Ghugni (Bengali: ঘুগ্নি, Odia: ଘୁଗ୍ନି) or ghuguni (Assamese: ঘুগুনি, Odia: ଘୁଗୁନି) or guguni (Odia: ଗୁଗୁନି)is a curry made of peas or chickpeas. Different variations of the dish use different types of peas or chickpeas, such as black gram, green peas, or white peas. It is a snack native to the Indian subcontinent, especially popular in Eastern India (Indian States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal), Northeast India (Indian states of Assam and Tripura) and in Bangladesh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghugni
We’re back in India today, with a popular curried legume dish from Eastern India, especially East Bengal. In Kolkata it is a popular street food, eaten at any time of day. It is also made at home, especially as a breakfast dish. We’ve been focusing on dishes made from split peas for the last couple months. Today’s recipe is made with whole peas, know as matar or motor in India. Ghugni is made with dry white or yellow peas (or sometimes chickpeas) and potatoes in a spicy curry, and topped with onion, green chilies, and several other flavorful garnishes.
If I really wanted to dig into it there are, of course, slightly different versions in each of the different regions where ghugni is popular. I’m not going down that rabbit hole at this time, and didn’t make an effort to choose just one version when I was creating my recipe. Most of the recipes I looked at were for Kolkata/ East Bengali style ghugni, so that’s pretty much what my recipe is- however it’s possible that some elements from other regions may have snuck into the final recipe.
Most recipes say that the defining flavor of ghugni is bhaja masala, which is sprinkled on as a garnish. Of course, when you go to find out what goes into bhaja masala, there’s almost no consensus! Some versions were as simple as cumin seed and red chilies, while other’s had 5-10 other ingredients included! I kept it simple at three ingredients; cumin, chilies and coriander, but list a few other ingredients in the optional category. Besides the masala, other common garnishes include coconut, onion, green chilies, cilantro and tamarind water. I also saw recipes using cucumber, fresh ginger, and even fresh tomato.
The curry itself, however, does contain a slightly wider variety of spices, both whole and ground. Nothing particularly outside the normal flavors of Indian cooking though.
The most oddball ingredient is actually mustard oil*. Part of the reason it’s been a couple weeks since I last posted is that I thought I had mustard oil in the pantry, but when I went to make my shopping list for this recipe I discovered that it was rancid so I had to order a new bottle which delayed everything by a good week. Looking back through my Amazon orders, I see it was 2019 when I last ordered mustard oil, so I’m not surprised that it went bad! It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. There also seems to be a wider variety of mustard oil available on Amazon now. At that time I wound up ordering two different bottles because the first one arrived with a big “NOT FOR INTERNAL USE” warning on it. At the time it seemed that mustard oil needs special processing to be safe for human consumption, and I only found one brand that specified that it was for cooking. Now, I see that the brand I initially bought has updated their Amazon copy to indicate that they specifically formulate their oil for external use (think massage or hair oil), and there are lots of other options that say they are for cooking. I’m not sure if they weren’t available 5 years ago, or if I just wasn’t searching for the right thing.
As written, this is a very spicy. I did use Kashmiri red chili powder in mine, which is similar to poaprika heat wise(as opposed to regular Indian red chili powder which is like cayenne or hotter), because I knew that with all the red and green chilies it was going to be plenty spicy for my taste buds. Feel free to adjust your variety/ quantity of chilies to meet your needs.
As is typical when I research Indian recipes, the suggestions for what to serve on the side are all over the place. I made luchi, which is a deep fried bread made with all purpose flour, salt, water and ghee. Another popular accompaniment/topping is puffed rice. Regular cooked rice or roti would also be perfectly acceptable.
I used fresh coconut again. Sorry I didn’t get any photos of the preparation steps. This is by far the biggest part of the prep time. Cracking the coconut isn’t too hard if you follow instructions. It’s the prying the flesh out of the shell and peeling off all the brown skin that takes time. I don’t know if using dried coconut would work as well in this case.
I do use a bit of ghee in the recipe, but this could easily be omitted if you are looking for a vegan dish.
Ghugni
Yield: 6-8 servings
Prep: ~1:00
Cook: ~0:30
Total: ~1:30, plus soaking time.
