Chana TIKKA Masala
Feb. 27th, 2020 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damontLent is here and with that comes the need for rib-sticking food that doesn't require meat or meat products such as chicken/beef broth. I've also been hankering a bit for Indian-style "warm glop over rice" sort of food. So last week I was at the store and saw a couple of insanely expensive jars of what was labeled as "chana masala," a dish I find very yummy and meets the requirements for meatless days, but not at 8-9 bucks per pint. So I perused the ingredient lists (as I have done since kindergarten) to see how feasible it would be to roll my own.
The jars' ingredients included both cream AND yogurt. After a few days I realized that the jars were slightly mislabeled; what they contained was Chana TIKKA Masala. The idea of a tomato and cream/yogurt sauce sounded appealing to me. So off to The Intarwebs I went, looking for ideas about ballpark ratios and proportions of spices. And what I found was a metric $#!+-tonne of VEGAN recipes, which almost universally used coconut milk. Which, aside from environmental issues abut mass production of coconut milk (and soy and almond milks, among others) which is not germane to this post, was emphatically NOT the flavor profile I wanted right now. After bashing the search terms with a 3-pound sledge a few times, I came up with a few examples that used actual dairy products.
I present the recipes here, with my initial thoughts thereon, and an attempt to mash them into something I'd actually like to try.
(Probably next week, as things are about to get insanely busy for several days. ETA 21Apr2020: Things got even more insane a week later, as most folks reading this edit will know. I still haven't made this.)
Recipe 1: from Vegetarian Times
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 Tbs. garam masala
1 Tbs. tomato paste
2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 serrano chile, minced
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup low-fat Greek-style yogurt
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and sauté 5 minutes, or until softened. Add garam masala, tomato paste, ginger, and serrano chile, and season with salt, if desired. Sauté 1 minute more.
2. Stir in chickpeas and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in yogurt and cilantro.
My thoughts:
1. This calls for a rough 1:1 ratio of tomatoes to chickpeas. Good to know, especially when considering the other two recipes.
2. Don't throw away the chickpea brine a/k/a aquafaba until you're done, as I would hold it to thin out the glop as needed during cooking.
3. 15 minutes sounds like a minimum simmer time. I could see dropping the heat to very low after 5-10 minutes and just letting it go for an hour-ish. Also, adding the yogurt AFTER removing the pot from the heat doesn't quite feel right to me.
Recipe 2: from Hello Fresh
1 Yellow Onion
1 thumb Ginger
1/4 ounce Cilantro
6 ounce Green Beans
1 Serrano Pepper
13.4 ounce Chickpeas
1/4 cup Basmati Rice
1 teaspoon Curry Powder
14 ounce Diced Tomatoes
5.3 ounce Yogurt
Salt
Pepper
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
In a small pot, bring 1.5 cups water to boil with a large pinch of salt. While the water is coming to a boil: Halve, peel, and dice the onion. Peel and mince 2 Tablespoons ginger. Mince the serrano, removing the ribs and seeds if you prefer less heat. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Finely chop the cilantro. Trim, then cut the green beans into 2-inch pieces.
Cook the rice: Add the rice to the boiling water, cover, and reduce to a low simmer for 15-20 minutes, until tender.
Meanwhile, heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion to the pan and cook, tossing for 4-5 minutes, until softened. Add the curry powder, ginger, and as much Serrano pepper as you like to the pan. Cook, tossing for 2-3 minutes, until very fragrant. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the chickpeas, diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, and the green beans to the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.
My thoughts:
1. Hello Fresh is a subscription cooking service that delivers most of the ingredients for each recipe to you. In this case, they deliver everything except the salt, pepper, and olive oil. The cans of chickpeas and diced tomatoes are unusual sizes, but still maintain the rough 1:1 ratio as above.
2. See above thought on holding on to the chickpea liquid until the dish is done.
3. CURRY POWDER? WTF? Okay, *I* distinguish between curry powder and garam masala. Maybe they don't?
4. Including green beans sounds like a way to force GREEN vegetables into one's diet. Perhaps this is yummy but it's not what I'm after. It does mean that the beans-to-tomato ratio is more like 3:2 though.
