The Indian subcontinent · Volume 15, The Trami, the Boti and a Kitchen Split Three Ways
Chana madra
Himachal Pradesh, Hindu lowland belt, dham tradition
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Hands on 1 hour · Waiting 8 hours
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
The centrepiece of a Himachali dham, chickpeas cooked in yoghurt and khoya with a traditional spice count repeated everywhere as roughly twenty, though this chapter could not find a single source that itemises all twenty, a real gap worth naming rather than inventing a list to fill.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 to 6. Overnight soaking, then about 1 hour.
Ingredients
- 300 g chickpeas, soaked overnight
- 300 g yoghurt
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 4 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 100 g khoya
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- to taste salt
Method
- Boil the soaked chickpeas until tender.
- Whisk the yoghurt smooth.
- In a heavy pan, warm the ghee and add the bay leaf, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon stick, then add the whisked yoghurt gradually, stirring continuously over low heat so it does not split.
- Stir in the khoya, turmeric and Kashmiri red chilli powder, then add the cooked chickpeas and simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes, uncovered, until the gravy thickens around them.
- No onion or garlic is used at any stage. Season with salt.
Notes
The traditional spice count for this dish is repeated everywhere as roughly twenty, though this chapter could not find a single source that itemises all twenty; that gap is named rather than filled with an invented list.
What a modern chef changes
Sous vide chickpeas, a sous vide gravy and a doubled spice base
Builds on rung 2
Method
- Cook the chickpeas sous vide. Hold them at a controlled temperature for a fully even texture through the whole batch, rather than the uneven doneness a large pot can give.
- Hold the gravy sous vide. Add the yoghurt in a sous vide bath exactly as for the Kashmiri yakhni technique, since the underlying physics is identical even though the two traditions arrive at it separately.
- Make the khoya at home. Reduce milk slowly, with the dehydrator's low, steady heat assisting the final stage, rather than relying on a bought product of uncertain freshness.
- Double the spice base. Grind a fresh whole-spice blend in a dedicated spice grinder immediately before cooking, and dust it lightly over the finished dish as well as building it in.