Msabbaha

The chickpeas are left whole and warm, swimming in the tahini rather than mashed into it.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

the chickpeas

• 300 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 litres water

the tahini sauce

• 150 g tahini, well stirred
• juice of 2 lemons
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste with salt
• 120 ml cold water, roughly
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt

to finish

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, fried in butter
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• a handful of parsley, chopped

Method

1. THE CHICKPEAS ARE LEFT WHOLE AND WARM, SWIMMING IN THE TAHINI RATHER THAN MASHED INTO IT. The root of the name means to swim, and that is the arrangement: a loose pale tahini sauce in a shallow bowl with whole soft chickpeas suspended in it, warm, eaten with bread. Nothing is pureed. It is the same three ingredients as the smooth mashed chickpea dip everyone knows, assembled the opposite way round, and it is noticeably runnier -- a spoon drawn through it closes behind itself.
2. THEY ARE SERVED WARM, NOT COLD, AND THAT IS PART OF IT. Drained and used within a few minutes of coming off the heat, with the sauce at room temperature poured around them. A warm chickpea has a soft, almost creamy interior that a chilled one loses entirely.
3. THE BICARBONATE IS WHAT MAKES THEM SOFT ENOUGH. A teaspoon in the cooking water. It raises the pH, which breaks down the pectin in the skins, and chickpeas cooked with it go genuinely tender -- squashable against the roof of the mouth -- in an hour and a quarter where without it they can stay firm for three hours. Firm chickpeas in this dish are unpleasant because there is nothing to hide them in.
4. NO SALT GOES IN THE COOKING WATER. Salt firms the skins and works directly against the bicarbonate. It goes in the sauce instead.
5. THE SKINS ARE WORTH SKIMMING OFF. They loosen during cooking and float; lifted off with a slotted spoon as they rise, the finished bowl is smoother and the chickpeas cleaner-tasting. Tedious, optional, and noticeable.
6. THE TAHINI SAUCE IS LET DOWN WITH COLD WATER UNTIL IT POURS. Tahini, lemon and garlic will seize into a stiff grey paste; cold water whisked in a spoonful at a time brings it back to a pale cream that ribbons off the whisk. It should be thinner than seems right, because the warm chickpeas thicken it in the bowl.
7. The chickpeas soaked 12 HOURS, drained and rinsed.
8. Simmered in the 2 litres of water with the bicarbonate and NO SALT, 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES, until a chickpea CRUSHES against the roof of the mouth.
9. The loosened skins SKIMMED OFF as they float.
10. The tahini, lemon juice and garlic paste whisked -- it will SEIZE.
11. Cold water whisked in A SPOONFUL AT A TIME until it POURS in a ribbon. The cumin and salt stirred in.
12. The chickpeas DRAINED and kept WARM.
13. The sauce spread in a shallow bowl and the WARM whole chickpeas spooned over so they sit IN it.
14. The olive oil poured over, then the butter-fried pine nuts, paprika and parsley.
15. TESTED: the chickpeas must be whole and the sauce loose enough to close behind a spoon. Stiff or mashed and it is the other dish.
16. Eaten warm, with bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes