There are many outlets in life: martial arts, shopping, anger management classes.  When I need to unwind, I seek mental escape through the practice of executing a complex recipe; somehow, the numerous steps and rigmarole ease my mind while I focus on the task at hand.  Bonus points for finding a complex recipe for a dish that is traditionally simple.  Enter Tom Colicchio’s chickpea salad recipe from my favorite cookbook, The Craft of Cooking.  Now, I have been making chickpea salad for years (also called chi chi beans in my family) and find it no harder than opening up a few cans of naked beans and jazzing them up with some oil, vinegar, and seasonings.  Delicious.  Simple.  Too simple. 

 

 

 


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