Kadala Curry Recipe – Kerala Nadan Style
Kerala kadala curry with black chickpeas, roasted coconut and spices, served with puttu, appam or dosa.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup Black Chana / Kondakadalai about 200 g / 7 oz
- 1 tbsp Coconut oil about 14 g / 0.5 oz
- 2 Big Tomato about 240 g / 8.5 oz
- 1 Big onion about 150 g / 5 oz
- 1 tbsp Ginger, garlic paste about 15 g / 0.5 oz
- 1 Green chilli slitted; about 5 g
- ¼ tsp Turmeric powder about 0.75 g
- ¼ cup Coconut bits optional; about 20 g / 0.7 oz
- Water & salt as needed
To grind
- 2 tsp Coconut oil about 9 g / 0.3 oz
- ½ cup Grated coconut about 50 g / 1.8 oz
- 1 tbsp Red chilli powder about 8 g / 0.3 oz; I used Kashmiri chilli powder
- 1.5 tsp Dhania powder about 4 g / 0.1 oz
- ¼ tsp Turmeric powder about 0.75 g
- ½ no Big onion or 4 small onions; about 75 g / 2.6 oz
- 1 inch piece Cinnamon
- 3 Cloves
- 2 Cardamom
- ½ tsp Fennel seeds about 1 g
- Water as needed
To temper
- 1 tbsp Coconut oil about 14 g / 0.5 oz
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds about 3 g / 0.1 oz
- 1 Red chilli
- ½ Big onion chopped finely; I didn’t use it
- few Curry leaves
Instructions
- Wash and soak the chana overnight. It would be doubled in quantity after soaking. Slice the onion,chop tomato into small pieces. Set aside.
- Heat coconut oil in a pressure cooker and saute the onions, G&G paste till the raw smell of paste goes off. Now add the slitted green chilli, tomato pieces. Saute till tomato turns mushy.
- Add the coconut bits (if using) and saute well. Add the soaked chickpeas, turmeric powder, salt and 1.5 cups of water. Let it pressure cook in low flame for 2 whistles.
- In the mean time, heat coconut oil in a kadai and saute the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, onion, grated coconut, fennel seeds.Saute till grated coconut turns slightly golden.
- To this, add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, dhania powder and mix well.
- Let it cool. Then grind everything to a smooth paste adding enough water.
- After opening the cooker, add the ground paste, 1/2 cup of water and let it boil for few minutes till the gravy reaches desired consistency. When the gravy boils, check for taste.Add more salt or chilli powder if needed. If you want very thin, watery gravy add 1/4 cup more water. If you want thick, switch it off after boiling for sometime. I made it slightly thick.
- In a small kadai, heat coconut oil and splutter mustard seeds, pinched red chilli, chopped onions and curry leaves. Add to the gravy. Mix well and serve with puttu, appam, dosa !!
Notes
NOTE:
If you want to thicken the gravy, grind a handful of cooked chana to a paste and add it along with the coconut paste.
Adjust the spice powders as per your taste. Dhania seeds can be used instead of dhania powder. Do not add more water while cooking chana.
Do not add more water while cooking chana. Use only the needed else gravy will be too watery and you have to boil it for longer time to thicken it.