Three-bean curry

Today, my wonderful Crock Pot churned out another delicious dish - black lentil, kidney bean, & chickpea curry.

This one was a little different than the other recipes I've made, which mostly involve chopping the veggies and throwing them (and the spices) into the Crock Pot uncooked. This time, not only did I have to toast and grind the spices, but also cook the veggies on the stove top! Weird.

So, first you toast the cumin seeds, then grind them. In theory, you would do this with a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. I have neither, so I fashioned a makeshift mortar and pestle with a glass bowl and the blunt end of my lemon juicer. Needless to say, I went out today and bought a spice grinder - totally necessary, in my mind, if you're going to get serious about Indian food, which I am.

Then, using the same pan and a little vegetable oil, you cook finely chopped onions, Serrano chilies, garlic, and ginger. Again, in theory, you would have used a fo

od processor to grind the veggies into a paste, but that one is going to have to be put on hold for a while until Dave and I save up some money. But I did a pretty good job chopping them finely with my chef's knife.

Stir in the toasted spices (I was also supposed to toast coriander seeds, but I used coriander powder instead and stirred it in at this point rather than toasting), turmeric, red chili powder, and salt. Cook a few more minutes, and throw into the pot with the beans, cardamom pods, bay leaves, and a cinnamon stick. (Enough spices for you in this dish?)

It cooked for 6 and a half hours, at which point I added in cream and yogurt, as directed. Cooking for another half hour, you have a pot of delicious-smelling curry.

I served on a mound of rice with some cilantro on top.

This was very good, but all of her bean curries are starting to taste the same to me. That's not to say they aren't delicious, and this one was especially creamy, but they are all pretty much starting to blend together. Oh well, it's so healthy and delicious, who cares?