Curries Abound!

The Pedant and I went to Barnes and Nobles last weekend to get some travel books for our trip to Iceland, Norway and Copenhagen. I did the foolish thing of saying we don't need more cookbooks - we have enough. Which is like telling a little child not to touch the hot stove because it's hot. The child wants to touch it to defy the authority and prove his or her superiority over the heat. TP and I bought a cookbook to help satisfy our love of them. And support the economy. And support our support of the shrinking economy and cook at home more. So we opted to get a cookbook of a cuisine we didn't currently have, Indian. We stumbled upon Raghavan Iyer's 660 Curries (since 650 would have been too little) and didn't even realize until later it was endorsed by one of our favorite NPR hosts! YAY! Also the book is very informative, comprehensive and very funny.

So we made 2 things from it this week. And they were good. The roundup:

Black Eyed Peas with Mushrooms

It was a tasty dish and very simple. Cook mushrooms. Add spices (mustard, cumin, ground ginger, Cayenne, paprika, salt, fresh cilantro). Add black eyed peas. Let thicken. Enjoy. And we did. Only problem was I messed up a bit. I didn't measure the spices and I probably put in a little less than I should have. It was flavorful, but just lacked something. Plus, I used crushed red pepper flakes rather than Cayenne so the heat wasn't too much. That being said, a real winner.

Tea and Ginger Chickpeas

This was outrageous. Really perfect. We made a sauce with Darjeeling tea which gave a different dimension to the whole dish. Plus it had the perfect blend of spices from some Serrano chilies. It was perfect. I can't explain that more. (Plus, TP did most of the cooking for it, so I don't know exactly what was in it.) I am very excited to make more food from the cookbook.