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The CookingBites recipe challenge: chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

TastyReuben said:
No doubting you, as I know grocery stores can be very inconsistent regionally, but I wonder if they’re just stocked somewhere you’d not expect.

Kroger here stocks dates in three, yes three, places in the store. There are dates stocked in a small aisle of jarred foods in Produce (along with sun-dried tomatoes and some packaged nuts 🤷‍♂️), then there are some other dates in the dried fruits aisle, alongside the prunes, raisins, etc, and if that weren’t enough, there’s a third type of date for sale in the natural foods aisle (along with some other nuts!).
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Looked at their website (Frys here) for our shoping location and they seem to have a a pretty good selection. Don't usually shop there, so thx!

Yes, regionally very inconsistent here to say the least which is good and bad
 
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SoCalZone10 said:
How about zucchini, I always have problem with zucchini, but they are easy to get here.
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That was chosen in the last year - only five months ago.
Z-Cook said:
Is it ok to make suggestions or is the list the suggestions?
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Personally, I think stick to the suggestions in the poll otherwise this could go on for ever (particularly given the time difference)! Its up to SatNavSaysStraightOn as new judge really.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
So I have a few ideas.. and then I ruled out anything that's been done this year which left me scratching my head...

Next Challenge Ingredient

  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .


So please give need an idea on what you'd like, tick as many or as few items as you'd like and I'll pick the winner from there (I'm useless at picking things other people eat, hence the poll).
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I'll let it run for 24hrs and then call it.

At the moment it is carrots in the lead, followed by tamarind. Obviously I'm happy with either. Carrots may just have the edge because they are very cheap, tamarind is very cheap here if you buy it in the compressed blocks. Finding that in a supermarket can be the challenge. Certainly most in the UK and Australia sell it that way, it's just usually hard to locate because it is never in the spices section. I usually find it in the International section hidden on the top shelf.
 
Morning Glory said:
I understand. But when it comes to tamarind its far easer to use a ready made paste as making it from scratch is a real chore.
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Scratch is easy. Soak, mash, drain. And if you feel up to it use a spoon to recover as much as possible if the pulp. I've found the trick is to ignore instructions and use plenty of water.
 
It's readily available here. They sell it in 500 gm blocks and, as SatNavSaysStraightOn points out, it's soak, mash drain. I actually cover it with water first and then scrunch it up between my fingers. Helps to loosen the pits from the actual fruit and makes it a bit easier to process.
 
Morning Glory said:
I meant the fruit in the pod not blocks. Is that what you meant?
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They don't sell the pods directly here. You can only buy in blocks with the seeds cut through. Designed to stop imported goods from being grown in Australia.

I've only had sweet tamarind once (in pods). We just ate them direct from there pods.

The block is sour tamarind which you cook with.
 
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