Good thing dried is better for the environment too

An accomplished home cook of my acquaintance once chided me for using canned beans, commenting that the dried ones taste so much better. I duly got two books on the topic, The Bean Bible by Aliza Green and The Bean Harvest Book by Ashley Miller. I read the latter cover-to-cover before deciding to try making "Curried Chickpeas".

Soaking and cooking the chickpeas was mostly an issue of logistics - I had to plan for three stages of cooking. Miller said soaking more than 4 hours was a waste of time, Green said that chickpeas require at least 10 hours and sometimes as much as 24. d'oh! After 6 hours of soaking on my counter, I began to hear periodic pinging from the glass bowl; I suspect the chickpeas were splitting. I cooked them after 7 hours of soaking, and it took less than an hour.

As it was, it took me so long to get around to the food cooking stage, the stock had gelled. The recipe called for black mustard seeds and turmeric, onions garlic and ginger, potatoes and tomatoes, i.e. all the things I expect to put in Indian food. Unfortunately, the result is bland and there's so very much of it. It's also too watery, but with that much potato, I don't want to add more carbs.

Oh well, at least it's healthy? Read More......