Rinku Bhattacharya's Blog, page 93
March 24, 2013
Pindi Choley – Dark and Spicy Chickpeas
Techinically, today was the start of the spring break for the kids. It offers a break in pace since this weekend we did not have the usual childrens activities. It always helps to actually have a weekend.
I am however never very happy, when I cannot take the holiday week off. Although, travelling into work during a quite week has its advantages, one of them being quieter, emptier trains. This time anyway, the kids are happy about a new program they are doing for a week. So, I am getting into work the next three days with Thursday and Friday off making it a long weekend.
Today, all things considered turned out to be a long day that brought in a mixed bag of activities and I spent the evening recharging myself in the kitchen as I always do when the spirits need a little bit of “pick up”.
I actually had chickpeas on my mind. Well, strictly speaking, chickpeas and kabocha just because I picked up my first kabocha squash this weekend. I realize it is a winter squash, but the weather does seem a little confused this year, with the cold temperature we are having despite the official start of spring. Now back to the chickpeas, they have been on my mind ever since I posted this recipe because my friend Chitra wanted a non slower cooker recipe. Slow cookers are ok and some of us tend to like having them around, but the reality is that the pressure cooker is what makes it to the kitchen as an essential. Most Indian cooks worth their salt have at least a couple in different sizes. So, when she told me that she did not not have a slow cooker, I was pretty sure that she had a pressure cooker and right I was.
There are many style of cooking chickpeas, however broadly speaking the north Indian sty
les fall into two broad categories, a soft gravy based variety and this drier variation usually enjoyed with flatbread. Quiet often the puffy deep fried sourdough bread called bhatura or soft leavened baked breads called kulcha. I did not quite have the interest to make either, but I did make the basic chapatis and we were all happy.
So, pindi chole, aparently originated in Rawalpindi, and the variation that I offer here is what my mother in law tends to prefer, except she makes this sans onions, since she does not eat onions. It certainly is starker and does not depend on onion and garlic for its sauce. The soft chicpeas here are coated with spices, finished off with toasted ginger and chrushed dried pomegranate seeds. As of the the dark color, this comes from a tea bag, which was rather difficult for me to find today because, I am a loose leaf tea drinker and the husband usually drinks what I make or tends to stick to green tea. But, ultimately I did find something stuck in a corner waiting to be used.
All good, so here is the recipe and one of these days you will see my other variation.
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Pindi Choley – Dark and Spicy Chickpeas
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 60 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
A recipe for dark spice crusted chickpeas, in the punjabi style of cooking.
Ingredients
For boiling the Chickpeas3/4 cup chana (dried chickpeas) (soaked overnight
2 cups of water
1 black teabag (this is for color)
Salt to taste
2 black cardamoms
2 to 3 cloves
2 green cardamoms
1 large (about 2 inch stick) cinnamon
For the cooking base
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 medium sized red onion, diced
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
3/4 teaspoon amchur (dried mango powder) (can be substituted with juice of a lime
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
To Finish
1 teaspoon oil
1 tablespoon very finely diced ginger (you can add in julienned pieces if desired)
1 teaspoon dried pomegranate seeds (anardana)
Instructions
Place the chickpeas in the pressure cooker, with the water, tea bag, salt, cinnamon, cloves and black and green cardamoms and cook for 35 to 40 minutes. The key to this dish is soft and well cooked chickpeas.Cool and remove the lid, strain the chickpeas and reserve the water after discarding the tea bag and whole spices.
Heat the oil and add the cumin seeds and with the seeds begin to sizzle add in the onion and ginger.
Cook the onion until the onion is soft and turning gently golden, add in the chickpeas and stir well.
Add in the dried mango powder, black pepper and the red chili powder and add in the reserved spice water and simmer and cook until all the water is absorbed.
To finish, heat the remaining teaspoon oil add in the ginger and saute for about 1 minute.
Pour this over the chickpeas.
Crush the chickpeas and pour over the chickpeas. Serve hot with sliced red onions if desired.
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March 23, 2013
Flounder in a Bengali Mustard Curry – Shorshe Flounder
Despite the fact that I cook fish with mustard sauce pretty often, I realized that I actually do not have a basic recipe for Bengali style mustard fish on this blog. Something that I realized I had to rectify pretty soon, even if it meant starting this post at about 11pm at night. You see Sorshe Maach or fish simmered in a stone ground mustard gravy is as essential to Bengali cuisine as my single strand of freshwater pearls are to me on weekday mornings, essential and instictive.
The variation that I share with you here is made with flouder, a firm fleshed fish that I often find with roe, it probably works like some of its firm fleshed Bengali counterparts. All positions come with trade-offs, for better or for worse I gave up trying to scope out Indian store fish working instead with what I could readily find in the local stores. In fact, in my book, I offer several ways to work with local fish. Now, the downside of this is that I often get quizzical looks from my Bengali friends when I present them something like mustard fish with an unheard of fish like flounder, the upside however is that I get to work with everyday produce which essentially is what I try to do with most things. However, the firm fleshed flounder works very well, in fact I have also post this recipe tried this as tandoori flounder, which worked well too. But, this post is not about the orange hued tandoori, it is about the bold and fiery mustard flounder.
This particular fish dish is a recipe that I learnt from Lucky, a friend from Bangladesh. It is not very different from the way mom makes it but, she add the cilantro or coriander leaves on top something that I love but not quite something I was sure mom would like. In fact, when my mother was visiting last year she started her journey at Seattle where my brother lives and then joined us here. I put this dish together, later regretting the addition of cilantro. However, I was surprised to see that mom actually truly relished eating the fish. She said two months of going without mustard was enough for her to forgive my cilantro addition. Actually, I also have to confess, I think mom finally thinks I might be coming of age in the kitchen because she has been try and even liking some of my variations. I am less than apologetic about experimentations, and as mom points out it is a different culinary landscape in Kolkata, one that she aknowledges I would like with all its experimentations.
So there you have it, a classic Bengali dish that graces my table ever so often this time made with flounder.
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