Kaala channa and chaawal

Cooking tonight's dinner was a time consuming activity. My original plan was to order in a Lasagna from this place: . But they stopped making the vegetarian version as no one ever ordered it:(.. I guess I shouldn't have waited so long. So I moved to plan B. Which was to make some thing at home. I decided to make 'Kaala channa and chaawal' which roughly translates to Black chick peas in a gravy with rice. Some more information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickpea

This one is a bit time consuming by my standards, so reserve a good half hour of cooking and stirring.

Ingredients:

For the channa/cblack chickpeas:
I used one pre-boiled can of kala channa ( visit that Turkish store again!). Remember to wash the brine off thoroughly!
4 cloves
1 cardamom sticks
2 or 3 cinnamons
1 or 2 bay leaves

Boil all of this in some water, while you make the gravy

For the gravy:
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped tomato
1 clove crushed garlic
similar amount of crushed ginger
2 green chillies chopped (use 1 if you like it less hot)


Spices ( and there's many this time!) for the gravy:
1 spoon whole cumin
1 spoon red chilli
1 spoon coriander powder
1 spoon cumin powder
1 spoon dry methi/fenugreek leaves crushed
1 spoon turmeric/haldi
1/2 spoon garam masala
Salt to taste

How to cook the gravy:
Heat some oil and add the whole cumin and wait for it to splutter.
Add the chopped onion and stir till the onion turns brown. Takes 5 minutes
Add the garlic, ginger and chopped green chilli
Stir, stir and stir for 2 minutes
Add the tomato and the rest of the spices
Stir, stir and stir for 10 minutes

Scoop out around 3 spoons of channa from the boiling pot with channa in it.
Mash it and add it to the gravy mix
Stir some more - 2 minutes
Add the rest of the channa and 1.5 cup of the water in which the channa was boiling.
Let it cook for 20 minutes

I am writing this while the channa is cooking. So I don't know what its like yet. But it smells good...

Serve hot white basmati rice, when done!