Hello Mamta,

In India (dehradun) there is a restaurant "sardarji da dhaba" where i always go for its choley bhaturey. The gravy of choley is thick and not watery and the taste is wonderful. I have never achieved this kind of taste and consistency with the recipe i cook. Is it due to the fact that the choley in the restaurant is always kept in a simmer for long periods of time???

Hello Rajneesh

North India and Punjab has numerous Sardarji ka dhabbas, LOL! And yes, they do make lovely cholae. This may be due to the fact that they make it every single day, for years and years and get perfect at it! Some of the taste/colour is because they boil the cholas with a little bit of soda bicarb. They are cooked quite soft, not at all like the tinned chickpeas, which are quite firm. I do have a couple of Pindi Chola recipes here, but they are not as perfect as Chola wallas.

for what its worth...

Tinned chickpeas ?... I've bought 2 different types of tinned chickpeas, one lot was at best "ok" abd the other revolting.. had a terrible flavour to them that I couldn't mask with a lot of garlic and lemon when making houmous... neither came anywhere near to soaking your own !

Steve

I agree Steve, fresh boiled ones are miles better. Soaked overnight and then boiled in a pressure cooker, they don't that long to cook.

I use KTC brand tinned chickpeas.....which i presume does taste like chickpeas!! But yes, nowadays due to lack of time tinned ones are used, and maybe i have forgotten the taste....so I am going to soak it overnight during the weekend when i am inviting some people over for my son's birthday.

The napolina tinned chickpeas are really good, but cooking them yourself is best.

If you have a pressure cooker, it really is a doddle (or is it doodle?) to cook them, and many other whole dals etc.