Spiced Black-Eyed Peas with Curry Leaves

(image credit)

And it has begun! What a great start.

I made a black-eyed pea curry for lunch today, on Dec 31 2020. Seemed reasonable to cheat ahead on 2021 and get the lucky foods cooking ASAP! Spoiler: delicious.

Recipe: Spiced Black-Eyed Peas with Curry Leaves at saveur.com.

Prep

I made it as listed, with a few substitutions:

• ghee instead of peanut oil
• chopped garlic instead of the asafetida, which I couldn’t find
• rounded up on all the spices
• used tamarind chutney instead of tamarind concentrate

I soaked the dried black-eyed peas overnight, then cooked them in my pressure cooker with 4 cups of beans, 12 cups of water, about 2 Tbsp salt, and 4 Tbsp canola oil for 10 minutes. They tasted great! Were pretty soft, could have skipped the soak or cooked for less time.

Served it with white basmati rice (pressure cooker high 6 minutes, 2 cups rice + 2 cups cold water).

Verdict?

This is *delicious.* Unlike anything I’d ever cooked before. Tasted like a restaurant to me. So yummy. Definite make again.

Just like people say, the beans kind of, well, burst in your mouth. So good.

Other tips

I bought the dried black-eyed peas, curry leaves, and other ingredients at an online grocery store near my house, Punjabi Groceries. Same-day delivery in the Vancouver area. Was my first experience buying from them — recommended!

This is the first time I’ve every cooked with curry leaves. Turns out they are (a) not related to curry powder, and (b) edible once cooked though you might prefer to take them out. More.

Had also never cooked with cumin seeds before, despite loving cumin and often cooking with powdered cumin. Whole different ballgame, the whole seeds. Recommended.