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370 g ( 2 cups) whole dry yellow peas
760 ml (3 ½ cups) water
7 g (1 teaspoon) salt
50 g red onion, chopped (1 ¾ oz)
3 Tablespoons boiling water
1 Tablespoon tamarind paste
50 g (¼ cup) mustard oil
OR
4 Tablespoons vegetable oil
7 g (1teaspoon) ghee
45 g (~½ cup) fresh coconut, thinly sliced
325 g (11oz) potatoes, diced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon cumin seed
2-3 dried red chilies
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 green cardamom pods
3 whole cloves
280 g (10 oz) red onion, sliced
17 g (1 Tablespoon) ginger root, finely grated
AND
11 g (1Tablespoon) garlic, finely minced/ mashed
OR
1 Tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
13 g (~ 1 ½ Tablespoon) green chilies, minced
3 g (1 ¼ teaspoon) turmeric
5 g (¾ teaspoon) salt
3 g (1 teaspoon) red chili powder
5 g (2 ½ teaspoons) ground cumin
4 g (2 teaspoons) ground coriander
200 g (7 oz) tomato, chopped
11 g (1 Tablespoon) sugar
1 teaspoon garam masala
¾ teaspoon bhaja masala (see below)
¼ cup red onion, finely diced
2-3 green chilis, finely sliced
3 Tablespoons cilantro, minced
Optional:
1 ¼ teaspoon black pepper
⅔ teaspoon toasted ground cumin, in place of bhaja moshala
1 Tablespoon lime juice, in place of tamarind
½ teaspoon amchur
2 teaspoons tamarind chutney (in place of tamarind and water)
6 Tablespoons water, mixed with the powdered spices
2 ½ Tablespoons cilantro, mixed into curry during last few minutes of cooking.
2 Tablespoons lemon juice, in place of tamarind
Pick over peas and remove any bad peas or foreign objects. Rinse well and cover with several inches of cool water. Leave to soak for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Drain peas and place in a pot with 760 ml water, 7 g salt, and 50 g onion. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and partially cover. Simmer until peas are soft enough to easily mash between your fingerers, but still intact, 45 minutes to an hour. Drain the peas, reserving the cooking liquid for later.
Meanwhile, soak tamarind in boiling water for 30 minutes or so. When cool enough to handle, use your fingers to squeeze and separate the pulp from seeds and skin. Discard the skin and seeds and set aside the pulp and water for garnishing.
Prepare and measure all your vegetables and spices. Chop the potatoes just before you start cooking to prevent oxidization.
Heat oil and ghee in a wok or other wide cooking pot. Add the coconut and and fry for a minute or two, until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove coconut from the oil and drain. Set aside.
Add the potatoes to the oil and fry until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain. Set aside.
Add bay leaves, cumin seeds, red chilies, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves to the oil. Fry for 30 seconds or so, until aromatic, then add the onion and fry until golden brown, 6 minutes or so.
Add the ginger, garlic and green chilies and cook until the raw smell dissipates, 2-3 minutes.
Add the turmeric, 5 g salt, chili powder, ground cumin and coriander and fry for a minute or so. Add the tomatoes and cook until they break down and release oil, 3-5 minutes. If necessary, add a splash of pea cooking water to prevent spices from burning before tomato starts to release liquid.
Add the peas, potatoes, and enough of the pea cooking liquid to barely cover the peas. (Add additional water if not enough) Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or so, allowing liquid to reduce to a gravy consistency. Add sugar and garam masala and simmer for a few more minutes. Taste for seasoning.
Remove from heat and serve, garnished with fried coconut, bhaja moshala powder, diced onion, green chilies, cilantro and a drizzle of tamarind.
Bhaja Masala
Yield: ~3-4 Tablespoons
Hand on time: 5 minutes
1 Tablespoon cumin seed
1 Tablespoon coriander seed
4 dried red chilies
Optional:
2 teaspoons coriander powder, in place of seeds
2 teaspoons cumin powder, in place of seeds
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 pinch black mustard seeds
1 pinch black peppercorns
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
In a small frying pan over medium heat, toast spices until darkened and aromatic. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool. Using a spice grinder or coffee grinder, grind to a fine powder.
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Lorin cooks Legumes 