Kerala Kadala Curry

Kerala kadala curry is black chickpeas cooked in authentic Kerala style. Its no surprise that Malayalees love coconuts. We come from the land of coconuts! That is why we like some curries with the taste of coconut mixed with pepper and coriander powder. Hence this way of cooking chickpeas involves a coconut milk based gravy, spiced up with pepper and coriander powder.
I made this for a breakfast get-together with our friends here with Vellayappams. The North Indians among them liked it as well!

Here goes -

Ingredients

Pressure cooking chickpeas:
2 cups kadala (black chickpeas)
2 Tsp Turmeric powder
2 Tsp Red chilly powder
Gravy:
Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
5 green chillies, chopped
1 Tsp ginger paste
1 Tsp garlic paste
1 Tsp Turmeric powder
1 Tsp Red chilly powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder
2 Tsp ground pepper
Salt to taste
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
some curry leaves
3 Tbsp oil
Coconut paste:
3/4 cup scraped coconut
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves
2 cardomom pods
1 Tsp ground pepper
1 Tsp coriander powder

• Soak kadala (black chickpeas) overnight in some salted water
• Pressure cook kadala with enough water and spices under 'Pressure cooking chickpeas', till about 7 whistles. Set aside.
• Heat a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan and roast cloves, cardomom and chopped onion mentioned under 'Coconut paste'
• After color of onions changes, add coconut. Once coconut is roasted to a light brown, add spices mentioned here, roast for some more minutes and set aside to cool.
• In same saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and spurt mustard seeds. Add chopped onions. When it starts to change colour, add ginger-garlic paste and chopped green chillies
• When the above is cooked, add chopped tomatoes. Then add the spices mentioned under 'gravy'
• When tomatoes are tender, add the cooked chickpeas along with the water. Let this come to boil on low heat
• Mean while, grind the roasted coconut mixture to a fine paste adding very minimum water
• Add this paste and the coconut milk to the kadala gravy and let this boil for about 2 minutes
• Season with curry leaves

Kerala kadala curry is ready! This delicious and spicy gravy is best had with appams, puttu or noolappam. Yummy!