Get brown chickpeas that have been cleaned of any dirt and put them to soak in a clear lye that is not too strong, or in warm water with a little wood as in a cloth; let them soak in a warm place for 6 hours. Then take them out and wash them in clear water, being careful that the lye is not too strong, as was said, because the skin of the chickpeas would burst and they would take on the taste of that lye. Take them out of that and wash them in warm water and put them into a pot with oil, salt and a little flour mixed up with a spoon, and enough water to cover them by four fingers or more. Cook them with sprigs of rosemary and sage, whole garlic cloves and pepper. Serve them in bowls. If you want them without flour or oil, put in finely chopped herbs with them just before serving. If you want to cook the chickpeas in order to have the broth, there is no need for them to soak; it is enough to clean them and wash them well and to put them into a glazed earthenware pot with plain warm water. You sit that pot for 6 hours on hot coals, keeping it covered. When you want to cook them, take off the thin scum that will have formed on top and cook them in that same water, adding in a little oil and salt. To give them a flavor add in a few twigs of rosemary as well.
I have used dry chickpeas that I soaked for 6 hours for this experiment.
3 cups of chickpeas
9 cups of water
3 Tbsp flour
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
salt
2 cloves of Garlic peeled and whole
1 tsp rosemary (dry, is all i had on hand)
1/2 tsp sage (rubbed sage is all I had on hand)
pepper
At 1 hr the flavor was good but the broth was no where near "thick" (more flour?)
At 1 1/4 hrs the chickpeas were done, still not thick, added 1Tbsp of flour (less water next time.)
At 1 1/2 hrs I took it off the heat. I let it set and re heated it for my father in law to test.
Opinions:
Mine: flavor was tasty but subtle. Not as "thick" as I was expecting. the water to peas ratio is good. Next time I will reduce the water by 1 cup and increase the sage, garlic salt and pepper. The rosemary was fine.
FiL: Though that the flavor was too subtle but all in all ok and not "too weird".
I will also try next time using canned chickpeas.
My chemist of a husband had some ideas...
ReplyDeleteThe lye would raise the pH value of the soaking water, which would soften the peas, hence making the soup thicker. The added wood in a cloth would do the same thing. So you could try adding a pinch of soda in the water, and see if the soup would turn out thicker.
Or try the canned chickpeas. :-D
Petronilla
I agree - I think using basic water (i.e. water with a pH above 7) would affect the over-all result. especialyl when working with dried peas. Have you done any research on "brown" chickpeas versus yellow?
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