Whoops! Forgot to identify myself. I originated this subject thread on splattering.
Regards the splattering a few tips to try!:
As you have demonstrated oil and water don't mix. Tomatoes, fresh or tinned, obviously have a high water content. Try draining whole tinned tomatoes to add. You can break them up with the end of a spatula later, and for the juice you can add it if needed for moisture later (or drink it with a bit of tabasco/Worcester sauce!)
Use the deepest pan you have - it won't stop the splattering but will reduce the amount that goes over your kitchen and more importantly you.
Is the oil actually hotter than in need be? Add a little of the tomato (or a cube of bread) first to see how it react when yiou gently slide the rest in, and adjust temperature before accordingly. Use the lid of the pan (or from an even larger one) like a riot shield with your other hand.
You could invest in a splatter guard, a bit like a tennis racket with fine wire mesh. But it should not really be necessary if you try the above or unless you are doing a lot of cooking with oil.
Hello Felafelboy
As Winton says, if you add anything with water to oil, it is bound to splash. It is better to heat the oil in a deep pan rather than a wok, when you are adding watery ingredients to it. Also, add them slowly, from the side of the pan, perhaps stirring to mix the tomatoes with the hot oil.
Mixing diced tomatoes and tomato puree is fine, I do it all the time.
Chana masala mixes, usually powdered ones, are used even by professional cooks in India, and they are pretty good, generally. The main reason for their popularity is that many people do not keep all the little bits of spices it contains. I haven?t used any with oil in it. Anything with fat will ?spoil? after a while, unless kept in fridge/freezer. The mix is good for other curries too, as you mentioned.
This Chickpea Curry does not have many spices and it is made without the spice mix you mention, but is obviously less spicy than chana masala.
Mamta
Yes, I asked a few knowldegeable colleagues at work who have experience with cooking, though not doing anything in the Indian variety, and they told me to add the tomato mix in a small bit at a time.
Mamta - perhaps you meant tomato paste, not puree to the diced tomatoes. I added tomato PASTE, since I didn't have any cans of tomato puree nor did I want to spend extra time pureeing canned whole or diced tomatoes myself. I intuitively thought that tomato paste would thicken the diced tomato mixture while at the same time, the added water would also help to thin/puree the heating mixture.
I do prefer some bits of tomato in the sauce that accompanies the chick peas.
I have had the leftovers in my refrigerator for four days and it still smells fresh. A thick sauce helps to extend the serving size of the dish. I find that with a thicker sauce and bits of tomato, one portion with about twenty to thirty (I haven't counted, but that's what it seems like!) chick peas is sufficient even for a big eater like me! In other words, the one 15 oz can of chick peas is lasting for about 4 servings.
I really enjoy this dish with steamed spinach, lemon juice added to the spinach and the chana masala. Served on top of basmati rice. Side dish of a little raita with some small bits of diced cucumber. Easy dish to make and very satisfying.
Next time I may replace the chick peas with red kidney beans to add some variety.
I will also add less oil next time and add the chana gravy mix sooner.
Mamta - As you may have seen in your posts - they were duplicates. Perhaps you did so due to the link appearing as HTML code and not the hyperlink itself. For the record, the pan I used was not a normal saute type pan, but one with higher edges, but if you had seen the height the oil splattered, even a wok's sloped high edges would not have been high enough to have caught the spray!!
tomato paste and pur?e ? I'd say they are the same thing ? The sort of thick very rich tomato addition usually added in teaspoons/tablespoon size amounts?
This is how I see tomatoes -
Fresh tomatoes - fresh as they came from the plant, often very watery depending on type
Tinned tomatoes - whole or chopped, cooked and canned, still very wet/watery
Tomato juice - Thin watery juice often used just for drinking or making cocktails
Passata - pur?ed and sieve tomatoes that create a slightly thick consistancy that is still quite wet (great for making pizza sauces or adding to a pasta sauce)
Tomato Ketchup - a thickened tomato condament with sugar and spices
Tomato Pur?e/Paste - very thick, usually in tubes or jars, quite dry and used in small amounts for adding lots of tomato flavour.
Steve
I think the paste v puree confusion could come from (another!) mid-atlantic translation.
UK Tomato Puree = US Paste (Shorter cooking time then strained)
UK Paste: Cooked for hours, strained then cooked again (so more concentrated than puree)
But (!!) what we buy in UK supermarkets in tubes labelled 'tomato puree' and now invariably "double concentrated" should technically therefore be called tomato paste.
isn't food wonderfull... you think you know what you are talking about and when you read a recipe you think you know what it means but depending on country/area/regions/style etc it can be something completely different !
More obvious things like the USA calling what we call "chips" they call "fries" and what we call call "crisps" they call "chips" etc... but the more I read (mostly on here) the more I see that many many things are not what you think they are... like the paprika and hot paprika (I call it chilli powder), like this paste/pur?e etc.... it does go to show how you can't simply write a recipe without any sort of key/glossary with a good explination to go with it !
Steve
Hi Steve, welcome back!
The food terms are a minefield aren't they?- especially as it can even come down to measurements ( a cup of flour?)
There are some food translation glossaries on-line but this is a nice starter from channel4.: http://www.channel4.com/food/features/american-food-term-glossary_p_1.html
Good for asking questions if ever asked to set a quiz!