Indian Spiced Chickpea Gravy (Chole)

From https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/08/indian-spiced-chickpea-gravy-chole.html

This was my second time making this. We never have all the ingredients for the recipe, so each time involved me substituting different things and I don’t think they’re very comparable. The ingredients below show my substitutions with the originals in parentheses.

Ingredients

• 125 g dry chickpeas (~240 g soaked)
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom (1 black cardamom pod in original)
• 1 inch piece cinnamon
• 1 bay leaf
• 15 peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander (3 teaspoons whole seeds in the original)
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 dry New Mexico Chili (2 dry kashmiri chillis in original. I thought the New Mexico Chili was a good substitution for low heat and red.)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
• (1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste in original)
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 teaspoon ginger powder
• 1 can diced tomatoes (2 large tomatoes in original. I would have preferred the original, but we didn’t have any.)
• 1/2 tamarind broth cube (1 teaspoon amchur or dry mango powder in original, but we live in a house that likes Filipino dishes so we have tamarind instead, which the internet told me was a good substitute)
• Omitted (2 small Indian or Thai green chilies, split in half in original. I was trying to avoid heat in this recipe.)
• Omitted (Kosher salt in the original, but was unnecessary with the tamarind broth cubes, salty chickpea water, and maybe other substitutions)

Process

1. Place the chickpeas in a medium bowl and cover with warm water by 2 inches. Let soak for 12 hours. Transfer soaked chickpeas and their liquid to a pressure cooker. Seal and heat over medium-low heat to low pressure. Cook until chickpeas easily break down, about 25 minutes after they come to pressure. Release pressure and set aside to cool.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add black cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, and Kashmiri chillies. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool and then grind in a coffee grinder till completely powdered. My substitutions from the original meant that I added the New Mexico chili instead of Kashmiri and I only added the powdered coriander and cardamom when grinding.
3. Heat oil in the same pan on medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Create ginger-garlic paste by combining garlic and powdered ginger and add to the onions. Stir until the raw smell of the paste disappears, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, until the tomatoes break down and the oil separates, about 10 minutes. Add tamarind broth cube. Stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the powdered spice blend and stir until fragrant. At this stage, add a few teaspoons of water in case the spices stick to the bottom of the pan as they tend to burn easily. Cook, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Add the boiled chickpeas. If too dry, add some of the water the chickpeas were boiled in, stir, and simmer for 10 minutes so that the chickpeas absorb the spices. Garnish with coriander leaves, onion rings and serve with rotis, bhaturas (deep fried bread), or rice.

Impressions

This was a very flavorful dish. I enjoyed it and I think the rest of the family did, too. I plan on making it again. We ate it with the Sous-Vide-Que Chicken and the strong flavor of this dish overpowered the chicken. I’m not quite sure what this dish would go well with. I’m sure cooks of Indian cuisine know so I’ll have to search around. I don’t know if I’d be happy with this being my main dish (though I think that’s how we ate it the first time I made it), so it feels like it needs more than the suggested breads or rice.