How to Cook the Perfect Middle Eastern Dinner, According to Moscoman
All photos by Nuphar Blechner

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Food

How to Cook the Perfect Middle Eastern Dinner, According to Moscoman

Sure, the Tel Aviv producer's pretty good with beats, but you should see him with a bowl of chickpeas.

You'll probably know a little about Tel Aviv producer Moscoman now. You'll probably have listened to his fantastic new album A Shot in the Light as much as we have. And that's great. But you might not know that Moscoman is a keen cook. In fact, he's such a dab hand in the kitchen that when we asked him to knock up a quick spot of dinner for us, he actually turned up with an incredible trio of chickpea dishes.

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In his hands, the humble chickpea's a thing of beauty, and his triple threat selection of dishes looks so up our alley it almost hurts. Have a read of this, then nip to your nearest supermarket and start practicing. We'll leave the rest to Moscoman himself. Oh, and give his album a listen while you're cooking. Check it all out below.

Chickpeas Trio by Moscoman

All ingredients for 4-6 people:

500g small dry chickpeas
500g sesame paste
20 beautiful cherry tomatoes
1 lemon
1 red onion
2 green chili peppers
1 big potato, peeled
Extra virgin olive oil
Fresh parsley
Fresh coriander
Fresh mint
Dry spices: Coriander seeds, sesame seeds, cumin, table & Atlantic salt, English pepper, red paprika

The process starts two days before you decide to make the deconstructed Msabbaha. Without starting a middle eastern war, it's a type of chickpea based dish, like hummus that is eaten warm, with whole peas and not ground, and it's the finest art of chickpeas. Take the smallest chickpeas you can find and soak them in water for 48 hours, changing the water every 12, make sure there's enough water to completely cover them and then add a touch more. That's really important.

The Msabbaha

1. Take a big pot, one that's double the size of the chickpeas. Add 400g of the soaked chickpeas, the potato, two tsp salt and one tsp of coriander seeds to the pot. Cover it, add more water and bring it to a boil. After the first boil a layer of white foam will rise—just scoop it up and lower the heat to medium and keep simmering for about three hours. Handy tip: you can cut down on time if you add some baking powder. You'll know when it's done when you take a chickpea and it mashes like butter in your hand.

2. Make tahini! You'll need really cold water, 1 lemon, 2 tsp of salt and the sesame paste. Put it all in a bowl and whisk it away! The texture you should have is firm but soft and not runny. If it's runny add more paste (there's no specific measurement for this).

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3. Make a spicy sauce! In a food processor put the two chili peppers, fresh parsley and coriander to taste. Add 1 tsp of cumin, 1 tsp of salt, olive oil and process it until it has a pesto like texture.

4. Plate it. Most of the places will mix everything together and serve, I like it when people get to mix it on their own. In a curvy plate add two big scoops of the tahini, one tsp of the spicy sauce you just made, a nice amount of cooked chickpeas and at least two tbsp of olive oil. Squeeze half a lemon on it, garnish with a generous amount of parsley and you are ready. Don't forget to make it look good!

The Falafel

Get a 100g of the sprouted chickpeas and put them in a food processor. Once they're ground well, add a handful of fresh parsley and coriander, 1 tsp of coriander seeds, a handful of sesame seeds, 2 tbsp of sesame paste (not the sauce even though it wouldn't hurt), a nice amount of salt and paprika, and mix it all up in the food processor until you get a paste-like consistency. TASTE! It can be eaten raw and it should taste as good as cooked.

There are two ways to cook the falafels. You can either pan fry them with oil, or bake them. I loving the latter, but it is slightly trickier because they can get dry very quickly. If you want to try it, preheat the oven to somewhere between 180-220C. Make small balls out of the paste and spread them on a baking paper, drizzle some olive oil on them and pop in the oven for six to eight minutes. You should flip them half way of the cooking process to give them a nice even color. If frying's more your thing, make the balls, and put them in a very hot oil for two to three minutes. Done!

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The Salad

When the chickpeas are getting softer in the cooking pot, take out two big spoons and let it cool. Meanwhile chop some of the beautiful cherry tomatoes, a gorgeous red onion and some fragrant fresh mint. Mix it all together with some Atlantic sea salt and your finest olive oil. Easy peasy, fresh and amazing.

And there you have it!

A Shot in the Light