Super-tarted-up "An-Nikhi": Spiced Chickpeas with Vegetables

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This is a souped-up, spiced-up, vegetabled…er, well, dish with more vegetables than traditionally called for. According to Habeeb Salloum in his wonderfully overwhelming collection of Middle Eastern recipes, Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & Africa, this dish would traditionally consist of chickpeas, chickpeas, and, if you are feeling adventurous, chickpeas*.
I’ve tarted it up quite a bit.

Spiced Chickpeas with Vegetables (“An-Nikhi”)
Loosely adapted, and with many liberties taken, from Habeeb Salloum’s straightforward recipe “Chickpeas with Spices” in Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & Africa.
Ingredients:
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, grated
1 2” knob ginger, peeled and grated
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
½ cup almonds, toasted
2 cups packed baby spinach
Extra-virgin olive oil

1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas (1 14 oz can), drained and rinsed
1 ½ cups diced or crushed tomatoes (1 14 oz can)
1 cup vegetable broth (HOMEMADE) or tomato juice

1 ½ tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
¾ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs dried oregano
1 tsp salt

1 ½ Tbs lemon juice (optional, but really recommended)

Mound o' chickpeas.

Directions:
1. In a large cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, and sauté the onions until they begin to brown at the edges.

2. Stir in the grated ginger and garlic, and sauté for 1 minute.

3. Stir in the diced carrots and celery, and sauté for 2-3 minutes.

4. Stir in the spices (paprika through oregano, above) and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

5. Stir in the tomatoes and almonds, and let cook for several minutes.

6. Add the chickpeas and the vegetable broth; bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to low and simmer, covered, for approximately 15 minutes (or until chickpeas are soft).

7. When the chickpeas and carrots are cooked, remove the lid and stir in the salt and spinach until the leaves are wilted. Taste and add lemon juice in ½ Tbs increments, or until it reaches the level you like.
I’ve served this over couscous or brown rice, and have just eaten it straight by itself. Sweet.

* And chickpeas.

Sambar Daal - South Indian Lentil Soup

Giant cilantro leaf attacks daal, 2 injured.

I absolutely adore Indian cuisine. It’s everything a half-assed vegetarian could want: flavorful, high in fiber, frequently deep-fried…

That being said, I find it darn hard to cook. That legendary mainstay of Indian cooking in the West, Madhur Jaffrey, has never done much for me. I’ve actually had better luck – a hit:miss ratio greater than 1:8, at least – with (I’ll whisper this) the internet.

Anyway, this daal is one of those hits. And how!

Sambar Daal – South Indian Lentil Soup
Adapted from South Indian Recipes.

Ingredients:
1 cup red lentils
1 tsp turmeric
1 1x2x1” piece of tamarind pulp (approximately the size of half a lime)
Canola oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds

Tempering:
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
8-10 curry leaves
2 small dried red chilies
1 large onion or 4-5 shallots, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced

2 Tbs sambar masala/powder
½ Tbs salt
¼ tsp asafetida (optional)

½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:
1. Start the tamarind pulp soaking for 20 minutes in 1 cup of hot water.

2. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil over high heat in a covered saucepan. Meanwhile, rinse and drain the red lentils repeatedly until the water runs clear.

3. Once the water is boiling, add the lentils, turmeric, and 1 tsp of the oil. Bring back to a boil, uncovered. Turn the heat down to medium and let the lentils boil while you prepare the tempering. If too much water seems to have boiled off and the lentils are starting to dry out on the top, add additional hot water to bring it up to the original liquid level.

4. Heat 2 tsp of oil over medium-high heat in a skillet. Once hot, and using a lid to cover the skillet a protect yourself, fry the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, and dried chilies until the mustard seeds have stopped popping, approximately 2 minutes.

5. Stir in the onions and carrots and sauté for 4-5 minutes until the onions are translucent. While sautéing, strain out the pulp from the tamarind juice, and throw out the pulp.

6. Add the tomatoes to the onions and carrots, and sauté for another 1-2 minutes or until softened. Stir in the tamarind juice and bring back to a boil. Let reduce for 3 minutes, then stir the tempering into the lentils.

7. Add the sambar masala, salt, asafetida, and half of the chopped cilantro. Simmer for 8 minutes, or until the carrots have cooked through.

8. Turn off the heat, and dish up, garnishing with the remaining fresh cilantro.

Fakes - Greek Lentil Soup

Fakes.  You see, when a man loves a woman...

Let’s just get this out of the way now: Yes, it really is pronounced just the way you were(n’t) hoping: fah-keez.

