This is a phone picture from the "Vegetable" page of the menu at the Chinese restaurant we went to last night. I love that restaurant and the food is very good, I go there often -- I think people who read my LJ will realise that I don't mean to be nasty, I just like the funny in languages. And yep, my Chinese is in fact a lot worse than this.

I will also add that this was my copy, my friend's copy had aubergines...

...and they do French cuisine too -- see "gallic sauce"...

For the food-curious, the restaurant, where I've been many times and which I heartily recommend for tasty and authentic Chinese food with a good vegetarian choice, is China House on Parnell Street in Dublin. Used to be in Moore street, moved last spring.

Last night we had Deep Fried Aborigine with Chinese sauce (they'd run out of fried aborigine in black bean sauce, and shredded aborigine sounded too gruesome); a dish of some kind of cai (green veg) whose name I forgot with red bean curd sauce (really good!) and a cold dish of tofu and preserved duck eggs with spring onions which was also delicious, all with boiled rice, and spent 24 euro between the 2 of us.

My parents are eating raw horse for lunch.

I'm having pizza. Without horse.

(Mind you, I used to love horse meat -- it's not like I gave up meat because I didn't like the taste...)

Unlike Vietnamese or Thai ramen, Pinoy ramen, despite sporting the picture of a chilli pepper on the package, does in fact need more chilli, especially when one is nursing a horribly sticky cold.

Luckily I'd bought a jar of sambal oelek in the same shop.

I'd been thinking of doing this for a while, but feorag gave me a useful push today, so here it is.

This page links to all the recipes I've posted on LiveJournal, and I will keep it updated with any recipes I might post in the future. I will also put a link to this post in the link list in the sidebar, so I can access it easily from any page on my LJ -- and so can anybody else who might want to do so.

The recipes are all vegetarian; the ones marked with (v) are also vegan.

Pasta
Peperonata (v)
Pasta con le uvette (pasta with sultanas) (v)
Pasta coi pinoli (pasta with pine nuts) (v)
Pommarola (tomato sauce) (v)
No-cook pepper sauce (v)
Pasta con le zucchine (v)
Pasta coi borlotti (v)
Orecchiette alle cime di rapa (pasta with turnip greens) (v)
Pasta ai peperoni con la panna (pasta with pepper and cream sauce)
Pasta con le olive (No-cook sauce with olives) (v)
Pasta with zucchini and feta
Pasta ai peperoni e basta (simple bell pepper pasta) (v)

Soups
Mushroom and tofu clear soup (v)
Tamarind soup (v)
Mestüa (v)

Rice
Rice and seaweed (v)
Steamed rice - the foolproof method (v)
Risotto con le ortiche (Rice and nettles)

Pulses
Chana Dal (curried lentils) (v)
How-to: Pressure-cooking chickpeas (v)

Vegetables
Peperonata (v)
Poireaux citronnette (leeks with oil and lemon) (v)
Bombay aloo gobi (Spicy cauliflower and potatoes) (v)
Stir-fried choi sum (v)
Stuffed gem squashes (v) (experimental and vague, mostly useful as inspiration)
Cauliflower cheese
Caponata (v) (nothing to do with capons, it's a yummy aubergine dish from Sicily)

Omelettes and fritters
Bhaji alla livornese (chickpea flour fritters) (v)
Frittata di ortiche (nettle omelette)
Frittata with radish leaves

Everything else
Pseudo-Chinese salad (v)
Baba ganoush with an electric cooker (aubergine purée) (v)
Mayonnaise (the hand-made version)
Indo-japanese condiment (v)

[Originally posted on 13 July 2007; updated on 23 June 2008]

I'm making dinner most evening lately, since my mother is quite wrecked by the time we come back from the hospital and this is something I can do to help. Also, we come back rather late, so dinner is a quick pasta or rice dish followed by salad, cheese, or other cold food.

This is a recipe my father makes sometimes -- we asked for details while we were visiting, but it's really simple. Quantities are for 2 people. Takes about 20 minutes to cook.

Clean about 1/2 a bell pepper (yellow, red or orange: avoid green) and cut it into very thin strips (about 2-3 cm long, 2-3 mm wide). Chop a clove of garlic quite small (alternatively, use a whole clove, peeled and crushed, then remove before serving).

On medium flame, heat a couple of tbsp of olive oil in a largish pot (we use an earthenware pot here, for most pasta sauces: the result is nice, but other pots can be used, e.g. non-stick pans). Put in the garlic and one or more dried chilli peppers (to taste; you can crush them for more heat), with a pinch of salt to bring out the flavour.