5. Is the yogurt (which is part of the delivery) French style or Greek style? 5.3 ounces is actually more yogurt than recipe 1 calls for, and recipe 1 makes twice as much glop. So maybe it's not Greek yogurt. That would balance out the ratios a bit more.
6. OTOH, when do you actually ADD the yogurt? It doesn't say.
Recipe 3: from The Spruce Eats
This was specifically for Gobhi Chana Tikka Masala, hence the cauliflower. Substitute an equal volume of more chickpeas to get straight chana tikka masala.
1 medium-sized cauliflower cut into medium florets
1 tbsp salt
1 can of Kabuli chana/ chickpeas
For the gravy:
3 tbsps vegetable oil (or canola or sunflower oil)
2 medium-sized onions (chopped fine)
6 cloves garlic (chopped fine)
5 pods green cardamom
6 medium-sized fresh tomatoes (chopped fine)
2 tbsps garam masala powder
2 tsp soft brown sugar
1 cup thickened or double cream
3 tbsps almonds (blanched and ground to a paste)
Dash salt (or to taste)
1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves (chopped, for garnish)
After washing thoroughly, put the cauliflower into a large, deep bowl and cover with warm water. Add the salt and mix well. Allow the florets to soak for 15 minutes then drain the water and keep florets aside.
Open the can of chickpeas into a sieve and wash under running water until the water runs clear. Keep aside.
To make the Tikka gravy/ sauce: Heat the oil in a deep pan on a medium flame and add the finely chopped onions. Sauté until the onions are soft and translucent.
Now add the pods of green cardamom (split them slightly first) and the garlic. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the garam masala powder, brown sugar, chopped tomatoes, ground almonds and stir to mix all together well. Sauté until the tomatoes are soft and thick paste forms. When the masala paste is truly done, the oil will begin to separate from it and form a sheen on top of the masala.
Now add the chickpeas and stir to mix well. Cook for 10 minutes.
Now add the cauliflower florets and stir gently to avoid breaking them. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes as you want to keep them crunchy.
Next, add the cream and mix well. Turn off the heat.
Garnish the dish with chopped coriander leaves and serve on a bed of plain, boiled Basmati rice or hot with freshly made, hot Naans.
My thoughts:
1. What size can of chana? 6-ounce can? Number Ten can? Yes I'm being a bit facetious, but please PLEASE be a bit more specific, people.
2. TWO onions is twice as much as recipe 2 uses and FOUR times as much as recipe 1. These folks must really like having plenty of sauteed onion in their glop. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this definitely feels like "adjust to taste".
3. Specifically includes garlic, which the others don't, and NOT ginger which the others DO. Go figure.
4. Almond paste? I guess if you're really concerned about the thickness of one's glop...
5. Green cardamom plus sugar sounds like they're going for a sweeter taste profile than what I'd expect. I think I'll skip these as well as the almond paste.
6. Adding the cream and mixing it in JUST BEFORE turning off the heat sounds like a better idea to me than recipe 1.
7. Using fresh tomatoes would be fine in late summer or early fall, but not at the fag-end of winter.
Having considered all of the above, I think I'm going to aim for something like this.
Olive oil, enough for sauteing
1 onion, diced (use 2 if you want more onion)
Some cumin seed (a lot of the vegan recipes specifically mentioned this, and we have it)
2 Tbsps garam masala
Ginger to taste (can be grated fresh, or ginger paste)
Garlic to taste (in whatever form suits you)
1 serrano chile, minced (OPTIONAL)
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
28-30 oz. tomatoes, either petite diced, crushed, puree, or a mix thereof
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 to 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (or 1/3 to 3/4 cup plain non-Greek yogurt)
2-4 Tbsps cream or half-n-half (OMIT if using non-Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
More chopped cilantro for garnish
Saute onion and maybe the cumin seed in the olive oil for about 5 minutes or until soft and translucent.
Add cumin seed if you didn't already, garam masala, garlic, ginger, and optional chile. Saute for another 45 seconds or until fragrant.
Add chickpeas and tomatoes. Warm everything up, then taste and add salt and pepper as desired.
Bring the whole thing to just shy of a boil or to just boiling, then reduce heat to medium-low and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Drop the heat to very low and let simmer for at least another 10 minutes up to a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. If the glop is getting too thick, add some of the reserved chickpea brine as needed.
