Guasanas

The pods boiled whole in heavily salted water and eaten straight from the pod, so the salt has to get through the shell.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 kg green chickpeas, in the pod
• 4 tablespoons coarse salt
• 2 litres water
• lime wedges, to serve
• ground chile piquin, to serve
• hot sauce, to serve

Method

1. THE PODS ARE BOILED WHOLE IN HEAVILY SALTED WATER AND EATEN STRAIGHT FROM THE POD, so the salt has to get through the shell. That is why there is four tablespoons of it in two litres -- far more than would season the water for anything else. The pod is a barrier, and only a strongly salted liquid will carry enough salt through it to season the peas inside in twenty minutes. Boiled in lightly salted water the peas come out bland and there is no second chance, because by the time the pod is opened the pea is already in someone's mouth. Shelling them first and salting afterwards works perfectly well and is a different dish -- the whole character of this one is popping them out of the pod with your teeth.
2. THEY ARE GREEN AND FRESH, NOT DRIED. A guasana is an immature chickpea, still soft and bright green, sold in its pod like a broad bean. Dried chickpeas have nothing to do with this: they need soaking and an hour and a half and they come out of a different dish entirely.
3. THE PODS ARE WASHED HARD BEFORE THEY GO IN. They grow close to the ground and carry grit, and the eating involves putting the whole pod in the mouth. Rubbed between the hands in two changes of water.
4. TWENTY MINUTES AND NOT LONGER. The peas go from firm to tender in about that, and then they start to break down and go mealy inside a pod that gives no sign of it. One pod fished out and opened at eighteen minutes, and again at twenty if needed.
5. THEY ARE DRAINED AND SERVED HOT IN A HEAP, AND THE WATER IS NOT KEPT. Unlike almost every other pot on this site, there is nothing worth saving in the liquid -- it is mostly salt. Drained, piled in a bowl, and taken to the table with lime and chilli.
6. The pods washed hard, rubbed between the hands, in TWO changes of water.
7. The 2 litres of water brought to a rolling boil with ALL FOUR tablespoons of coarse salt.
8. The pods tipped in and the water brought back to the boil.
9. Boiled 18 MINUTES.
10. ONE POD fished out, opened, and the pea TASTED: it should be tender and clearly SALTY. If it is bland the water needed more salt; if firm, another 2 minutes.
11. Boiled on to 20 MINUTES at most. Not longer -- they go mealy inside the pod with no sign from outside.
12. DRAINED. The water discarded.
13. Piled hot into a bowl.
14. Taken to the table with lime wedges, ground chilli and hot sauce.
15. Eaten by putting the whole pod in the mouth and popping the peas out with the teeth, the pod discarded.
16. Best hot; they are edible cold and much less good.

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 Mexico · All recipes