After a few seconds, add the bell peppers. At this point you can start heating the water for the pasta. Keep the heat on medium-high and stir from time to time. It's ok for the peppers to scorch slightly, but they shouldn't burn (nor should the garlic).

When the water boils, put in salt (if you haven't done it before) and the pasta. We used farfalle (butterflies), but other shapes should work too.

Add a pinch of dried origano to the peppers. Add salt, taste, adjust.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the sauce in the pot. Stir for a minute or two to spread the flavour.

Remove the dried chillies if you left them whole (unless you like chewing on dried chillies). Serve.

An interesting article about the current labelling situation in the UK for produce from the West Bank.

Well, interesting to me, mostly because my own knowledge was badly out of date, it seems, and now I want to find out what the situation is like in Ireland. And actually, what M&S's policy is (not mentioned in the article, though I assume it will be the same for the UK and Ireland): I haven't seen "West Bank" produce there, but I'd be happier to buy their "Israel" produce if I knew for sure that it's not from the settlements. (I know M&S have a special relationship with Israel anyway, so they may be following a different policy.)

(Found thanks to a comment by andrewsherman in a post by nwhyte)

Yes, I know tofu isn't Indian. But I had some tofu that needed using. If you have paneer, go ahead and use paneer instead.

This morning I went to the organic veg market, and came back with the usual supply of fresh veg, which today also included a bunch of radishes[1] with really beautiful fresh leaves.

The leaves are a good indication that the radishes are fresh, but the thing to do as soon as they're bought is to remove the leaves, pack the radishes in a plastic bag and stick them in the fridge. The leaves would rot within 1-2 days -- they're really delicate.

But it seemed a pity to throw them out. So I washed them, had a quick google for inspiration, and cooked them.

The whole thing, once the leaves were washed and spin-dried, took about 15 minutes -- the time it took the rice to cook in the electric cooker.

Ingredients for one portion:
Leaves from 1 bunch of radishes (about 2 handfuls -- you could also use twice as much with no ill effect...)
1 cube of fresh firm tofu
2-3 tbsp olive oil or ghee[2]
Ginger (about 1.5x1.5 cm cube)
1 1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
3-4 dried chillies (or to taste)
Salt to taste

Wash and chop the leaves finely. Peel and mince the ginger. Dice the tofu (~1 cm cubes).

In a seasoned wok or non-stick frying pan, heat 1 tbsp oil/ghee until it's very hot (I used olive oil here).

Add a pinch of salt.

Add the chillies and swirl them around for about 10 seconds to flavour the oil. (You don't want to burn them, they get bitter.)

Have a lid handy. Throw the mustard seeds in the oil and cover with the lid. They will pop.

When the seeds stop popping (about 20 seconds), add the ginger and swirl it around for about 10 seconds.

Lower heat to medium. Add the tofu and stir-fry it for a couple-three minutes, until it starts changing colour slightly.

Move the tofu to the side, add the rest of the oil/ghee (I used ghee here), and add the chopped leaves. Stir-fry them in the fresh fat for a minute, then mix in all the other ingredients and keep stir-frying for another couple of minutes.

At this point you can serve, or you can lower heat to very low and wait until the rice is cooked :-)

Oh, and you can remove the dried chillies before serving, unless you enjoy playing "find the chilli" at the table. Chopsticks are very good for removing unwanted bits from food before serving.


NOTES:

I had planned to add about 1/2 tsp of turmeric after adding the leaves, but forgot. It's quite good without turmeric. I'm just mentioning this for your information :-)

You can of course do exactly the same recipe with any kind of greens. Mustard greens (the Asian type) should be really good, and in fact I plan on trying this next time I see them in the Chinese supermarket. Also leaves from beets or turnips. But also spinach or any other kind of green should work, really.

Footnotes:

[1] The small red kind. Recipes for radish leaves I found online assumed the large Indian radishes (mooli I think), but I can confirm that small European radish leaves work well and probably taste similar, i.e. slightly bitter.

[2] Use ghee if you want to be Indian about it. Use olive oil if you prefer the taste or if you want to be vegan about it. (Or of course, you can use vegetable ghee if you want to be Indian and vegan, thanks feorag for reminding me that such a thing exists.) The taste will be different, so go with your favourite taste. Or you can use both like I did. In any case I strongly recommend using a flavourful fat.

