Here a chick-pea; there a chick-pea

Nation's Restaurant News, March 8, 1993 by Florence Fabricant

It's probably just a coincidence, but as the economy stumbled and budgets tightened in the past few years, the chick-pea, one of the cheapest ingredients in the pantry, became increasingly popular. The use of chickpeas in some form or other has definitely grown beyond the three-bean mixture on the salad bar.

An interest in chick-peas probably has less to do with expenses and more to do with the attention being paid the Mediterranean diet and Caribbean cooking, a newfound taste for peas and dried beans in general, the appeal of peasant food and the everrestless trolling by chefs for new ingredients and little-known regional specialties to add to the menu.

The chick-pea is an ancient vegetable that today remains an essential element in Spanish, Italian, southern French, Hispanic, Greek, Middle Eastern, North African and Indian cooking, all cuisines that have been influencing American chefs in recent years. What is interesting about the chick-pea is that, depending on the country, its use takes various forms. The dried, round, starchy pealike vegetable may be cooked until tender -- and called garbanzos -- in a Spanish or Puerto Rican stew, pureed to make a dip in Lebanon and marinated and served in a salad in Italy. Dried chick-peas are also ground into fine, soft, golden gluten-free flour to make tender crepes in the south of France and batters and dumplings in India. Chick-peas also take nicely to spicy seasonings.

Chefs who have taken a fancy to chick-peas often use them in more than one form.

A case in point is Andrew d'Amico at Sign of the Dove in Manhattan. For a few years now he has taken advantage of the versatility of chick-peas to offer them on the menus of both the cafe and the restaurant. On the cafe menu he might serve a trio of Middle Eastern spreads: based hummus, the spread that combines mashed chick-peas with lemon, garlic, olive oil and the sesame paste, tahini, along with eggplant "caviar" and taramosalata, all with crostini.

He even uses chick-peas, sweetened, in a dessert on the midafternoon cafe menu. Strawberries and chick-peas fill puff pastry that is served with a rich yogurt. This confection is also featured on the regular dessert menu.

At Michela's in Cambridge, Mass., Jody Adams serves a Tuscan-style vegetable soup that combines chick-peas, leeks and Jerusalem artichokes, served with salt cod and grilled garlic bread.

Chick-peas are one of the standard ingredients of a classic Moroccan couscous. Moroccan operations like Dar Maghreb in Los Angeles and Mogador in Manhattan regularly serve chick-peas as one of the vegetables in a couscous. Gus' Place in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, an operation that is essentially Greek but offers a range of dishes that are Mediterranean in inspiration, serves a side dish of couscous with pumpkin and chick-peas.

Joyce Goldstein at Square One in San Francisco regularly explores every culinary cranny of the Mediterranean region. Among the uses she has found for chick-peas is in a couscous with spring greens and fennel served alongside grilled chicken with olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Another time the grilled chicken might come with orecchiette dressed with cauliflower, spinach, potatoes and chick-peas.

Chick-peas are served with pasta at Arcadia in Manhattan, alongside roasted veal shank. The dish is given an exotic touch with the addition of fried lemon.

At Jo Jo in Manhattan, Jean-Georges Vongerichten fashions "chick-pea fries" by forming rectangular blocks of chick-pea puree that are rolled in chick-pea flour and deep-fried. A humble chick-pea puree has also been formed into fritters served with veal tenderloin, tripe and fresh coriander at Petrossian in Manhattan.

One dish made with chick-pea flour that has intrigued a number of chefs is socca, a crepe that is a specialty of Nice on the French Riviera. The lack of gluten in chick-pea flour is an advantage in making crepes because it guarantees they will not be rubbery.

At Patina in Los Angeles Joachim Splichal serves socca crepes with gnocchi and stuffed nicoise vegetables. La Colombe d' Or, one of New York's first bistros specializing in Provencal cooking, offers a socca stuffed with goat cheese and ratatouille. And Mark May, the chef-owner of May We in Manhattan and formerly chef at Colombe d' Or, has served a lightly crisped stuffed socca as an appetizer from the day the doors of the restaurant opened.

The acceptance of chick-peas is growing, and they are now suited to a range of dishes and cuisines. In addition to chick-pea flour for batters and crepes, they can be cooked until tender, seasoned and served in hot or cold salads and side dishes and mashed for dips or to thicken soups.