Chana Masala (less than $0.50 per serving)

Everytime I go to the supermarket, I see MDH’s Chana Masala powder mix. Now, I’ve used it before…but not for its intended purpose. I see the happy picture on the box and I wonder if chickpeas can really be that glamorous? I bought the box and decided to take the plunge.

After watching the culinary superawesomeness of Ms. Manjula, in her Youtube contribution, I felt a teensy bit more knowledgeable about preparing the dish. Manjula cooks hers with ginger, and by golly, so will I! Her recipe calls for fresh chiles, which I did not have around.

Chole, a.k.a., Chana Masala

• 1 lb dried chickpeas, which expands to at least 2lb after soaking overnight (about $.80 – I got a 2 kg bag for under $3.00);
• 1 can of whole tomatoes, which I then chopped (guessing: about $1.50 – fresh is better, and that’s what Manjula did, but, the available tomatoes looked kinda waxy and were still superexpensive);
• 1 extremely large onion, almost 1lb (guessing: $1.00 worth);
• 1.5 cubic inches of ginger (guessing: $.50 worth);
• 1/5 of the package of MDH chana masala powder – about 2 tablespoons (about $.35);
• cooking oil (pennies);
• salt* (I threw in three generous dashes of fish sauce); an
• pressure cooker.

“Cavalier” is the word I would use to describe how I cooked this. I put the burner under the pressure cooker on medium high, and threw the MDH in when the oil was nearly smoking. Fortunately, I had chopped everything in advance, so in the onion, tomato and ginger went, surely preventing a small kitchen fire. And then the cooked chickpeas. Since I had undercooked the chickpeas the first time around, it took me a while to pressure everything together…probably about 25 minutes in aggregate – pressured it, for 15 minutes, checked it, and then pressured it some more.

You might see the burn marks on one of the chickpeas in the top picture. I would recommend just simmering it (in a regular pan) for 40 minutes like the package recommends – might need a little more water than just the canned tomatoes I used here. I like it just really chunky and with very firm chickpeas. Indira of Mahanandi makes a puree of some of the chickpeas to thicken it a bit. Maybe next time, I’ll try it that way. But I am definitely making this again. So good, and so easy!

Smells absolutely great when you are cooking it. Tastes even better the next day – very microwave-friendly. And is a fabulous lunch, even when cold. Likely makes at least 10 servings (yields almost 4 lbs) for less than $4.50 – less than $.45 per serving.

#8 in a series of my posts about recipes yielding meals for under $1.00 per serving:

1. Madras Chicken Curry in the Tundra for less than $1.00: even better than it sounds;
2. approximately Sailu’s adraki kebabs – less than $0.50 per serving;
3. maximally lazy and frugal version of feijoada (under $0.25 per serving) // Year of the Boar post #2;
4. antioxidant red cabbage and sweet potato curry – about $1.00 per serving;
5. When the stars make you drool just like Pasta Fazool, that’s Amore…(about $.50 per serving); and
6. Three Bean Salad: antidote to winter, super convenient and less than $1.00 per serving!

P.S. There is such a thing as Indian Chinese food, as in, Chinese food interpreted by Indian nationals. Me adding fish sauce, well, I just like it, but I suppose I can get away with calling it some kind of “fusion” technique!

P.P.S. I put the chole on a little plate because I adore being able to see the chickpeas themselves and because I liked the plate. In reality, I prefer eat more than 1.5 tablespoons of food at a time.

* If you leave out the fish sauce, of course, it will be vegan.

Junk food, and the salvation of Turkey Jook (a.k.a., rice porridge, xifan, congee, juk, okayu)

Question: is it wise to eat pizza, chocolate-covered rice crispy bars, spicy blue corn chips and other junk food exemplars for days and days on end…even if you feel like being lazy? Answer: No! My concern for all I’ve ingested leads me to attempt some salvation. Traditionally restorative, I am hoping that six thousand years of tradition in jook will come to my aid. To that end, I made a brown rice version for the first time. (I’m no stranger to white rice jook.)

antioxidant red cabbage and sweet potato curry – about $1.00 per serving

All this time, I didn’t know the stuff I liked was good for me! Let’s see, red cabbage and sweet potatoes are world-champion antioxidant sources…and ginger may ward off the development of cancer cells. Whew!

Well, anyways, it has been a while since I had any red cabbage, so, I thought I’d take a whirl at it. And I made curry.

Red Cabbage and Sweet Potato Curry

• 1 head of red cabbage($1.99);
• 3 sweet potatoes (I used the Jersey variety – almost 3 lbs @1.99/lb = $5.73);
• 2 medium yellow onions (about a pound – $1.53);
• 1/2~3/4 lb of ground beef (I got extra lean – well, that was not exactly frugal! about $4.00!);
• 1.5 cubic inches of peeled ginger (pennies);
• 3 tablespoons of curry powder (pennies);
• dashes of ngouc mam – fish sauce (pennies);
• 1/2 cube of beef bouillion cube (about a quarter); and
• vegetable oil (pennies).

Mince the ginger and chop the onions in a medium hot saute pan/skillet with the vegetable oil. Sweat the ginger and onions well. Then add the curry powder. Brown the beef. If you get something other than extra lean ground beef, you might want to brown it separately, then drain the fat, then add it back to the onion-ginger-curry mix.

At this point, I transferred the mixture into a larger saucepot – you might use a Dutch oven or other heavy enameled pot to limit dishwashing. Dissolve the beef boullion cube with the fish sauce in a little water – less than 1/4 cup. Incorporate that solution, mixing well with the onion-ginger-beef.

Slice the sweet potatoes. I went with 1/4″ discs, but if I had to do it over again, I’d do larger blocks. Biting into the potato then seeing the flash of gold surrounded by the purpling from the cabbage is very pretty. Mix the potatoes in. Slice the cabbage into 1/2 or 1″ strips. Add 1/2 of the cabbage in, after the temperature of the pot recovers from the potatoes. Add the second half of the cabbage when the potatoes are almost done. You will get a variety of textures.

Serve on brown rice. This dish is quite gingery. And, the potatoes, onions, and cabbage all conspire to form a mild sweetness that complements the savoriness of the fish sauce and bouillion. Enjoy!

P.S. I recommend eating this while listening to some Patsy Cline – preferably, “I Fall to Pieces.”