Chickpeas with white sauce, or with rice

CHICKPEAS WITH WHITE SAUCE, OR WITH RICE

Ingredients

400 g. dried chickpeas

3 large dry onions

120 ml of olive oil

1 bay leaf

40 g. all purpose-flour

The juice of 1 lemon

Salt

Half a square cm of red hot chili pepper

Instructions

Overnight put the chickpeas in a pot and cover them with plenty of lukewarm water.

The next morning strain the water.

Put the chickpeas in a bowl. Put in the chickpeas a handful of coarse salt

Rub with both hands the chickpeas to peel.

Rinse them with plenty of lukewarm water and strain.

Repeat the rubbing and the washing two times. 

Put the chickpeas in a pot and put water until it goes two cm above the chickpeas.

Place the pot over high heat and wait to boil.

As soon as it starts boiling decrease the heat to medium.

Add a pinch of salt, little hot pepper, the bay leaf and the onions chopped.  

Let them to simmer until they chelate.

After they become soft you can decide if you want to make all of them with white sauce, or if you want to put in the pot rice, or if you want to divide them into two parts.

You can make half of them with the white sauce and the other half with rice.

Chickpeas with a white sauce

Leave half of the chickpeas and half of their broth in the pot.

The other half put it in another saucepan.

To make the white sauce you must take some broth from the pot and to put it in a deep dish.

Leave it to cool. Pour 40 g. of flour in the dish and mix it well to dilute into the broth thoroughly.

 Pour the broth with the flour into the pot of chickpeas and mix.

Add the lemon juice.

 Put the pot over medium heat and boil the chickpeas for two min.Remove the pot from the heat.

Chickpeas with rice
Put the remaining chickpeas and their broth into the saucepan and put it over medium heat.

Let them boil for 2-3 minutes and then remove them from the heat.

Wash 100 grams of rice and pour it into the saucepan with the chickpeas.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir well to prevent rice from sticking.

Leave the rice to boil about 10 minutes, or as long as it is necessary to soften.

Put a tablespoon of the food in a small saucer and taste it. If you don’t like its taste, you should correct it.

Add little more salt or some lemon juice.

Zucchini and potatoes in the oven (like fried)

ZUCCHINI AND POTATOES IN THE OVEN 

Ingredients

1.5 kg small or medium zucchini

5 large potatoes

Salt to taste

130 gr. olive oil

Instructions

Put the oil in a cup.

Use three shallow pans. The trays of the pizza are suitable.

Dip a brush in the oil and anoint the three pans with it.

Put enough oil so the zucchini and the potatoes can absorb some of it.

If you smear the pans with very little oil, the vegetables will stuck.

Wash the zucchini well.

If you see that there is soil stuck on some places of the zucchini peel, remove it with a knife.

Cut each zucchini into 3 or 4 oblong slices.

Place the slices in the baking trays next to each other.

Put some salt over the slices.

Dip a brush in the oil and smear the slices on top.

The slices of the zucchinis fill completely the first pan and the half from the second pan.

Place the full pan in the oven on the first rack on top.

Turn on the oven to 200 C degrees.

Peel the potatoes.

Rinse thoroughly and cut into large slices lengthwise.

Cut each potato into 5 slices.

Fill with potato slices the half full second pan.

Smear with oil the top of the vegetable slices.

Place the pan with the zucchini and potatoes in the oven on the middle rack.

Cut the rest of the potatoes in 5 slices each. Place them next to each other in the third pan.

If the potatoes are not enough to fill the pan clean some more.

Coat the potatoes on top with oil. Place the pan on the bottom rack of the oven.

Bake the three pans simultaneously with the hot air of the oven.

They do not need much cooking.

15-20 minutes is enough.

 The zucchinis in the pan on top get cooked first and smell nicely.

If you look at them they have a light brown color.

Take the pan out of the oven.

Be careful not to drop anything on the second pan that is under of the first pan.

