being a texan, i have to eat black-eyed peas on new year's day for good luck. while looking through my Best Ever Indian Cookbook (325 recipes with full-color photos of each, definitely a bargain at $9.99), i discovered that black-eyed peas are also popular in india. who knew? so i decided to try this black-eyed peas & potato curry. let me first apologize for the photo. neither black-eyed peas nor curries are very photogenic to begin with, so when you put them together...well, that's my excuse. it's kind of an unusual dish. you soak the beans overnight, then simmer them with onion, fresh ginger, and 5-spice powder. then you saute turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, and chile powder together with some fresh chilis and tamarind juice, then add that to the beans along with previously boiled diced potatoes, some fresh tomato, and fresh cilantro. the result is good, but not great. i don't know that i'd make it again. the 5-spice powder is a little overwhleming. i mean, you can taste all the various layers of flavor, but the 5-spice layer lingers the longest. if you love 5-spice, that's great. i think i'd prefer the more savory flavors to be dominant.
but the bread! it's called bhaturas. it's basically a fried naan--think of it as the other indian fry bread :)
it's very good, and doesn't taste greasy at all. the book doesn't tell you what temperature you should fry it. i have an electric range and did it at medium-high (turning the dial counter-clockwise to the 3:00 position) and that seemed to be right. detouring from the recipe, i threw a little salt on it after it was done to, you know, kick it up a notch. good stuff, and i'll make the bread again.
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