That is, risotto with nettles. Traditional dish from Northern Italy. Very simple to make (though cleaning the nettles can take time) and very tasty.

Ingredients for 2 servings:
200 g nettles
200 g risotto rice (Carnaroli, Arborio, Vialone...)
1 lt veg stock
1 small onion
1-2 cloves garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper
butter
parmesan

1) Wash nettles. This can help keep your dish vegetarian :-). Use gloves while handling raw nettles: cooking will make them safe, but at this point they still sting. (Gloves don't need to be heavy/thick: latex gloves work perfectly well).

2) Chop nettles fairly small.

3) Chop onion and garlic, also fairly small.

4) Heat olive oil in a pot with a heavy bottom (ideally, a glazed earthenware pot, but metal will do -- it just needs more care to avoid sticking). Meanwhile, warm up the stock (or make hot stock from powder/cube).

5) Start frying the onions and garlic in the oil, on medium heat, then add the nettles. They will reduce, a bit like spinach but not quite as drastically.

6) When the nettles are well reduced, add the rice and stir about for a while. You don't actually want the rice to change colour, just to heat it up a bit.

7) Add about 1/3 lt of stock, stir well, and when it's back to the boil, turn heat to low.

8) Keep cooking for about 1/2 an hour, stirring from time to time, and adding ladlefuls of stock when it dries.

9) Adjust salt, stir, turn off, and add some butter some grated parmesan, and some black pepper. Stir again, cover, and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Eat.

My art, it haz a flavor...

(Hat tip to ephiriel)

Just over the 3,000 words mark now -- when the original scene was 2,400. And it's not finished yet. And a lot of the "core" part -- the one that's been hardest to write -- is in fact talking heads. (Which is an improvement over the previous single-thinking-head situation, but still.)

But. For the first time since starting the revision of this scene, I wrote a paragraph and I thought "that's it". A paragraph that feels just right. And what's more, it feels like if I've grasped the right mood and the right words for this paragraph, I can hold it and go over the rest later and make it all fit. What I have now in the "talking heads" part is the right content, and almost certainly the right dialogue -- but not the right mood or flow. But I caught those here, and now I know what they look like.

Also, the last choral bit of Bach's Matthäuspassion is just awesome. and probably not unrelated to this breakthrough.

And furthermore, I think there's only one stumbling block left in the scene, right after the next paragraph (which I already know) -- after which all should be well to the end. (It should also be relatively short, but I'm not actually going to put any money on it.)

I think I deserve potstickers. I would count this as my major food discovery of the year so far. First I discovered them in a Chinese supermarket that I only visit rarely because it's not the closest and it's not on my usual rounds. Then I discovered how to cook them properly (i.e. as potstickers rather than boiled or steamed dumplings). And then, just to make it perfect, I also discovered that the Korean shop next door has a wide selection of frozen vegetarian varieties, of which for the moment I've tried 2 and they are both very nice.

And given that the ones I'm going to have now are the last of the batch, I suspect that tomorrow I will discover whether the Korean shop is open on Easter Sunday :-) (I think there is hope, since they also function as an Internet café.) And while I'm there, I might also get some sweet baozi[1].

In other news, I've just re-dyed my hair. The cheaper Boots brand dye I tried this time actually seems to work better than the name-brand ones I've used previously, and it certainly made less of a mess of my bathtub, sink and face. It looks good, too. Now I'll just have to see if it lasts as well, and/or if it all ends up in the pillow like one "name" brand did once.


[1] I'm still grateful that the Mediterranean decided to go for baking their bread rather than steaming it. I am Italian and therefore like a crust. But as an occasional treat, steamed filled buns (also newly discovered) are actually quite nice.

So, it appears that béchamel and white sauce are used interchangeably in English, while cheese sauce is the same with cheese added. (Mornay is a cheese sauce where the cheese is half gruyère and half parmesan.)

The French original béchamel included veal broth or meat roux, but these days it's usually made without (and so it's like the standard "English" version).

Italian besciamella seems to always include some cheese (parmesan) and nutmeg.

...I think I'll keep with the Italian recipe then, though I assume I'll use cheddar most of the time -- it works just as well for the kind of recipes I'm likely to make, and it's a lot cheaper. But I think the nutmeg is vital :-)

For the second week in a row, I actually managed to be organised enough to prepare food before going out to choir practice so that it would be basically ready when I came back (later than my usual dinner time). There may be freak waves on the coast of Ireland.

