According to my favourite Indian cookbook (title and authors below), Rajma
Chawal (kidney beans and rice) is essentially the "mac and cheese" of
Indian cuisine. I love it because it's so warm and filling that it's just
perfect for a rainy day like today. It's comfort food (like mac and cheese! Only
you can actually eat it for dinner without feeling sick and hungry later).
Meeru and Vikram introduce this recipe by telling stories about their
family and this dish, describing how this dish is integral to their lives. They
discuss a time when five-year old Nanaki's friends looked at it and said
"Eew, what's that?" which got me thinking about the food I ate
growing up. I wish I could say that I would have been all over the kidney beans
but that really wasn't me. I definitely came from a family of
meat-eaters. Even as a pigtailed
little girl who loved nothing more than My Little Pony and frilly dresses, I
requested that my dad make me ribs every year for my special birthday dinner. When
my brothers had long moved on to requesting expensive restaurants, I continued
asking for dad's homemade ribs. After I moved out, my dad continued to make me
ribs for dinner almost every time I came home. Yup. Vegetarian, right here.
I often meet people who tell me that they would like to become a
vegetarian but they don't know how to tell their family. They grew up eating
meat and they feel like in giving it up, they're saying that the way they were
raised wasn't good enough. It seems really silly, but I had the same worries when I gave
up meat completely. Ribs were one of the first things I stopped eating (is
there a more blatant method of chewing on an animal carcass?) and I actually
had a harder time telling my dad that I didn't want to eat ribs anymore than I
did telling him that I was finished with meat completely.
I can't tell you how your family will react, but I can tell you that my
family has been at best insanely supportive and at worst completely unconcerned.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that deep thoughts regarding their parenting skills or
zeitgeist never entered their minds. My dad is
always searching grocery stores for things I might like to eat and (the biggest surprise) has tried
everything I've cooked since Matt and I moved in with my parents. My mom reads
everything I give her on the subject and is proud of my choices, if occasionally
annoyed that I won't just "pick the bacon off " something before
eating it. At the end of the day, nobody really cares what I eat for dinner.
Rajma Chawal
Vij's at Home: Relax, honey
Meeru Dhalwala and Vikram Vij
(published by Douglas & McIntyre)
Serves 6
Ingredients
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 cups chopped onion (1 large)
2 Tbsp finely chopped garlic (6 cloves)
2 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 1/2 cups chopped tomato (3 medium)
1 1/2 Tbsp mild Mexican chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper (optional)
1 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)
1/2 cup plain yogurt, stirred (optional)
5-6 cups water (6 for a soupier curry)
3 14-oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
5-6 cups cooked white or brown basmati rice
Directions
1. Heat oil in a medium pot on medium-high for 30 seconds. Add onion
and saute for 8 minutes, or until slightly dark brown. Add garlic and saute for
2 minutes, then stir in ginger and tomatoes.
2. Add chili powder, turmeric, cumin, coriander, salt, black pepper and
cayenne and saute this masala for 5-8 minutes or until oil glistens on top.
3. (Skip this step if omitting yogurt) Place yogurt in a small bowl. To
prevent curdling, spoon about 3 Tbsp of the hot masala into the yogurt. Stir
well, then pour yogurt into the pot of masala. Saute for 2 minutes or until oil
glistens again.
4. Add water, stir and bring to a boil on high heat. Add kidney beans,
stir and bring to a boil again. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 3
minutes.
5. Serve the rice and beans buffet-style in separate bowls.
The publishers asked me to explain any adaptations, so I've kept the
recipe as it is written (I added numbered steps so it is easier to follow), but
I will mention a few things that I do differently. I only use a few tablespoons
of oil, I do not add yogurt (it is listed as optional in the original recipe),
I use red or yellow peppers in lieu of onion (I really want to make it with
onion but Matt would never approve), I often use dried powdered ginger and a
large can of diced tomatoes in lieu of the fresh ginger and tomatoes (because I
always have them so I can make this dish when I get home late and I have no
idea what to have for dinner) and I'll often add only 2 cans of kidney beans
and no water (I keep the spices the same) because I get a lot more moisture
from the canned tomatoes and I like a thicker curry. Meeru and Vikram encourage
adjusting the spices to suit your tastes. I usually use minute rice. Sometimes
I eat it with sliced avocado.
