Chicken and chickpeas, both of them together or individually are ingredients that I like in almost every form.This was probably why these ingredients were featured in my mother's cookbook. When you grow up in a house with four siblings and two working parents, cooking daily meals to everyone’s taste is almost impossible.
More than a few years ago, when my older son was still young, we used to to go on a daily walk in our neighborhood. The neighborhood was still small, many mom and pop shops, family restaurants and the famous local cafe.
There are certain dishes that I relate to specific events or holidays. There are those with an obvious connection like Mufleta ( Moroccan pastry) with the day after Passover or Honey cake for Rosh Hashana. Others go with a few dates like burekas to both Shabbat and the Jewish festival of Shavuot, or sweet Moroccan cigars served at the end of Yom Kippur and on Hanukkah, and then there are the everyday dishes.
There are those days that Murphy comes to visit you. Those days where anything that can go wrong, goes wrong. It’s not about major crises, it’s just that everything you planned goes the wrong way. It was supposed to be a state of the art planned and productive day. And then, FedEx delivers the wrong package...
"What is this flavor in the chicken?” my mom asked, still trying to identify it herself. “Is it tasty?” I answered her question with a question, “yes, but I can’t tell what is it”. “Silan” I said, “you add silan to chicken?” “yes, and soy sauce too”.
“What is this spice?” mom asked when I took the sumac out of the spice cabinet. “Sumac” I answered, “and what are you using it for?” she continued “you can add it to rice, to meatballs, today I’m using it for chicken”. Mom and dad came to visit us, and as usual mom would enter the kitchen.