Home Sweet Home and Chana Masala

I really liked my former landlady. After reading what follows you may doubt that, but it is true. 

Renting a room is interesting. I thought I was an independent entity who was going to live her own life. Not so. As with every human interaction, if you share space you share other things too whether you want to or not. Because of her I said "I do not mind getting old but I do not want to be an old lady". Fussy does not cover it. I spent a lot of time out of the house because it was obvious I was an intruder and there was a covert but clear sense of disapproval. Most people overtly disapprove of me and honestly that is easier to deal with. 

Sample: "I know the walk through is Tuesday. I will be moving between now and this weekend and I will have the room and bathroom cleaned by Sunday night. I am begging you not to nag me about cleaning. It will get done but it is not the only thing I have to do." 

Any chance of not being nagged, followed, hands wrung and otherwise not trusted to get it done? I really felt infantilized there. Not trusted to do anything - except help her with her computer of course. 

POINT BEING...I did not even know how much this undermined me until I got an actual place to myself. The casita is much more like an apartment and there is almost no interaction with the landlady. Noise is not an issue. I get to do what I want to do and with this heat I can kick off my pants when I get home and not worry about dressing to walk to the bathroom in the hall (sorry about that mental picture). LOVE IT! I feel so much more free and it affects everything. Everything. 

My dad said to me today that I have to start rebuilding. I said, "Dad, I have been rebuilding." It is a brick by brick process and I am farther ahead than I was a year ago, although not as far as I want or need to be. But, I have the space to keep pursuing work and more. Depression is a heavy blanket and hard to peel off but it is happening and this move has contributed greatly. I feel like I am home when I am here, not in someone else's house.

Tonight, I cooked my first real meal in awhile using more than a rice cooker. It felt good. It is Chana Masala - an Indian dish featuring garbanzo beans. I absolutely LOVE this dish. I am including the recipe and an open invitation because, again, I made enough for a large family. Will have Indian week at the casita. 

This is the recipe I used. I went all over Temecula today and found a great spice shop but no amchoor powder (it is dried, unripe mango - used for tartness/astringency). Oddly enough I did have an unripe mango so I just chopped some of that up and used it. Also had no paprika so used a red pepper that I did have, and no lemon so used a lime. LOL. Close enough. I think this must be Indian comfort food. Would be good on rice or served with some naan. 

 Prep

Used my electric skillet as well as my mini food processor - but no rice cooker!

Chana Masala (http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/02/chana-masala/)

This is an intensely spiced bright orange chana masala with a sourish bite that reminded of us the best restaurant versions we’ve tasted. I’m thrilled to finally have a good recipe for it at home.

The major changes I made were simplifying the addition of spices, adding more tomatoes and oh, the recipe calls for a tablespoon of amchoor powder, which I did not have. I looked it up and learned that it was dried unripe mango powder (which sounds so delicious to me, I’m buying it next time I go to Kalustyan’s, who also sells it online), which is clearly a sour flavor, so I upped the lemon juice i used instead. The dish had a nice sour snap at the end, so I will presume this is a good swap.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 fresh, hot green chili pepper, minced
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (I used a quarter of this because my cayenne is extremely hot)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon amchoor powder (see note)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 cups tomatoes, chopped small or 1 15-ounce can of whole tomatoes with their juices, chopped small
2/3 cup water
4 cups cooked chickpeas or 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 lemon (juiced) (see note; I used a whole lemon to swap for the amchoor powder)

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion, garlic, ginger and pepper and sauté over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes. Turn heat down to medium-low and add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, turmeric, cumin seeds, amchoor (if using it), paprika and garam masala. 

Cook onion mixture with spiced for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and any accumulated juices, scraping up any bits that have stuck to the pan. 

Add the water and chickpeas. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then stir in salt and lemon juice.

Eat up or put a lid on it and reheat it when needed. Curries such as this reheat very well, later or or in the days that follow, should it last that long.