nlm@ulysses.UUCP (Nancy Mintz) (03/05/85)
This is a fairly thick souplike dish, with a tangy brownish-red sauce.
It keeps well, and is really better on the 3rd day (if there's any left then!).
As a variation, you can use cauliflower or potatoes instead of chickpeas.
If using potatoes, simmer a little longer at the end.
The recipe is from Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Cooking", with
a couple of adjustments from an Indian cooking class I attended.
Enjoy!
Nancy Mintz
ulysses!nlm
AT&T-Bell Labs, Room 5D-115, 600 Mountain Ave, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
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Chickpeas in Tamarind Sauce
2 20-oz cans chickpeas or 4 cups cooked chickpeas with 1 cup liquid
2" ball tamarind pulp [see note below]
1/2 cup light vegetable oil
2 cups thinly sliced onions
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
dash chili powder
1 cup fresh chopped tomato
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger root
1 1/4 tsp garam masala [see recipe below] or 1 tsp cinnamon
fresh coriander leaves (aka "cilantro")
1. Put the tamarind pulp in a small bowl, add 1 1/2 cups boiling water,
and let soak for 15 minutes. Mash the pulp with your fingers or
the back of a spoon. Strain the liquid into another small bowl,
squeezing the pulp as much as possible, and set aside. Discard the
fibrous residue.
2. Drain the chickpeas, reserving 1 cup liquid.
3. Tear off coriander leaves (discard the stems) and put in bowl
of cool water.
4. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over medium high heat.
Add the onions and fry until they shrivel and turn caramel brown
(about 20 minutes), stirring constantly so they do not burn.
(Be especially careful during the last 5 minutes or so - the onions
will burn almost instantly if you don't stir 'em.)
Add garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
5. Add all spices except the garam masala, stir rapidly for a moment.
Add the chopped tomatoes and ginger shreds. Reduce heat to medium
and cook until the oil begins to separate from the gravy (about
5 minutes).
6. Pour off any water standing on top of the tamarind juice. Add
the tamarind juice and the reserved chickpea liquid to the
tomato-spice gravy. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
7. Add drained chickpeas and continue cooking for at least 10 minutes.
(I put it on a *low* simmer for 30 - 45 minutes so. This gives the
chickpeas time to absorb more of the spice flavors).
8. Drain and chop the coriander leaves. Just before serving, stir in the
garam masala and chopped coriander leaves. Serve with plain yogurt
on the side.
Garam Masala (makes about 1 1/2 cups)
3 Tbsp (about 20) black or 2 Tbsp (about 75) green cardamom pods
3 cinnamon sticks, 3 inches long
1 Tbsp whole cloves
1/4 cup black peppercorns
1/2 cup cumin seeds
1/2 cup coriander seeds
1. Break open cardamom pods. Remove seeds and reserve. Discard the skin.
Crush cinnamon with a kitchen mallet or rolling pin to break it into
small pieces.
2. Heat a heavy frying pan, preferably iron, for 2 minutes over medium heat.
Add all spices and roast over medium heat, stirring and shaking the pan
constantly to prevent burning. For the first minute or two, nothing will
happen - the spices are losing their moisture during this time - and then
all of a sudden they will start to brown. This is a crucial period: if
you don't watch them carefully and stir them constantly, they will burn
almost instantly. As the spices brown they will begin to smoke, releasing
the sweet fragrance of roasting spices. Roast them until they turn dark
brown, turning down the heat a little if they seem to be browning too
quickly. The time will depend upon the amount of spice being roasted
relative to the size of the pan - the larger the pan, the faster the
spices will brown.
3. Take the browned spices out of the pan immediately and put them into a
clean dry bowl to cool. Once cool, grind them in a coffee mill,
a spice mill or an electric blender. Store in an airtight container
in a cool, dry place.
