Southwestern Chickpea Salad

I love chickpeas.  They're one of my most favorite things in the world.  Hummus! Falafel! Chana masala! But they're also great in salads - either as a salad base, or as just one ingredient.  Here's something I threw together:

3 cups raw chickpeas (you can use canned if necessary, but freshly-cooked chickpeas are so much better.)
1 lb. tomatoes
1/2 lb. poblano chiles, or other mild chile pepper.
1 red onion
garlic to taste
fresh cilantro to taste
1 tsp. cumin seed - whole or ground
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup vinegar and/or lime juice
1 tsp. dried oregano
salt and black pepper to taste

Soak the chickpeas overnight (sort through them first!) Drain, put in a large pot and cover with fresh water.  Cook for about two hours, until soft.

Meanwhile, roast the chile peppers in oven or broiler, until they are soft and the skin is blistered all over.  Let cool, then peel and chop.  Mince the onions and place in a large bowl.  (Hold off on chopping the chiles and other vegetables for now.)

Optional: if using whole cumin seeds, roast them first by heating 2 tbl. oil in a small skillet and adding the seeds.  Let cool - and deglaze the pan with vinegar.

When chickpeas are done, drain them and pour them over the onions, while still hot.  Let them cool a bit, then add all other ingredients.  Mix well, cover, and let marinate overnight.  Serve with tortilla chips or pita bread.

Tortilla Lasagna

Well, I haven't been blogging much lately, but I'm back now.  Wanted to restart my blogging with this yummy recipe:

Ingredients:

16-18 corn tortillas

1-2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
6-8 oz mild white "non-melting" cheese, cubed.  The kind I have is just called "queso blanco." If you can't find any non-melting cheese, use something like mozzarella or jack cheese. Or more grated cheddar.

1 16-oz can corn, drained
1 16-oz can black beans, drained
1 16-oz jar of your favorite salsa

1 onion, chopped
garlic to taste, minced
fresh chile peppers, or chile powder, to taste.  (I actually use some kick-ass chipotle pepper flakes.)
cumin, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
some oregano or sage
some cooking oil and/or butter

1 lb zucchini, sliced
1 lb mushrooms, sliced

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.  Heat some oil in a large skillet and saute the onions, garlic and spices.  Add zucchini and cook briefly, then add mushrooms and cook for a few minutes longer.  Turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, mix together canned corn, beans and salsa in a large bowl.

Grease a large baking pan and layer six tortillas in the bottom of it.  Pour in the zucchini mixture and spread it around.  Distribute the pieces of white cheese across this layer.  Cover it with six more tortillas, then add the black bean and corn layer.  Finish off with a layer of tortillas (sometimes I only put four tortillas on top, instead of six) and sprinkle the grated cheddar on top.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until cheese is melted and everything is bubbly.

Outside Looking In: Sylvia Townsend Warner's Summer Will Show

Sylvia Townsend Warner is one of my most favorite writers.  It's hard for me to describe how wonderful she is.  Her work consists of cutting and polishing a diamond until it shines out in all its facets, cold, burning, phosphorescent.  And funny.  Moreover, I admire her life as much as her work.  She is very much like a queer Communist Jane Austen. 

Her novel Summer Will Show tells the story of a love affair between two women, who to a certain extent resemble herself and her life partner, Valentine Ackland.  (Interestingly, she imagined the two characters long before meeting Ackland, but didn't write the book until after they were together.)  As much as I enjoy the book, I couldn't help but recognize, upon re-reading it recently, that it has some flaws in its approach to race.

Sophia Willoughby (rather like Emma Woodhouse) is young, handsome, rich, and mistress of all she surveys.  She lives contentedly on her country estate with her two children.  It doesn't really bother her that her husband has run off to Paris to live with another woman - she doesn't want him back - although her conventional mind is rather unsettled by the discovery that this woman (whom she's never met) is not only older than Mr. Willoughby, but also Jewish.