Warm and Citrus Infused Greek Dish

This dish is another I have cooked and loved from my cookbook The Complete Book of Greek Cooking by Rena Salaman and Jan Cutler.  If you like Mediterranean food or want to try your hand at it, I would encourage you to get this book.  Right now it's on Amazon for $11.99.  I've had this book for over 10 years, so there may be others out there equally as good or better.  You may shop around.  I found this in a bookstore's section where they had clearance items.  I think I bought it for $5.

This recipe is warm, comforting, and has a refreshing feel all at the same time thanks to the orange. Not a lot of ingredients, and hands-on, is short, but cook-time is longer. I feel this might be a good one to try to cook in a crock-pot or instant pot if you have to step out to pick up kids or do something else.  There are no instructions for that.  I'd probably start in the morning though and set it to simmer throughout the day.

If you haven't noticed, I'm kind of lax with my ingredients...and sometimes the process.  Instead of fresh, I'll use dried or canned, or I'll substitute out ingredients.  Some of this is price, and others is ease and speed. I might cook something in a crock-pot even though it doesn't call for it.  Cooking changed for me when I had children.  I still experiment and I still go seek ingredients elsewhere, but it's less often, or I just modify the recipes enough for me to do it more easily. 

Speaking of speed.  The prep time for this isn't that long, unless you use the dried beans (I use canned if I forget to soak overnight, or if I'm just in a hurry).  Even with soaking dried beans the hands-on isn't that long. It mostly has to gently cook or simmer.  As for what to serve with, I always like to have a green vegetable with my dinners/suppers.  So I'd likely pair with a salad, though you could cook some broccoli or green beans to go with it as well. 

Here it is. I hope you enjoy this one.  I was pleasantly surprised my first time eating it.

Equipment: large bowl for soaking beans, large sauce pan, cutting board, chef knife, grater or zester, optional: pressure cooker

Pork with Chickpeas and Orange

Ingredients:
1 3/4 C dried chickpeas, soaked overnight in water to cover (or use 2-3 cans dried chickpeas)
5-6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 lb boneless leg of pork, cut into large cubes
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
14 oz can chopped tomatoes (diced tomatoes)
grated rind of 1 orange
1 small dried red chilli (or crushed red pepper to taste)
salt and ground black pepper

Process:
1) (If you use canned chickpeas-aka garbanzo beans, skip steps 1 and 2.  Reserve the aquafaba, aka bean juice in the can.) Drain the chickpeas, rinse them under cold water and drain them again.  Place them in a large, heavy pan.  Pour in enough cold water to cover generously, put a lid on the pan and begin to boil.

2) Skim the surface, replace the lid and cook gently for 1-1 1/2 hours, depending on the age and pedigree of the chickpeas.  Alternatively, you could cook them in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes under full pressure.  When the chickpeas are soft, drain them, reserving the cooking liquid, and set them aside.

3)  Heat the olive oil in the clean pan and brown the meat cubes in batches.  As each cube browns, lift it out with a slotted spoon and put it on a plate.  When all the meat cubes have been browned, add the onion to the oil remaining in the pan and saute the slices until light golden.  Stir in the garlic, then as soon as it becomes aromatic, add the tomatoes and orange rind.

4)  Crumble in the chilli (or just add some crushed red pepper).  Return the chickpeas and meat to the pan and pour in enough reserved cooking liquid (or aquafaba and water if you used canned beans) to cover.  Add the black pepper, but not salt at this stage.

5)  Mix well, cover the pan and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the meat is tender.  Stir occasionally and add more of the reserved liquid if needed.  The result should be a moist casserole; not soupy, but not dry either.  Season with salt before serving.

Notes:
1)  I use whatever pork I can find.  Sometimes it's a loin, sometimes a roast.  Sometimes it's pork chops I cut up.  The less lean cuts I think tend to be juicier and tastier in my opinion, but the leaner cuts reduce fat and calories and are still yummy. But I am also a dark meat type of person... and dark meat tends to be cheaper than white. Just trim the excess fat off your meat.