Wednesday, September 27, 2006
searching for "amchoor"
So I was surfing through the amazing Foodie’s Hope blog, and I saw this picture of a chole’. And I just had to have it. Today. ASAP.
So I packed the baby in the car and rushed out to what I though was an Indian grocery store. Turned out that it was a convenience store that only sold things like phone cards and magazines, and they were closing anyway. Undeterred, I called my husband, found an address of another store that is sort of in the vicinity of our town and braved going down there in the rush hour traffic.
Skip half an hour ahead, and there I was, the only non-Indian woman, with a baby, in a packed grocery store, trying to figure out where on the whole isle of spices is the mango powder… (and of course the kiddo decided that there is absolutely nothing more exciting than picking up the spice bags from the shelves and throwing them around … because we really didn’t want to attract attention…)
And then there was nothing there that said “Amchoor” powder. But they had “Amchur”. Wondering if a difference of a letter meant different spice I tried to bug an employee asking if this is “mango powder”? He said: “we don’t have mango powder, we only have amchur”. Taking my chances I bought the bag. Luckily when I got home and googled it, it was the same thing.
So I was off cooking! Of course, I didn’t use any chilli powder or chillies, because of the heartburn. But I tried to stick to the rest of the recipe quite loyally, running like a maniac back and forth between the computer room and the kitchen (with the kid running behind me thinking, no doubt, that mommy was playing a fun game.)
In the end, the chole’ turned out more watery than on Foodie’s picture (I’m horrible at following recipes), but the taste didn’t suffer at all. (And of course it came out completely wrong colour, but I suspect that’s cause I skipped the chilli powder). But it was delicious! (...typing with one finger while eating a third helping…)
Note to self for next time: Add more potatoes. Don’t be afraid to add more potatoes. You love potatoes! And in this sauce… Yum!
We also still have the soup from yesterday. That’s the good thing about cooking a lot in one day - don’t have to worry about it the next day. And kiddo still had some chicken from last night. And he was learning to eat it with his own fork!
PS: See the bowl on the picture? It’s staged… Because two minutes later the food was on the table anyways and the bowl had to go “bye, bye”.
PPS: I really gotta get another set of plates. At lest for the colour variety. Or maybe change my template to blue, and pretend that that’s my intentional theme…
PPPS: There was no chicken tonight, so DH took the kiddo in the evening to go see grandparents and mommy got a break all to herself… (becaues he absolutely cannot imagine two vegetarian days in a row, and he is vegetarian tomorrow, so there must be chicken tonight, and he's getting it, and there is no stopping him... See -- we have so much in common !)
PPPPS: And just one more pic, just cause I soooo like it…
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Chickpeas. Yum. What a cute kid!!! ;) I think it would be awesome to have you over at Veggin Out!!! Can't wait!
It's me Asha!!:)) Reading your post was hilarious!! You went through all that trouble to try my recipe,I am flattered!!
Now,Am=mango, chur or choor=piece,Dried mango pieces powdered.You now know it the hard way!!:D, can be replaced with some lime/lemon juice!
Chole looks good, not bad at all for a first try! Add tomato sauce and sweet hungarian paprika for color.Potato is good too!
Next I recommend my tomato salad,cucumber medley!! :)))
Thanks for the feedback!!Great job!!
Vasilisa,
Your new blog makes my mouth water. Is your beautiful son sampling all the delights?
Great to see you're back in the game.
Harmonia: I'm planning too :-)
Asha: Looking forward to more experiments! This one was sooo yummy!
Alexys: Great to see you here :-)