Just before turning off the heat, add the yogurt and cream. Use more if the glop is thicker than you'd like. Mix thoroughly into the glop, then turn off the heat. If using an electric stove, remove pan from the heat within 1 minute.
Check back later to see what actually happened.
The jars' ingredients included both cream AND yogurt. After a few days I realized that the jars were slightly mislabeled; what they contained was Chana TIKKA Masala. The idea of a tomato and cream/yogurt sauce sounded appealing to me. So off to The Intarwebs I went, looking for ideas about ballpark ratios and proportions of spices. And what I found was a metric $#!+-tonne of VEGAN recipes, which almost universally used coconut milk. Which, aside from environmental issues abut mass production of coconut milk (and soy and almond milks, among others) which is not germane to this post, was emphatically NOT the flavor profile I wanted right now. After bashing the search terms with a 3-pound sledge a few times, I came up with a few examples that used actual dairy products.
I present the recipes here, with my initial thoughts thereon, and an attempt to mash them into something I'd actually like to try.
(Probably next week, as things are about to get insanely busy for several days. ETA 21Apr2020: Things got even more insane a week later, as most folks reading this edit will know. I still haven't made this.)
Recipe 1: from Vegetarian Times
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 Tbs. garam masala
1 Tbs. tomato paste
2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 serrano chile, minced
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup low-fat Greek-style yogurt
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1. Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and sauté 5 minutes, or until softened. Add garam masala, tomato paste, ginger, and serrano chile, and season with salt, if desired. Sauté 1 minute more.
2. Stir in chickpeas and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in yogurt and cilantro.
My thoughts:
1. This calls for a rough 1:1 ratio of tomatoes to chickpeas. Good to know, especially when considering the other two recipes.
2. Don't throw away the chickpea brine a/k/a aquafaba until you're done, as I would hold it to thin out the glop as needed during cooking.
3. 15 minutes sounds like a minimum simmer time. I could see dropping the heat to very low after 5-10 minutes and just letting it go for an hour-ish. Also, adding the yogurt AFTER removing the pot from the heat doesn't quite feel right to me.
Recipe 2: from Hello Fresh
1 Yellow Onion
1 thumb Ginger
1/4 ounce Cilantro
6 ounce Green Beans
1 Serrano Pepper
13.4 ounce Chickpeas
1/4 cup Basmati Rice
1 teaspoon Curry Powder
14 ounce Diced Tomatoes
5.3 ounce Yogurt
Salt
Pepper
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
In a small pot, bring 1.5 cups water to boil with a large pinch of salt. While the water is coming to a boil: Halve, peel, and dice the onion. Peel and mince 2 Tablespoons ginger. Mince the serrano, removing the ribs and seeds if you prefer less heat. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Finely chop the cilantro. Trim, then cut the green beans into 2-inch pieces.
Cook the rice: Add the rice to the boiling water, cover, and reduce to a low simmer for 15-20 minutes, until tender.
Meanwhile, heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion to the pan and cook, tossing for 4-5 minutes, until softened. Add the curry powder, ginger, and as much Serrano pepper as you like to the pan. Cook, tossing for 2-3 minutes, until very fragrant. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the chickpeas, diced tomatoes, 1/2 cup water, and the green beans to the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.
My thoughts:
1. Hello Fresh is a subscription cooking service that delivers most of the ingredients for each recipe to you. In this case, they deliver everything except the salt, pepper, and olive oil. The cans of chickpeas and diced tomatoes are unusual sizes, but still maintain the rough 1:1 ratio as above.
2. See above thought on holding on to the chickpea liquid until the dish is done.
3. CURRY POWDER? WTF? Okay, *I* distinguish between curry powder and garam masala. Maybe they don't?
4. Including green beans sounds like a way to force GREEN vegetables into one's diet. Perhaps this is yummy but it's not what I'm after. It does mean that the beans-to-tomato ratio is more like 3:2 though.
5. Is the yogurt (which is part of the delivery) French style or Greek style? 5.3 ounces is actually more yogurt than recipe 1 calls for, and recipe 1 makes twice as much glop. So maybe it's not Greek yogurt. That would balance out the ratios a bit more.
