{"id":1496,"date":"2013-11-21T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2013-11-20T10:54:01","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T15:54:01","slug":"i-should-not-be-permitted-to-go-shopping-without-a-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/21\/i-should-not-be-permitted-to-go-shopping-without-a-list\/","title":{"rendered":"I should NOT be permitted to go shopping without a list"},"content":{"rendered":"

I confess — I’m not a natural blonde. More of a mousy brown with gray sneaking in. So every few months I head off to see Anu at Shear Shack<\/a> to get my highlights and a cut. What does this have to do with the price of tea in China you might be asking. Well, next to Shear Shack is a small neighborhood Indian grocer!<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a> I start at the snack aisle, where I see these twirly, spiky crunchies called “muruku.” I work with several Indian immigrants, and a couple of them have brought in the home-made version of these. They have learned to bring a small ziploc bag for themselves and a LARGE ziploc bag for me. I call it Indian crack. These munchies are crunchy, well-seasoned (cumin, coriander, fennel, ?), and just a little spicy. You can’t eat just one handful, I swear. It starts with a rice and lentil flour batter that is extruded into hot oil. So not something I’m going to figure out at home. I grab a bag. I also grabbed another bag of fried snacks. Because I love Indian snacks.<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I got lost in the frozen aisle next. All sorts of exotic vegetables I don’t recognize, but they do have naan. And kulcha. And paratha. And roti. And chapati. Oh my. I restrain myself to one naan and one onion kulcha. And some baby red onions. You know, just because they looked interesting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So I get home and realize that I am STARVING. I briefly consider a muruku and naan lunch, but realize it’s probably a little heavy on the carbs. I have chickpeas and tomatoes in the pantry, an onion in the fridge, and some pepper strips in the freezer, so a vegan chickpea curry is just 30 minutes away. And I can stuff my face with muruku while it cooks \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Chickpea Curry<\/strong>
\nAdapted from “Chole” in Padma Lakshmi’s Easy Exotic<\/em>
\nServes 2 as a main, 4 as a side<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a>1 onion
\nA couple of generous handfuls of frozen tri-color pepper strips [*]
\n1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained and liquid reserved
\n2 tablespoons neutral oil
\n2 teaspoons garam marsala [**]
\n1 15-oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained well
\n1 – 2 tablespoons lime juice<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Put the onion, pepper, and tomatoes in a food processor or blender and process until fairly smooth. I did this in batches in my mini-food-processor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the puree and cook for 20 – 30 minutes over medium-low to medium until the onion is softened. You want a gentle simmer, not wild ploppy bubbles. If it starts to dry out, add some of the reserved tomato liquid or water, just a tablespoon at a time.<\/p>\n

Add the garam marsala and cook for 5 minutes. Add the chickpeas and cook about 10 more minutes, until heated through. Again, if it starts to dry out, add some of the reserved tomato liquid or water, just a tablespoon at a time. Serve over rice or with Indian bread, like the onion kulcha I just bought. Cilantro would make a nice garnish.<\/p>\n

\"SAMSUNG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[*] The CGP doesn’t really care for green bell peppers. So I rarely have them on hand, fresh. What I do keep around are bags of frozen strips of bell peppers — most are a combination of yellow, green, and red. Far tastier than just the green and way better shelf-life.<\/p>\n

[**] A mild spice blend typically with cumin, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, and black pepper, but does vary regionally. Can be bought at any Indian or Southeast Asian grocer. Penzey’s<\/a> has a version as well. I sneak a little into my chili!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I confess — I’m not a natural blonde. More of a mousy brown with gray sneaking in. So every few months I head off to see Anu at Shear Shack to get my highlights and a cut. What does this have to do with the price of tea in China you might be asking. Well, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flex-friendly","category-food"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-11-16-14.44.49.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ImYM-o8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1605,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions\/1605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellematlack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}