Recipe no. 29 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 21.
Ingredients
- 1 kg of chickpeas
- 3 litres of water
- 2 good handfuls of wood ash
- Flour
- Salt
- Potash (optional)
Preparation
- SoakingThe day before the day one wishes to cook the chickpeas, set them to soak in a stockpot with barely lukewarm water, in which one will have dissolved a spoonful or two of flour with a handful of salt. Leave thus all night.
- Preparing the waterBring to a boil, for a kilo of chickpeas, 3 litres of water with 2 good handfuls of wood ash enclosed in a linen bag. Let this water cool and settle.
- First cookingWash the chickpeas well, then put them on the heat with the water in which the ash was cooked, carefully decanted; this water should be added cold. Once they have cooked one hour in this water, drain them.
- Second cookingAdd the same quantity of boiling water; salt accordingly and let cook until tender.
Reboul's text
This vegetable is hardly eaten outside the southern regions of France, in Italy and in Spain, in this last country especially, where the quality is excellent.
The cooking is always somewhat difficult and long, and it is really only with the help of potash or ash that they can be made fit to eat. Everyone knows that well water must not be used for cooking them; certain waters are likewise unsuitable.
The best is river or spring water.
The day before the day one wishes to cook them, they must be set to soak in a stockpot with barely lukewarm water, in which one will have dissolved a spoonful or two of flour with a handful of salt, and left thus all night.
Bring to a boil, for a kilo of chickpeas, 3 litres of water with 2 good handfuls of wood ash enclosed in a linen bag. Let this water cool and settle.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| pese | chickpeas |
| atrempa | soak |
| aigo | water |
| cèndre | ash |
| farino | flour |
| sau | salt |
| couire | cook |
| agouta | drain |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 29, page 21. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.