Recipe for Green Vatana/Dried Peas curry/Chana Roce with coconut

• After the peas have soaked for 5-6 hrs or overnight, wash them thoroughly and boil it in the pressure cooker by giving it just one whistle on medium flame.

  Note:- if the peas have soaked for more than 6 hours, one whistle is just enough. 

  The peas don’t have to be fully cooked. Ensure that they are slightly hard because we have to further cook them at a later stage 
• As soon as the whistle blows, turn off the flame and allow all the steam from the pressure cooker to be released and only then open the cooker
• Keep it aside
• Now in a vessel or skillet, add the ghee/coconut oil/vegetable oil, whichever you’re using and place the vessel on medium flame 
• Once the oil turns hot, add in the mustard seeds and let it sputter

  Note:- the best way to check if the oil is well heated is to add one or two mustard seeds into the hot oil and if it crackles/sputters, it means you can put all the mustard seeds into the oil. If mustard seeds are thrown into oil that is not hot enough, it won’t sputter and will give a very bitter taste
• Once the mustard seeds sputter, add in the curry leaves
• Then add in the onions, tomatoes and chillies and saute until the onions turn translucent 
• Then add in the garlic ginger paste and mix well
• Cover the vessel with a lid and let it cook until the ginger garlic paste cooks well and there’s no raw smell of the ginger garlic paste left
• Simultaneously, make a smooth fine curry paste out of the coconut and Goan masala powder or Garam masala powder(whichever you’re using) in a mixer grinder

  Note:- if you can manage to dry roast the grated coconut before making the paste, the curry will taste much better. But if you can’t,don’t worry, it’s fine, you can make the curry as it is
• Add the curry paste into the vessel
• Add about 2 cups water into the mixer in which the masala was made, give it a nice shake and add all the water into the vessel.

  Remember, we don’t waste any precious Masala😉
• Add the Peas, Turmeric powder, tamarind pulp, Maggi cube if using and Salt into the vessel, Mix it well and cover the vessel with a lid
• Allow this to boil well.

  Remember, we have given only one whistle to the peas because it is further going to cook at this stage. If the pease are over cooked in the pressure cooker, it will turn mushy at this stage
• Allow this to boil for about 7-10 minutes and then add the fresh coriander leaves
• After 2 minutes, turn off the gas flame 
• Enjoy this curry Hot with some Hot Bread, Poee or Chapatis some like it with Rice as well😋

Follow these steps to make the Ginger Garlic paste

• 1) Add the following into a mixer grinder*100 gms Garlic (skinned and roughly chopped)*60 gms Ginger (thoroughly washed and roughly chopped. Some people like to remove the skin of the ginger. I don’t. However, you can do it the way you are comfortable :)-Grind these two ingredients to a thick fine paste-Transfer this paste into an Air Tight container-As soon as the paste is ready, it will be hot, due to the pressure of the mixer rotation. Please wait until the paste has turned completely cool and only then cover it with a lid-Ginger Garlic paste should be stored in the refrigerator. It can be stored up to 15-20 days

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