Curried Chickpeas

I made a delicious dish of curried garbanzos at work last night. I sauteed onions, garlic and ginger with the "garam" (hot) spices, toatoes and chickpeas, and served it on a bed of rice with chutneys and cucumber raita. It was a hit.

Here's to You, Mrs. Jaffrey

I've switched from obsessing on Jacque to obsessing on Madhur Jaffrey. The cabbage rolls stuffed with potato were Divine! I did the tomato, garbanzo flour sauce and served them on a bed of rice with cilantro and chutney. Heaven! Note to self - visit India someday. The subtle spicing, the healthiness cum cheapness, the exoticism, all are so fantastic. I am a cook at an Indian restaurant, and I plan to work my way through her revolutionary cookbook.

What's up, homey?

Why is it so damned hard to get a decent home-fry? This is a question I've been asking myself for years. They're either mushy lumps or as dry as those forgotten sneakers in the garage. I think it's one of the ironies of cooking- the easier, the harder. Like biscuits, which are only 4 ingredients; should be simple, right? Yet any cook will tell you that it takes years to morph that flour, butter, salt and cream into a light, fluffy paddy of goodness. Even before I knew I wanted to be a good cook, I knew I wanted to make a good home-fry. The trick seems to be boiling the potato VERY al dente, then frying it in prodigious amounts of butter and oil. I don't muss it up with herbs or overt seasonings, just salt and pepper. I think the thing that can make or break your potato chunks is the crust. Ahhhh, the crust. Another elusive element of cookery. Let that little puppy frizzle and sear! Saute the crap out of it, but not too far, lest you be left with a dried out moccasin of a breakfast spud.