Dhingri Lobhia (Mushroom and Black-Eyed Pea Curry)

I didn't have overly high expectations for this curry. I figured it would be... fine, but mostly just an extra dish to round out the meal. (And a way to use up some of my surplus mushrooms!) But it actually came out much better than I was expecting! I mean, I'm not going to claim it as a new favourite or anything. It wasn't mind-blowing. But it was surprisingly good considering its simplicity. I would definitely make this one again. It's cheap, easy, and tasty. Great combo!

Dhingri Lobhia

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. dried black-eyed peas
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. mustard oil
• 250g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies (or 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne + 3/4 tsp. sweet paprika)
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Rinse and drain the beans.
2. Place the beans and the water in a pressure cooker and pressure cook on "high" for 20 minutes. Allow for a 15-minute natural release.
3. Heat the oil over medium heat.
4. Add the mushrooms and stir-fry until they begin to brown (5-10 minutes).
5. Add the salt, ginger, chilies, and cilantro and cook until fragrant (~1 minute).
6. Combine the mushrooms with the beans (either by adding the mushrooms to the pressure cooker or adding the beans to the pan. If you add the mushrooms to the pressure cooker, use some of the bean water to swish out the pan and add it as well.
7. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until flavours are absorbed and sauce thickens (~15 minutes).
8. Serve with rice and your favourite flatbreads and vegetable curries.

I made a winter vegetable curry for dinner the other day. It was good, but lacking in protein, so I made this simple legume curry to round out the meal.

The original recipe calls for making the sauce with a combination of yogurt and bean cooking water. Normally I would have made it that way, but I still had rather a lot of leftover kibbeh sauce and no kibbeh left to eat it with, so I actually ended up using a whole cup of kibbeh sauce and omitting both the yogurt and the bean water. I figured that since the sauce is basically just yogurt and chicken stock (with an added egg), that it would work well as a stand-in and allow me to use up some leftovers from the fridge. I think it worked out quite well!

I found both curries a bit lacking in punch, but that was easily remidied with a generous dollop of Laoganma (老干妈/spicy chili crisp) at the table. That said, stirring in some extra chilies, spices, and/or fish sauce during cooking would accomplish a similar goal.

Black-Eyed Peas with Tomato-Yogurt Sauce

Slightly adapted from Healthy Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. dried black-eyed peas¹
• 3 c. water
• 1 tsp. Better Than Bouillon
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 5 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 3/4 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds, ground
• 1 small (400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 c. plain yogurt
• 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne
• salt, to taste
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Place the black-eyed peas, water, and Better Than Bouillon (or other stock concentrate) in an InstantPot/pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Allow a 15-minute natural release before releasing any residual pressure. Set aside.
2. Heat oil over medium-low heat.
3. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
4. Add the ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin, and cardamom and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Increase heat to medium and begin adding yogurt, 1 Tbsp. at a time, stirring well between each addition.
6. Stir in 1/2 c. of cooking water from the beans.
7. Drain the beans, discarding the remaining cooking water.
8. Add the cooked beans to the sauce along with the cayenne.
9. Season to taste with salt.
10. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
11. Uncover and cook until thickened (~5 minutes).
12. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 c. beans, but I chose to scale it back to 1 c. for my rendition. I also halved the oil. But I left all other quantities the same. ^Back

This was hit and miss. I kinda felt like the salmon with pemegranate was two great tastes that don't taste very good together, although I liked the salad. Symbol liked both, at least.

Glazed Salmon with Black-Eyed Peas, Walnuts, and Pomegranate

Cook's Country October/November 2020 (recipe card)

Ingredients

• 450g cooked black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
• 120mL pomegranate seeds
• 120mL hazelnuts, chopped and toasted
• 120mL fresh parsley and/or cilantro, minced
• 4 green onions, sliced thin
• 30+30mL pomegranate molasses, divided
• 1½ tbsp + ½ tsp olive oil, divided
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• ⅛+½ tsp salt, divided
• ¼+½ tsp pepper, divided
• 700-900g of skin-on salmon filets

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine peas, pomegranate seeds, hazelnuts, greens, green onions, 30mL of pomegranate molasses, 1½ tbsp of oil, the lemon juice, ⅛ tsp of salt and ⅛ tsp of pepper. Stir together, adjust salt and pepper to taste, and set aside to let flavours meld.
2. Line a large baking sheet with foil or silicone. Arrange salmon, skin side down.
3. Whisk together remaining molasses, oil, salt, and pepper and brush over tops of salmon.
4. Bake at 450°F on the upper middle rack until cooked through, 10-15 minutes.

