Potaje de Garbanzo / Cuban Chickpea and Chorizo Stew

The last week brought about some cooler temperatures to South Florida and believe me that is quite a relief! This delightfully cool weather inspired me to make one of my favorite Cuban potajes (stew) ... Potaje de Garbanzo.  I think of a potaje (poe-tah-hey) as not quite a soup, not quite a stew and not quite a porridge. It's a hearty chickpeas (garbanzo), simmered with Spanish chorizo, ham, smoked pork shank, Cuban calabaza and potatoes. The taste takes me back to the days of sitting in my mom's kitchen, talking and watching her prepare this divine "potaje". It's funny how so many of the memories of my mom, that mean so much to me and that I hold dear, took place in her kitchen. A little choked up and a big sigh inserted here! Anyway, back to the "potaje". To me, the perfect spoonful has a piece of chorizo, calabaza, and chickpea swimming in the smokey, paprika infused tomato-y broth. Add your favorite bread to dunk in the savory broth or white rice and your meal has just graduated to a traditional Cuban meal. This is nothing short of absolutely, positively delicious! I am pretty certain that my favorite Potaje de Garbanzo may become one your favorites too!

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large vidalia onion, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large bell pepper chopped
4 small dried and cured Spanish chorizo* links, sliced on the diagonal
1 tablespoon sweet, smoked Spanish paprika
1 tablespoon granulated garlic powder
1 laurel bay leaf
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
4 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 dry white wine
1 pounds of garbanzo beans
1 1/2 pounds of smoked pork shank
8 oz ham steak cubed
1/2  Cuban calabaza squash (or butternut squash), peeled and diced into large pieces
1 - 2 large red potatoes, peeled, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Soak the beans 24 hours ahead of cooking time, change water whenever possible.
Place the rinse beans and place in a pot with enough water to go about 2 inches above beans. Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 5 minutes on high. Cover and turn off heat. Leave in water for 1 hour. Remove and rinse beans set aside. Throw out water.
Heat a deep, heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium heat. Add olive oil, onions, pepper and garlic. Saute for 5-7 minutes or until vegetables are tender, add sliced chorizo, paprika, bay leaf and garlic powder stir well to incorporate. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes, making sure the chorizo has expelled it's oils. Add tomato sauce, lower heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, covered. Add all of the remaining ingredients, except the salt, and stir to combine. Cook for 1 hour or until beans are almost tender. Add salt and cook for another 1/2 hour.

Serve in deep bowls along with crusty Cuban or French bread and/or, as served traditionally, with white rice. Enoy!

Recipe notes:
*Do not substitute Spanish chorizo with Mexican chorizo, the flavor profiles are completely different.
I like to to dice my calabaza (squash) in large pieces so that I actually have pieces of it remaining in the stew once it is done cooking. It tends to break down considerably during the cooking process.
Easily to adaptable to slow cooker cooking. After sauteing and simmering vegetables and chorizo in the tomato sauce, transfer all ingredients, except salt, to the slow cooker and cook on high for 4-5 hours OR on low for 8-9 hours.  Half hour before cook time is up add in the salt.
I never add salt to beans until they are almost done. It is my experience that salt added to the beginning of the bean's cooking process will keep the beans from softening.  See my post Salt Will Keep Your Beans from Softening for more information on bean cookery!

Weekly Recipe Round-Up

What's Happening this week at The Fork Ran Away with the Spoon. 

A Few Changes, A New Section; Wednesdays with Eryka and more recipes.

This was an exciting week at The Fork Ran Away with the Spoon! New schedules in our lives prompted a few changes and a more consistent posting schedule. We will now be posting Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday, and will feature a new Weekly Recipe Round-Up every Saturday or Sunday.
We said goodbye to our mother/daughter Two for Tuesday recipe posting and hello to Wednesdays with Eryka. To read more about this new and exciting section click here.

Featured on Monday:

Preserved Lemons

I don't know of anything more delicious and versatile as Preserved Lemons. And they are so easy to make too! Once you've made them, you'll never pay ridiculous amounts of money for a tiny jar again. Takes all of 10 minutes to prep and what you get is briny, tart, a little sweet and the most intense lemon flavor you can possibly imagine.

Preserved Lemon and Garlic Grilled Chicken

A few months ago I started my first (of many) preserved lemon jar.  Yes, I've had the jarred stuff you buy at expensive chefy-gourmet stores but, being the curious bugger I am, I had to figure out how to make it myself. I read a few of my middle-eastern cookbooks and did some research online and everyone had their own version of how to make it. So, armed with several different pieces of information from all over the globe I set out to make preserved lemons. I wasn't sure if it was going to work, I was kind of scared it would get moldy and I'd end up disgusted, never to eat a preserved lemon again. I am so glad I made them, because that opened up the door to being able to make this incredibly delectable Preserved Lemon & Garlic Grilled Chicken and so many other delicious recipes. You don't have to make your own for this recipe, you can of course buy a jar and that would be perfectly fine. In fact, if you wanted to make this recipe tomorrow, that would be your only option because preserved lemons are all about time and patience ... about a month's worth of time and patience. If you want to make your own, scroll down to the bottom for a link to my post on preserved lemons.
When I make this recipe I use skinless, boneless chicken thighs, because frankly I think they pack so much of a flavor punch, it's a sin not to use them. But for those folks who prefer, chicken breast, I've got you covered too. When you bite into the tender, juicy chicken, the flavor of the lemon and garlic will greet you like a long lost lover and you won't be able to get enough of it.

