Black-eyed peas curry: an attempt of Indian food.

(Em português)

I have been following Enjoy Indian Food for quite a while now, and everytime I go to an Indian restaurant I enjoy it indeed. But I had never made the move  to prepare it myself.
Silly me! I think it's because the logic of Indian food is quite different from everything I usually prepare, so I didn't really now where to start.
So, one day, I come across this recipe, which takes black-eyed peas.
And guess what? I had cooked and and frozen black-eyed peas, which I hadn't figured how to prepare.
By the way, I have quite a few kinds of beans at home, and I have been trying to think of new ways to prepare them besides the everyday rice-and-beans.
After all, I thought this recipe - Teriwale Lobiya - was a great way to approach Indian cuisine.

Little by little, I processed the following ingredients using my blender (not adding water at all) until I got a smooth paste:

5 tiny onions, chopped

1 small ripe tomato (in my case, about 5 sweet grape tomatoes)

1,5cm fresh ginger, grated

1 large clove of garlic

2 green peppers

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

I heated one tablespoon oil in a large pan and added:

1/6 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/6 teaspoon turmeric powder

I sauteed it for 2 minutes, then included one tiny onion, chopped, and let it sauté until tender.
So I poured in the tomato paste and cooked lidded for 30 minutes over low heat.

Acrescentei a pasta de tomate etc e deixei cozinhar em fogo baixo por 30 minutos. The goal is to cook slowly, until a bit of oil appears on the surface. This condiment base is named masala.

At this point I added:

1 teaspoon powdered coriander

1 tablespoon powdered cumin seeds

1/6 tablespoon garam masala*

1/3 teaspoon powdered Cayenne pepper**

and let the masala cook for 5 more minutes.

I put 3 cups cooked black-eyed peas, and 1 1/2 cup water. I salted the stew to taste and let cook for 15 minutes over medium-low heat. Then I turned off the stove and let the residual heat cook the stew for 15 minutes more.

Before serving I sprinkled chopped fresh cilantro, and prepared a side of aromatic rice.
There is an "official version" of it, called Jeera Rice. I just prepared my rice as usual, including cardamom, cloves and turmeric powder.

Rende 4 porções.

*Garam masala means "hot spice". It is a mixture of spices that may vary a lot, but generally includes white and rose pepper, cloves, cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, anise. In spite of it's name, it's not really hot - it's rather sweet actually.

** Cayenne pepper is quite hot, though. So if you're not used to it, I recommend you start with way less then I used and increase little by little. It's easy to loose control with this.