Wash and soak chickpeas for 8 to 10 hours. Add 1 piece of cinnamon, 2 cardamoms, 2 black cardamoms and one bay leaf with chickpeas to a pressure cooker and boil it.
In a mixer jar make a coarse powder out of cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom and black cardamom.
Heat oil in a pot and add pieces of red chilli and bay leaf. Add cumin and saute it until light brown in colour. Now add hing to it. Add cashew nuts and raisins and saute until light pink in colour. Add the whole spice powder to it. Now add turmeric, red chilli, coriander cumin powder and salt to it and mix everything well. Add boiled chickpeas and mix it. Cook it on low heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Mix curd and plain flour in a bowl and whisk it. Using plain flour is completely optional but it is added so that the curd does not split when it is added to the curry. Add this mixture to the gravy and stir it continuously until one boil.
Now add cottage cheese pieces to the gravy and mix it. Adding cottage cheese is also optional. Mix rice flour with some water and make a slurry out of it. Now add this slurry to the gravy along with sugar and mix it well. Cook the curry for 10 minutes on medium heat. Now add 2 tbsp of ghee and coriander leaves. Mix it well and turn off the heat.
Serve chana madra with babru. It can be even served with paratha or rice.
