| Chole Bill and Jim Sanjiv Singh |
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| prep time: 00:25 cook time: 00:20 serves: 4 cost: $3.75 vegetarian |
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Bill Chiles and I used to go out to parties, get really wasted, and then repair to Jeff (now Sanjiv) Singh's house, at 3:00 am, for intellection and chole. Chole, by the way, is, as with most Indian food words, just a translation for something simple: chick-peas. A later variant appears in Sanjiv's Recipe's from the Beyond cookbook, but this original recipe is way better. |
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| 2 large onions, finely chopped | Remember to make a side dish of rice. Chop the onions in half from pole to pole, lay flat, then slice as thinly as possible along lines parallel to the line which connects the poles, but not quite all the way through. Now rotate the cutting board (or the onion) and make cuts all the way through perpendicular to these. This should give you a nice stack (and it's a big stack) of finely chopped onion. You can also use a food processor, but be sure not to grind them to a pulp. |
| olive oil mustard seeds 4 oz peas (optional) 4 oz carrots (optional) 4 cardamom pods (or a dash of ground) cumin ginger red pepper |
Cover the bottom of a chicken fryer or large skillet with olive oil. If you have some, sprinkle with mustard seeds. Turn stove on to medium; when the seeds pop the oil is hot. Add onions. Sautˇ until translucent, just brown on the edges, stirring from time to time. Add peas, carrots, and cardamom. Sprinkle on enough cumin, ginger, and red pepper that each covers the dish--but be careful with the red pepper. It's intended to be a hot dish, but that much red pepper scorches some people. On the other hand, if you can take more, add more. Throw in a haba–ero. |
| 2 large (15 oz) cans chick-peas | Wait 1 minute. Pour the water off one can of chick-peas, then add the chick-peas, and add the other can with the water in it. Cook 15 minutes, or until soft but not mushy, stirring as you go. Add more water if you need to get them as soft as you want, and feel free to turn up the heat a bit if you're rushed -- just stir it more frequently. |
| 4 T garam masala | Add garam masala. 5 more minutes should make a uniform paste. |