Tonight’s ingredients I’ve never tried before are:  chora dal, tomato chatpat sauce, and panch puran, all of which I picked up at a local Indian grocery.  The chora dal is labeled “lentils” but apparently it is actually black eyed peas. The panch puran is a mix of five spices: black cumin, cumin, fenugreek, yellow mustard, and fennel seeds.

I made a simple curry by cooking the dal in the pressure cooker while sauteeing the spices, ginger, garlic, and onion in a separate pot. By the time the veggies were nicely browned the dal was done cooking, so I added that to the pot, along with some other curry powder and salt. I also made some simple cucumber pickles (cucumbers, apple cider vinegar, agave nectar, salt) and some onion condiment like you’ll often see at Indian restaurants (chopped onions, lemon juice, paprika, cayenne pepper, siracha). I had some pre-made samosas, and also microwaved some poppadoms. I think this poppadom packaging might be among my all-time favorite, just for the sheer WTF effect of it:

I also added a bunch of different chutneys to the plate- tamarind, mango, the chatpat sauce, chatak chili pickle, and cut mango pickle. The chatpat sauce was nice, a little bit like a curry-flavored ketchup.