Sunday, March 21, 2010

Chickpea Delight

After months of begging our friend Sarah to make Pakistani food for us, she finally caved. While she is admittedly no Top Chef, her chicken karahi and chickpea salad are absolutely amazing. I haven’t mustered up the cajones to make the chicken karahi, but the chickpea salad is a staple in my diet. Especially as the weather gets warmer.

It’s a lot of chopping but beyond that, easy peasy. Sharpen your Henkels, fire up your iPod and let’s do this.

10 small red potatoes
4-5 tomatoes
2 cans of chickpeas
1 bunch of cilantro
½ red onion
2 tsp coriander
1 Tbs cumin
Dash of salt
Drizzle of olive Oil

Of course I never use an actual recipe, so proceed with caution. I chopped up the potatoes to be about chickpea size, and put them in a pot to boil. Then I got to work on chopping the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and onion and put them in a bowl. Give the chickpeas a quick rinse, and set it all aside and wait for the potatoes. Once they are cooked and drained, mix it all together with the cumin, coriander, salt, and olive oil and Voila! Pakistani chickpea salad. I’m sure there is a real name for it so my apologies. I just call it delicious.

And the best part is that it gets better as it sits. I have it on its own for lunch or sometime over a salad for dinner. Cook once, eat all week. It’s a beautiful thing. Thanks S-Money!

My Little Urban Garden Of Sorts

Here in Boston we don’t typically have much of a spring. We go from blizzards to sweltering humidity with only some torrential downpours in between. However this year, it feels like a legitimate spring and I like it! To honor the season, I have decided to garden. In my windowsill.

Due to my obvious lack of space I thought that herbs would be the best choice so I headed to Home Depot to get the goods. After swiping a few paint samples (the new Martha Stewart paints are to die) I headed for Lawn & Garden. Since I do not have total faith in my green thumb, I picked up a seed starter before investing in pots and soil.

The only bummer, I read that they had buy one get one organic seeds this weekend, but I saw no such thing. Even though my seeds aren’t organic, I am growing them in my house so I know there will be no crazy toxic chemicals involved. I picked up basil, chives, cilantro, oregano, and rosemary seed packets. So this seed starter business, funny little thing. You look at these dehydrated little biscuits and think “how the heck is this going to grow anything?” It’s made of coconut fiber, which is apparently a renewable resource. Bonus. You pour a little warm water on the hockey pucks and POOF… they expand. I dropped some seeds on to each (in alphabetical order so I can keep track), added a little more water, said a prayer, did a dance, and plopped it in the window.

So here we go. My little horticultural experiment. I really hope this works and I will be sure to keep you posted. Grow little babies, grow!