Off-Topic - Poltergeist & Rajma

---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Had a freaky 'kitchen poltergeist' experience while rinsing rice. Something dark fell into the sink and scared the #$@!! out of me. Turned out to be my hair tie ... but my hair was firmly tied back (or I thought it was). Hair's shedding like crazy, so it's a must.  Like maybe 2 years of shedding, or something like that.  It never stops.  I'll have to wear a headscarf if it doesn't stop soon.  Don't fancy the bald or the scarf options,   so I saw a doctor a while back, but he didn't think there was anything to be concerned about. So that's that.  I'll probably slowly go bald and maybe tattoo exotic flowers my head.  lol  Guess my hair wasn't properly tied, and the tie sort of slid off onto my clothing.  Probably didn't notice because I'm really tired; been keeping insane hours again. Yep.  I'm going with that.  lol Prepared another bean curry.  I never tire of beans or curries.  Yum. Rajma / Red kidney Bean Curry Link | here Tend to adjust things to suit me and how I want to do things. I threw some finely diced carrots (you don't want hard bits of carrot in there) in with the onions to fry. Did something like: 2-3 tsp garam masala 2.0 tsp coriander 1.0 tsp chilli powder 3/4 tsp tumeric 1.0 tsp sugar x2 garlic cloves crushed (love garlic) 1.0 tsp fresh ginger (organic jar ginger tastes fine to me) 1.0 onion fresh coriander x2 beans cans x2 tomato cans abt. 2  tins water (or thereabouts / go by feel) Did the thing where you throw in the tinned tomato (once the onion, garlic & ginger (and carrots, in this case) are cooked off) and you then throw in the spice mix and let the whole thing cook down until it totally thickens, before throwing in water and the beans (+ coriander). As it cooks down, you mush up some of the beans, with spatula or whatever you're using,  for an extra thick, creamy sauce. Adding more water and cooking it right down works, but I couldn't be bothered waiting.  Tastes good.   Works really well.  Very nice. It's so quick and easy and it makes a really yummy meal, with very few ingredients and just one pot (which is a bonus). Recipe's probably much like the last rajma I cooked. Cooking is pretty much the same formula and pattern for given dishes, so it's mostly the same deal once you understand the formula (with little variations, as desired). The coriander was from the other day.  I trim off what I don't want (eg unusable hydro roots), rinse the whole lot, use what I need at the time, and let rest drain before wrapping in paper towel & storing in freezer bag in refrigerator.  It helps fresh herbs keep, I find.  Don't know how long for.  Maybe 3 or 4 days so far? That was my probably not-so-spooky kitchen adventure. ꕤ

Recipe - rajma (bean curry)

ꕤ Video SOURCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iTijn-gZCU ❤ ❤ Rajma Punjabi Chawla's Kitchen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iTijn-gZCU ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Made this rajma (bean curry) the other night.  Very yummy, quick & easy. I cheated & improvised. What I used: x2 -  can kidney beans - drained & rinsed x1 -  can lentils - drained & rinsed x2 -  can diced tomatoes x2 - onion, diced x2 - cloves garlic, large - diced x2 - tsp ginger 3   tsp  - Garam Masala 1   tsp  - Cumin 1   tsp  - Coriander 1   tsp  - chili 1.5 tsp - Tumeric 1 bay leaf (fried) 3 tins kettle boiled water (as in use an empty tin) Salt to taste, nearing end of cooking time 2 dollops butter (as no ghee handy; tastes fine) *fresh coriander [25-30 mins cooking, after 'gravy' or tomato base prepared] *I use normal utensils for measurements, so a teaspoon is a teaspoon in my kitchen. ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- It's the first time I've done this method of preparing a seasoned and reduced 'tomato base'.  It turned out very nice, and it was just as easy to make as it looks on video. Used a combo of canned kidney beans and a tin of lentils I had on hand, to get rid of the lentils (as I never got around to making lentil burgers).  Tasted fine.  The bet is you can throw in anything and it would still taste good.  lol I got a bit carried away with the amount of chilli I put in (3 tsp), as I wasn't taking into account how much I would be reducing the liquid -- and I like quite a thick mix, so it was well reduced. It was painful.  lol   Lips & tongue hurt.  Nose ran.  I've reduced the amount of chilli to 1 tsp for next time (but those that don't like chilli might want to think that one over). I don't keep ghee on hand and couldn't be bothered heating butter to separate solids.  Just threw in a couple of dollops of butter before serving.  Tasted fine to me. Served with rice & natural yoghurt.  Didn't have any fresh coriander on hand, so I made do by throwing in coriander spice (along with the other spices, when preparing the base).  Left-over amount frozen.   ꕤ