Hot, Sweet, and Sour Chickpeas with Eggplant (HCEV)

• 2 tablespoons neutral oil, like grapeseed and corn (Rather save the grapeseed oil for MMB recipes and corn oil is another thing Michael Pollan has successfully made me feel queasy about. So peanut oil it is.)
• 1 medium eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 2 hot fresh chiles, seeded and minced, or hot red pepper flakes to taste (Used a couple orange habaneros since I love spiciness. Boy, did it hurt when I threw them in the saucepan. I had me, the roommate I was cooking with, and the roommate who had is door open near the kitchen coughing the whole night.)
• 1 sprig fresh curry leaves or dried leaves (Interestingly enough, the Indian supermarket in Central Square on Mass Ave only has fresh leaves and I had to get dried ones from my Indian co-worker last fall when I wanted to make my own curry powder. Too damned tired to drop in and buy some last night.)
• 3 cups black or regular chickpeas, with about 2 cups of their cooking liquid (Used regular here. Oh, Mark Bittman, if only I cared enough to execute this to your highest standards; most of the time I do pretty well.)
• 1 tablespoon Sambar Powder or curry powder (The recipe for Sambar Powder did sound compellingly interesting, but I had some above-mentioned curry powder left that I plan on throwing out in a couple weeks, as per some of Bittman's other advice.)
• 1 teaspoon ground tumeric
• Pinch of asafetida [optional] (I bought a tiny container of this about two years ago at world famous Kalustyan's in Manhattan's Little India. Didn't attempt to wrench open the container until last night. Sure, shit's optional, but Indian food won't taste the same without. Also if you live in Boston, there's no real excuse when there are Indian grocery stores everywhere.)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste or freshly squeezed lime juice to taste
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped cilantro leaves for garnish (I rarely even lie to myself about garnishing anymore by buying fresh herbs. I left out the ingredient below as well.)
• Chopped roasted peanuts for garnish

Mise en place.


Threw the food back in the pan to mix the whole thing up with a splash of Staci Z's lite coconut milk. Going into shopping at the Whole Foods in Symphony, I had to wonder why coconut milk wasn't on the grocery list, and after actually making the dish, it so called out for a bit of richness.
Though sauteing chopped habeneros was a thoroughly intense experience, I thought the dish wasn't overwhelming and had a nice slow burn. Staci differed on this point.