Punjabi Chhole Revised

Last night I was searching for something quick and easy to make for dinner when I came across a chick pea curry spice packet from Arora Creations called Punjabi Chhole that had been in the cabinet for a few months. We eat a lot of chick peas in our house so I knew that this curry with some Hunza rice would make a perfect meal.

Many people wrongly assume that curry is a spice and that all curries taste the same. This is not accurate at all. I am not sure how my Pakistani husband would describe a curry, but to me a curry is sort of like a pot of beans with a lot of juice that you can serve with cornbread to sop up all the juices. That is exactly how most people in the world eat curries, only with naan bread instead of cornbread and all sorts of vegetables, meat and spices instead of just boiled beans.

You can certainly make your own spice mixes for curries and I like to do that but it does take a little time. I will post more about these later because I think it is fun to do a little experimenting with spices.

The coolest thing about this spice packet is that it is from Arora Creations and they are an organic company. So, I probably do not have to worry about having scary stuff in what I am feeding my family.

I did not follow the instructions listed in the link above because I was feeling lazy, but it still got two thumbs up from Ishtiaq and Liam even sampled a little with his spaghetti.

Punjabi Chhole (Collected and Revised from Arora Creations Spice Packet)

3 cans of chick peas (garbanzo beans are the same thing)
1 packet of Punjabi Chhole spice mix
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1 can of chicken broth
1 bunch of cilantro, or to taste
1 small onion, or to taste
salt
pepper
olive oil

Drain and rinse your chick peas. Over medium heat, add a dash of olive oil to a non-stick skillet and when heated, add the chick peas and onion. Let that cook a few minutes and then add the spice packet. At this point I added salt and pepper but you can omit it since there is probably some of both in the spice packet. Let the spices and the chickpeas cook a bit over medium heat. Spices in Indian cooking need to bloom on the heat for a bit to fully release their flavors.

When you are ready, or at least after about a minute, add the chicken broth and tomatoes. Lower the heat and let this simmer for about 8-10 minutes, adding water or more chicken broth if necessary. You will want a gravy with this so don't let it get dry. Add the fresh cilantro.

Eat with basmati rice (like Hunza rice from my lamb chops post) or flat bread.

Dinner with a Stomach Bug.

Today wasn't a bad day but it also wasn't a great day. Yesterday around noon I came down with a stomach bug. After spending the night groaning in agony and generally not sleeping, my toddler decided that it was time for me to get out of bed at 5:45 a.m. Like most days I was able to bribe him to stay in bed a little longer with some Handy Manny, Imagination Movers, and The Wiggles chased with a sippy cup of milk and some snuggling. Our day was spent in some general attitude of sleepiness and laziness. For lunch I decided to feed Liam a nutritious box of Goldfish crackers and more milk. Because of all this, I knew that dinner needed to be healthy but easy. So here is what I cooked:

Garlic Chicken Legs (Collected from Chicken with 40 Cloves from Cook's Illustrated)
2 lbs skinless chicken legs
Minced garlic from a jar, several spoonfuls
Fresh cilantro, to taste
Kosher salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
A dab of olive oil

Wash chicken and place in a baking dish with the dab of olive oil. Liberally sprinkle with garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper. For a little kick you could also add chili pepper but we have a toddler...
Cover and bake slowly on 350 for about an hour and 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

Roasted Chick Peas (Collected from a 30 Minute Meal show by Rachel Ray)
3 cans of chickpeas, rinsed, drained and dried on a kitchen towel
2 spoonfuls of Pickled garlic (like you get from an olive bar) or garlic pickle (like you get in an Indian restaurant), chopped
2 handfuls Fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
kosher salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
olive oil, just enough to coat pan

Don't be tempted to skip the rinsing and drying of the chickpeas. They will be mushy on the inside if you do so. Heat a little bit of olive oil on medium, add chickpeas and stir to coat in the oil. Add salt and pepper. I like kosher salt because it adds to the crunchiness of the finished chickpeas, but table salt will work fine. For that same reason, I like fresh cracked pepper. After about 20 minutes of occasional stirring the chickpeas will turn brownish and start to look dried out. At this point you can keep browning and drying them to make "chickpea chips" or go ahead and add your spoonfuls of garlic/garlic pickle and fresh cilantro. Typically, I use garlic pickle because we always have it in the house but both taste great.


Hunza Rice (Collected from my Sanobar Aman, my sweet Mother-in-Law)
Wash and drain a cup or so of dried Basmati rice
In the bottom of a rice cooker add the following:
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon table salt
5-6 whole cloves
1 teaspoon black cardamom
Pepper, to taste (Husbeast prefers whole peppercorns, but toddlers can't eat that)

Add the rice and then fill the cooker slowly with water. To measure your water correctly, insert your finger in the pot so that you gently touch the top of the rice. When the water level reaches the first knuckle of your pointer finger, you have enough. Cook until your rice cooker says it's done. You can just as easily cook this in a pot but cover your lid in a clean dishcloth while cooking to absorb the steam. This will keep your rice from being sticky and make it the more flaky kind of rice that you get in an Indian restaurant.


Leftover Green Beans (my own fabulous creation)
Open can, boil.
Wait 24 hours then microwave

Enjoy!