Channa Tondak | Blog Hop Wednesday

How time flies by? It feels as if it was only yesterday that Radhika had sent us a mail regarding Blog Hop and we had some interesting email exchanges and then everything got finalized and is in full swing now. I can’t believe we are already into the 3rd week of Blog Hopping. Through this I have been introduced to many new blogger friends.

This time around, I landed in Raksha’s space. I came by her space through the blog hop and am glad to have found it. She has a good collection of recipes with a few traditional Goan recipes. I wanted to try out something different and Goan recipes are something very new to me. I decided to try out this simple but authentic recipe of Channa Tondak. I have followed her recipe to the T adjusting only the spice levels. You can find the original recipe here.

The result was something very similar to the Kerala Kadala Curry with flavors of Whole coriander seeds and peppercorns. I also loved the addition of tamarind in it rather than always using tomatoes for the tanginess. Now to the recipe:

Serves: 3 – 4

What you’ll need:

1. Brown Channa - 1 cup
2. Potato – 1 medium
3. Onion - 3 medium sized
4. Scraped Fresh Coconut – ½ cup
5. Whole Coriander Seeds – 2 tsps
6. Black Peppercorns – 7 to 8
7. Dried Red Chillies – 2
8. Cloves – 2
9. Garlic – 4 pods
10. Tamarind - marble sized ball
11. Turmeric Powder – a big pinch
12. Salt to taste
13. Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Soak Channa overnight. Drain the water, wash well and pressure cook it with the potato. Keep aside.
Heat Kadai, dry roast the coriander seeds, peppercorns, red chillies and cloves till nice aroma comes. Transfer to a plate and keep aside.

Now add ½ tbsp of oil in the same Kadai, add the sliced onions and sauté for few minutes next add the chopped garlic and fry for another 2 minutes. Now add the scraped coconut and fry in medium flame till the coconut changes color slightly, finally add the tamarind and switch off the flame. This is to ensure that the tamarind becomes soft.

Once the above ingredients have cooled, grind everything, i.e, the coriander seeds, peppercorns, red chillies, cloves and the fried onion, coconut and tamarind to a fine paste using little water.

Now heat a Kadai, with the remaining oil, add the ground paste, a pinch of turmeric powder, cooked Channa , diced potatoes and salt to taste. Add about ½ to 1 cup of water depending upon the consistency and let everything boil together for about 5 to 8 minutes in medium flame. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Hot and tasty Channa Tondak is ready. Serve with rotis or phulkas.

Note:

You can use any variety of legumes for preparing this like dried green peas, Kabuli Channa etc.

Now let's check out what our other blogger friends are upto.

Linking this to Blog Hop Wednesday and MLAA - 38

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