What Was It You Wanted

Sometimes inspiration can come from odd places. I'll never complain about our staff caf' at work with its $3 lunches including a hot entree, hot sides, salad bar, fruit, bread and sometimes sweets from the restaurant. Three dollars, in New York, are you kiddin' me?

But this day, I came down the hallway and suddenly noticed good, but odd smells. Lots of cumin and curry. Did someone make an Indian buffet! Well, not exactly. Probably some well intentioned cook got a wild hair and somehow thought that putting sweet and sour chicken with tortilla wraps, along with curried chick peas dotted with feta cheese and pinto beans was a good idea. hmmmm. Very peculiar. I myself have had very off days, bouts with substance abuse, alcohol poisoning. It could be anything. So, no judgment here for the cook. I just wonder what he was going for there.

But I did really get a taste for some great curried chick peas. I made a point to try to spend time and do it right. I also wanted to pair them with an appropriate main dish. As always, I'm limited to what I purchased that week which was pork chops. I found a great recipe for Spicy Pork Chops with Mango-Lime Salsa. www.finecooking.com/recipes/pork_chops_mango_salsa.aspx. For the eh hem,Cholay, I went with this recipe because it seemed fun to have to grind all the spices and it used spiced tea. allrecipes.com/Recipe/cholay-curried-chickpeas/detail.aspx


The flavors combinations I used might have been a stretch but we're talking about those pork chops now almost two weeks later. The rub was near perfect. I baked them and that kept them moist and succulent. And that salsa was the right amount of tang and coolness needed for the heat those chops were packing. The curried chick peas were an aromatic sensation as well as almost medicinal. I think they healed something deep inside of me. Loved them!