OMGSNAX!

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