Khanavalitli chanya bhaji

Khanavalitli chanya bhaji ( Goan small hotel chana bhaji):

Khanaval means small roadside hotels built up to meet the basic hungry pranks of many people passing by. Many shopkeepers, labourers, people working in any small scale working area come to khanaval to meet their morning breakfast, lunch and evening hungry pranks. 

In Goa, thus small roadside hotels are built at many many places wherein they serve simple yet delicious food. The morning breakfast always consists of bhaji pao which means a chana bhaji served with bread. In addition to bhaji pao they serve buns, samosa, batatawada, mirchi bhaji, misal pao. There is only this much on their morning menu. It's served at the cheapest rates so that many low income people can meet their stomach needs. Same goes in the evening snack menu. It's also prepared in smaller quantities as per the amount of people visiting their hotel. Lunch includes a fish thali or a veg thali. But their food is always delicious. Go to any khanaval in Goa and you will never be disappointed with respect to taste of food nor your pocket. 

We Goans never feel low to visit any khanaval for our food need. Whenever there is any feast or zatra at the famous temples of Goa, small tapris like khanavals are built and people of Goa enjoy their every bite there and go satisfied. 

So today in my kitchen I tried to prepare such khanaval style chana bhaji and to my surprise it turned out exactly the same which I relished in one of the khanavals long back. The taste of that bhaji always relished on my tongue. It's in Savordem and similar one I tasted in a small hotel at Borda. People just gather in huge crowds to relish such chana bhaji as we Goans prepare chanyache tonak but the tonak taste is entirely different from this kind chana bhaji. It's relished with pao and so called bhaji pao in Goa ( Not pao bhaji😁).

So I thought of sharing the recipe the way I prepared it. 

So let's go.

Ingredients and method:

Soak 2 cups of Green vatana (Chana)- the dry green peas chana in sufficient water overnight.

Next day pressure cook them for 3 whistles first. Once pressure is released, add peeled and chopped 2 potatoes and again pressure cook for another 3 whistles. When you do this way your chana cooks to the perfect way. If you add chana and potatoes together, your potatoes will tend to cook more if you give more whistles and if less whistles your chana do not cook properly. They must turn half mashy.

Preparation of masala:

In a pan add 2-3 tsp of oil, add 4 cloves, 2 cinnamon, 1-2 petals of star anise, 1 tsp of flower dagadful- photo of such dagadful I am showing you below.

It's said as black stone flower

If u do not have this it's ok. Then add 2 tsp of coriander seeds, 1 tsp of peppercorns, 1 bedgi red chilli, 2-4 regular red chillies. Roast them on low flame till aromatic. Remove in a plate.

In the same add 4-5 garlic cloves, 2 onions long slitted and saute nicely till light brown. Then add 2 cups of fresh coconut and saute nicely till coconut turns light brown.  Off the flame. Add 1 tsp haldi powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder in coconut and mix well. Let everything cool. 

Grind all of the roasted spices, coconut, onion, garlic with 1 tomato, a small ball of tamarind and a handful of coriander leaves to a paste with required water. 

Your cooker shall cool by now.

In a big vessel, add 3-4 tsp of oil, add 2 onions finely chopped. Saute till light pink. Then add cooked chana with potatoes. Add a cup of water. Stir well. Add the grinded masala from mixer jar. Mix everything. Add more water to adjust the consistency. Add required salt and 2 tsp of sugar to balance the taste. Give a good boil to your gravy.

The aroma of your chana bhaji will fill up your kitchen with temptations to have it. Off the flame. Wait for 10 minutes for flavours to get well mixed.

Serve with pao !! (Goan bread)

It's really yum!! Enjoy your khanaval style chanya bhaji at home with quantity as demanded by your tastebuds. This is the speciality of home cooked food. You can have more and more, which is just not possible in any outside eateries!!

If you want a more restaurant style bhaji then you can prepare the patal potato bhaji along with this chana bhaji as it's served in big restaurants, the recipe of patal potato bhaji is already been shared in my blog earlier.

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