Andrew's Blog

Recently, I came into a lot of cooked chickpeas.

It happened like this: I was defrosting a turkey in a cheap styrofoam cooler and decided to use a two pound bag of dried chickpeas to weigh the bird down. After having been doing this for several hours, I noticed that the bag of chickpeas had a hole in it and was full of water. Given that the chickpeas were starting to rehydrate and not sure how I could re-dry them, I decided to go ahead and soak them with baking soda and cook them.

Now, two pounds of chickpeas is a lot. I made a few batches of this really great chickpea and lentil salad I got off of Saveur's site, but you can only do that so often. I realized I was going to need to make something with them or lose the rest of the chickpeas. I also really, really didn't want to make a gigantic batch of hummus, b/c that just felt like cheating.

So, of course, I asked my friends on Facebook what I should do with all my chickpeas. In addition to a lot of great sounding recipes, one friend suggested this recipe for fried chickpeas & chorizo from Mark Bittman. It looked really good, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted.

Instead, given my recent stew obsession, I decided to fashion the remaining chickpeas into an Iberian inspired version of Fergus Henderson's beans and bacon from his book, The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating (which is probably my favorite food in the world right now). Instead of bacon, I'd use Chorizo sausage and season it with sherry vinegar and smoked paprika.

The results were delicious and we have something fun to eat for lunch for the rest of the week.

Here's the recipe:

Chickpeas & Chorizo

Ingredients

For the Chickpeas

• 1 lb. dried chickpeas
• 1 tbsp. baking soda

For the Trotter Stock

• 1/2 pig's foot
• peel and tops from onions & carrots (below)

Other Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. duck fat, chicken fat, or butter
• 2-3 smoked chorizo sausages, chopped
• 28 oz can of whole tomatoes, coarsely crushed or chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced (peel and tops reserved)
• 2 onions, peeled and diced (peel and tops reserved)
• 1 tsp. caraway seeds (optional)
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 tsp. smoked paprika
• 2 tsp. sherry vinegar

Instructions

Cooking The Chickpeas

1. You have to soak the chickpeas. There are two options:
   1. The day before. Wash the dried chickpeas in running water. In a large bowl, cover the chickpeas by 2 inches with clean water and add baking soda. Let sit overnight or at least 8 hours.
   2. One hour before cooking. Wash the dried chickpeas in running water. In a large sauce pan or small stock pot, cover the chickpeas by two inches with clean water and add the baking soda. Place the pan on high heat, bring to a boil, cook for 1 minute, remove from heat, and let stand for 1 hour.
2. Drain the chickpeas in a colander or strainer. Add the chickpeas to a large sauce pan or small stock pot, cover by 2 inches with clean water. Place the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-lower and simmer the chickpeas for 90 minutes (until the chickpeas are tender but not mushy or soft). Drain the chickpeas, reserving the cooking water.

Cooking The Trotter Stock

1. While the chickpeas are cooking, add the half of a pig's foot and the carrot and onion scraps to a medium sauce pan. Cover with water. Place the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer aggressively for an hour or so.
2. Strain the solids out of the stock, reserving both the stock and piece of pig's foot.

Assembling the Dish

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. In a dutch oven or other large, covered, oven-safe pot, heat the oil and fat over medium-high heat until melted and beginning to get wavy. Add the chopped sausage and cook until it begins to get nicely brown. Remove the sausage with a slotted spoon and reserve.
3. Return the same pot to medium-high heat, and, when reheated, add the onion, carrot, caraway seeds (if using), and the tomatoes and juice. Let this cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add around 1/2 cup of the stock. Continue to cook and stir for another 10 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat under the pot and add the chickpeas and chorizo. Stir to evenly distribute everything. Add enough the trotter stock to the pot. There should be enough to completely cover the contents of the pot. If not, use the chickpea cooking water to make up the difference. If there is enough, save the chickpea cooking water, as it makes an excellent vegetable broth.
5. Nestle the reserved pig's foot and the head of garlic in amongst the chickpeas, cover the pot, and add it to the hot oven. Cook for 2 hours. Remove the lid and cook an additional 30 minutes.
6. Remove the pig's foot and garlic (although the garlic is also delicious). Serve.