Friends,
I have something to share on the subject of healthy and high-energy food. There are two dishes I find that improve both my physical and my mental stamina. For a long time I thought this was a figment of my imagination, but I have lately become convinced that that is not so. These two dishes are: blackeye beans, and upma. What else is simultaneously (a) delicious, (b) will enhance your sperm count, and (c) speed up your logic engine? You tell me.
I'm not entirely satisfied with my upma recipes, although I have experimented a good deal. I have had much better upma, at MTR in Bangalore, for example. Here, however, is my simple and fast recipe for blackeye beans, the very best I have ever had. One might hypothesize that both these dishes provide a protein boost, but a steak doesn't get me going the same way, so it's not just the protein.
CARY LOBHIA. Eight to ten servings.
Ingredients:
1. Blackeye beans, 2 cups.
2. Salt, 2.25 level teaspoons, or to taste.
3. Ground coriander, 2 teaspoons. Must use freshly ground. I use a little electric grinder.
4. Ground cumin, 0.75 teaspoon. Must use freshly ground.
5. Ground turmeric, 0.5 tsp. Not freshly ground.
6. Extra-virgin olive oil, 6-8 tablespoons.
7. Onion, one large, chopped. All the chopping, slicing, and running of the grinder to be delegated to Assistant Chef Teetee till such time as he cuts a finger.
8. Garlic, 4 cloves, chopped.
9. Ginger, about 1 inch x 1 inch piece, sliced into 0.5 x 0.1 x 0.1 inch^3 sections.
10. Whole cumin seeds, 0.75 teaspoon.
11. Tomato, 1, sliced into thin crescents.
12. Green cilantro. One tablespoon chopped.
Method
1. Wash beans in two changes of water.
2. Soak beans overnight in water. Add sufficient water to keep them well submerged.
3. Drain beans in colander, place in pot and add 4-5 cups water (undaaz, to be confirmed later by actual measurement), depending on how thick or runny you want it. Salt must be accordingly adjusted.
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Lower heat to simmer. Some "scum" will appear on top. Ignore it. If it bothers your aesthetic sensibility, try stirring it in. This is a psychological measure. It won't help the scum, but it will help you.
6. Add salt, ground coriander, ground cumin, and turmeric.
7. Simmer for 40 to 50 minutes, depending on how soft you like them.
8. In a small skillet (preferably cast iron, for even heat distribution, not like Fourier's experiment) pour in oil and heat to bloody hot, but not too bloody hot.
9. Put in cumin seed. If the temperature is just right, the cumin will sizzle and pop within seconds and release its aroma, but will not burn. Try gauging the temperature with a grain or two of cumin at a time.
10. Put in half the chopped ginger. Keep it moving. Turn down the heat a little (to 7 or 8, on a 0-10 scale). Then after three minutes add the garlic, then after another 3 minutes the rest of the ginger. The idea is to get two different textures of ginger, one crisp, the other fat and juicy. Keep it moving. Then after another 3 minutes add the onions. After another 5 - 10 minutes (at this point the onions should look fat, limp, and juicy, but not at all burnt) add the tomato --- but faster if the spices look like they might burn. Temperature should be maintained well inside the critical zone during #9 and #10. Not too low, not too high. By this time the chef should have imbibed half a little bottle of Coronita with a twist of lemon. Else a glass of red wine. If the assistant chef is not trying to fall into the skillet, if he is not trying to usurp critical decisions like when to add the ginger, and if he is not too liberal with his advice, he may be allowed to stand atop a stool and watch. Else he should be shooed away, banished to the dining table, and may be permitted to drink juice out of a wine glass to keep him there and away.
11. Keep moving the stuff in the skillet. Once the tomatoes look well and truly smashed, transfer evrything from the skillet into the blackeye pot. "Wash" out the skillet with blackeye gravy to capture all the leftover spices.
12. Uncover pot and simmer/boil another 5 to 10 minutes for the right consistency.
13. Garnish with cilantro.
14. The dish will taste better the longer it's allowed to brew in the fridge, the taste peaking after two or three days. Can be had as soup before dinner, then as a main course, and also as a midnight snack with toast and tea. Goes very well with stuffed dried peppers a la Gujarat, and Swad Punjabi pickle or Lakshmi brand Mixed Pickle (both have lotus-root, but the former more than the latter).
If you are not happy with this, paisa wapis. Now my simulation run is done. I didn't get the right numbers, but it's done. Time to make some changes. Adieu!
