I have tried several recipes and not all of them work. This one does! It needs a bit of preparation but it’s well worth it. Here are quantities to make a generous pile to feed four.
- 225g dried chickpeas
Either soak overnight, or cook for 5 minutes in your Instant Pot and leave for a further hour in the water.
- Optional – 1 small onion
- Bunch of parsley leaves
- 2 garlic loves
- 1 to 3 tbs chickpea/gram flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 0.5tsp ground coriander
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- Black pepper
Put these and the drained chickpeas in a food processor with about 50ml water. Start with 1 tbs flour and add more if it looks too crumbly. This is because some chickpeas seems to be less sticky than others. Process to a coarse paste that sticks together. Add a spash more water if necessary, or a touch more flour even. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.
Make little balls 2-3cm in diameter – you will make about 20 with this batch. A small icecream scoop is useful. Heat a pan full of oil to about 160degC and shallow fry the balls in batches. You may need to flip them halfway through cooking if your oil isn’t deep. They are cooked when the outside goes brown and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm until ready to serve.