Ho jaye kuch gup shup aur Benaras ki galiyon ka nashta!

My first month of food blogging is ending on a happy note today with the very cute "good chat award" from swati.I would love to pass on this award to all of you great bloggers and chatters, and in particular these two bloggers whose posts make me smile, reflect, and laugh.

bhags of crazy curry: She rides a bike, reads Proust, loves snacking, and refers to her husband as Mr. Kanth, whose stories I so enjoy reading about.Read this post to see how she outwits Mr. Kanth.

arundathi of my food blog: a pro with chopsticks , who enjoys fast driving and is helping a friend set up her kitchen. Here she even has a riddle..see if you can guess this one.

And now, to celebrate the joys of chatting, or gapashtik, as my dear hubby likes to call it in lucknowi hindi, I want to share what I consider , a great find of a recipe which I chanced upon several years ago. This recipe was contributed by Supriyo Dey at Bawarchi and this is what Supriyo says about it:

"I am contributing an authentic and easiest recipe that I learnt from my mom. This is a traditonal Benarsi breakfast sold with Hing ki kachori and Jalebi, in every "raasta" and "galis "of Varanasi "

This recipe has that distinctive street food aroma, and is healthy to boot.You can easily team it with roti or parantha and if you want to have it with rice, just retain the gravy, and it will pair up fabulously !

After making it exactly as per this recipe the first time, I have made a slight variation of cooking the chana before adding the rest of the ingredients, as otherwise it remains a bit undercooked for my liking. Do check out the original recipe to decide how you prefer it.

Ingredients

1 medium Eggplant cut in big pieces
1 medium sized Potatoes cubed
1/4 cup Black Grams (kaala chana) soaked overnight
1 big Tomato chopped roughly
one inch piece of Ginger, chopped or grated
1/2 tsp Panchphoran
a pinch of Hing
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp Chilli powder
1/2 tsp Amchoor
1/4 tsp Garam Masala

Method:

Pressure cook chana with 2 cups water for 3 to 4 whistles, and keep aside. Meanwhile, heat 3 tsp oil in a non stick wok. Add hing, followed by Panchphoran, turmeric and chilli powder. Add eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes and stir till tomatoes turn a bit mushy.

Add this to the cooker with chana (including the water in which it was cooked) and add salt to taste, half of the ginger and green chillies. Pressure cook for another 2 to 3 whistles.

Once the cooker releases steam, take the lid off and mash some vegetables to thicken the gravy. Lastly, add the grated ginger, garam masala and amchoor, and cook till it reaches the consistency you like.




Since we were having it with pooris, I cooked it till the gravy became pretty thick.



Serve it to your gang of friends with your favourite kachori or pooris, garma garam chai and lots of gossip!