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Oriental ' ' Chick-pea Balls. ' ' [NoHOUD Tope.]

A dish of chickpea cakes stuffed with onion, pistachio, raisins, parsley, and tahini, boiled in muslin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: tree nuts, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the chickpea batter

  1. Soak chickpeas in lukewarm salty water for 10 to 12 hours.

  2. Wash chickpeas.

  3. Crush chickpeas finely into a batter.

  4. Season batter to taste.

  5. Divide batter into 5 or 6 portions.

  6. Flatten each portion into one-inch-thick cakes on pieces of muslin.

Make the filling

  1. Chop onions.

  2. Boil onions with pistachio nuts, kishnish, and black raisins in a little water for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Add finely chopped parsley and tahini to the mixture.

  5. Mix well.

Shape and cook

  1. Place the mixture in the center of each chickpea cake.

  2. Bring edges of batter together to form balls.

  3. Enclose balls in muslin.

  4. Tie the muslin.

  5. Place loosely in boiling water.

  6. Cook for 30 to 35 minutes until done.

Serve

  1. Remove from muslin.

  2. Cut into parts.

  3. Serve with olive oil and lemon.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Chickpeas
Form the main body of the balls, and their starch sets into a firm, sliceable batter when cooked.
Tahini
Adds richness and a creamy, fatty texture to the filling.
Dry onions
Add sweetness and savory depth to the filling once softened by boiling.
Pistachio nuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the filling.
Black raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the filling.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the rich, starchy flavors at serving.

The step that matters

Place loosely in boiling water. Chickpea batter is dense and starchy, so the balls need room to expand and cook through evenly. Packing them tightly can stop water circulating, leaving them unevenly cooked or dense.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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