I made a cauliflower bake, which is a kind of thing I hadn't made in ages. In fact, I hadn't made a white/cheese/béchamel sauce in ages, either. It's a bit more elaborate than my usual cooking, but not really more labour-intensive or difficult. I improvised it, and it worked out really well, so I'm making notes.

I think what really "made" it was the onions.

[ETA: This made 2 generous portions. One of them is for tomorrow.]

So, there are three separate components that need to be prepared -- this is why I'm calling it elaborate. On the other hand, they could all be done at the same time (I didn't because I was making it up as I went along, and I wasn't pushed for time anyway.)

(1) Cauliflower; (2) Cheese sauce; (3) Fried onions.

(1) Take 1 medium-small cauliflower (or 3 positively tiny ones, which is what I had today), cut into medium-large florets, wash. Boil some salted water, throw in the cauliflower, boil for about 8 minutes, drain.

(2) For the cheese sauce, I used a recipe I found and modified it from my memory of making béchamel a long time ago[1].
Initial quantities: 2tbsp butter[2], 2tbsp white flour, 1 cup milk. (Might need more milk or not, see below)

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan on medium-low (on 3 in my case).
Add the flour, stir and cook this for a few minutes.
Add half the milk, bring to the boil stirring. At this point it's likely to turn into a solid ball that sticks to the spoon: don't panic, that's supposed to happen.
Add the rest of the milk and a teaspoonful of stock powder (my addition, not necessarily appropriate for every recipe but I thought this one could do with it.)
Bring back to the boil stirring.
At this point, add more milk if it seems too thick (it will thicken a bit with the cheese).
Take off the heat and add any amount of grated cheese between 1/2 and 1 cup. Cheddar works just fine.
Put back on the heat just long enough to melt the cheese.
Adjust salt and add some grated nutmeg. Not a lot. This doesn't seem to be included in recipes over here, it really makes a difference and it's delicious.

(3) Chop an onion finely and fry it in olive oil until browned.

At this point the dish can be assembled.

Butter a pyrex dish. Coat the bottom and sides with porridge oatflakes. Layer 1: cooked cauliflowers. Layer 2: fried onions. Layer 3: cheese sauce.

At this point I covered it and set it aside, and went to choir practice. When I came back I put it in the oven at 200C for 30 minutes and ate. (Could probably have done it at 180C.)

It was delicious as it was, but next time I might want to add some pasta (pre-cooked and mixed with the cauliflower) to make it into a more complete one-dish meal.


[1] I don't actually know the difference, if any, between a béchamel, a white sauce and a cheese sauce. We'll call this one a cheese sauce because that was the name of the recipe I started from. But now I'm curious and I might look it up later.

[2] Yes, that's what the recipe said. And it didn't seem to refer to pre-melted butter, either. Whatever: it does convey a general idea, and absolute precision isn't necessary.

Just copying and pasting from an old message in a LibraryThing thread which I've just seen: a collection of links to vegetarian (and vegan) food blogs -- the ones that the poster subscribes to. I have no idea if they're good, bad or indifferent: I'm posting them so I can go and check them at leisure, and in case someone else is interested.

Deborah Madison
Cathe Olson
The Veg Blog
Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
Vegan Lunch Box
What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway?
Vegan Lunchcast
Vive le Vegan
Dreena's Vegan Recipes
Freshtopia
Kreeli's Tasties
heeb 'n' vegan (Jewish)
The Post Punk Kitchen Journal
Squirrel's Vegan Kitchen
The Urban Vegan
Vegan Friendly (NYC reviews)
Yellow Rose Recipes
Veggie Vixen
Vegan YumYum (bad title, spectacular photography)
A Raw Yogi Journal
Vegan Ice Cream Paradise

Mestüa

A traditional soup from Garfagnana (between Liguria and Tuscany, in the hills -- where my mother is from). I got this recipe from my mother a long time ago, but I haven't made it very often -- the three simultaneous boiling pots put me off, I suppose. I should remedy that.

Yield: 6 servings

250 g cannellini beans
250 g chickpeas
250 g spelt
2 garlic cloves
1 onion, cut in half
2 celery sticks
extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper

1. Soak pulses overnight.

2. Boil separately: the beans with the onion (about 1 hour from when it starts boiling), the spelt with the garlic (about 40 min), the chickpeas with the celery (forever... or use a pressure cooker, I suppose).