I’ve adapted this from Peter’s excellent blog on Greek cooking, Kalofagas (formerly at Blogger, now cut free, free!). His spice proportions are excellent, but like always I effectively doubled them by using half the amount of lentils and approximately half the volume of liquid. I also made it daal-like by frying the partial hell outta those spices and veggies before throwing them in there. I’ll admit to being leery of using raw spices and carrots in soups – oh god, the soft but still raw-tasting carrots! – ever since the unpleasant Daal With Mushy But Still Uncooked Vegetables Incident of ’08.

Fakes – Greek Lentil Soup

Ingredients:
1 cup brown lentils, rinsed
2 medium onions, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup of spinach, packed (optional)

4 bay leaves
¾ cup tomato puree
1 Tbs paprika
2 Tbs oregano
5 cups vegetable stock (if you don’t have some homemade ready, just use water)
1 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 cloves garlic, still in their skin
Extra-virgin olive oil (I use Trader Joe’s)

Directions:
1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat and when warm, pour in a generous amount (2-3 Tbs) of olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is heated, throw in the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for several minutes or until they are starting to turn transparent.
2. Add the carrots and minced garlic, stirring well to evenly coat them in olive oil. Cook them for an additional five minutes.
3. Sprinkle in the paprika and stir to distribute it evenly over the veggies. Let the paprika cook for a minute, then stir in the oregano and the tomato puree, letting it cook for another minute. Add the lentils next and give them a good stir to coat them in the oil and spices.
4. Pour in the vegetable stock and add the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium-high heat. Turn the temperature down to low, cover, and simmer for approximately 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender but not fully broken down.
5. While the soup is simmering, roast the remaining 5 garlic cloves in their skins in either a toaster oven or a regular oven until they are softened. Let them cool to the point that you can touch them comfortably, then de-skin and mince them.
6. When the lentils are tender, stir in the spinach (it should wilt quickly), roasted garlic, and salt. Taste and adjust the seasonings as desired.

Fried Shallots (Bonus Recipe: Shallot Oil!)

Fried shallots: crispy but delicate. Flavorful but not overwhelming. Opaque but transluscent. Like a perfect woman, beautiful and deep-fried. Or something.

These buggers are another example of Vietnamese culinary ingenuity. Use them as a condiment for anything and everything Vietnamese and, sometimes, Thai. Banh mi missing that certain something? Stick ‘em in there. Your labor-intensive Vietnamese salad bowl has no crunch? Throw these on top. Children too fussy? Toss ‘em outside and sit down on the couch and eat these straight while wearing nothing but your underwear and a shirt that says DUKAKIS ’88.

BONUS RECIPE: An inevitable byproduct of making fried shallots is…shallot oil! Use this to fry anything and everything, and it’ll imbue whatever you’re frying with a certain, as the French say, l’ fried shallot-y flavor d’awesome.

And now for an actual, genuine, 100% Voice of Experience moment. Don’t heat up the oil before you throw these guys in, or else you’ll deep-fry them to a crisp before you manage to fumble all of them out and onto the paper towels to drain. Heat up the oil with them in it.

Fried Shallots and Shallot Oil
Adapted from Mai Pham’s excellent The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking.

Ingredients:
1 cup thinly sliced shallots, separated into individual rings
1 cup vegetable oil
cheesecloth (NOTE: do not eat)

I said, THINLY sliced!

Directions:
1. If you are a patient and mature person who donates to charities and doesn’t surreptitiously stare at obese people on the street, spread out the shallot rings in a monolayer on a towel and let them air-dry for 20 minutes.
2. If you are impatient and self-centered and you happen to own something you call “the pokin’ stick,” just toss the shallots into a small saucepan and pour the vegetable oil over them. If they’re not quite covered, add more oil until they are.
3. Turn the burner to medium heat. Depending on the amount of oil needed to cover the shallots, it’ll take 10-15 minutes before the oil starts to bubble slightly around the shallots, and the shallots themselves begin to crisp and float to the top.
4. Stir the shallots occasionally with a chopstick or fork to keep them from frying totally together.
5. When the shallots are golden – NOT brown – and able to keep their shape without flopping when you pick them out with the chopstick, remove them from the oil with a large fork, slotted spoon, or other oil-draining implement of choice. Drain the shallots on a bed of paper towels.
6. Once the shallots have cooled to room temperature, store them in a sealed glass container in the fridge. They’ll keep for a month.

Personally, I don’t see the point to any recipe that doesn’t involve rubber band contraptions.

7. When the oil has cooled down to room temperature (give it a good several hours), strain it through some cheesecloth and store it at room temperature in a sealed glass container.

So.  Awesome.