KARMA CLEANSING CHANNA MASALA

so i have to be honest: the first time i had indian food, i did so b/c of the tv show Red Dwarf. i went to House of India on delmar with joyce (& probably theresa), &, like lister on the show, i ordered a vindaloo. b/c i knew nothing else about what to order. at. all.

i don’t remember much of the vindaloo; what i remember is that whatever joyce got was WAY better. & so over the years, i sort of sporadically ate at House of India & never really found exactly what it was i wanted — till one evening maybe nine months after i stopped eating meat, i went with my new friend phil & let him order for me. he got chana masala & palak paneer, & i’m not kidding when i say it was some of the best stuff i’d ever had — mostly vegetables i thought i couldn’t stand, combined exquisitely.

since then, i’ve tried on a couple different occasions to recreate the chana masala dish, usually failing pretty miserably at coming up with a correct combination of spices. one time i made a dish that was incredibly spicy & totally without flavor (yes, it’s possible), & one time i made a dish that was bland & a little salty, & so tonight i made my third chana masala attempt, thanks to an emailed recipe from my friend shelly.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 to 1 onion
1 to 2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
3 large/4 medium tomatoes, chopped, or 2 large cans diced tomatoes with half juice reserved
2 cans chickpeas, drained
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 heaping teaspoon cumin
1 heaping teaspoon coriander
1 heaping teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 dried bay leaves
salt & pepper to taste

(* instead of coriander, cinnamon, & cloves, you can use 1 teaspoon garam masala)

METHOD
heat olive oil & add mustard seed — cover immediately until mustard seeds stop popping. add garlic & onions to sautée until soft & transparent. add spices (except bay leaves) until the mixture resembles a sauce/gravy (this sounds SO southern of me, but i swear, it’s not). add tomatoes & bay leaves. let simmer over medium heat for five minutes. add both cans of garbanzo beans. let simmer for another 10 minutes at least. remove bay leaves before serving. i usually set mine on med-low for about 25 to 45 minutes so the beans can get softer. i always serve it over basmati rice, but i know a lot of people just eat it plain.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
so a couple things maybe went wrong here:

(1) i got powdered mustard seed. like, specifically. like, daniel picked out whole mustard seeds & i said, oh no, i need dried powdered mustard seed. but maybe not?

onions & spices

(2) i think the fact that i didn’t use whole mustard seeds made the whole thing a little bit drier. as in, maybe there wasn’t enough oil? there definitely wasn’t any kind of gravy thing going on, i can say that much.

i feel like everything i cook has tons of onions

(3) caroline measured the rest of the spices, & it’s possible that she accidentally halved everything. but we couldn’t figure it out for sure, so maybe not. also, we definitely used garam masala instead of coriander, cinnamon, & cloves, & maybe that was a mistake?

that being said, it smelled right. it really did. i’m pretty sure this is the exact spice combination i wanted. maybe minus a little of the cumin, but that’s totally personal preference.

but you know what? it didn’t taste quite right. i believe brett said, “it wasn’t that bad.” i don’t know — what i SHOULD’VE done was emailed/texted/called shelly to clarify a few points, but instead i muddled through & didn’t do it right & it just wasn’t what i was hoping for. which seemed to be the consensus: it was pretty good, but not good enough. i feel bummed — b/c i really thought shelly’s recipe was finally going to be the one! i think maybe it was a combination of sloppy direction-following on my part (& caroline’s) & high expectations.

adding chickpeas

simmering

i feel like that’s pretty much the OMGSNAX! trend thus far — food that is right in theory but falls short in practice. maybe i’m too ambitious.

the finished dish

 

 

“Karma Cleansing Channa Masala” from shelly

Comments (1308) to “KARMA CLEANSING CHANNA MASALA”

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