Recipes

Wow.
Impressive.

Prior to yesterday, I had never tried to make Indian food at home. I never needed to; that was the beauty of living in San Francisco, there are Indian restaurants on every corner. Here in Central Europe not so much. Possibly in Budapest but that's not convenient for take-out.

As with my inability to try new Chinese dishes (I only eat sweet and sour pork and chow mein), I only eat Chana Masala when dining on Indian. I searched online yesterday morning for recipes, went to Tesco in search of chick peas and garam masala and was pleasantly surprised to find both. Yea.

As I was re-reading the recipe too excited to wait until the afternoon to justify starting dinner, my husband brought up the subject of naan. Naan! I had completely forgotten about naan, crap. Mad dash through Google lead me to allrecipes. This recipe makes amazing pita-bread-like-naan but beware it is a very large recipe! Anywho, on with the Chana masala.

Chana Masala
1c. Chick Peas
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
1 green chile
4 garlic cloves
1 inch peeled ginger
3 bay leaves
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp tea (if using canned garbanzos then not needed)
3T vegetable oil
salt to taste

Cut onion, tomato, and green chile into
manageable pieces. Place in food
processor with garlic and ginger, puree to make a paste.
Heat oil on medium high and fry bay leaves for 30 seconds.
Add paste and fry on medium heat until golden brown (the oil starts
to separate).
Add chili powder, turmeric, coriander, garam masala, and
salt. Mix well.
Fry 2-3 minutes.
Add water enough to make thick gravy and
bring to a boil.
Add cooked or canned chick peas. Stir and cook for 5-7
minutes.
Serve while hot with basmati rice.

Jo étvagyát! (lit. good eating!)