Black Channa - Malabar Leaves (Basale soppu) Curry

Black Channa - Malabar Leaves curry is a gravy dish and it can be one of the side dish also.
Black channa is soaked in water for 5 to 6 hours and then cooked with Basale (Malabar leaves) leaves. The combination of black channa and the leaves is really nice and healthy too.
Let us see some benefits of having Black Channa in our diet.
Black channa ( chick peas) belong to the desi variety and have a good amount of fiber content and lower glycemic index. The seeds are excellent sources of protein. They are low in fat, high in dietary fiber, rich in vitamins and minerals.  Using black chickpeas is a healthy addition to our diet. It helps to lower the cholesterol, stabilizes the blood sugar in the body and good for prevention of diabetes. It contains good source of iron and it is rich in anti oxidants. Black Chickpeas are good for treating people who are suffering from kidney stones and jaundice. They can soak a handful of chickpeas at night and eat the seeds in the morning and drink the water to quench their thirst. They contain soluble fiber and adding black chickpea can be a healthy addition to our diet.
We can have this " Black Channa - Malabar Leaves" curry with plain rice, chapatis, rotis, naans, idli, dosa or even with bread. 
No Onions or Garlic added in this curry.
These Basale Leaves are from my garden and I feel so happy to use these healthy leaves.

Things Needed : 

Malabar leaves : 1 Bowl
Black Channa : 1Cup
Toor dal :2 Handful (1/4 Cup)
Rasam Powder : 2 Table spoons
Garam Masala powder : 1/2 Tea spoon
Tamarind pulp or Lemon juice : 1 Table spoon
Jaggery :1 Table spoon
Jeera : 1 Tea spoon
Oil : 1 Tea spoon full
Ingh : a pinch
Curry leaves : 5 to 6
Coriander Leaves : 2 Table spoons.
Green chilly : 2
Salt : required

Method :      

1. Wash and cut, Malabar leaves (basale soppu), coriander leaves and keep it aside. Slit green chilly.

2. Wash and soak black chenna for about 6 to 8 hours and pressure cook for 10 minutes. (It should be soft).

3. Wash and pressure cook toor dal and keep it aside.
4. Now keep a big pan on the fire and put water. Let it boil. Add basale leaves and cook till they are soft.

5. Add cooked black chickpeas, toor dal, salt, tamarind pulp, jaggery, slit green chilly and turmeric powder.

6. Mix it well and let it boil for 3 to 4 minutes.

7. Add rasam powder, garam masala powder and mix it well. Let it cook for another 2 minutes.

8. Add jeera, ingh and curry leaves splutter to the ready curry. Shift it to a serving bowl.

9. Add coriander leaves and serve with main dish you have prepared.

Note :

Chickpeas should be cooked well. You can reduce or increase the amount of jaggery.  You can add onions and garlic if you wish to. Adding a spoon of fresh ghee will add to the taste of the curry. The consistency can be thick or like sambar as you wish. You can add little butter instead of ghee just before serving. I have used MTR Rasam powder. (choice is yours). Home made rasam powder is the best.
Time : Cooking Time 30 minutes +  Chickpeas Soaking time  5 to 6 hours or over night.
Serves : 4 to 5.

Raw Banana Bajji (Pakodas).

Banana Bajjis or fritters are very famous and it is nice to munch with a cup of coffee or tea. You should eat these Bajjis when they are piping hot to get the total joy. I like fried things. Though they are not good for health you tend to eat some time. People say you should drink a cup of hot water when you have fried items. So drinking tea or coffee will surely serve the purpose.
Chinese and Japanese should be remembered here because of their life style. They have a practice, that after every meal they do drink plain tea (without milk) or soup. You should note both are piping hot. It helps them to digest food they have eaten.    
I just picked some raw bananas when I went to buy some vegetable near by grocery. After seeing them I felt like eating some banana bajji and thought of preparing bajjis.
I used gram flour (besan flour), a little bit of rice flour, jeera, salt and chilly powder. I did not add cooking soda because though they give crispiness to the pakoda, they absorb oil. I had no plan to keep these pakodas. The idea of adding cooking soda is to get the crisp.
 This is simple and quick recipe and you can have these " Raw banana bajji " for  lunch as one of the munch or as snack along with cup of coffee or tea or anytime of the day simply to munch. You can crushed garlic to the batter if you are fond of garlic. ( I did not).

Ingredients :

Channa (Besan ) flour : 1 Cup
Rice flour : 2 Table spoons
Chilly Powder : 1 tea spoon
Raw Banana : 1
Cumin seeds : 1/2 Tea spoon
Salt : to taste
Water : required
Oil : 1 Cup

Method :

1. Wash and remove the outer layer of raw banana and cut them into thin slice and put them in water. ( otherwise they turn black).

2. Now put channa flour, rice flour, chilly powder, cumin seeds (jeera) and salt in a bowl. Mix it nicely.

3. Add required water and prepare batter. (Add water little by little to prepare batter).

4. Keep a small pan on the fire and put oil and heat.
5. Remove banana slices from water and keep them aside.
6. Now take a piece of cut banana slice and dip in channa batter and put it slowly in hot oil and fry on both sides

7. Remove from the pan and put it on the kitchen tissue, so that extra oil will be absorbed by the kitchen tissue.

8. Repeat the same with remaining slices and prepare bajjis.
9. Serve with any chutney or tomato ketchup and a cup of tea or coffee.
10. We had Raw Banana Bajji with coconut, coriander leaves chutney.

 Note :  The batter should be like idli batter. Take care while mixing with water. The batter should not be watery. Watery batter will surely absorb more oil. As I said above adding crushed garlic is optional. 
Preparation time : 10 minutes.
Frying time : 10 minutes.
Serves  3.