Drained chickpeas

After our trip to Tunisia, I made a slightly disasterous attempt at a Tunisian-style couscous (don't worry-- it was still edible, just kind of clumpy). I had found the super fine-grained couscous at the open-air market here, but I think the cooking time was off or something, not to mention that one of the handles of my couscoussier fell off while lugging a heavy load of chickpeas to the sink. Since I had purchased a huge bag of dried chickpeas, the next day I temporarily gave up on couscous and decided to make one of my favorite stews.

This has similar North African flavors, but my personal inspiration was chicken apretada, a Filipino dish I grew up with. One aspect of that dish that I never totally liked was the chicken itself; it always seemed to dry out a bit, and it also made the stew a little greasier than I would have liked. But I love the flavors of red pepper and tomato together, and had found the perfect application when I replaced chicken with chickpeas (hey, they sound the same.) In Filipino dishes, chickpeas are more commonly used in pochero, which has eggplants and pork. But this is my unusual version of apretada-- although sometimes I will add some chicken tenders toward the end to give it that classic chicken-y flavor that I grew up with.

One added bonus of making a big batch of this is that the stew is even better the next day, once the flavors have come together and it has thickened a bit. I like to add a splash of fish sauce when I'm eating it (that's my pinay side coming out!)

Chickpea Stew (or "garbanzo apretada")

Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium sized red bell pepper, diced
2 15-oz cans chickpeas, drained (or 1-1/4 cup dried chickpeas cooked in advance)
1 lb yellow Finn potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock (or if you cooked your own dried chickpeas, use cooking liquid with some salt added to taste)
3 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped

1. In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and stir until onions are a bit soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add the minced red bell pepper and continue to cook until the bell pepper softens, another 4-5 minutes.
2. Add the potatoes, followed by the white wine. Allow the wine to reduce to about half.
3. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes and their juice, chicken stock and salt. Stir and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer, partially covered until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. You can continue cooking a bit until the liquid is reduced to desired consistency (if you like a thicker stew).
4. Take off the heat and add freshly ground black pepper to taste and the chopped parsley.
5. Serve with steaming white rice and maybe a nice salad or my favorite: sweet pickled sliced cucumbers.

Labels: recipes, the savory and salty

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