Married to the Empire

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Trying Indian cooking

I had mentioned a while back that my friend Judy sent me a package full of Indian spices and recipes. I finally got around to trying some of it out!

I decided to make Pindi Chhole, which is a spicy dish with chickpeas, onions, tomatoes, lots of ginger, serrano chiles, and a mess of spices. Annie had warned me to open windows when cooking Indian because the spices would overwhelm the house. I discovered I should have opened the windows for a different reason. I burned the chickpeas. I never burn stuff, so I was pretty mad at myself. Thankfully, canned chickpeas from the pantry came to my rescue.



This dish was quite good, although I found the ginger a little overwhelming. I may cut back on the amount in the future.

To go with the dish, I bought some naan at a local Indian grocery.



I'd never been in there before, and I found it extremely interesting. There were several vegetables I couldn't even identify! They also had an entire section devoted to Indian movie rentals. The grocer had to help me find what I was looking for. In addition to naan, I found Cadbury's Buttons, which are a treat I used to enjoy in Europe. (White chocolate is the only "chocolate" I can enjoy, and that's just because it's not really chocolate!)

Both the naan and the chocolate were excellent!



Now that I've tackled some real Indian cooking, I feel more confident to try some more!

2 comments:

*carrie* said...

So fun! I really like naan bread, but haven't had it in years. Maybe I should even try making it sometime!

AnneK said...

Thats cool you tried some stuff. We make home-made chapathis (almost like nans). And this is just like the first course for us. Indian cooking is pretty tiresome if you want to make like a full meal. It is easier to be a vegetarian if you are an Indian I guess, cos all the veggies you couldn't figure out, thats what we eat every day. We have a lot of options. I hardly eat meat nowadays and I honestly haven't missed it much.

Glad it went well, and that you are trying new things. And thanks for the link love!