Garbanzo and Chorizo Stew/Cocido de garbanzos y chorizo

It's impossible for me to remember the first time I had this earthy and comforting stew. It might have been when I was living in South America, it could have been the time one of my mom's co-workers from her elementary school gave her a home-cooked batch. All I know is I loved it instantly. I've always been a sucker for garbanzo beans, whether in hummus form or, more often than not, straight out of an opened can that's destined for some other recipe. But in the busy ebb and flow of the river that is food options in New York City, this was a dish I hadn't thought about in a while. Until...

Like a bolt out of the blue it struck me; in the middle of my day of student teaching, grading some students' final projects, I had a craving for this hearty and smoky Spanish stew of garbanzo beans and chorizo. In Spain, this kind of stew is known as a cocido or a cazuela.

In my neighborhood of Astoria, I've described the amazing small specialty food stores we have at our fingertips. In my recipe for Butternut Squash and Cashew Creme Pasta, I talked about my love for my favorite produce stand, Eliniki Agora. This recipe gave me a chance to visit some other amazing stores close by for the ingredients.

I first stopped by International Meat Market, where I promptly made friends with a butcher from Argentina who guessed I was from Spain judging from my Spanish accent. We discovered that both of us were actually travellers who had lived all over the world and decided that this is definitely an ingredient in the recipe for a better world. They sold me the Spanish style chorizo that was destined for the stew/cocido. I grew up with Mexican style chorizo, which is a fresh pork sausage colored, flavored, and spiced with chili powder that needs to be cooked before eating and makes for a perfect Saturday morning breakfast with eggs and tortillas. Spanish style chorizo, on the other hand, is a hard cured sausage, often smoked and flavored/colored with paprika. I've included it in many recipes, but a good quality chorizo is awesome cut into slices and enjoyed as is.

International Meat Market was out of jamón serrano, so I took the recipe's advice to substitute another cured pork incarnation: prosciutto. I walked a couple blocks to Dave & Tony's Salumeria and was greeted (as I am every time) by the strong and heady scent of cured salami that hang from the ceiling and the mozzarella and fresh pasta that fill the refrigerators. The conversations in Italian stopped so that Dave (or Tony) could cut me a nice thick slice of prosciutto. Since it was destined to be a garnish, I did not want the paper thin slices that the super market would have had.

Lastly, I thought that because this was a Spanish cocido, I needed a nice Tempranillo wine to go with it. The last stop was our favorite wine shop, where the knowledgeable owner (who happens to be from Brazil) helped me pick out a dry Tempranillo that was a little lighter than some of its fellow Tempranillos. Light and dry, just how we like'em.





Garbanzo and Chorizo Stew/Cocido de garbanzos y chorizo
based on a Jamie Oliver recipe

Makes 4 generous servings.


2-3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1/3 lb Spanish chorizo, finely chopped (1/2'' pieces)

1/2 yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 ribs of celery, finely chopped

about 200g/8oz fresh spinach

8 fresh Roma tomatoes, deseeded and roughly chopped

15.5oz can of good quality garbanzo beans/chickpeas

32oz of chicken stock

fresh ground black pepper

salt, if needed

 

*Prep notes: My favorite way to deseed a tomato is to simply cut it in half and take a large soup spoon and scoop out all of the seeds and the inner membrane. If you feel ambitious, you shoud save these tomato innards and use them when making a vegetable stock; I keep a ziplock bag in the freezer with bits and ends and shavings of various veggies for this very purpose. To do a quick and fine chop of the celery, take a knife and slice each rib evenly down the middle. Then, line up the ribs, keeping them in place with one hand and make your even slices with the other.

Put a large pot over a medium high flame and heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil; I was glad for the opportunity to use the hefty All-Clad stock pot. Add the chorizo and cook for a few minutes until the fat renders out of the chorizo and it starts to look a little bit crispy on the edges. Next, add the onion, garlic, and celery. Give everything a good stir, cover the pot with the lid, turn the heat way down (medium-low to low) and cook covered and slowly for 15 minutes. After those 15 minutes have passed, take the lid off and turn the heat back up to medium high for a couple minutes. Add the spinach, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for about 40 minutes.

Soup simmering with eggs boiling.

After the 40 minutes have gone by, take about a third of the soup out and put it into a food processor or a large bowl (if you will be using a stick blender). Puree until you have a very smooth mixture and then add it back to the rest of the soup in the pot. Make sure you taste at this point before seasoning with some fresh ground black pepper and maybe some sea salt or kosher salt. Remember that the chorizo and the jamón/prosciutto will be salty on their own, so be careful not to over salt the stew.

