Recipe: Original Sifnos Chickpea Stew (Revithada) in a Clay Pot

Once I take my chickpeas out of the oven within the morning, I convey a number of bowls to the friends staying in my rooms. It’s good for individuals to style what our island has to supply. Revithada normally goes into the wood-fired oven on Saturday night time, so it’s prepared by Sunday. It’s the all-day Sunday meal; it’s eaten after church round 10 within the morning, then individuals go about their day and eat it once more after they return dwelling within the night.

Lately, you wouldn’t hearth up a wooden oven only for one pot, so many locals convey their clay pots to me, and I put all of them in my oven. My mom used to seal the lid with a chunk of dough – though to not maintain the moisture in, as some may assume. An outdated man at a café as soon as advised me a narrative that defined why. Again then, individuals would take their clay pots to the bakery, the place the baker would place 50 to 60 pots in his oven. When the meals was achieved, he’d open them and take a bit from everybody’s stew to make his personal meal. That’s why he by no means put his personal pot in. After that, he stated, everybody began sealing their pots with dough, so the baker couldn’t open them and steal from them.

When there’s leftover revithada, you’ll be able to combine the chickpeas with rice; it’s scrumptious. Within the outdated days, individuals added different legumes, too, no matter they’d: black-eyed peas, white beans…

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F).

Rinse and drain the soaked chickpeas.

Place them in a Dutch oven or clay pot (tsikali) with all the opposite substances.

Add sufficient water to cowl the chickpeas by about 5 cm (or 2 inches).

Cowl with the lid and bake for 1 hour.

Decrease the oven temperature to 100°C (210°F) and prepare dinner for an additional 9-10 hours.

Tip: It’s finest to start cooking this dish the night time earlier than in order that it’s prepared the subsequent day.

Initially printed in Gastronomos journal.