Sunday, January 28, 2007

WCC 13 - Spiced Potato Cakes with Chickpeas

The theme for Weekend Cookbook Challenge 13 is to make a recipe from one of your newer cookbooks. I figured that most of us would have received at least one cookbook or magazine over the holiday season. I bought a second Indian cookbook for my shelf this holiday season and I am enjoying reading the recipes. Some of the ingredients are hard to come by so far, but I'm keeping my eyes open. I did manage to find amchur (dried mango) powder, so I was able to make this dish:



Spiced Potato Cakes with Chickpeas
adapted from India's 500 Best Recipes

1 tb oil
1 tb ground coriander
1 tb ground cumin
1 tsp ground tumeric
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tb chickpea flour mixed with 2 tb water
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
1 tb grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
2 tomatos, diced
1 cup water

1/2 lb potatos, peeled and diced and boiled until tender
1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp amchur powder
3 tb oil

Mix together the coriander, cumin, tumeric, salt and sugar. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the spices and the chickpea flour paste and stir for 2 minutes. Add the chickpeas, jalapeno, ginger, cilantro, tomatos and water. Stir well to mix and let simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside and keep warm. (I moved mine to a low oven to keep warm.)

Mash the potatos until smooth. Stir in the jalapeno, cilantro, cumin and amchur. Mix well with your hands and form into 6 small patties.

Heat the oil over medium heat and cook the patties until brown and crisp on both sides.

Place the patties on the plates and spoon the chickpeas over top. Serve straight away.



I would absolutely make this again. While I did hunt out the amchur powder, I am not sure what it really added to the dish; I don't think it would be missed if you didn't have any available. I love the variety and vegetarian aspects of Indian food; I just need to find some good Indian grocery stores in Calgary, preferably in the south. Any Calgarians out there have any advice?


There's still time to take part in Weekend Cookbook Challenge 13! Send me a link to your post by Feb 5.

7 comments:

Emmy said...

Oh my! Sara, those look amazing. Yum! And I learned something new, I had never heard of amchur powder before.

foodiechickie said...

I heart these! There is an Indian take out place by my office that has the spiced potatoes on their menu. Mmmm. Thank you for the recipe!

Brilynn said...

I've never heard of dried mango powder, but I'd like some now!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Fantastic! That looks wonderful.
When I saw your photo, I was sure I'd seen that in one of my books but I don't have India's 500 Best Recipes.
Did the amchur have much flavor?

Morgan said...

John (who is the Indian expert in the house) declares that amchur is manditory in certain foods, like stuffed parathas. (pan fried breads stuffed with spiced potatoes) I'm not as sure. I have noticed it's normally with potatoes, which don't have a ton of flavour of their own.

As for shopping, Superstore is amazing - you can buy almost everything there. Sometimes. You know what a crapshoot shelf stocking is there. My Indian cooking instructor gets most of her stuff there. Most of the good Indian grocery stores are deep in to the north east. There is one I like, Spice World, on 17th Ave and about 56th, by the Zellers, along "international avenue". If you go to the Bombay Sweet House (deep north, but totally worth the drive), there is a nice little store right beside called, I think, A-1 Spices, that has a great collection of food and Bollywood vidoes. I have heard rumour of one on Fairmount Drive SE, but don't know for sure. It's the only one I've every heard of in the south though.

Wow. Can you tell that a) we cook Indian food all the time and b) spend way too much time thinking about it?

Oh, I have a great naan bread recipe - let me know if you want it. It doesn't require a clay oven, which is nice. :)

Sara said...

Emmy - thank you! I'd never heard of it before either.

FC - lucky you to be so near such good food!

Brilynn - I didn't think to taste some on it's own to see what the flavor is like. I'll have to do that after dinner.

Tanna - with all the other stuff going on, I didn't really notice it.

Morgan - thanks so much for all your advice. The Superstore is growing on me lately, I've been doing more shopping there. I did find that store on Fairmount and it's pretty cool - I'm working on a post about it this week. I have a co-worker who loves Indian food too and it's embarassing how much of our time we spend talking about it!
I would LOVE your naan recipe, thanks!!!!!

Melting Wok said...

I love the idea of using all this rich spices in your pancake, so intoxicating, yummys ! :)