Chick Pea Salad: My Legume Love Affair

If I had to choose my favorite legume, it would be chick peas. Or lentils. Or the peanuts in Reeses peanut butter cups.

Although my heart is warmed upon tasting homemade hummus laden with enough garlic to keep vampires away for seven nights and part of a twilight, and the manner in which Greek chick pea and lemon soup manages to taste like actual chicken thrills me like dandelions do a two-year old, when I cook chick peas, their destination is most often Salad City. And they don't just get tossed on some lettuce. I compose a salad around them. Or rather, I roast off what's remaining in my vegetable drawer right before it's time to go shopping again, add some olive oil and lemon, and call it dinner.

On occasion, for a super fantastic night, I go all out, think about flavors and textures, and put some fish on top. Like I am doing, for example, for the following event.

At the wine bar where I work, we have a winemaker dinner this weekend with Sergio Germano of Germano Ettore winery in Piedmont, Italy. I wanted to do something special because, well, he's one of the nicest guys in the winemaking world, and because his lemonesque, mineral, clean and sprightly dry Riesling, which we are serving with the first of four courses, deserves some extra attention. Extra special chick pea attention, that is. Since the My Legume Love Affair blogging event just happens to take place on the date of that occasion, I'm going to share a little chick pea love with the legume folks too.

The meaty chick peas carry the mineral, fiesty nature of Germano Ettore's Reisling well, and I made sure to pack the salad full of lemon, in zest and juice form to carry the citrus flavors and high acidity of Ettore's wine. For the event, I am cooking squid to top the salad. In the photo below, marinated anchovies that I used to top the salad another time are featured. Instructions for both preparations follow the salad recipe.


Chick pea, feta, and arugula salad

* Serves 4-5 people
* Soak legumes in water overnight or for at least six hours before cooking.
* Salad will taste best if all but arugula marinates overnight.
* In the salad photo, you might notice I tossed some carmelized onions into the salad. For the event, I choose to keep it a little fresher and omitted the onions. Include if like.

8 oz chick peas, soaked
bay leaf
rosemary sprig
zest of one lemon
juice from 1 1/2 lemon
2 - 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 oz French feta
1/2 bunch fresh chervil, chopped
1/2 bunch fresh tarragon, chopped
2 large handfuls arugula
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring soaked chick peas to boil (in fresh water) in a medium-sized pot with bay leaf and rosemary. Once boiling, adjust heat to simmer and cook for 45 minutes or until legumes are tender, but not mushy. Drain, and discard herbs.
2. Once peas are cool or at room temperature, place in a large bowl, add lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil and stir until well-blended. Crumble feta and add to bowl along with fresh herbs. Salad may be set aside to marinate now, or before arugula is added.
3. Add arugula right before serving, and divide among 4 plates





Anchovies
This was my first adventure cooking at home with the sweet, oily little fish. If you want to top your chickpeas with anchovies per photo, do as follows.
Cleaning:
Wash the little guys in cool water. Make sure your cat is outside. Cut off head directly beneath gills. Glide fish knife from underneath the gills on the crease of fish's belly to the end of its tail. Open the fish, it should open into two flaps. Remove the organs. Pluck out the blones with the tip of the knife and pull out with fingers until removed. Cut the anchovies into two fillets.
Cooking:
Heat a sauté pan to high heat. Once hot, drizzle with canola oil/olive oil mixture. Gently place fish in pan, skin side down, and cook for one to two minutes each side. These fish are salty, salt with extreme caution. After cooked, set aside in small bowl and cover with thin lemon slices and olive oil to marinate until ready to serve.

Squid
Oh how I love calamari, in all it's glorious forms.
Cleaning
(thank god for video):
Cooking:
Cut into rings about half an inch thick. Heat sauté pan to high heat, and drizzle with canola oil/olive oil mixture. Add squid rings and tentacles to pan, and saute briefly. The key to cooking squid without going rubbery is to either cook the swimmer for under three minutes, or over thirty minutes. Cook here for two minutes or under, or until rings and tentacles are just firm and no longer translucent. Top the salad and drizzle the juice in pan around the plate.


Do you have a favorite chick pea dish you make at home or enjoy at a restaurant?

Fontodi Winery: Drinking in Chianti

A couple months before leaving for Italy, the owner of Fontodi winery visited our wine shop. After learning that my mother and I would very soon be in his neck of the wine world, he invited us to visit his Chianti hills haven.

I knew that, similar to how French cheese exhibits more flair when consumed in the motherland, and how Kettle Korn tastes better at the California State Fair than when popped at a mall, that his wines would be even more enchanting when poured on Fontodi grounds. I also thought that my mother, always appreciative of a fine dresser, might enjoy seeing the owner in his immaculate Italian three piece suit among his vineyards. So I said yes.

