Cholle and Me ! The Quest.

 by Dinesh K Kapila

I love and relish Cholle. But keep looking around for the moment when I can say happily that I have this time and in this moment again tasted the Cholle I really looked for all these years., these are Chanas or Chickpeas to many but Cholle to me and many in the North West

For those who do not know, it’s an Indian chickpeas curry, especially popular in northern parts of India. Chole is made with soaking chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) overnight and then cooking them with onions, tomatoes and spices to make a really flavourful curry. There are many ways in which you can make chole, and there’s no really right or wrong way of making them.

Some people make chole without tomatoes, some make them without onions. Some people use basic spices in their chole while others use “chole masala” which is a special blend of spices. No two houses in India will probably have the same recipe for chole. I know they are made or rather cooked differently at households and restaurants.

The best Cholle I ever had was at a wedding at Rohtak, Haryana. There was an old Sardarji stirring away a giant sized vessel placed on a low heat stove and as the guests emptied out the dish placed on a table he would replenish it. It was absolutely heavenly, had a breathtaking aroma and each spoonful of it was to be placed slowly in the mouth, allowed to fill it with a full range of flavours and then to be chewed ever so slowly and then only ingested. It just had to be relished. There was no other way. I complimented the sardarji who only smiled and waved me off.

Since then, it’s been what seven or may be more years, I am still hunting for the same taste and flavour. I have failed so far and sadly so. At weddings, receptions and dinners I make for the Chollas and take a spoon, only to ruefully walk away, in sadness. At restaurants I hardly ever order the chollas as I do not want to face any disappointment. The downloaded recipes I gave my Jeeves cum cook do not work either. Even when I visited Rohtak again, I could not locate the guy and the restaurants only served a standard cholla fare which was passable but then once you have tasted the nectar of the Gods so to say, then such versions do not do. My Jeeves says if he raises the ghee or cooking oil and the salt and spice, the magic can happen but that I doubt, it’s not that simple.

It has to be magical, it has to just bring back that one memory my brain has, of the taste, the aroma and the fine balance of the spices, a delicate and deft touch which only a Wizard can bring. The wife, clear headed as usual, says it's just your memory playing tricks. Not at all, I know what I ate. Clearly, amber liquid or not, I know it.

I had once chicken and potatoes at Lendis at the Czech Republic. The petite waitress just pointed it out. I nodded and ordered it. It came with home baked bread. That is another memory frozen in time. It was a simple dish, cooked to perfection and so very filling. It’s this what counts, the memory. And the taste of flavour if you will. That is what I look for again specially as regards the Chollas.

As the years pass, I look around and wonder, will it remain a memory or would a moment occur, serendipity, as they say. Like lightening, just like that, when most unexpected. And gladden the mind and stir up the memory bank.

I just hope so. it’s a quest. A quiet one. But a quest.

PS

A friend has discussed this with me. Maybe our taste buds have jaded somewhat in the past seven eight years. Maybe to a youngster the chollas at many a place would still be divine to taste. It is like a guy meeting up with his then flame to the Panjab University Student Centre after over thirty years. They have gone their separate ways in life and are catching up. The lady says, just look around, the hills in the distance look so barren They do not enchant me any more. The guy says, not really ! Look at the youngsters around us, ask them. Our eyesight has dimmed and our hearts have dried !1 And they both smiled and felt young again. Food for thought that.

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