Chana Masala

Ingredients

• 3 x 400g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• Basmati rice or warm naan bread, to serve
• 400 g chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• Tomato (diced), to serve
• Cucumber, to serve
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 25 g fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• fresh coriander and green chilli, to serve
• Red onion (sliced), to serve
• 200 ml water
• salt
• 2 tsp amchur powder
• 2 tbsp lemon juice, if not using amchur
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• Kachumber salad, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a heavy pot over a medium-high heat. Add the onions with a good pinch of salt — the salt pulls moisture out and helps them break down — and cook, stirring regularly, for 14–16 minutes until deep amber and jammy at the edges. This is the flavour foundation; rushing it gives you a pale, thin curry.
2. Add the garlic and ginger and stir for 30–60 seconds, just until fragrant. Don't let the garlic catch and go past pale gold — burnt garlic turns the whole pot bitter and there's no fixing it.
3. Tip in the cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli powder and stir constantly for 45–60 seconds to bloom them in the hot oil. You'll smell the shift the moment it happens — raw and dusty becomes warm and toasted. Bloomed spices taste of themselves; unbloomed ones taste of cupboard.
4. Stir in the tomato puree and cook for 2 minutes until it darkens a shade and smells sweet rather than sharp. Add the chopped tomatoes along with a good splash of the measured water — the liquid is what breaks the tomatoes down properly so they melt into a sauce instead of tasting of tin. Simmer for 8–10 minutes, pressing the tomatoes with the back of your spoon, until the sauce is thick and you see the oil pooling at the edges.
5. Add the chickpeas and the rest of the water, bring back to a simmer, then partially cover and cook for 15 minutes so the chickpeas drink up the spiced sauce.
6. Mash about a quarter of the chickpeas against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon. The released starch thickens the sauce and binds everything into one cohesive body rather than chickpeas swimming in gravy.
7. Stir in the garam masala and the amchur powder (or the lemon juice if using). Taste, season with salt, then taste again and adjust — do it now, properly, not at the table. Simmer uncovered for a final 5 minutes to pull the flavours together.
8. Spoon the chana masala into bowls over steamed basmati rice or alongside warm naan, scatter generously with the chopped coriander, and finish with the sliced green chilli over the top.