Chick Pea medley - variation

So I prepare a lot of hummus and like to keep some of the chick peas back to serve as a vegetable. As a variation on my Sautéed Chick Pea  or my Chick Pea Medley try this one.

About half pound of chick peas and sufficient cooking liquor to cover. Prepare all in advance. Coarsely chop a medium onion and put into a pan with Tblspn of olive oil. Gradually turn up the heat as the onion sweats off, then take off lid and dry off, turning until the onion is golden, not brown. Heat to high.

1/8 tspn cumin, cayenne, 1/4 tspn coriander, 1/2 tspn paprika, turmeric, salt and pepper. Stir, throw in stalk of celery small chopped, and one red pepper seeded and coarsely chopped. Stir, than ladle in some cooking liquor, dry off, continue until all the liquor is used up then put in the chick peas, turn until dried off again. Stir, lower heat to a simmer, put in 1/2 dozen cherry tomatoes with cut cross tops, cover until tomatoes just begin to wilt. 

Put in 3Tblspn coarsely chopped parsley and the juice of a lime, stir and serve. 

 

There, remembered the photo this time, it tastes as good as it looks.

Sauteed Chick Pea

Take 200g of pre-cooked chick peas and their cooking liquor, set aside.

Evenly medium chop one large onion and sweat off in a pan over a gentle heat in 1Tblespn of olive oil and 30g of butter. Take your time. When soft and translucent turn heat up to medium, keep stirring occasionally until the onion is evenly golden brown You cannot rush this as you will end up with burnt bits.

Turn heat up to high and quickly put in 1/2tspn coriander powder, 1/8thtspn cumin and 1/4tspn of turmeric. Stir around and blend without letting it catch and burn. Put in the drained chick peas, stir around and coat them with the spices and onion. After a minute loosen with 1Tblespn of liquor, stir, dry off liquor, repeat a few times, turn down heat to very low, add a cup of liquor, cover and let barely simmer for 15 minutes.

Turn heat up to medium and drive off any remaining liquor, add eight coarsely chopped hot bell-peppers, 2 Tblespn of chopped parsley and the juice of 1/2 lime. Adjust seasoning and serve.

A very attractive colourful dish, mildly flavoured and with a sweet overtone.

Curried Batter and Curried Chick Peas

Just came up with a couple of dishes that struck the right notes, spicy but not in your face, so worth recording.

First off, Hake fillets in a light curried batter.
To a cup of chick pea flour add tablespoon of ground coriander, half teaspoon of ground white pepper, turmeric and ginger, large pinch of asafoetido and cayenne. Add about half pint of water mix to smooth thin paste until like single cream. Beat the yolk of one egg, you may need to use another egg depending on the size of fillets. Beat egg white separately until beginning to stiffen, fold into chickpea batter mixture.
Dip Hake fillets into seasoned flour, dust off excess, dip and coat in egg yolk and then into batter mixture. Slid into corn oil at 190C in a wok, after a few minutes, turn over until all sides are just golden. Take out and put on paper towel to absorb excess oil. Eat immediately.

Chick Pea Curry
Precook the chick peas, reserve about a pound of the cooked peas with cooking juices to cover. Use the remainder perhaps to make a houmous. In a covered small pan, sweat off a large onion cut small in a tablespoon of olive oil. When softened, take off lid turn up heat and drive off moisture. Add about three tablespoons of chicken stock, carry on cooking till all moisture absorbed, repeat. Then drain chickpea juice into pan and carry on until moisture is just driven off. Be careful you cannot rush this or turn your back on it, it will quickly colour, then burn, not what you are after.
Now add tablespoon ground coriander, half teaspoon ground cumin and quarter teaspoon ground fenugreek. Blend. Then add two tablespoons of dark molasses sugar, turn until absorbed then add a whole can of chopped tomatoes. Stir in, drive off excess moisture, turn down heat to very low, to let flavours absorb,. Keeping stirring occasionally taking care not to burn. Add reserved chickpeas with one small red chille, seeds removed and chopped fine, leave for a few minutes to warm then turn off heat and leave to stand on ring to absorb any moisture. Stir a good handful of coarsely chopped coriander leaf. Serve