Chickpea curry for bloke help please!

xueta

That looked yummy :drool: Well done :T

IIRC to cook chana dal, my uni friend would use split yellow peas and simmer for absolutely ages. The peas eventually get mushy and starchy and so thicken the sauce. You could also add chunks of squash (vegetable that is and not fruit juice ).

Smiley_Mum

Just been reading the thread, very inspiring. Haven't made curry for a while, so I think I'll give one a go once the soup's done in the SC. Cheers MBE and co. :T

Chickpea curry looks very good by the way. What about putting some coconut milk in next time and a bit of yoghurt etc to make a sauce, give it a bit of sweetish flavour though. Depends what you like.

Gers

If I had a hat, and if I wore that hat, I'd be tipping at MBE - thanks for cheering up this cold and wintry soul on a cold and wintry night. Your posts are illuminating, educational and hysterical - my kind of bloke.

Slainté

:beer:


PS - keep your toilet window open in the morning otherwise you could be less than pleasant to share with!

mrbadexample

Gers wrote:

If I had a hat, and if I wore that hat, I'd be tipping at MBE - thanks for cheering up this cold and wintry soul on a cold and wintry night. Your posts are illuminating, educational and hysterical - my kind of bloke.

Slainté

:beer:

Ooo, thank you very much.

Gers wrote:

PS - keep your toilet window open in the morning otherwise you could be less than pleasant to share with!

I've got meetings to go to tomorrow! :eek: :rotfl:

Gers

Well I am SO glad I won't be present at those meetings! :j Just tell your colleagues that you made a lot of woman very happy last night - that should gain you some street cred.


:rotfl:

mrbadexample

Smiley_Mum wrote:

Just been reading the thread, very inspiring. Haven't made curry for a while, so I think I'll give one a go once the soup's done in the SC. Cheers MBE and co. :T

Chickpea curry looks very good by the way. What about putting some coconut milk in next time and a bit of yoghurt etc to make a sauce, give it a bit of sweetish flavour though. Depends what you like.

Yeah....not really a sweet curry person....the flavour of this one was brilliant, just the sort of thing I like, and was after. I need to improve the sauce, and find another main ingredient to go with the chick-peas. How about cauliflower? I like cauliflower. What meat would go with it?

That's the trouble you see...I can follow a recipe (as long as I get lots of help and encouragement!), but I'm not bold enough, or knowledgeable enough to improvise and "wing it". I can't taste things and think "Oh, that needs a bit of <insert spice here>". I have no idea what goes with what. I just think: "Mmm, great!", "Mmm, good but it's not quite right for some unknown reason" or "Mmm, vile _pale_". Hopefully if I keep at this, I might learn a few tricks to help though.

You wait until I decide it's baking time.

Curry_Queen

How about a mushroom and chickpea curry? :drool:

tipsychick

How about buying a decent book?

Not being facetious but Madhur Jaffrey does an excellent basic curry guide and loads of really good (slightly) more advanced books. She is absolutely fantastic at blending (ha, ha!) geography, politics and history, particularly social history, with recipes from all over the world where there has been an Asian influence.

My favourite vegetarian cooking is always Asian because you don't notice that there isn't any meat or fish and I really do mean that as a compliment.

I think you'd absolutely love Madhur Jaffrey's books. You've invested in spices which may seem esoteric at meal no. 2 but with a decent Asian cookbook the world would be your oyster so to speak and you'd be back getting refills in no time at all.


Re: tonight's v. scrummy looking chickpea curry, you could easily add some browned chicken to fulfill the protein requirement. Cauliflower, as you'd already thought, would be lovely too... or spinach. Spinach is used a lot in Asian cookery. Handfuls and handfuls reduce down to barely nothing and add great colour and flavour.

What are you going to do in a couple of weeks' time? Madhur has some gorgeous lamb/spinach curries!

jobbingmusician

tipsychick wrote:

How about buying a decent book?

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Then we wouldn't have these excellent threads to cheer us every week!

High spot of the week, 'watching' MBE prepare his meal!

mrbadexample

tipsychick wrote:

How about buying a decent book?

Thanks, but they don't really work for me. I've got the odd book or two, but never use them. Tell me and it'll go in one ear and out of the other. Show me and I'll understand. :rolleyes: A book won't help me when I think it's all going wrong. You can't ask a book questions. Most importantly, you can't share your experience with a book and get it to laugh at you.

I might get a book once I have a basic understanding of the cooking malarky. I am starting pretty much from scratch here.