Chola Bhatura

With a complete host of spices cooked together with chickpeas such as bay leaf, cinnamon, cumin seeds, cloves, pepper corns, green and black cardamom, I am sure you wouldn’t be able to resist cooking this recipe again and again along with crispy, hot and fluffy bhaturas!

Ingredients of Chola Bhatura

For Bhatura

  • Wheat flour/ atta – ½ cup
  • Maida- ¼ cup
  • Sooji/ Rava – 2 tbsp
  • Salt – ¼ tsp
  • Sugar – ¼ to ½ tsp
  • Oil – 1 tbsp (for dough)
  • Curd – 2 tbsp
  • Baking soda – ¼ tsp
  • Water – 1 tbsp (approx.)
  • Oil – for deep frying

For Chole :

  • Chickpeas (channas)- 2 cups
  • Oil- 2 tsp
  • Bay leaf (tej patta) – 1
  • Cinnamon stick (dalchini)- 1
  • Cloves (laung) – 3-4
  • Whole pepper corns (sabut kali mirch) – 1 tsp
  • Green cardamom (choti elaichi) – 3
  • Black cardamom (badi elaichi) – 2
  • Turmeric powder (haldi) – 1 tsp
  • Chili powder (lal mirch powder) – 1 tsp
  • Coriander powder (dhaniya powder) – 1 tsp
  • Cumin powder (jeera powder) – 1 tsp
  • Cumin seeds (jeera) – 1 tsp
  • Asafoetida (heeng) – ½ tsp
  • Salt – To taste
  • Chopped onions – 1 cup
  • Chopped tomatoes – 1 cup
  • Ginger garlic paste -2 tsp
  • Ajwain -1 tsp
  • Lime juice – 1 tsp
  • Green chili – 1
  • Tea bag ( Optional ) – 1
  • Butter – 1 tbsp

INSTRUCTIONS

For Bhatura :

  1. In a bowl add whole wheat flour, maida, sooji/ rava, oil, curd and salt. Mix well and add water gradually to form stiff dough. Knead it well for around 5 minutes. Allow it to rest for 3 hours.
  2. After 3 hours knead the dough once then pinch a golf ball sized dough and roll it into a thin poori (circle) with a rolling pin. (Depending on the frying pan/ kadai size decide the size if the circle before rolling/ flattening the dough. (Repeat the process till all the dough is complete)
  3. Heat oil in a frying pan. Before frying bhatura drop a tiny ball of dough in the hot oil if it comes up immediately then the oil is ready.
  4. Put the flame on medium and slide one flattened dough in the hot oil. When it puffs flip it carefully and when done transfer it to a plate with paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the process till all the dough poories are fried. And tadaaa your bhaturas are all done!

For Chola :

  1. In a pan add oil, bay leaf, cinnamon, cumin seeds, cloves, whole pepper corns, green and black cardamom.
  2. After it gets brown ,add chopped onions and saute them. Now add the ginger and garlic paste.
  3. Followed by turmeric, chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, asafoetida and salt, fry all the ingredients together well.
  4. For de-glazing the pan add a little water.
  5. Now add the chole (soaked overnight and pressure cooked) to the masala.
  6. After stirring well add tomatoes, little sugar and salt to the chole.
  7. Now add ajwain, chopped green chilies and water for the base
  8. To get the color in the chole, add a tea bag to the masala (optional)
  9. Simmer the chole gently for an hour and cover it.
  10. Add lime juice and a dollop of butter to it.
  11. Garnish the chole with coriander and butter and serve them hot with bhaturas and Yayyyyy we’re all done!

And there you go , treat yourself with the lip smacking dish and share your experiences , experiments and feedback with me!

Until next recipe , Eat hearty!