Methi Lobhia (Black-Eyed Peas with Fenugreek)

TF has been having some digestive issues lately, so we're trying to eliminated a few things from her diet to see if we can find the culprit. Right now, she's trying to eliminate soy and gluten to see if that helps. It does seem to be working. (Either that, or she's getting better on her own.) So, in a couple weeks, we can try adding one or the other back in to see what effect that has.

The upshot of all of this is that I had to do a bit of last-minute re-working of the meal plan for this week. So, instead of pumpkin soup (which would've involved a commerical soup stock concentrate with soy in it), I opted for this black-eyed pea dal.

It looked quick and easy to make. We had all the bits readily to hand. And it even used up a half tin of tomatoes I had sitting in the fridge. So, winner-winner-dried-legume-dinner!

Photo goes here.

Methi Lobhia

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. dried black-eyed peas
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 onion, minced
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-4 fresh green Thai or finger chilies
• 425mL diced tomatoes
• 1 c. chopped fresh or frozen fenugreek leaves
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric

Directions

1. Rinse the peas well and place in pressure cooker with the water.
2. Pressure cook on high for 20 minutes with a 15-minute natural release.
3. Meanwhile, melt ghee over medium-low heat.
4. Add onion, garlic, and chilies and cook, stirring occasionally, until nicely browned (10-15 minutes).
5. Add tomato, fenugreek, sugar, salt, and turmeric and cook, stirring occasionally, for ~5 minutes.
6. Once the peas are ready, release the residual pressure and add the sauce.
7. Simmer over medium heat for ~5 minutes.
8. Serve with rice and/or flatbreads.

Feijoada (Goan-Style)

The main contenders for dinner tonight were either hotpot or curry. TF was more in the mood for curry, so that's what we opted for, and I'm really glad we did! This curry was so good! Everyone loved it. The sausage and beans work really well together and the vinegar, chilies, and garlic combine to give it wonderful, savoury-sour, mouthwatering flavour. I'm slightly regretting not making a double batch!

Photo goes here.

Feijoada

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. malt vinegar
• 4-5 cloves garlic¹ (or 1/4 c. garlic paste)
• 4 dried guajillo chilies²
• 2-4 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies³
• 2 slices fresh ginger (or 1 1/2 Tbsp. ginger paste)
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 large onion, halved and sliced
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 c. water
• 1-2 c. cooked black-eyed peas⁴
• 1-2 c. cooked kidney beans
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 450g pork⁵ sausage (chorizo is ideal), cut crosswise 1cm thick
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine vinegar, garlic, both kinds of chilies, and ginger in a blender and puree.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
4. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes.
5. Add the pureed mixture and simmer, uncovered, for another 5 minutes.
6. Add tomato and turmeric and cook, uncovered, for 5 more minutes.
7. Add water, both kinds of beans, salt, and sausage and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is cooked through (~15 minutes).
9. Sprinkle with cilantro.
10. Serve over rice.

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¹ Since I was working with a previously prepared guajillo chili sauce rather than whole chilies, I opted to swap in garlic paste and ginger paste for the fresh garlic and ginger in order to eliminate the necessity for the blender. I used ~1/4 c. of garlic paste and 1 1/2 Tbsp. of ginger paste. ^Back
2 I had some leftover guajillo chili sauce from an earlier recipe, so I just used that in place of the dried chilies. I used ~6 Tbsp. of sauce. ^Back
3 I left out the spicier arbol chilies entirely both because I didn't want to have to bust out the blender and because I figured using only the much milder guajillo chilies would be more to the Kidlet's taste anyway. This proved to be the right call; she loved it! ^Back
4 I didn't have any black-eyed peas so I swapped in a cup of cooked black turtle beans instead. ^Back
5 This recipe can easily be made vegetarian/vegan by swapping in plant-based sausages for the pork ones. ^Back