3. When they're all done, put them all together with their cooking waters, add salt, and cook for another ten minutes.

4. Serve with olive oil and freshly ground pepper and optionally croutons.

Notes:

Quantities for onion, garlic and celery are approximate. (Well, really all quantities are approximate.) I've seen a version made with wheat instead of spelt, in which case the wheat needs to cook as long as the chickpeas.

When I tried to make this by cooking everything together (adding the ingredient at appropriate times), it didn't work out very well. It may have been a fluke, or there may be a reason why they are traditionally cooked separately :-)

(I wrote a really long comment on someone else's LJ answering the question "What, really, is the difference between pasta e fagioli and minestrone? Is it just regional? If you believe The Joy of Cooking, there's more stuff in minestrone -- including bacon or pancetta -- but they're both based on white beans; elbow mac or orzo; and chicken stock." My, we Italians really do go on about food! But since I've written it, I thought I might as well repost it here, in case anybody else is curious.)

The main difference between pasta e fagioli and minestrone is that minestrone has lots of different vegetables in it, pasta e fagioli (literally "pasta and beans") has beans -- with onion and/or garlic for flavour, usually rosemary, and sometimes tomato -- but no other veg.

In the north (where I'm from), both are normally made with borlotti beans. In Tuscany they're made with cannellini. (I don't know what they use in the south, but both recipes are originally northern). I don't know what Ms Beaton's "white beans" are, but I would say borlotti anyway, they're tastier. (And I'm northern...)

In Tuscany, the beans for pasta e fagioli are normally pureed after cooking, and then added to the other ingredients. In the north they're left whole -- the version I'm familiar with.

In my family (and I think in the north in general), neither of those recipes is traditionally vegetarian, though meat is only used as flavouring rather than as a substantial ingredient. The meat is usually cotenna (the cured skin of bacon), bacon, or ham bone. In Tuscany they aren't as likely to use meat. Also, in the north they're more likely to cook with lard as fat -- olive oil starts from Liguria and Toscana and south of there. (That said, I use olive oil for almost all my cooking -- but then I'm vegetarian...) Oh, and veg, meat or chicken stock is used -- I don't know if the difference is regional, personal taste, or availability.

Minestrone doesn't even always include beans (though it usually does, but in much smaller proportions than pasta e fagioli). It can use different vegetables, but it will usually start with onion, celery and carrot minced together and sauteed (it always includes those ingredients, really). It usually includes green peas, green (French) beans, and diced potatoes. The other really popular ingredients are zucchini and some greens (usually some type of cabbage, or spinach); tomato is also frequently added. Mixed beans can be used.

Both soups are usually served with grated cheese (parmesan or pecorino, mostly a regional difference or personal preference), a twist of black pepper and a drizzle of raw olive oil added after serving.

There is one regional variation of minestrone which I particularly like, which is minestrone alla genovese (from Genoa). It's heavier on the greens, it always includes green beans, zucchini and potatoes, and at the end it is flavoured with some pesto made without the pinenuts. Sometimes rice is used instead of pasta. And in Liguria, the greens are traditionally a mix of local wild greens called prebuggiun in dialect... oh bother, I don't even know the Italian name of these greens, never mind the English! It's used in many local dishes, like stuffed pasta (pansoti alle erbe), and prebuggiun is also the name of a soup made from it. Hmm ok (uses google-fu and a couple of dictionaries) ... borage, young nettles, burnet, chicory, dandelion, wild chard -- and/or others which don't seem to have an English name, but it's not like you need all the herbs, you get what's available nearby. Oh, and also fresh thyme/marjoram/oregano, again depending on availability and tastes. (Ligurian cooking tends to be "poor" and delicious and, except on the coast, traditionally vegetarian -- a rarity in Italy). Do not believe the recipes for minestrone alla genovese which include butter, lard or bacon (I've found several by googling -- but only in English, and they seem to call it "alla genovese" simply because it's got pesto in it...) (This is a reasonable recipe for it in English -- apart from the salt pork, which they made up. Of course it's not quite traditional, but how many people outside Liguria are going to get the fresh herbs for prebuggiun anyway?)

Right, now I'm hungry... (::steps down from soapbox and heads for the pantry::)

Having just opened the tub of Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon that I bought the other day, I immediately noticed that it was in fact a completely different colour from the one it replaced and which had a sell-by date of August 2005. The taste test is also a lot more satisfactory.

Oops.

