Adrak Lasson Waale Chana Masala (Gingered Chickpeas)

In 660 Curries, Iyer calls out this curry as being deceptively easy to make, and he's right -- despite the lengthy ingredient list, 90% of them just go straight into a blender, and most of the rest of the preparation is letting the curry simmer while you mostly ignore it. This makes a delicious, mild curry that keeps well. If you're in a hurry, you can prepare the sauce ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to cook the rest of it.

Ingredients

• Sauce
• 1 large tomato, cored and coarsely chopped
• 1 small red (or medium yellow) onion, coarsely chopped
• 4 slices of fresh ginger (~5x2.5x0.4mm), coarsely chopped
• 4 large garlic cloves
• 1-2 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed
• 15mL coriander seeds
• 10mL cumin seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick, shattered
• 5mL coarse salt
• Everything Else
• 4 slices of fresh ginger (~5x2.5x0.4mm), julienned
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 30mL canola oil
• 10mL ground Kashmiri chiles (or 2.5mL cayenne and 7.5mL sweet paprika)
• 2.5mL ground turmeric
• 125mL freshly chopped cilantro
• 750mL cooked chickpeas (I found that two 540mL tins works out to about the right amount of chickpeas once drained)
• 5mL Punjabi garam masala
• the juice of 1 medium-sized lime

Procedure

1. Combine all sauce ingredients and 125mL water in a blender jar. Blend into a homogeneous sauce.
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
3. Stir-fry the julienned ginger and minced garlic until they sizzle and are lightly browned, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the sauce, ground chiles, turmeric, and half of the cilantro. The sauce will start to boil. Simmer, partially covered, until the sauce develops an oily sheen, 5-10 minutes.
5. Stir in the chickpeas and 250mL water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered, until the sauce has thickened and the chickpeas has softened and absorbed the flavours of the sauce, 25-30 minutes.
6. Stir in the garam masala, lime juice, and remaining cilantro. Serve.