Note: Tamarind is the pulpy pod, resembling a pea pod, of the tropical
plant Tamarindus indica, native to India. Tamarind pods, when fully
mature, are plucked, peeled, and pitted, and the pulp is compressed
into 'cakes'. These cakes are available in Indian grocery stores.macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis) (03/06/85)
Thanks for the recipe: those chickpeas in tamarind sauce are one of my
favorite small dishes in Indian restaurants. By the way, tamarind is
available in a more convenient form, already extracted from the
fibers--brandname Tamcon--which as far as I can tell is just as good and
far easier to work with than tamarind cakes. Available around here at
Indian stores, e.g. India Tea and Spice, Belmont, MA.
You know, it might be more productive to exchange experience with
cookbooks rather than individual recipes. For Indian ones, we can
presumably limit ourselves to those which start with individual spices
rather than curry powder. I'll start things off with three:
Dharamjit Sen, Indian Cookery (Penguin), cheap paperback
Excellent! Emphasizes method--certain tours de main make a tremendous
difference in some dishes. Concise but complete. Many recipes. No
atmospherics (`my grandmother's kitchen', `as the sun sets over the
bay of Bombay'...). Some anglicisms (prawns, aubergines, ...) only a
very few of which are opaque. Assumes more kitchen savvy than others.
Madhur Jaffrey, Indian Cooking (?), `quality' paperback
Good. Recipes are longer (but not more complete) and fewer than Sen.
Emphasizes special dishes that are likely to appeal to American
tastes. Some atmospherics.
Time-Life, Cooking of India, hardcover with spiral-bound recipes
Good. Strongest on atmospherics: good color photos of settings,
dishes, ingredients; text evokes author's childhood in India. Recipes
quite good. Probably a good introduction for someone with no
background in Indian cooking.
-srajeev@sftri.UUCP (S.Rajeev) (03/10/85)
> You know, it might be more productive to exchange experience with > cookbooks rather than individual recipes. For Indian ones, we can > presumably limit ourselves to those which start with individual spices > rather than curry powder. I'll start things off with three: > > Dharamjit Sen, Indian Cookery (Penguin), cheap paperback > Excellent! Emphasizes method--certain tours de main make a tremendous > difference in some dishes. Concise but complete. Many recipes. No > atmospherics (`my grandmother's kitchen', `as the sun sets over the > bay of Bombay'...). Some anglicisms (prawns, aubergines, ...) only a > very few of which are opaque. Assumes more kitchen savvy than others. > "Indian Cookery" by Dharamjit Singh (not Sen) is available in a Penguin edition for $3.95: I bought my copy at the Asian Book Store on Bow/Arrow St (?) in the vicinity of Harvard Square. It has a large number of recipes; however, I find some of them unnecessarily complex and even intimidating. Perhaps the highfalutin'-ness (eg. "despite what ordinary mortals say, one NEVER adds garam masala to a dish except as a garnish", or words to that effect) is meant to let it be known that this is haute cuisine, Indian style; perhaps the author went overboard in his zeal for authenticity. Anyway, it makes good reading, and is free of pretty pictures and other distractions: it's serious and businesslike. I agree that it's meant more for gourmets, rather than for your average person trying to make aloo gobi. "A Taste of India", by Mary Atwood (Houghton Mifflin, Boston) is the most useful Indian cookbook I have found for someone like me who wants to make something moderately edible with a minimum of effort. It has a large number of simple recipes with easy-to-follow directions, and I have, even if I say so myself, dished up some real neat stuff using them. It is written by an American who apparently travelled a lot in India: because of this, the directions are meant for American kitchens. Unfortunately, this book, published in 1969, is out of print. Its original price was $6.95 (hardcover). One of the reasons I like this book a lot is that it has plenty of South Indian, especially Kerala recipes, which, sadly, is not the case with most Indian cookbooks. -- ...ihnp4!btlunix!rajeev -- usenet ihnp4!btlunix!rajeev@BERKELEY -- arpanet Sri Rajeev, SF 1-342, Bell Labs, Summit, NJ 07901. (201)-522-6330.