Doesn't that sound like a new reality show?
Some people who are addicted to food would be on the show as participants, with psychiatrists telling them why they are eating so much of "blank" and then get them to stop eating it and they all go on to lead fulfilled lives.
I never want to be on that show.
My friends, my daughter and I have discovered a food so good, so comforting, so magnificent - that we cannot stop eating it. Seriously.
What is this great food?
Farinata. Cinque e Cinque. Chickpea frittata. Whatever you want to call it, it is amazing.
I guess I'll call it Farinata here. I was strolling the aisles of Whole Foods looking for new gluten-free items. (Honestly, I stroll WFoods like someone strolls Rodeo Drive. Never been to Rodeo Drive? O.K., how about like a teenager shops at the mall - going into every store looking at everything. Just looking for that one item that will make their life compete. Maybe I do need that reality show...............) I went up the aisle that has all the rice and beans , and there was a new item tag with a sale tag under a Tuscan looking bag- I honestly started humming "....these are a few of my favorite things...."
There it was.
On sale.
New.
Gluten free.
With a coupon.
Well, that was it for me. I didn't even know if I would like it, but for $2.50, I was going to find out. Now, how to convince my daughter to try it? I'd figure on that later. I figured any food from Italy had to be good.
And it was.............
So how does this package of sunshine from Whole Foods have anything to do with cooking thru the book? Well, there is a recipe in the book for Farinata. I wanted to have a base concept for what I was going to try to make, with a foolproof model first.
So what is Farinata? Simply put, it is garbanzo bean flour and water. Sound delish yet? If you are like me, the only time I had garbanzo beans growing up was at pizza buffets in the antipasto salad. They were drenched in Italian dressing, and I really didn't pay much attention to them. I just ate them. When my daughter was ready to tackle toddler foods, I read that garbanzo beans were a good way to get kids started eating legumes. And since my doc had ok'd me limiting meat for her, I thought they were a good substitute. So did she. She has been known to eat many, many, many garbanzo beans. Then we discovered hummus. Yum! OK, so garbanzo beans were good. Not beany tasting, still firm and not mushy, and they took on seasoning well. And this is how we enjoyed them until we went gluten free.
When we had to change how we ate, I tried a million combinations of different flours to try to make the baked goods a reality for my kids. I read that garbanzo and fava bean flour was a great substitute, and indeed, it was a common ingredient on many premade gf baked goods. I bought a bag. Couldn't even smell it. It was terrible. Tasted worse. The reason GF food has so much sugar and spice in it is to disguise the taste (and smell) of all of these flours! I ws assured by all the gf cookbooks that the taste and smell would cook out. It did not. I guess if you are desperate for something to eat when you are GF, you will eat anything. I know. I have done it.
So, learily, I bought this mix. My daughter looked at the label, shrugged her shoulders and siad it looked interesting. The ingredients sounded benign enough. Garbanzo bean flour and rosemary. Rosemary is a pungent spice, that should cover up the smell. I couldn't believe the instructions - add water and olive oil and salt. That's it. This was a little too easy to be tasty.
So, I blasted the oven and put my cast iron skillet in. After the pan was preheated, I mixed up the ingredients. No smell so far. I was suspicious, so I added an egg. Why? Well, I just felt it should have something to bind it together. And garlic. It needed garlic. Doesn't everything? Obviously, I know more about cooking than the Italians.......anyhoo, I carefully opened the oven door and poured a little olive oil in the pan, then poured the batter in. It sizzled like a pancake should. Good. Now to let it bake.
In the meantime, I went on wikipedia, and did some research. Seems this delicacy is a pretty popular comfort food that started in Genoa, and has spread all over Italy. It is traditionally served plain, with no toppings, but in different regions it can be sliced and used as filling between slices of focaccia. Hmmm, a meat substutue that did not involve tofu of any kind. You have my interest. Millions of Italians can't be wrong. They are serious about their comfort food.
14 minutes later, I vented the oven door to let the steam out and smelled something wonderful! Not stinky like that old flour. But something good and warm-smelling. Comfort. Out it came, golden brown on top, crispy on the bottom. Looking like a cross between a pancake and a frittata.
Waiting for it to rest was agonizing! It smelled divine. Holding my daughter off with one hand while slicing it using a pizza cutter in the other, we served it up. Slowly, we each tried a bite. Then another. Then another. No big surprise here, we ate and ate. How to explain the taste. Mild, creamy, but with substance. Not doughy/bready like a pancake, because it was made from bean flour and baked with no leavening. Taking a bite was a little like the texture of a mozzarella, or soft gouda. But not like cheese. We decided to use it as a pizza crust in the future, because it really can hold the weight, but is light enough not to weigh you down. I really am at a loss for words to describe it.
I ate it cold in the moning. Then hot topped with fresh tomatos and swiss cheese on top. All of a sudden, toppings started swirling around in my head. Tomatos and onions, sage, parmesan, broccoli, asparagus - you could throw anything on top of it and bake it in.
So, something that I thought could not be anything but smelly and gooey turned out to be something we have been craving all week. We bought the plain garbanzo bean flour yesterday, and there was no unplesant smell. So, prepared to tackle this at home, we are going to dive in this weekend. I am thinking about adding sage, rosemary, onion and garlic. I miss sausage, I really do. So I'm thinking about all the spices that make sausage taste so good. The nose is more powerful than the mouth, and it can outsmart the brain - so I'm thinking I will float it past my tastebuds and my brain will think I am enjoying sausage.
Oh yeah, being on a garbanzo bean kick, we roasted them whole in the oven with spices. But that's for another post.
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