Food Porn, Hold the Porn

Here is my entry for my little healthy food carnival. I'm posting the carnival on Friday, so you still have time to write a post! Also, if you have written a post, make sure that you've either indicated that in the comments of my post introducing the carnival, or you can do so in the comments of this post.

Anyway, here is my recipe for rajma which is one of my favorite Indian dishes. It tastes a bit like chili. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures because I suck, but if you visualize cooked kidney beans and tomato bits ... that is what it looks like. I hope your visualization of my food porn is making you horny, I mean hungry.

The recipe involves a slow cooker, and this is why. Indian food is delicious and healthy but often takes AGES beyond ages to simmer on the stove. If you wait to cook Indian food until you come home from work, you will not end up eating until 10pm at the earliest. The slow cooker is your friend.

2 cups kidney beans
6 cups water in slowcooker (depending on what setting you have it on)
1 medium onion
2 medium tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 bit of ginger
1 tablespoon salt
sprinkling pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp coriander

The night before:
Chop the tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger. Fry the onions. Then put in a tupperware and set in fridge.

Morning:
Throw your tupperware into slow cooker. Add kidney beans, water, salt, pepper, cayenne, garam masala, turmeric.

Turn slow cooker on. The first time you do it, it's helpful if you won't be gone for more than a few hours at a time so you can check on the water level since the amount of water that evaporates can differ from slowcooker to slowcooker. Once you have the hang of it though, you can leave the rajma for as long as you want. In fact, in India the rajma cooks for 24 hours so feel free to let it go 12 hours or however long you're out of the house. (It's done when it's got about the same consistency of chili. So it shouldn't be too watery, but it also shouldn't have all the water drained of it either.)

At night, when you come home:
Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan. Add the coriander and cumin and toast until they turn brown but not burnt. (Not super easy to do. I often end up heating the frying pan, and then once the coriander and cumin go in, taking the frying pan off the heat, as the heat of the frying pan is sufficient.)

Then throw the oil/coriander/cumin into the slow cooker. Stir up a little and you're good to go.

ETA: I was asked an important question in the comments. I use DRY kidney beans not canned. Also, I forgot to mention but I've read websites that say you always have to quick soak kidney beans, and boil them to get rid of toxins before cooking. I have to admit I've never done this, so maybe I've been flirting with death all my life. Does anyone have any opinions on this?