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cold water, 3x their depth, covered, room temperature or fridge

dried chickpeas in water until they roughly triple and a split bean shows a chalky, uniform interior with no hard core — this is the whole dish. Canned or cooked chickpeas have gelatinized starch and no free protein structure left; ground up they make a wet paste that slumps off the spoon and dissolves in the oil. Raw soaked chickpeas are still granular, and the fritter is held together by starch that sets for the first time in the fryer.