In my mind, the soup is amazing on its own but it's made that much more special by a garnish of some medium diced jamón serrano/ prosciutto and (get this) some grated hard-boiled egg. I'm of the opinion that the humble egg makes any dish even better, and apparently this is how they serve it in Barcelona. I'm all for it.

Cocido de garbanzos y chorizo with prosciutto and grated egg.

Savory, Crispy, "Cheesy" Kale Chips

 

Kale chips; where to start? From a healthy eating perspective, they take kale (high in fiber, iron, vitamin k, a, and c, antioxidants like carotenoids and flavonoids, and calcium) and add even more flavor with a coating of savory vegan ingredients. From a snacking standpoint, they're addictive! I think of them as earthy cheeze-its; perfect for when you are craving a cheesy, crunchy, and salty snack.

I really only discovered kale chips about a year ago, spending a summer afternoon at "The Treehouse" home to A.'s aunt and uncle. Aunt J. is an amazing cook who always inspires me with her knowledge of good food that runs the gamut of local meat and veggies to raw and vegan cooking. Add to that my sister who has begun eating dairy and gluten-free, and I suddenly have new ingredients and cooking techniques on my radar. Kale chips (and all that goes into making them) are just one example.

There are a couple independent, organic, health food stores in my neighborhood where I could reliably find kale chips in a variety of different flavors and brands. One thing that they all had in common was their high price for a relatively small tub. Let's be honest, I could demolish an entire tub of kale chips in one sitting.  I got this recipe from Aunt J. earlier this year and was excited to try making them. I had to wait for the arrival of colder weather since (lacking a dehydrator or dehydrate setting on my oven) I would need to bake the chips at a super low temperature for 8 hours or so.
So one appropriately chilly afternoon sometime in October, I tackled making my very own kale chips. And in case anyone was wondering, this recipe is golden! It makes kale chips every bit as delicious as what you would buy in a store. They might even be more delicious just knowing that you made them with your own two hands and saved some $ in the process.


***Note: like many vegan recipes, this recipe requires you to soak raw cashews overnight. Keep this in mind as part of your prepwork when making the chips.

***Note:I was feeling a teeny bit lazy, and so I went with a bag of pre-washed and cut kale leaves. This definitely took a lot of prepwork out of the whole process. If you can't find a bag of pre-washed and cut kale leaves, or if you prefer to buy them in their whole-leaf state, you will need to get rid of the incredibly tough stem by picking the leafy portion off. There have been a couple times when I was eating store-bought kale chips and found that a bit of stem made its way in. It's like trying to eat a twig of wood, and probably another good reason just to make your own.




Savory, Crispy, "Cheesy" Kale Chips
(from The Treehouse Diary)

One 64oz bag of kale (or the equivalent thereof in bunches of whole leaves)

1 cup of raw and unsalted cashews, soaked at least 8 hours or preferably overnight

2 tbs of nutritional yeast (also known as brewer's yeast, easy enough to find in most health food stores)

1/4 tsp kosher or sea salt

2-3 tbs of fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup of red bell pepper, medium dice

 

Even though my bag of kale leaves was mostly ready to go, I still went through the whole thing to make sure that no stems were sneaking in. The few offenders I found (see the picture below) were promptly disposed of. I put the kale leaves in the largest mixing bowl I own and set aside.

Preparing the "cheese" mixture can easily be done in a blender or a food processor. Since my food processor is pretty ancient, I've found that a good high-powered stick blender works just fine. Simply combine all of the ingredients (minus the kale) in your blender/processor/bowl and blend until you have a smooth paste. You can add a little water if it's too thick; optimally, you should end up with a mixture about the thickness or consistency of yogurt (not the greek kind).

When the mixture is ready, pour over your kale and really get in there with both hands, mixing the ingredients until the kale is evenly coated and even a little wilted.

Take two cookie sheets and line them with parchment paper or a very light coating of olive oil. This will help prevent your kale chips from sticking on the sheet and crumbling when you try to remove them. Spread your kale chips in an even layer on each cookie sheet and try not to over-fill each cookie sheet. If the chips are all on top of each other, they won't crisp up as effectively.

I went with the low-heat oven method set to 175F for about 8 hours. I checked on them periodically to test them for crispiness. If your oven has a dehydrate setting, dehydrate for about 12-24 hours until they are the right consistency. I stored my kale chips in a tupperware container and even tossed in one of those food-grade moisture absorbing packs from a bottle of vitamins. They stayed nice and crispy for a week or so, until I ate them all.


Like I mentioned, these chips are delicious. There are also many ways you could play with this recipe. You could add a clove or two of minced garlic to the "cheese" mixture, or even a bit of cayenne pepper if you wanted a kick. Any way you make'em, you'll have a tasty and healthy snack on your hands and a well-earned sense of accomplishment. Now go do a happy dance while you eat your kale chips.