Recipe: Chickpea Stew with Mint and Feta (Ρεβύθια με Φέτα και Δυόσμος)

I’m just back from Seattle, where my sister lives and my mom has resettled. After her crazy awful 2009 (husband of 65 years died, sold her home of 50 years, moved to a small apartment in a new city), my mom is positively engaged in her new life. Her motto: “Choose Happiness.” My mom, always quirky but never boring, is an inspiration.

Regular readers know nothing makes me happier than cooking with my sister. A couple days into the visit, we dished up a delicious dinner of salmon and lentils with red wine sauce. The food was beautiful; my sister suggested I take a picture and blog the meal (another day, I promise). I was too hungry for photography.

Over dinner, my sister claimed it was traditional for me to blog about one meal cooked in her kitchen each visit. Who knew? It’s funny how traditions sneak into your life without warning. And ignoring tradition, even one newly adopted, is bad juju. So that night, I found myself lying in bed dreaming up recipes.

At the store, we’d just bought chickpeas and gorgeous lamb steaks. My sister was out of coriander, so we'd bought some of that too. I decided to pair the chickpeas and coriander in a stew with plenty of fresh mint. The next day we went to Big John’s PFI, a Seattle store with a great cheese selection, and bought Greek sheep feta (and, of course, much more), the perfect finishing ingredient for chickpea stew.

Sadly, the Seattle stew pictures didn’t turn out (bad lighting, no tripod), so I “forced” myself to remake the stew when I returned to Alaska. Since I’d been craving leftover chickpeas during the foodless flight home, I was quite happy to make them again, especially because the stew goes together so quickly. It was as tasty the second time as it was in Seattle. This time, I ate the leftovers, and the flavor, already great, was even better the next day.

With generous quantities of mint, my chickpea stew goes particularly well with lamb. It also makes a deliciously filling meal on its own. The recipe has definitely been added to my permanent rotating repertoire.

Chickpea Stew with Mint and Feta (Ρεβύθια με Φέτα και Δυόσμος)
Serves 4
Serve as a side dish with grilled lamb or chicken, or as a main course with steamed rice or couscous. A crisp green salad nicely completes the meal.

3 cups diced yellow onions, 1/4” dice
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup diced carrots, 1/4” dice
1 cup diced celery, 1/4” dice
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 14.5-oz. cans diced tomatoes
3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas or 2 15-oz. cans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup minced fresh mint
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta

Sauté the onions, lightly seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper, in olive oil until they soften and start to turn golden. Stir in the carrots and celery and sauté for 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, ground coriander, and crushed red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes and chickpeas and bring to a boil. Cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the sauce thickens and the flavors meld. Stir in the parsley and mint and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the feta and serve immediately.
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This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging hosted this week Katie from Eat This.

Recipe: Falafel (Φαλάφελ ή Ρεβυθοκεφτέδες)

Falafel almost whipped me, but I prevailed in the end.

My friend Salwa, a Christian Palestinian, gave me her recipe ages ago, when I first started working on the book that became Tastes Like Home: Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska (a fundraiser for Alaska’s only Greek Orthodox Church). She made the recipe sound simple. Initially, it wasn’t.

The first few times I made falafel were miserable failures. Because I couldn’t get them right before the book went to print, Tastes Like Home doesn’t include a falafel recipe.

After re-consulting Salwa and reviewing other recipes for this wonderful Middle Eastern treat, I finally had my Eureka moment and figured out how to make great tasting falafel every time. Trust me; if you follow the directions, falafel are simple.

For those who’ve never eaten them, falafels are crispy fried chickpea or bean croquettes, seasoned with herbs, cumin, and coriander seeds. Salwa serves hers with tahini sauce and tomato-onion salad. Falafels are delicious either on their own or in a pita sandwich.

Falafel (Φαλάφελ ή Ρεβυθοκεφτέδες)

Makes 25-30 small patties (serves 4 as a main course)
Adapted from Salwa Abuamsha’s recipe
To make good falafel there are four important rules: 1. Don't use canned chickpeas. 2.

Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska has moved as of March 2011. To read this post please go to


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Recipe: Pork and Chickpea Stew (Χοιρινό με Ρεβίθια)

Viewed from mountaintop pastures, the sun sparkles off achingly blue Aegean waters. Boats travel lazily in and out of the island’s many natural harbors. Hulking shapes of nearby islands grace the horizon.

In spring, wild plants, both edible and inedible, paint the pastures green, briefly disguising rocky earth and thin soil. Bursts of color from showy displays of wild flowers punctuate the bright green vistas. A small valley divides the pastures. Topsoil, deposited over the centuries, supports the valley’s lush plant communities.

By August, the hillsides are painted again, but this time in shades of gold and ochre and rust. The plants, once so green and inviting, are sharp and prickly, attacking the legs of those who venture to cross the land. Rocks are everywhere. Small lizards dart to and fro, hunting for food on the parched hillsides.

Uncle Dimitris used to grow chickpeas in the valley, the only place on the rocky mountaintop capable of sustaining a cultivated crop. He reached the remote area by donkey, and tilled the hard soil by hand. He let the chickpeas dry on the vine, then brought them down to the village for Aunt Stavroula to clean and cook.

During years of poverty, through occupations, wars, inflation, and unemployment, garbanzo beans were an important winter food on the island. They are rich in protein and nutrients, and were particularly valued on the many fasting days that fill the Greek Orthodox calendar.

In this recipe, chickpeas are paired with pork to produce a flavorful and filling winter stew. I’ve made the stew with only chickpeas, leaving out the pork, and it is very tasty - though not as appealing for meat-eaters. When it’s just the two of us, my husband’s serving is heavy on the meat, and my serving is heavy on the chickpeas, a state of affairs that pleases us both.


Pork and Chickpea Stew (Χοιρινό με Ρεβίθια)
Serves 4 – 6
When made with canned chickpeas and tomatoes, both of which work well in this dish, the stew is particularly easy to make. I like the extra flavor boost from oil-cured olives, but the stew is wonderful without them.

1 1/2 pounds pork steak (bone-in) or 1 pork tenderloin (about 1 to 1 1/4 pounds)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 1/2 cups diced yellow onions (1/2” dice)
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
2 Tbsp. dried thyme, crushed
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups cooked chickpeas (2 14.5 ounce cans)
2 cups (1 14.5 ounce can) diced tomatoes
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 cups chicken stock
3 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. minced fresh sage
1/3 cup chopped oil-cured or salt-cured black olives (optional)

Wash and dry the pork well. Cut into 1” cubes, reserving any bones. Season the pork and bones with salt and freshly ground black pepper and, in a large pot, brown on all sides in olive oil. Stir in the onions, lightly season again with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and sauté until the onions begin to turn golden. Add the garlic and dried thyme and cook for 1 minute.

Add the wine, bring to a boil, and cook until the wine is reduced by half. Stir in the chickpeas, diced and crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, cover, turn down the heat to low, and simmer for 45 – 60 minutes, or until the pork is tender.

Remove the cover, stir in the sage and black olives, and bring to a medium boil. Cook the stew, stirring as necessary to prevent it from sticking to the pan, until the liquid is the consistency you desire, about 10 – 15 minutes.

Serve with feta cheese, crusty bread, and a crisp green salad.
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This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Claudia from Fool for Food.

Recipe: Lemony Chickpea and Rosemary Soup

To fight the cold, we ate soups and stews accompanied by homemade bread, and appreciated the extra heat from the bubbling pot and baking oven. I frequently cooked with chickpeas and, during that winter, started making Lemony Chickpea and Rosemary Soup. Since then, it has remained one of my favorite recipes and I make it regularly.

Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska has moved as of March 2011. To read this post please go to


http://www.laurieconstantino.com/chickpea-soup-cures-cold-weather-blues/


Please click on over and visit my new site. Thank you!