Look at the zucchini carefully.

If you see that they are cooked on top but they aren’t cooked underneath, turn them over in the pan and put the pan back in the oven.

Bake for 5 minutes or as long as needed to get cooked on that side too.

Once the zucchini is prepared on both sides take the pan out of the oven.

After a little while look to the zucchini and potatoes of the second pan.

If they are cooked on top and uncooked underneath turn them over.

Put the pan back into the oven and bake more.

Continue in the same way with potatoes in the third pan.

When they are well cooked on both sides, take the third pan off the oven.

Let the vegetables to cool slightly in their pan.

So they will unstuck easily and you will be able to put them on a platter

Put on another platter the potatoes.

In this manner you make fried potatoes and fried zucchini in the oven.

Vegetables baked in the oven are very tasty, and they are lighter because they don’t absorb a lot of oil.

In the same way they you can fry in the oven carrots cut in half and onions cut in rings.
You can accompany these vegetables with tzatziki, or a spicy cheese dip, or a garlic sauce.

Chicken pie with onions and cheese

CHICKEN PIE WITH ONIONS AND CHEESE

Ingredients                                                                                                                                   

1 chicken 1.5 kilo or half of a large free-range rooster

700 g. dry onions

3 large eggs

150 g. grated Parmesan

400 g. Feta cheese

Salt, pepper, and nutmeg for taste

1/2 cup milk

500 g. sheet for pies or homemade sheet

100 g. of sesame

250 g. of margarine

Instructions

Stuffing

Wash the chicken well.

Put it in a large pot and place it over high heat.

Add water to the pot until it covers the meat and reaches two centimeters above it.

Peel the onions, cut them into thin slices and put them into the pot with the chicken.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let the meat cook until it becomes soft and unsticks from the bones easily.

When the meat is ready, remove it from the pot.

Leave the onions and the broth to boil longer.

Stir from time to time until most of the liquid in the broth is evaporates.

Then the onions in the broth look like puree.

Clean the meat from bones, rinds and tendons.

Chop it and put it in the pot.

Pour the milk into the pot with the chicken and stir constantly.

Let them boil together for 3-4 min and stir.

Remove the pot from the heat and let it to cool down a bit.

Break the three eggs into a bowl and beat them with a whisk for 2 min.

Pour the eggs into the pot and stir well.

Add the grated Parmesan into the pot and stir.

Rub the feta cheese with your hands into the pot and stir.

Taste the stuffing and if it is necessary correct seasoning.

Rub a little nutmeg into the pot and stir again.

Assembling the pie

Put in a small coffee pot the margarine. Put it over low heat and wait the margarine to melt and become liquid.

Grease a nonstick circular pan 30 cm in diameter and sprinkle it with flour.

Turn it upside down. Knock it lightly so the excessive flour falls.

Open the package with the sheet for pies and unfold it.

Take the middle sheet from the package and place it on the bottom of the pan.

Dip a brush in the melted margarine and coat the sheet with it.

You want the sheet to cover the pan and its sides.

Cut the left-over part of the sheet.Use the left over pieces to decorate the pie.

Place above it another three sheets brushing each one separately with margarine.

Spread uniformly the filling over the forth sheet.

Spread a sheet over the filling and smeared it with margarine.

Continue with three more leaves brushing individually with margarine.

Brush the top of the pie with melted margarine.

Put the sesame seeds in a strain and wash them under the faucet.

Let them drain completely.

Sprinkle with sesame the top of the pie.

Put your hand in the water and spread the sesame seeds evenly throughout the surface of the pie. 

With a sharp knife incise the top of the pie into pieces.

Put the pan in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.

Bake at 175 C degrees for an hour.

If you have invited lot of people, you will need many pieces.

In that case make a bigger pie. Use a large pie pan with dimensions 31CH41CH6 centimeters.

To make such a big pie you must double all the ingredients.