Chickpeas Cooked with Whole Lemon, Fennel & Tinned Fish
Honestly, so good. Manifest some Portuguese sunshine and cook this dish this weekend. I bought all these ingredients in Alentejo yesterday, and I picked the rosemary and the lemons from the estate gardens. Not so much a Portuguese recipe, more a 5 0’ Clock Apron recipe using Portuguese ingredients. I am also head over heels in love with lemons, especially when plucked straight from the tree, warm in your hand from all that sunshine.
My thanks to São Lourenço do Barrocal for having me to stay and to Bird Travel PR for inviting me on the press trip.
If there is one thing I love more than anything (apart from my 3 children and husband, of course!) it is getting invited to cook in other countries, in other people’s kitchen, then returning home my bags bursting with new and exciting ingredients to use with enthusiasm.
I cooked my chickpeas from scratch, you could use jarred, no problem
INGREDIENTS
2 onions, finely diced
1 small fennel, finely diced
1 yell pepper, finely diced
3 garlic, finely chopped
Some juicy! sprigs of rosemary, finely diced
About 700g cooked chickpeas
150ml glass of dry white wine, or use stock or water
Tin of smoked fish, I used sardines, or use tuna or anchovies
2 extremely juicy unwaxed lemons, one sliced with pips removed, one to squeeze over
Big bunch of parsley, finely chopped
Olive oil to cook with
Best olive oil to dress the finished dish with
Red wine salt (this blew my mind), use flakey sea salt if you like
METHOD
In a pan over a moderate heat, add a splash of olive oil and cook the onions for around 5 mins, then add the fennel and pepper and rosemary, cook for around 5 mins more until all is soft. Add the garlic and season well with salt.
Add the chickpeas, glass of wine, splash more olive oil and mix well to coat. Arrange the sliced lemons on the top and put a lid on the dish. Bake in a hot oven (180C) for around 25 - 30 mins for the flavours to meld, or simmer over a low heat with a lid on. The sliced lemons should be soft and the dish smelling delicious. Remove from the heat.
Add the parsley and flake over with tinned fish of choice. Add lots of fresh squeezed lemon juice and plenty of best olive oil to dress the chickpeas. Serve warm or room temperature. The lemons are delicious to eat!