My friend M is expecting her first baby. She is a huge fan of Harry Potter. She always talked so passionately about Harry Potter and how she would read the book to her baby whenever she had a baby. Much before she even got pregnant, I wanted to bake and decorate a Harry Potter cake for her. Last month, I got together with some of our common friends and decided to have a baby shower for her. I immediately knew what I was going to make for her. A Harry Potter baby shower cake.
We decided to keep it simple and asked everyone to get something that she really loves. We had pani puri, kachori-chole chaat, pakodi kadi-rice, paneer subzi-naan. Every dish was so good.
I knew I would not have much time to make too many things. My weekdays have become a little overwhelming with work, kids classes, cooking and other hundred things. I was a bit stressed out that I would probably not have enough time to finish the cake. I am so glad it all worked out. M loves chocolate cake, so I baked this chocolate cake . The icing was my salted buttercream . I wanted to make all the toppers with white chocolate as I did for this cake . I made the baby with white modeling chocolate, but after that, I just could not get it into required consistency. I totally panicked as I had very less time and I did not want to keep trying it. So I got marzipan (made of almond paste) from store and made rest of the toppers. M loved the cake so much. All the hard work was paid off when I saw her totally loving the cake. Although I got stressed during the whole process, every one of my cakes make me realize how much I love working on them. I am already looking forward to my next one!.
Few months back when my parents were here, my friend had invited us for dinner. She is one of the few Konkani friends I have here in KS and we always have a great time when we meet. Our kids love to play with each other while we talk about everything under the sun. She made a delicious spread for us and there was one dish – this black chana hara masala, (which is what I have named it by the way) that my aayi particularly liked a lot. She even got the recipe from my friend.
Then in January, my entire family was down with flu and my friend brought me a few dishes as care package. This dish was one of the 4 dishes she brought. That was the week we all had lost our sense of taste because of fever and we did not like anything we ate. But then my husband, who does not care much for any beans/chickpeas, really enjoyed this. I asked my friend for the recipe again and I have made it few times since then.
Also try chane ghashi , chane-kele upkari , chana chaat .
Pictorial: Cook soaked chana with a pinch of turmeric. Then make the spice paste.
Black Chickpeas in Green Masasla(Black Chana Hara Masala)
Ingredients
- 1 cup black chickpeas
- A pinch turmeric
- 1/2 cup onion
- 1 tea spn garam masala optional
- Oil
- Salt
- For the paste:
- 1/2 cup coriander leaves Along with thick stems
- 3 green chillies
- 1 tea spn ginger pieces
- 3-4 cloves
- 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds
- 1 tbl spn dried or desiccated coconut
- 1/2 cup tomato optional
Instructions
- Soak chickpeas in water for 6-8hrs.
- Pressure cook them with a pinch of turmeric (about 4 whistles).
- Make a paste of coriander leaves, ginger, green chillies, cloves, cumin seeds, coconut, tomato(optional).
- Heat a little oil in the pressure cooked pan and fry onions.
- When they are translucent, add chana, garam masala and the paste, salt.
- Mix everything well and pressure cook again for 2 whistles.
- Serve with rice or chapatis.
