Chana Masala

When I was in college, I volunteered with a community ESL class.  The class was geared toward the wives of visiting faculty or graduate students at the local university.  Many of these women were incredibly isolated: they didn't speak the local language, their husbands were at school for extended hours, and they were at home, alone with their young children.  The woman who started the class regularly went to the University to talk with new employees and students and to encourage them to invite their wives to our class.

For me, the class was a tremendous gift.  I got to meet young women from around the world.  I welcomed them to Seattle, and they in turn welcomed me into their homes as one of their few friends in a foreign country.  After several months of volunteering, I discovered that an easy way for us to connect was to cook together.  I started an ad-hoc cooking group in addition to our regular classes.  Anyone from the class was welcome to attend.  We met at each other's homes, and would teach the group how to cook what we believed was a 'typical' or 'traditional' dish from our home country.  At times the class would have more than one woman from the same country.  Then, often times, we would have a group of women who would teach us to make several traditional foods that accompanied particular cultural events, like Japanese Boys and Girls days.  Those were special times.

I started volunteering my first year in school, and continued throughout my 4 years.  As you can imagine, I was lucky enough to sample all kinds of delicious home-cooked food from around the world.  It was fabulous.  And it started me on a lifetime of loving all kinds of cuisine.

During and since that time, Indian food emerged as one of my favorites.  It's simple, it's inexpensive to make at home, it's often super speedy, and it's deeply flavorful.  If you're a vegetarian, there are TONS of options for you.  If you decide you're interested in cooking more Indian food, this is the cookbook I used in college.  Madhur Jaffrey now has many more cookbooks (including this one, which I hear is great), and I find that her recipes are usually straightforward for the American home cook.

Today I bring you a recipe for Chana Masala, which is essentially a chickpea curry.

Let's get started:
First we saute onions, garlic, ginger, and a hot pepper:

Then we get all our spices together.  There are a lot, but don't worry, it's worth it!

After our onions have started to brown, we add the spices and cook a couple minutes:

Then we add tomatoes, a little water, and 2 cans of chickpeas.  I used canned tomatoes.  It's a good thing:

Simmer for a bit, and then serve over rice.

Chana Masala

Inspired by Smitten Kitchen 

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium onion, minced

1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (I just minced mine)

1 fresh, hot green chili pepper, minced (I used a jalepeno)

1 tablespoon ground coriander

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper 

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons paprika (I used smoked paprika--less traditional, but tasty!)

1 teaspoon garam masala

2 cups tomatoes, chopped small or 1 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes with their juices

2/3 cup water

4 cups cooked chickpeas or 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 lemon (juiced) 

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion, garlic, ginger and pepper and sauté over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn heat down to medium-low and add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, turmeric, cumin seeds, paprika and garam masala. Cook onion mixture with spiced for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and any accumulated juices, scraping up any bits that have stuck to the pan. Add the water and chickpeas. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then stir in salt and lemon juice.

Serve with rice, and possibly raita.  This curry also reheats extremely well.  It's a dish I often make on the weekend to reheat for an easy weeknight meal.  It also freezes well, and would make a lovely meal to bring to a sick friend, or someone who recently had a baby!