The Chickpea Goddess cooks Tagine Bil Hummus

I've never been called a Chickpea Godess before. We were attending a friend's birthday party late Sunday night. It's a potluck. It's also Mother's Day, and the day was spent with our mothers eating dim sum and clothes shopping, which meant time for cooking was just out. But fortunately I had made a big batch of Chickpea and Carrot Stew on Friday, and time only improves the flavor. We arrive at the party to discover, like so many pot-luck parties, the majority of food items are sweets and chip-like items. The chickpea and carrot stew is devoured, and the question "who is the chickpea goddess?" floats on the air.

Well, I've had worse nicknames.

Tagine Bil Hummus
From The Vegetarian Table: North Africa by Kitty Morse

1/4 C. vegetable oil
1 Lg.onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
12 fresh cilantro sprigs, minced
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cayenne
3 carrots, cut into 1/4 inch diagonal slices
2 15oz cans of chick peas. Reserve the liquid.
1/2 tsp. black pepper
salt to taste
1 Tbs. smen (spiced butter — optional)
Minced fresh cilantro for garnish

Heat oil over medium-high heat and cook the onion until tender (6-8 minutes). Stir occasionally. Add garlic, cilantro, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne, carrots, and reserved liquid from the chickpeas. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until carrots are tender (10-15) minutes. Add chickpeas, pepper, salt, and optional smen. Heat through. Before serving, garnish with cilantro.

Kitchen Chick's Extensive Extra Notes Gleamed from Years of Experience: :-)

1) Salt is necessary for bringing out the flavor.

2) I use extra virgin olive oil for the oil.

3) I often add a bit more black pepper and garlic than called for.

4) The flavor will be diluted if there's too much liquid, so don't add all of the chickpea liquid to start with. Maybe start with half the amount. You may need to cook it longer than the 10-15 minutes to concentrate the flavor. I take the cover off at this point to let the liquid evaporate. This also helps with the next item...

5) I like to let the carrots caramelize a bit during this extra cooking time to add some sweetness to the flavor. It's better to caramelize them before adding the chickpeas. If they stick to the pan and burn a bit too much, they will unstick when you add the chickpeas. If necessary, add a bit of left over chickpea liquid or water. (If you try to caramelize them after adding the chickpeas, the chickpeas get quite mushy and there's no "sauce". But it still tastes good.) If time is short or the carrots and chickpeas are getting too mushy, a touch of sugar can be used instead.

6) A small bit of butter and a few sprinkles of oregano can substitute for the smen.

For the complete North African meal experience, serve it with couscous and harrisa. Have you had harrisa before? Dried new mexico chilies, de-seeded, soaked and pureed with garlic, olive oil, and spices. I will have to post a recipe. It's a common North African condiment, and it is a fabulous bread spread. Goes well with hummus too.

Comments

5) There is no Number 5 :-)

[Kitchen Chick]

Fixed. Thanks. I had combined two items. I obviously failed my renumbering test. My grade school math teachers would be ashamed.

[Nancy]

Yum! Looks great. I'm way into legumes and this looks like a good recipe for spicing them up.

It is tasty. However, watch out for either too many chickpeas or too much liquid (use less than you think you need -- it's easier to add more if needed than cook liquid off), as either will dilute the flavor. I tried using dried chickpeas and overestimated how much dried chickpeas equals 30oz canned, and Joe had to add a lot of extra spice to get the flavor right.

[Cheryl]

amazing recipe. i love chickpeas and this is the first time i've used them in stews. i'm very pleased with the end product! hearty and healthy at the same time. i added some corn and celery for that extra sweetness and crunch. it works. i took a picture of it. love the colours! check it out on my blog =) cheers! by the way, great stuff on your blog!

[Kitchen Chick]

Cheryl,

Glad you like it! This was the first North African dish I tried cooking. It's really interesting to see how different people interpret a recipe and make it their own. I'll try to remember to put a picture up of mine so you can how different they are -- just because it's neat to see how the same recipe can lead to similar but different (yet still yummy!) results.

By the way, I finally posted one of Kitty Morse's harrisa recipes.

[Bruce Howard]

So I gave this a spin this afternoon and my limited cooking skills not withstanding, seems to have come out all right in the end.

Not having seen the real dish, however, I was wondering if you have (or could take) a picture of what this ought to look like when finished!