Louisville Magazine

MAY 2012

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/62230

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 34 of 108

W made hen I was a teenager in Smalltown, Ind., a Lebanese family moved to the street where we lived. Tey had come directly from Beirut for the father of the family (whose first name, I kid you not, was Yaya) to set up his first medical practice in the U.S. of A. Little did I know back then that the real reason they had traveled so far from home was to escape the civil war in their country. And by civil war, I do not mean the NCAA Final Four. All I knew back then was that I rapidly the acquaintance of numerous foodstuffs I had never previously heard of: baklava, tahini, hummus and goat's milk yogurt among them. Te mother of the family made everything from scratch, with most of the raw ingredients shipped from Detroit, a magnet for Lebanese immigrants. Teir house was like a museum, with silks and brocades draped from every ceiling and all sorts of jewel-encrusted gold pots and chalices lining the walls. Visitors had to sit on mats or pillows, staring upward at the glories of the Middle East, carefully arranged. Te kitchen, on the other hand, stayed in a constant state of chaos, but it always smelled unreasonably delicious. In this room, the mother (who back in the old country was used to having servants) not only cooked but also waxed her legs as well as her daughter's and the legs of any of their friends willing to submit to the torture; thus the aroma of singed hair and skin often the recipe>> 4 large bell peppers (red, yellow, orange and green), roasted and skinned* 3 cups cooked chickpeas, rinsed if canned (2 15-ounce cans) 1/4 cup parsley, chopped 2 tablespoons mint, chopped 3 tablespoons capers, rinsed The juice of one lemon 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 garlic cloves, minced 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil mixed with that of pickled lemons, roasted sesame seeds, Turkish coffee and garlic frying in olive oil. Smalltown, for the record, is the polite way of referring to my brother's designation for our home municipality, which cannot be divulged in a family magazine. Let's just put it this way: Until I met this Lebanese family, I believed that garlic was something that came only in powder form. Te basis for the immigrant family's cuisine — the staple of their pantry — was the chickpea. Package upon stacked package of dried chickpeas lined one whole shelf. Tere was always a heavy pan full of the legumes steaming away on the stove. When I first mentioned chickpeas to my own family, my brother had a field day making fun of the name: "Peas for chicks! Does that mean chicken feed? Oh, wait, I know — peas for girls! Girls eat peas. Pease, please?" Arguments ensued. Dictionaries and encyclopedias were brought out. Food reference books were consulted. Our mother said chickpeas had been around since the time of Charlemagne. Our dad said that this would make them French, and there was no way on earth that they were French because the real name for them was garbanzo beans. Our little sister asked her new little friend from India, and she said they were called chana. Everyone was right, and everyone was wrong. Te chickpea (depending on its variety and where it's grown) is variously called garbanzo, ceci, chana, sanagalu, erebinthos, and heaven-only-knows-what- else in languages that don't use the Latin alphabet. Sometimes you can even find all of these names listed on the same can. Chickpeas have been around for at least 7,500 years, and you know what that means: likely for much longer than that. Also good to know is that something so tasty is at the same time beneficial to your health. Te chickpea is known for its capacity to lower blood pressure and blood sugar, to reduce the likelihood of kidney stones, and (my favorite) to be the least "windy" of legumes. But the most important fact for our immediate purposes, something I learned years later from the trusty cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey, is that chickpeas provide the perfect way to turn a salad into a main dish. And seriously, the other ingredients in this one (those herbs! that lemon juice! the roasty flavor of the peppers!) mean that the end product is equally tasty whether you use cooked-from-dried or already-canned peas. Of course, any diehard will insist that you must make all beans from scratch, but I recommend doing that only if you're going to cook them a couple of days ahead of time. Save your time and energy for the bell peppers. Te instructions may look long at first glance, but none of this is hard work. Chickpea and Roasted Pepper Salad Cut the roasted peppers into half-inch wide strips and put them in a large bowl together with the chickpeas, herbs and capers. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, salt, garlic and olive oil. Pour over the chickpea mixture and combine everything. Serve it immediately, or refrigerate for a day to get the flavors to blend even more. Bring close to room temperature again before serving. Serves six. *To roast the peppers: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. While it's heating, line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Prick each pepper in several places with a fork, but leave the stems on. Place the four peppers on the sheet, leaving a bit of space between them. Put the pan into the oven. [32] LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5.12 (adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone) Every 15 minutes, open the oven and, using tongs, turn the peppers so that they get evenly roasted on all sides. Te skin will wrinkle and blister. After about 45 minutes, the peppers should be done. You'll know they are when they've begun to collapse in on themselves. Place the sheet on a cooling rack, and, again using the tongs, transfer the peppers immediately to a large ceramic bowl, where you're going to "sweat" them. Seal the bowl with plastic wrap. Twenty minutes later, the peels will slip right off. It's easiest to do this under running water. Remove the peel, stems and seeds, then place the peppers on a cutting board. Slice them into strips and you're ready to go.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Louisville Magazine - MAY 2012