Pictures of the winery follow. Unfortunately for those readers hoping to spot an Italian suit among the collection, we missed the owner on our tour. But I have included a picture of our kind and dapper tour provider, who closely resembles an unnamed Italian-American actor. All in all, the grounds were gorgeous, our tour guide was incredibly nice and informative, and the wines were fantastic. We had a great time.



The winery office and tasting room.



Carts used to pick grapes next to the crushing facilities.





Fontodi buys their oak barrels from several French barrel makers in order to evenly distribute the differing flavors and attributes characteristic of each barrel maker's oak.



Our lovely tour guide, who my mother and I refrained from telling looks like one of our favorite actors so we wouldn't sound like all the other silly American tourists. Because we're not silly.

Interested in learning more about Fontodi? Check out some of the links here, here, and, a video of harvest here . If you plan to be in their area, tastings are limited, by appointment only, and worth every twist and turn to reach the property.



The view from the winery office.

Driving, Getting Lost, and Then Drinking in Italy

I, um... left the cord that transfers my photos from my camera to my computer in Italy. Inside the house whose balcony was the staging grounds for the above photo. Don't tell my husband- I'm hoping he won't notice that the temporary cord I just ordered is small and grey and the old one is long and black. Anyhow, the people whose apartment we stayed in will be returning to their lovely home in a couple weeks and might be inspired to ship me the one that's resting on their computer desk. Or in the kitchen. Or under their bed? So, although I was hoping share oodles of pictures and Italy stories with you, I won't be doing so for a while. Until then, I'll distract you with a wine pairing story relating to cars in Italy.

We drove in Italy. Well, my mom drove in Italy. I was useless because I can't drive stick. And the "automatic" cars in Italy, they aren't really automatic like we have the states. While they don't have clutches, they still shift sticks that need to be vigorously jiggled when driving.

After driving for hours in Italy, we got lost in Florence. In the future, when I learn how to drive stick, I'd happily drive in the Italian countryside. It's gorgeous (see below) and serene. But I will never drive in an Italian city. Nor would I sit in the passenger seat of a car steered by a foreigner who is simultaneously trying to navigate the city's signs, one way streets, blockades, and considering whether the many honking cars around her mean anything besides, "i have a horn!"



The driving situation in Florence was intense. So was asking directions in extremely limited Italian in the very outskirts of Florence at night while wearing a skirt and looking lost. The medieval town of Siena, on the other hand, was relatively calm and compact and there weren't as many bridges to cross. This made for easier navigation once you got outside the city walls, as cars aren't allowed inside the huge, bricked walled of the inner Siena fortress.

Anyhow, if one ever gets lost while trying to drive in Florence then waits for a taxi for an hour that doesn't come and then has to park in an underground station because they can't find the rental car return garage, they should have a wine and food pairing experience to help them through the rest of the night.



I suggest salami, prosciutto, crostini with pate or liver, olives, and wine. At this point, any type of wine will do, but one should go in either of two directions when pairing on this night. First, if you want to gently relax, choose a regional red of the area that you are visiting, such as a Chianti, and enjoy a glass with your charcuterie. Or, if one would rather drink with the aim of forgetting the entire night, and quickly, choose a high alcohol Zinfandel that you packed in your suitcase just for this occasion, pour the wine in plastic cups provided by your hotel, and consume. Then turn down your bed, because after quaffing two glasses or three glasses of the high-octane jammy juice, you'll sleep like a baby. Then return your car in the morning.



More photos to come.

Florentine Sweets

White chocolate-coated torrone



Pistachio gelato topped with a waffle piece, and held by mia mamma



Vivoli Gelateria, the best in Florence



Oh, pan forte and marzipan, I love you



Food prep

Yogurt Adventures in Italy

Bunnies in Oakland, California, reindeers in Reykjavik, Iceland, and yogurt in Florence. A major source of protein in different culture's diets? No. Graffiti and stencils across the globe. For the first of my Italy series, meet Yogurt graffiti. It's Florentine.

I'm Going to Italy: What Do I Bring Back and What Should I Not Miss?

As of next Tuesday, I will be in Florence, Italy. I will be jet lagged and incomprehensible, but gosh darn it, I'll be there. It's my first time in this land of pecorino, prosciutto, and gelato, and I'm more excited than vampire in a blood bank. I've also heard thatthe people and art are nice too. After a four night stay in Florence, my mother and I (my traveling partner) will drive to Siena, where we will stay in a friend's apartment and take a cooking class with our friends mother. Then we'll return to Florence and see all the sights we haven't seen for four or five more days.

I've never been to Tuscany, or Italy at all for that matter, and would like to ask you, dear readers, what foods, candies, packaged goodies, should I bring back? And if you've been to this region and know of a place you swear I can't miss (i.e. a gelato shop that trumps all others), I'd love to hear about it in the comments! Along the same lines, if there is something that you saw or did in Italy that translated horribly across cultural lines, tell me!

I'll be blogging about our experiences either while I'm there, or shortly after my return, so keep tuned for photos, pictures of cheese, and winery visit discussions.