Tandoori 2.oh.

There's a restaurant near us that used to have the most amazing British-Indian fusion menu. But they've faltered over the past months, and I can only guess it's their new chef who has been slowly adding water to the formula. With memories of what once was, we gave them one last try the other night, but left with our taste buds feeling a sensation akin to blue balls.

One item that surprised us was a dish of french fries that we anticipated would be seasoned with tandoori  spice and served with a side of curry aioli (which we know is just a fancy name for mayonnaise, and since we also know how I feel about eggs, I was pleased to see it relegated to a secondary status). Instead, it came as a plate of fries thoroughly saturated in what must have been a tandoori chili and then topped artfully with the aioli. OK...

It wasn't half bad, despite being not what was expected, but I usually require my meals to have at least above a 50% approval rating.

I decided to try to remake the tandoori chili/stew at home, and while I am making it with fava beans (and will give you instructions for what to do with them) I strongly suggest you use a nice lima bean instead. For preparation reasons only, not for flavor.

Here's what you need for: 

Favalous Tandoori Stew
 
1½ cups of dried fava beans or lima beans
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons of tandoori spice
2 cups of vegetable broth
3 cups of water + 2 cups of water
1 can of petitie diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
juice of half a lemon
1 teaspoon of Aleppo pepper
1 large russet potato, peeled and cubed
olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Here's what to do:

No matter which dried bean you use, you will need to soak them overnight. So, plan ahead for that. If you use limas, you can just rinse and drain them after they've been soaked overnight, then skip to the next paragraph. For fava beans, after you've soaked them in a medium pot for at least 12 hours, rinse them and add fresh water to the pot. Bring to a boil for about 20 minutes, then cool. Rinse with cold water. Fava beans have a bitter outer skin that you need to remove. I found some instructions that said I could squeeze them out, but I discovered that a paring knife down the spine was needed to not make a huge mushy mess. This took a while.

So here you are with a nice dish of beans that you'll set aside for a moment. In a large saucepot, add onions and garlic with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook until soft, then stir in tandoori spice and cook for one minute longer. Add beans, tomatoes, broth, and three cups of water to the pot and cook on medium for about an hour and a half. You may need to add extra water during this time.

When beans are almost soft, mix in vinegar, lemon juice, remaining water, Aleppo pepper, and potato. Cook until potatoes are soft, but still intact. Cool and serve.

Needs more beans, methinks. Otherwise, yum!