Sep 20, 2009

Caribbean Pigeon Pea Curry


Thanks to Pocketmouse, I have a bag of pigeon peas. And it occurred to me too late that I don’t like pea soup in any incarnation. So I’ve been looking for alternate recipes for pigeon peas, and it turns out that they are used a lot in the Caribbean. After hunting around for recipes, I compiled this one. Don’t let the name “Pigeon Pea” freak you out – they’re lentils.
--AnglophileLV

Caribbean Pigeon Pea Curry – serve with long grain rice

Pigeon Pea – 3/4 cup (soaked overnight in water- VERY important)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ onion chopped
4 cloves garlic crushed
1/2 sliced jalapeno
1 1/2 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
¼ tsp garlic powderdash black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (check near complete to add more if required)
½ Cup chicken broth

1. Boil pigeon peas in water until soft, about 1-2 hours
A disgusting thick head will develop and will boil over unless you skim it off of the top. This will only happen once, so after you skim you can let the peas simmer and not worry about them rearing their ugly head again.

2. Cook the onions, garlic and jalapeno in the oil in a medium sized skillet.

3. Add the curry powder, cumin, garlic powder and pepper. Stir until everything is coated in the curry mixture.

4. Add the already cooked and drained pigeon peas and stir to coat.

5. Pour in the chicken broth and cook down until the curry is less watery and more curry-like. Taste to see if it needs salt or more curry powder and cumin. If you make too many pigeon peas, they will soak up the seasoning and the curry will be bland (this happened to me – I put in 1 cup peas instead of the 3/4ths cup, so I had to add more seasoning and chicken broth).

*Serve with long grain rice and Fry Bake

3 comments:

Lady P said...

i did freak out! for a half a second, anyways, and then I wanted a bag of the peas
and with fry bread?! wow

Pocketmouse said...

Hey LV, what did you think about the taste of these lentils? You'll find them everywhere in India.

Lauren said...

I liked the pigeon peas once they were cooked - when they're still "al dente" they taste a bit funny. However, the amount of curry powder I put in would have killed the taste of roasted skunk. So further experimentation may be necessary.