6. OTOH, when do you actually ADD the yogurt? It doesn't say.
Recipe 3: from The Spruce Eats
This was specifically for Gobhi Chana Tikka Masala, hence the cauliflower. Substitute an equal volume of more chickpeas to get straight chana tikka masala.
1 medium-sized cauliflower cut into medium florets
1 tbsp salt
1 can of Kabuli chana/ chickpeas
For the gravy:
3 tbsps vegetable oil (or canola or sunflower oil)
2 medium-sized onions (chopped fine)
6 cloves garlic (chopped fine)
5 pods green cardamom
6 medium-sized fresh tomatoes (chopped fine)
2 tbsps garam masala powder
2 tsp soft brown sugar
1 cup thickened or double cream
3 tbsps almonds (blanched and ground to a paste)
Dash salt (or to taste)
1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves (chopped, for garnish)
After washing thoroughly, put the cauliflower into a large, deep bowl and cover with warm water. Add the salt and mix well. Allow the florets to soak for 15 minutes then drain the water and keep florets aside.
Open the can of chickpeas into a sieve and wash under running water until the water runs clear. Keep aside.
To make the Tikka gravy/ sauce: Heat the oil in a deep pan on a medium flame and add the finely chopped onions. Sauté until the onions are soft and translucent.
Now add the pods of green cardamom (split them slightly first) and the garlic. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the garam masala powder, brown sugar, chopped tomatoes, ground almonds and stir to mix all together well. Sauté until the tomatoes are soft and thick paste forms. When the masala paste is truly done, the oil will begin to separate from it and form a sheen on top of the masala.
Now add the chickpeas and stir to mix well. Cook for 10 minutes.
Now add the cauliflower florets and stir gently to avoid breaking them. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes as you want to keep them crunchy.
Next, add the cream and mix well. Turn off the heat.
Garnish the dish with chopped coriander leaves and serve on a bed of plain, boiled Basmati rice or hot with freshly made, hot Naans.
My thoughts:
1. What size can of chana? 6-ounce can? Number Ten can? Yes I'm being a bit facetious, but please PLEASE be a bit more specific, people.
2. TWO onions is twice as much as recipe 2 uses and FOUR times as much as recipe 1. These folks must really like having plenty of sauteed onion in their glop. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this definitely feels like "adjust to taste".
3. Specifically includes garlic, which the others don't, and NOT ginger which the others DO. Go figure.
4. Almond paste? I guess if you're really concerned about the thickness of one's glop...
5. Green cardamom plus sugar sounds like they're going for a sweeter taste profile than what I'd expect. I think I'll skip these as well as the almond paste.
6. Adding the cream and mixing it in JUST BEFORE turning off the heat sounds like a better idea to me than recipe 1.
7. Using fresh tomatoes would be fine in late summer or early fall, but not at the fag-end of winter.
Having considered all of the above, I think I'm going to aim for something like this.
Olive oil, enough for sauteing
1 onion, diced (use 2 if you want more onion)
Some cumin seed (a lot of the vegan recipes specifically mentioned this, and we have it)
2 Tbsps garam masala
Ginger to taste (can be grated fresh, or ginger paste)
Garlic to taste (in whatever form suits you)
1 serrano chile, minced (OPTIONAL)
2 15-oz. cans chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
28-30 oz. tomatoes, either petite diced, crushed, puree, or a mix thereof
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 to 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (or 1/3 to 3/4 cup plain non-Greek yogurt)
2-4 Tbsps cream or half-n-half (OMIT if using non-Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
More chopped cilantro for garnish
Saute onion and maybe the cumin seed in the olive oil for about 5 minutes or until soft and translucent.
Add cumin seed if you didn't already, garam masala, garlic, ginger, and optional chile. Saute for another 45 seconds or until fragrant.
Add chickpeas and tomatoes. Warm everything up, then taste and add salt and pepper as desired.
Bring the whole thing to just shy of a boil or to just boiling, then reduce heat to medium-low and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Drop the heat to very low and let simmer for at least another 10 minutes up to a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. If the glop is getting too thick, add some of the reserved chickpea brine as needed.
Just before turning off the heat, add the yogurt and cream. Use more if the glop is thicker than you'd like. Mix thoroughly into the glop, then turn off the heat. If using an electric stove, remove pan from the heat within 1 minute.
Check back later to see what actually happened.
