Black-eyed beans with mushrooms

Ingredients

225g dried black-eyed beans, washed and picked over for stones or other debris

1.2l water

225g fresh mushrooms

6 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

2.5 cm stick cinnamon

150g onions, peeled and chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp cayenne pepper or chilli powder

2 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper

3 Tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

Put the beans into a heavy pot with the water. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off heat, cover and allow to stand undisturbed for 1 hour.
While the pot is resting, cut the mushrooms through their stems to 3mm slices
Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium high flame. When hot put in the cumin seed and cinnamon stick. Let then sizzle for a few seconds and put in the chopped onions and garlic. Stir and fry till the edges of the onions start to turn brown. Put in the mushrooms and stir and fry while the mushrooms wilt. Add the tomatoes, ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric and cayenne. Stir and cook for a minute, then turn heat to low and let the mixture stew for 10 minutes. Turn heat off
Bring the banes to a boil. Skim if there is a lot of scum. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 20-30 minutes till beans are tender. To the beans and their water add the mushroom mixture, salt, black pepper and fresh coriander. Simmer over low heat for another 30 minutes adding a little water if it looks to dry. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.

Indioan Cookery Madhur Jaffrey

Indian