Chickpea Curry

My father is a little weird.  He likes categorizing things and he has all sorts of systems.  (And he does not respond well when the system changes.  But that is a whole different story.)  Lately, I've been flipping through a lot of my mom's cookbooks, and there are tons of dishes that are really delicious and cheap, at least once you purchase the basic ingredients.  These are what my father would consider and file under "start-up costs" - it is kind of self-explanatory, but these are the things that are maybe kind of expensive, but once you have them, you're set for awhile.  (I said he was weird.)

Anyway, my mom was craving Indian food, so we decided to make Chickpea Curry, which is a really cheap thing to make, especially once you have all the spices.  We got also got this giant bag of roti-chapatis from Costco (does anyone else think of Bend It Like Beckham when they think of chapati?  And Mrs. Bhamra going on, "What family will want a daughter-in-law who can run around kicking football all day but can't make round chapatis?"  No?  Just me?  Okay.)

dinner!  it smelled SO GOOD

Chickpea Curry

from This Essential Vegetarian Cookbook

2 onions

4 cloves garlic

1 tbs ghee or oil

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp tumeric

1 tsp paprika

1 tbs ground cumin

1 tbs ground coriander

28 oz canned chickpeas, drained

14 oz canned tomato pieces

1 tsp garam masala

Finely slice the onions and crush the garlic (using the flat of a knife will do).  Heat up the oil or ghee in a medium pan over medium heat and add the onions and garlic and cook until soft while stirring.  

Then add the chili powder, salt, tumeric, paprika, cumin, and coriander, and stir and cook for one minute.  (It is going to get a little dry there for awhile, but it helps the spices get really hot and releases the flavor.)  

Add the chickpeas and tomato pieces and stir to combine everything.  Cover the pan and let everything simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.  Make sure to stir occasionally.  

After 20 minutes, add the garam masala and cover the pan again.  Stir every once in awhile and let it cook for another 10 minutes.  

Try heating up some chapati or naan and wrap the curry inside if you can.  (The packaging should give directions for heating.)

my army of spices

sliced onion

the onions, garlic, and spices
it got really dry and I started to freak out a little

the glorious curry

the chapati cooking - sadly, I never got the desired puffiness
maybe next time

once again, the finished product

As we all know that I like themes, B21 is a bhangra band from England.  (Bhangra is from the Punjab region in India.)  They won a lot of awards around the turn of the millennium until one member of the band decided to pursue a solo career.  Yeah... Some unreleased music by B21 was stolen and it was kind of a mess.  Here is B21's "Darshan":

"Chickpea Curry." The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook. Vancouver, BC [Canada]: Whitecap, 1997. 134. Print.