Serves 4 - 6

6 boneless, skinless, chicken thighs OR 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied so that you have 6 individual pieces.
1 preserved lemon, chopped, + 1/2 preserved lemon, diced
2 tablespoon of the preserved lemon brine
1/2 a head of garlic, minced or passed through a press
1/8 cup of olive oil
Pepper to taste
Large palm full of roughly chopped parsley, divided in two

Add all the ingredients (except 1/2 preserved lemon and parsley) to a large glass bowl. With clean hands, massage all the ingredients into the chicken pieces. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and allow to marinate in the fridge minimum of 2 hours or overnight (even better).

What you need at the grill:
Sturdy grill tongs
Cooking oil spray or canola oil in a small bowl and a brush to swipe over grill grates
A large piece of aluminum foil - large enough to fold over and enclose all the chicken pieces (like a pouch) when done.
A tray - I use a lipped baking sheet - to transport stuff.

Spray grill with cooking oil. Heat your grill using a high flame (about 10 minutes). Place each piece on grill, do not try to move it at this point, and lower grill cover. If you want crisscross grill marks, after 3 minutes, give each piece a quarter turn and lower flame to medium and continue to grill for an additional 3 minutes. Raise flame to high, flip over each piece and repeat process if you want crisscross grill marks. Grill on high flame for 2 minutes, then reduce flame to medium and continue cooking 3-4 minutes. Place all the pieces in a large sheet of foil and close tightly, allowing to rest for 5 minutes.

To serve, sprinkle each chicken pieces with reserved  preserved lemon and parsley. Accompany with steamed zucchini, topped with a tablespoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Or slice and serve atop crisp romaine lettuce.

Want to make your own preserved lemons?
See my post Make Your Own Preserved Lemons.

Introducing a New Page: Wednesdays with Eryka

My daughter (Eryka) and I have enjoyed our joint column, Two for Tuesdays. I couldn't have asked for a better person to partner with! But because our schedules have become a bit more challenging and sometimes having our recipes ready at the same time just hasn't been possible and, in order to maintain a more consistent posting schedule, we have decided to introduce a new page, that will replace Two for Tuesdays. It is my pleasure to introduce Wednesdays with Eryka.

Something you need to know about Eryka ... she likes to keep her cooking simple by making quick and easy recipes that don't require a lot of fuss, time and money. She loves her slow cooker, ground beef recipes, soups and stews. BUT, she also loves to bake and those recipes will all be featured here in her own little corner  ... on "Wednesdays with Eryka". 

Make Your Own Preserved Lemons

I don't know of anything more delicious and versatile as Preserved Lemons. And they are so easy to make too! Once you've made them, you'll never pay ridiculous amounts of money for a tiny jar again. Now, there is a catch ... you can't expect to make preserved lemons and be ready to use in the afternoon. Nope, it just isn't happening. This is a process, for beautiful jewel-toned preserved lemons, a long "waiting" period, about 4-6 weeks, is needed. But here's the beauty of this, a little of it goes a long way. And when you are about 2/3 of the way done with your jar, just make a new batch. It will take you all of 10 minutes to cut, salt and lid your lemons. If you know anything about me is that I love the flavors of Moroccan foods, and preserved lemons are a staple in
Moroccan cooking. As to what a preserve lemon tastes like ... briny, tart, a little sweet and the most intense lemon flavor you can possibly imagine. Taste a piece and you'll understand what I mean by intense. I will warn you though, you may find yourself opening the jar and sneaking a piece every so often - yeah it's that good.What can you use it in? Pretty much anything you think would be complimented by the preserved lemon, salads, pastas, grains, meats, curries, stew, baked goods like scones. You are only limited by your own imagination. Of course, I will be posting recipes soon but one way I enjoy it is to mash up a lemon into a paste and add olive oil. Now you have a delicious base for a sauce or dressing!

1 3-pound bag of lemons
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 1-quart glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Make sure you have cleaned and sterilized the jar.

