Kingdom Arts & Sciences - Part 2 (November Part 3)

I know - 2 post in 2 days! Not possible...something must be wrong...and there will be more! Imagine that! I guess I am reading WAY to many quilting blogs...but it is SO unlike me!

So this is K A&S part 2 - where I document my second dish called: Bārida of Puree of Chickpeas with Cinnamon and Ginger.

This was my second cooking entry into the competition. It is like a lighter version of hummus, as you will see below.

I purchased a copy of Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World and I wanted to select a couple of recipes to try out. I am fascinated in the Islamic World during the occupation of Spain. I was curious to see a medieval hummus and I wanted to see how different or similar the taste would be.

Ingredients:1 cup Dry Chickpeas, ¼ cup Red Wine Vinegar, 3 Pickled Lemons, 2 pinches of Cinnamon, 5 whole Black Peppercorns, 2 pinches of Ground Ginger, 2 handfuls of Fresh Parsley, 1 handful of Dried Mint, drizzled Olive Oil and  ¼ cup of Water.

 I started by rinsing and cleaning the chickpeas. I then did the quick soak method of boiling them of 2 minutes and letting them sit off the heat for 1 hour. Once this was completed I changed the water and filled the pot again to start the cooking process. I cooked the peas for about 2.5 hours on a low simmer.

  

 Once the chickpeas were cooked I then rinsed them and prepared a bowl with a food mill to get the chickpeas in a uniform size to create the appetizer.

Once the chickpeas were mashed down to the smaller size, I measured out 2 cups of the chickpeas; I then selected 3 pickled lemons and juiced them.

Pickled Lemons

 I then added to that juice ¼ cup of red wine vinegar. I added this to the chickpeas and I then added 2 large pinches of cinnamon and ginger along with 5 black peppercorns and a small handful of dried mint. I put all the ingredients in my mortar and pestle and ground them to a nice fine powder. I then added this to the chickpea mixture. I noticed that it seemed a bit thick for a hummus so I added 1/3 cup of water to smooth it out a bit. I then added a small bunch of fresh parsley to the appetizer. Once this was mixed I covered it with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for the flavours to mix together.

I then quarter a pickled lemon, ground more spices and selected the olive oil and chopped the fresh parsley I wanted to use as garnish. This was added at the event before I serve it to the judges. I also served it with pita for dipping.


Bārida of Puree of Chickpeas with Cinnamon and Ginger - Photo by David Gotlieb

A very simple dish with nice taste. Next time I want to pickle my own lemons and get the chickpeas even finer than what I had originally done. I will also look at the comments that come back to me from the judges too.

There you are my Kingdom A&S entries. The Next post will be about my quilting bee where I have been a bad bee member...stay tuned!

~Em