you can cook
  • You Can Cook!
  • About Me
  • Recipe Box
    • Appetizers >
      • Buffalo Chicken Dip
      • Cream Cheese Appetizer
      • Sweet and Salty Nuts
      • Thai Peanut Sauce
    • Beverages >
      • Blueberry Lemonade
      • Cosmopolitan
    • Breakfast >
      • Apple Pancake
      • Homemade Granola
      • Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie
      • Stick-to-your-ribs smoothie
      • Veggie Omelet
      • Yeasted Waffles
    • Main Dishes >
      • Beef Stew
      • Chicken Fajitas
      • Choley
      • Grilled Chicken
      • Low and Slow Chicken Breasts
      • Roast Turkey
      • Rub for Pulled Pork (and other meats too!)
      • Salmon Burgers
      • Simple Homemade Mac & Cheese
      • Simple Red Sauce
      • Steak and Potato Salad
    • Sides >
      • Bacon-Roasted Brussel Sprouts
      • Creamy Polenta
      • Homemade Potato Chips
      • "Magic" Salad Recipe
    • Soup >
      • Apple Cheddar Soup
      • Butternut Squash Soup
      • Chicken Noodle Soup
      • Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
      • Smokey Beef Chili
    • Sweets and Treats >
      • Almond Cake
      • Apple Crisp
      • Bruna Kakor
      • Butterscotch Pecan Sandies
      • Chocolate Fudge Brownies
      • Chocolate Mousse
      • Compost Cookies
      • New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
      • Pumpkin Pie
      • Salted Caramel Sauce
  • Classes
  • Contact Me
  • You Can Cook!
  • About Me
  • Recipe Box
    • Appetizers >
      • Buffalo Chicken Dip
      • Cream Cheese Appetizer
      • Sweet and Salty Nuts
      • Thai Peanut Sauce
    • Beverages >
      • Blueberry Lemonade
      • Cosmopolitan
    • Breakfast >
      • Apple Pancake
      • Homemade Granola
      • Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie
      • Stick-to-your-ribs smoothie
      • Veggie Omelet
      • Yeasted Waffles
    • Main Dishes >
      • Beef Stew
      • Chicken Fajitas
      • Choley
      • Grilled Chicken
      • Low and Slow Chicken Breasts
      • Roast Turkey
      • Rub for Pulled Pork (and other meats too!)
      • Salmon Burgers
      • Simple Homemade Mac & Cheese
      • Simple Red Sauce
      • Steak and Potato Salad
    • Sides >
      • Bacon-Roasted Brussel Sprouts
      • Creamy Polenta
      • Homemade Potato Chips
      • "Magic" Salad Recipe
    • Soup >
      • Apple Cheddar Soup
      • Butternut Squash Soup
      • Chicken Noodle Soup
      • Creamy Tomato Basil Soup
      • Smokey Beef Chili
    • Sweets and Treats >
      • Almond Cake
      • Apple Crisp
      • Bruna Kakor
      • Butterscotch Pecan Sandies
      • Chocolate Fudge Brownies
      • Chocolate Mousse
      • Compost Cookies
      • New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
      • Pumpkin Pie
      • Salted Caramel Sauce
  • Classes
  • Contact Me
you can cook

Around the World Pot Luck

2/1/2016

Comments

 
Picture
Several years ago, I was fortunate to be part of an amazing professional team. What we did is less important than who we were: mostly middle aged women from all over the world. Long before I started there, the team had a tradition of a monthly "goody table" on the third Thursday of the month to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. But this was not an event that the words "goody table" would bring to mind. This was a solid 50+ linear feet of tables lined up with food worthy of an international food festival. In short, I was an eager participant in a monthly potluck larger than any I have ever seen before or since.

While the 100+ people in the group brought dishes from every continent except Antarctica, there were a few that I remember especially well. There were two women from Mexico who would bring 1/4 sheet pans full of hand-rolled breakfast burritos made with eggs, salsa and chorizo. There was a man from the Philippines who would bring a small vat of pancit. And there was a woman from India, Mala, who always brought Choley.

Choley is the best buffet dish ever: it is inexpensive and easy to make, it can be served hot or at room temperature, most of the ingredients are pantry staples, it's not too spicy for New England tastes, and people really like it. I've never taken choley to a party and come home with leftovers. Added bonus: it's a vegetarian main dish, a rare bird at most pot-luck events.

Choley is a mixture of chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and potatoes in a very mildly spicy tomato-based sauce with chopped onions and cilantro sprinkled on top. It's great on it's own, but add a side salad and a piece of naan (you can buy delicious naan at most supermarkets, including my local Marketbasket), and it's a healthy, hearty and delicious meal.

There is one special ingredient, "Choley Spice" or Chaat Masala, pictured above. It can be purchased in a well stocked supermarket (the Hannaford's in Lowell, MA has it) or an Indian Grocery store (Google "where is the closest Indian grocery store"). It is inexpensive and keeps for a long time without refrigeration.

When I left that group, I was presented with recipes for many of these dishes, and love to make them. But the one I come back to again and again - for the reasons above - is the choley.

Thank you Mala! It was a privilege to work with you and I think of you often...especially when I make choley for dinner.

Chris

PS: if you love Indian food like I do and would like to learn more, Shilpi Rajan (based in Andover) gives cooking classes at her home. You will emerge much more knowledgeable and extremely full, since a typical class involves preparing and enjoying an entire Indian meal with your classmates. For a schedule of Shilpi's upcoming classes, see her website www.EZCompliments.com.

​If you would like to see my recipes, tips and adventures in cooking every week go to www.ucancook.net and enter your email on the right side. Alternatively, email me at [email protected] and I will set you up!
Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Chris, cooking instructor, disability advocate and mom. Food geek and passionate believer in fresh, simple and homemade.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Categories

    All
    Best Practices
    Chocolate
    Common Sense
    Cookies
    Cool Tools
    Dessert
    Entertaining
    From The Garden
    Healthy
    Holiday Cooking
    Kitchen Adventures
    Quick
    Snack
    Taste Test!

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    May 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014

    The typeface at the top of this page is Goudy Old Style, the same typeface used in my first copy of The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. My copy is a successor of The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, first published by Fanny Farmer in 1896. It was one of the first cookbooks to use the standard measures that are common today.