First "dry fit" your lemons to see how many you can squeeze into your jar. In a one quart jar it will probably be about 5-6 depending on the size of the lemon. Remove the lemons.
Cut the stem side off (see picture)
Cut each lemon lengthwise, into quarter, taking care to only slice down 3/4 of the way down. The quarters need to remain attached to each other at the base (see picture).
Carefully, pull the quarters apart and pack with kosher salt, about 1 tablespoon or so per lemon (see picture).
Add one tablespoon of salt to the bottom of the jar. Close the lemons and pack them into the jar. As you add each lemon press down with a spoon to release it's juice. Sprinkle in salt over lemons as you add them. Once the jar is well packed, juice the remaining lemons and add the juice to the jar. Cover with remaining salt. Store in a cool, dry and dark place, like your cupboard or pantry.
Every other day using a clean spoon press down on the lemons to release more juice. Do this for about a week, and in 4-6 weeks your lemons will be ready. During the "pickling stage" you will continue to keep them stored in a cool, dry, dark place.

To use, rinse the lemons well to remove excess salt and discard the pulp (some folks use the pulp - so its up to you if you want to use or not). Use the rind, diced, chopped, sliced , in salads, stews, sauces, pasta dishes, you are only limited by your imagination. I've even pulled a quarter of a lemon out, rinsed and munched on it.

Arroz con Pollo (Chicken with Yellow Rice)

Growing up in a Hispanic family I ate a lot of Hispanic food! My mom is a first generation American but her parents were Cuban; my dad is from Nicaragua, so I must say I have the best of both culinary worlds. The foods from both of these countries are delicious. Throughout my childhood, I grew up next door to my grandmother (maternal) and she cooked dinner everyday, thus my mom cooked dinner everyday too. I suppose you can say I learned it from these two ladies that dinner at the table every night is a must. My grandmother, to me, like all grandmothers, was an amazing cook. She thought her cooking was horrible which I never understood. As a kid, I would watch her prep for dinner and dump everything into a pressure cooker (an appliance I finally bought to try). The rest of the afternoon I would hear the whisper of the pressure cooker in the kitchen as it would also fill her house of the delicious dinner that was a few hours away. One meal she made that I never seemed to like was Arroz con Pollo. I have never been a fan of yellow rice and to this day I never understood why I never enjoyed this dish. This weekend I decided to make this dish myself to see if maybe with age (ha!) I would change my mind. I certainly did! It was moist and yummy. I do think my grandma would have been happy with the way it turned out. You will see in the recipe I added tumeric, do not despair it is just for coloring, it has no taste. The mayonnaise is my twist and it makes the rice moist; if you prefer a drier rice omit the mayo. Enjoy!

Recipe:
3-4 chicken breasts, cubed into 1 inch pieces
olive oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped (or any color you have on hand)
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup rice
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1/2 cup beer
1/8 teaspoon saffron
1 (14.5 oz) stewed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon tumeric
1-2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1. In a pan over medium-high heat, add oil, brown and cook the chicken pieces. Set aside.

2. In the same pan, add the pepper, onion and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rice and stir together for about 1-2 minutes.

3. Stir in broth, beer, tomatoes, saffron, salt, pepper and paprika. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.

4. After the rice has simmered, add the turmeric for extra color. Put the chicken and its juices back into the pan with the rice and stir to combine. You can now also add the mayonnaise to your liking.

5. Serve with Sweet Fried Plantains and an avocado salad. Enjoy!

Simple Creamy Leek Soup

Now that we are getting "cooler" weather in Florida, and by that I mean in the 70's and breezy, it's time to break out my recipes for soups, stews and generally all-around heartier meals. I am starting off with one of my very favorite Simple Creamy Leek Soup. Aside from the leeks, you probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry. What I like about this soup is how simple it is to make, and how beautifully the flavors of the leeks shine through. It is hearty, rich and truly satisfying. This recipe will serve four as part of a multi-course meal or two if it is the meal. I love to serve it with buttered, toasted baguette slices and a mixed greens salad, simply dressed with oil and vinegar. It's a great meal to have on a lazy Sunday afternoon and then take a snooze on the back patio ... like we all did today, including our dog, Lennon. 

Serve 2 - 4

1 stick of butter, plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
4 Leeks, thinly sliced. Use only white and pale green parts*
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 medium carrot, finely diced
1 celery rib with leaves, finely diced
2 small red potatoes, peeled and finely diced (1/4" dice)
3 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream

Heat a deep sauce pan over medium-low heat, add butter and allow to just slightly bubble but not brown, add oil, followed by leeks, onions carrots and celery, add a small pinch of salt to sweat the vegetables. Saute for 8-10 minutes, reducing heat, as needed, to keep from browning. Stir frequently.
Stir in potatoes, stock, wine, salt and pepper. Bring up to a low boil, cover and reduce to heat to simmer, cook until potatoes are tender.
Using a blender or an immersion stick blender (my personal favorite), process soup until thick and smooth. You can pour through a sieve if you want an even smoother consistency, but for me it is fine as is. If you are using a blender work in batches and take care to vent to avoid scaling yourself. Keep soup warm.
Using a whisk or hand-held blender, whip cream until thick.

Ladle soup into deep bowls and add a dollop of two of the cream. Serve with buttered and toasted slices of french bread.

*Save green parts in freezer to use in home-made stocks.