Ghugni

I am horrible and terrible in waking up in the morning. Be it 6'o clock or 10'o clock....rolling across the bed, literally from one side to the other, for at least 10 minutes is a must in my routine. Ma tried to change this bad bad habit from my early school days...but sadly there had been only depressions in the result. So, ma played tricks. She used to arrange most of my tuitions in the mornings, so that I have to wake up early. Rubbing my sleepy red eyes, when I used to leave my home for my tuitions, only one thing attracted my attention, that was the tea stall opposite the bus depot, from where I used to catch bus for my tuitions. They also sold breakfasts. It was a small moving vehicle, which included an oven on the serving area and underneath they stored their cooking materials. The breakfast menu included - butter toast, egg toast, tea, and ghugni with paratha.

You can see the evident mushiness of the ghughni. My family loves ghughni a little mushy and soggy, whereas many people loves ghughni with a bite.

The parathas looked like a chiffon cloth, with which literally you could see through, and they dripped off oil. But the main attraction was ghugni, which was served with it. The platter had a big dollop of that ghughni, with sprinkles of black pepper and salt, on one side of the plate with two folded parathas and some chopped onion. It cost around 8-10Rs. at that time. But nor me neither my sister, was permitted to eat from that road-side stall, obviously for hygienic reasons. When our blabbering for that ghugni would become too much for ma to bear, she used to make this ghughni for us. Paratha, bread, muri/ puffed rice or dal- rice, it goes pretty much with everything, and ghugni alone makes an wonderful appetizer for the evening. And with luchi / puri it makes a dainty breakfast on the Sunday mornings. Lovely!!

Ghugni
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• Yellow peas - 2 cups
• 1 potato - cut into small pieces
• 2 and 1/2 medium onions - chopped
• 2 tomatoes - grated / paste
• 2 green chilies - chopped
• 4-5 cloves of garlic - paste
• 2 inch ginger stick - paste
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp red chili powder (reduce if you don't want that much heat )
• 1 and 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 and 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 dry red chilies
• 4-5 black peppercorns
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt
• some slivered coconut pieces (optional)
• 1 bunch of coriander leaves - chopped(optional)

Method:

• Soak the yellow peas overnight and boil them with 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, salt and 4 cups of water, until they are soft and can be broken with slight pressure of the thumb. If you are using pressure cooker, just 1 whistle on medium flame is enough to boil and soften them. Let the steam come out naturally and then open the lid of the pressure cooker. I over-boil the peas a little because me and my husband both loves that soggy texture and a mushy ghughni. But there are a lot of people who wants a bite from that peas. So, cook according to your choices.
• Heat oil and put the cumin seeds. When they start sizzling add the sliced onions and sauté till they become translucent. 
• Now add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté until the onions become golden brown. By this time the raw garlic flavor will be gone.
• Add the tomatoes and sauté until the tomatoes are cooked thoroughly. You will know its done, when the mixture will not smell like tomato anymore, and the tomatoes will start releasing oil from it.
• Strain the boiled peas and add them to the mixture. Add the potatoes. Keep the water to add later.
• Add the chopped green chilies, red chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and mix well.
• When everything is mixed well add the kept aside boiled peas water. Add water according to your desired consistency of the gravy. At this point with the spatula crush some of the peas. They will thicken the gravy. This part is totally optional, because some people does not like thick gravy.
• In a separate frying pan, dry roast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns and dry red chilies. Sauté until they release their fine aroma and the cumin seeds, coriander seeds become a little brownish. Grind them to a fine powder using a mortar pestle or coffee grinder.
• Add coriander leaves and 1 tsp of this roasted masala / bhaja mosla.
• Mix evenly and simmer for a more 3-4 minutes.
• Put off the flame and serve hot with a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle of the bhaja mosla / roasted masala, chopped onions, green chilies, coriander leaves and slivered coconut pieces.