Potato and Chickpea Curry

This meal isn’t fancy but it’s cheap and you can make a lot of it all at once. Good for freezing, or for a dinner party for which you have overextended yourself.  

I started with four huge potatoes, probably totaling about 1.5 kg. I don’t know what they were, the sign at the greengrocer’s just said “brushed”. Apparently dirty potatoes are nearly always better than washed potatoes. Rinse the dirt off, peel them and chop them up into pieces about half the size of an egg.  Boil a big pot of water and add the potatoes. Cook them for about 10 minutes. Drain them and set them aside. You don’t want to cook them properly, because they should spend some time cooking in the tomatoes and spices. If you don’t cook them enough, your sauce will reduce too much while you’re waiting for the potatoes to cook.

Chop an onion or two and fry it in your pot in oil or butter. When it starts to go soft, add some chopped garlic and chilli. Fresh chilli is best but dried flakes will do. Then add your spices – I used cardamom, cumin and a little nutmeg. You can mix it up however you like but don’t be stingy. For the amount of potatoes I was using, I would suggest two heaped teaspoons of cardamom and cumin, and half a teaspoon of nutmeg. You may also want to try coriander, turmeric or garam masala.

Before the spices get stuck to the pot, add a big (800g) tin of chopped tomatoes. Stir it about and then add your half-cooked potatoes. Cover and cook on a low heat until the potatoes are almost ready. Stir every once in a while, and watch the consistency of your sauce. If it’s not thickening quick enough, remove the lid for a while. If it’s drying out, add a bit of water and keep it covered.

When the potatoes are almost done, drain a tin of chickpeas and throw them in. You can use dried chickpeas but you will have had to soak them beforehand. I’ve always found them dry and awful, but then I don’t have a lot of patience for soaking things.

Once the potatoes are cooked and the chickpeas have warmed up and softened a bit and your sauce is a good consistency, remove from heat, add salt to taste and serve with rice. White basmati is my favourite.

Poor Man’s Potatoes

We thought we’d make the first blog post about patatas a la pobre, or poor man’s potatoes, because the idea behind the year of the potato is that you can eat well without spending a lot of money.

15 tablespoons olive oil
3 large spanish onions, thinly sliced
5 garlic cloves, thickly sliced
3 green peppers, roughly chopped
4 bay leaves
1kg firm, waxy potatoes, peeled
salt and pepper

Set a large saucepan over a medium heat and add five tablespoons of olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Cook the onion slowly, turning down the heat if necessary, for about 20 to 30 minutes. Now add the garlic, peppers and bay leaves and cook for 15 more minutes. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes in half lengthways and each half in two or three wedges. Salt them lightly and leave for five minutes.

When the peppers have softened, add the remaining oil and when the oil is hot, add the potatoes. Let everything simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

We decided if we made this again, we’d make it with fresh chillies.