I have no desire to buy or eat healthy vegetables. This is a bit of a bummer because today is when the organic market happens. Also somewhat puzzling since I like my veggies. Oh well, there is always M&S I guess, if I manage to rustle up some vegetable craving in the next couple of days...

I would say this is my inner 5yo speaking, but actually I always liked my veggies. Well, in fact, as a child I was often referred to as "un lavandino" -- literally a kitchen sink, meaning "will eat anything that doesn't actively fight back". I'm a bit more choosy these days, but basically only in that I have gone vegetarian...

A few days ago I wrote about the amazing variety of birds in Dublin, and how that still fills me with wonder.

Well, yesterday I saw a new bird, and a completely unexpected and surprising bird. A small hawk-type bird, in my garden, right in the centre of the city. I only noticed because as I crossed the communal garden of the apartment block to go out the back, there was a commotion in a shrubby evergreen tree right behind me. I looked and saw this large bird, which at first I took for a wood pigeon, upsetting some sparrows. All birds involved were hidden in the foliage, but the idea of a wood pigeon in the city was peculiar enough that I looked more closely. And the bird was indeed wood-pigeon-sized, and approximately the same kind of colour, but very definitely a bird of prey by the head and beak.

I didn't get a lot of time to look at it before it flew off, to a roof on the other side of the building. Watched it a bit longer, but from a longer distance, until eventually it flew away again and disappeared. It's definitely the first time I see a bird of prey in Dublin -- though there must be more in the outskirts, and admittedly if I hadn't looked closely I would have gone away thinking it was a wood pigeon, so maybe I've seen some without recognising them...

A bit of searching on Irish birding sites convinced me that it was almost certainly a sparrowhawk, which looks right and is reported as occasionally frequenting suburban gardens. Well, this one had probably still got lost, but a garden is a garden... Another possibility would be a kestrel, and while from the pictures I can't be sure it wasn't one, they don't seem to be as urbanised. (The third and last possibility is a merlin, but I don't think it was. They're even less urbanised than kestrels.)

(And I found that a sparrowhawk is called sparviero in Italian -- which is a nice word.)

As a side note, I will make no comment or moral judgment on the fact that the first hit when googling for "birds in Dublin" is
"DublinBirds.com, the definitive guide to Birds in Dublin. Escort services, domination services, lap dancing clubs, massage parlours, the street prostitution scene..."

Also, and completely unrelated: I can haz kimchi! Went to the Hop House (Korean pub) with L and came back with 1/2 kg of their homemade kimchi. They also sell kilo packs. I'm tempted to take one down to Cavan for the retreat, and see what happens... (The food on retreat is very good, but a bit on the Irish-conservative and mild-inoffensive side. Well, apart from the Glaswegian retreat leader's signature porridge in the morning, which is the real reason why people go to his retreats, of course. It involves ginger, and toasting the oats before cooking.)

I've decided that I should use the pressure cooker more, so I'm learning. Making notes so I remember next time...

[Edited 30 Sep 07: The experiment went well, and I edited the instructions to adjust for things I learned from experience. Mainly that the cooking time could be shortened slightly.]

Note: I'm using one of the "classic" Italian Lagostina pressure cookers. New-fangled American high-pressure cookers probably require different cooking times, and quite possibly different procedures. They're easy to find on the Web, what I'm doing here is precisely writing what works for me with my cooker.

Soak chickpeas overnight.
Put in double-cooker inside pressure cooker[1] and/or add a spoonful of oil to the water to help avoid clogging the valve.
Bring to pressure.
Cook at pressure for 20 minutes (turning down to mark 2 or 3).[2]
Release pressure ("quick release").

The chickpeas are now ready to be used in a recipe that calls for cooked chickpeas. Or you can just add olive oil, salt and pepper, and maybe pressed garlic or thinly sliced onion/scallion/shallot if you like them, and eat them as a salad.

[1] A metal bowl on a trivet on the bottom of the pressure cooker. Water goes in the p/c; pulses go in the bowl, with some more water.

[2] I cooked them for 25 minutes, and while they didn't quite disintegrate, I believe that they could have done with a bit less cooking. Next time I'll try 20 minutes.

A link to a recipe for chana chat (chickpea salad) that I've found online. I intend to do a chickpea-only version, but actually what I'm most interested in is the recipes from chat masala and for tamarind chutney linked from the recipe.

I would have made the chaat masala tonight, but I don't have ginger powder, and from my memory of the very nice chat I ate in Dun Laoghaire at the festival, it would be a pity to skip it.