Cooking advice, please

[gothick]

I have a (good, so far) recipe book in front of me, and a recipe for Chick Pea and Pepper Stew that I've not tried yet. The first four instructions read:

1. Drain the chick peas through a sieve
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry gently the onion and the garlic for 2-3 minutes, until softened
3. Add the peppers and cook for another 2-3 minutes
4. Add the drained chick peas, and season with salt and pepper. Simmer gently for 10 minutes

Now, is my culinary imagination not up to scratch, or will I not actually have enough liquid to actually simmer anything at that point? The next two steps are to add yoghurt to thicken it up, and serve. I can't quite imagine this coming out as a stew, somehow...

Comments

[makyo.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. As the recipe stands at the moment, I'd expect you to end up with a saucepan full of burned vegetables and pulses, as well as a kitchen full of smoke. Possibly they've missed out some water or vegetable stock somewhere between steps 2 and 3.

[jacint.livejournal.com]

A quick google:

http://www.helenrennie.com/recipes/sides/chickpea_stew.html

I'd add a liquid of your choice between steps 3 and 4, only just covering the veg. You want get a bit of heat on the peppers before adding liquid, allowing the garlic to work it's magic on them :D

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

while I often end up with more liquid coming out of veg/tinned beans than I expect, I agree that it sounds like they missed a step about adding extra liquid at the simmering stage. stock/water/white wine/sherry or any combination of those would be very tasty. Also, I would be inclined to add a bit of garam masala mix and a chili or two or a variety of other herbs/spices otherwise I'm not seeing how its going to taste of much. . .

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's not just me.

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

RIght. Have some veggie boullion somewhere, that'll probably do it. Ta.

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

Yes, good point. I wonder whether she missed another step out of this one. Her stuff is normally pretty tasty (last night's dish, that gave me my leftover chickpeas for tonight,had turmeric, paprika, cumin, coriander and garam masala...)

[kaveypie.livejournal.com]

Mmm, mum's chickpea curry is one of the easiest recipes on her site and is totally utterly delish, for next time you fancy a chickpea recipe.

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

Ta. I found a random can of chopped tomato with chilli in the cupboard, and shoved that in as the liquid with some other stuff. It wasn't what I'd call my best meal of the week, but it was a lot better than it would have been if I'd just followed the instructions :)

[gothick-matt.livejournal.com]

Yes, must check out your mum's site again. Will have a look this week if I have time.

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

it's exactly these kinds of moments that keeping things like tinned tomatoes on hand turns out to be critical. I can't count the number of times I've stood over the stove dissatisfied with a dish before going rummaging through tins to find just the thing it needed. May not be posh, but so long as it's tasty, you win!