooker into the kadhai.
37. Mix well.
38. Crank the heat up to bring the contents to a boil, then drop to low and let it simmer.
39. Turn gas off.
40. Sprinkle on some garam masala.
41. Let it rest (lid on) for a few minutes.
42. Serve with (jeera) rice.
43. Stuff face.
44. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: If you have any left over, you can dry the liquid out (I just pour it into a bowl and chug it), throw in some chopped onions, tomatoes, cucumber, green chillies, coriander, squeeze on some lemon juice, and sprinkle on some chaat masala to make a most excellent salad.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!