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| Chick peas in tamarind sauce with home-made chapatis |
Once again, we are indebted to Priya Chellani for sharing her delicious North Indian cuisine with us. I have recently been making up a photo album of our time in Saudi Arabia, and in amongst others there are a number of her and Sanjay's lovely daughter Lehar. The one that tickled my sense of humour though was inadvertently taken; whilst in the process of taking "action shots" of the 'boy pack' jumping off swings and such-like, I discovered that in the background I had captured Lehar in the process of 'stealing' Daniel's bicycle. Both of them young only children at the time, both Lehar and Daniel took great umbrage at the others' utilisation of any of their toys. However, the next photo shows the two of them, hand-in-hand, checking out our flower garden. Would that all international conflicts were so easily resolved reconciled!
Chick Peas in Tamarind Sauce Recipe
2 cups dried chick peas
4 small red or two medium white onions
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
2-3 bay leaves
2-3 tomatoes (ratio of tomatoes: onions should be about 1:1 when reduced) ground to a puree
Spice oil drops - to taste
1 ½ Tablespoons tamarind block soaked in water
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ Ttablespoon salt
Soak chick peas overnight.
Heat oil. Add caraway and let the seeds 'stir' in the bottom of the pot. Fry onions brown to dark brown. When the onion is caramelised, add bay leaves and heat just a little.
Next, add the tomato puree in which the red chilli, salt, turmeric and samba (or equivalent) powder has already been mixed. The tomato should hiss in the pan.
Viciousness in the kitchen!
The potatoes hiss.
Put a few drops of spice oil into the mixture. Add chick peas and water. Bring to the boil. Either pressure-cook the chick peas or let it bubble away merrily on top of the stove until the chick peas are soft enough to eat.
Heat oil. Add caraway and let the seeds 'stir' in the bottom of the pot. Fry onions brown to dark brown. When the onion is caramelised, add bay leaves and heat just a little.
Next, add the tomato puree in which the red chilli, salt, turmeric and samba (or equivalent) powder has already been mixed. The tomato should hiss in the pan.
Viciousness in the kitchen!
The potatoes hiss.
(Lesbos, by Sylvia Plath)
Put a few drops of spice oil into the mixture. Add chick peas and water. Bring to the boil. Either pressure-cook the chick peas or let it bubble away merrily on top of the stove until the chick peas are soft enough to eat.
Make a tamarind paste by soaking the tamarind block in 1/2 cup of water. Once thoroughly saturated, squeeze out the pulp from the tamarind. It may be useful to 'sieve' the paste through a metal sieve that you'd usually use for flour. Make sure that only the pulp is left behind. This pulp you add to the dish at the end. It is delicious eaten with fresh hot rotis or chapatis, preferably home-made. I added some gram (chick-pea) flour to the mixture to thicken it up a bit, actually, at the end. Worked just fine.
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| Chick peas in tamarind and tomato sauce |
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