I am looking for the perfect chickpea dumpling recipe using chickpea flour rather than whole cooked chickpeas. can you help me?

1. You mean Besan/gram flour when you say Chickpea flour, don't you Annie?

2. Describe to me what exactly you are looking for. Is it koftas made with besan flour, adding onion/green chillies/some other vegetable etc. or Besan gattae curry? Here are a few examples;

Gatte-Chickpea (Bengal Gram) Flour Square Curry

Gattae-Chickpea (Bengal Gram) Flour Rolls Curry

Gattae-Spinach and Chickpea (Bengal Gram) Flour Rolls Curry

although besan flour is made from chickpeas, the pea in question is the small one which is indigenous to India, not the larger one of Mediterranean origin. Just sayin' ;?)

Yes, you are right Lapis. It is the black gram or Bengal gram. But I have left the word 'chickpea' in the name, because most people outside India know it as such.

black gram (kala chana) has been roasted, and is my chana of choice, when I can get it (in cans). Bengali chana is the desi chana, or Indian chickpea, whereas Kabuli chana (ie, chickpeas from Kabul in Afghanistan, meaning, 'not from India') is the larger Mediterranean chickpea.

This is so because the larger chickpea does not grow too well in India, whereas the smaller one does. I think the ratio of big/small grown in India is 1:9.

My last post is slightly incorrect. I meant Bengal Gram or Kala Chana, not black gram. Though Black Gram, when literally translated, means kala chana, it isn't! It is actually the English name of whole Urad or Urid. I know it is confusing, but this is how it is.

Mamta

I beg to differ. Kala channa is black (at least on the outside) because it has been roasted. Kala channa is roasted desi channa, urad dhal being quite different, being a similar size and shape to mong/mung dhal.

Black Gram=Whole Urad; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_gram.jpg

Bengal Gram=kala Chana or desi chana (desi means local to India). Bengal Gram is often referred to as black chickpeas, but it is not black, it is medium to dark brown.

Both Bengal Gram and Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) have same botanical name but when I was young, I was always given to understand that they are not the same. They look different and have a completely different taste and flavour, though the shape is same. I can be wrong about that, I accept.

When Black gram is roasted, it gets a little bit darker, but not quite black. I see them being roasted on each visit to India, because I love freshly roasted kala chanas and whole peanuts and have to go to the Bharbhooja, the man who roasts them, to buy them hot!

I would agree that desi chana and Kabuli chana are the same species, but different varieties, or cultivars, because of the reasons given above.

Black gram seems to be applied to urad (whole) or desi chana with the skins on. The latter can be roasted, when they get very dark brown to black.

I prefer tinned kala chana as I feel some of the canned chickpeas I tried have not been cooked enogh and end up like pistol shot!

"When Black gram is roasted:

Oops, I did it again! I meant "when Bengal gram is roasted"! It really is quite easy to get the names mixed up! Doh!