File Under: Learn Something New Every Day

On a recent cycling tour around Valencia’s surrounding villages and fields, I screeched to a halt to take in the beauty of a green, feathery field that looked as soft as a newly made bed. I had no idea what it was, but my companion told me it was hinojo, or “fennel” in English.

On closer inspection, I recognized the root bulb, something I’d seen in the market, but had never ventured to bring any home to cook, or whatever you do with a fennel root bulb. I’ve used fennel seeds, sometimes mistaking them for cumin (comino) when I’m congested and my sense of smell vanishes. The two seeds look very similar but trust me, they are not in any way interchangeable in the kitchen.

Oddly, both the English “fennel” and the Spanish “hinojo” come from a common Latin root (pardon the pun, but there’s really no way around it), feniculum, a diminutive of fenum meaning “hay.” While “fennel” bears a vague resemblance to the Latin fenum, the Spanish “hinojo” doesn’t, but the word “hay” in Spanish, heno, brings the circle around.

One click of the mouse and twenty-some centuries earlier, we have yet another revelation. The Greek name for fennel is “marathon” (μάραθον) or marathos (μάραθος), and the place of the famous battle of Marathon literally means a plain with fennel.

Two yummy things to do with fennel:

Shave and toss with Valencia orange wedges and a light vinaigrette for a delicious spring salad.

Slice in half crosswise, top with buttered breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, then bake. 

This house was next to the field. I was overcome with bougainvillea envy as I have a couple of sickly versions of this plant on my little balcony.

 

Spoiler Alert

I was making garbanzo beans in my pressure cooker, just about ready to put the lid on, which is the point of no return. There’s no going back. Are you absolutely sure you want to put that lid on, kid? I wasn’t. All I had for vegetables were onions and a can of tomatoes. I actually had the lid in my hand when I remembered that I had bought some zucchini the day before yesterday.

For some strange reason, I had bought three zucchinis, which just seemed like one, maybe two too many. I cut up two of them and threw them in the pot, which left me with one zucchini. What the fuck was I going to do with one zucchini?

I racked my brain and I couldn’t remember one single instance in which a dish was spoiled because of an excessive amount of zucchini, not one. I threw in the third zucchini.

The real reason I wrote this essay was to practice writing the word “zucchini” that I can never manage to spell correctly. Zucchini with two Cs and only one N.

Las Crónicas del Taco - The Taco Chronicles

What I knew about tacos before watching the series, Las Crónicas del Taco, would have fit inside of one little tortilla. I thought I knew a lot about Mexico and the people there, but now I feel that I know the country and Mexican much better. You are what you eat, as they say.

 I was watching the first episode one evening while I was eating a pizza I had made from scratch, a pretty darn good pizza, if I do say so myself. Looking at all of those wonderful images of tacos was making me hungry…while I was stuffing my fat face.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the food of Spain and have adopted it completely, but I really miss the food of Mexico. I can make versions of it here. I even have a tortillera, or the press for making tortillas, although I don’t make them very well. There are markets here that sell dried chiles, and we even have a stall in my neighborhood market that sells fresh jalapeños and habaneros.

Valencia is famous for its Mercado Central, but the views of Mexico City’s Mercado de la Merced is like a revelation. But what I really need is to take another trip to Mexico and really explore this world of tacos.

Or maybe I can just go to L.A. “Estamos aquí en la ciudad de Los ángeles, una de las ciudades más mexicanas del mundo.”

 

Cooking in Lock-Down

Call me a bean snob if you will, but I don’t buy canned beans of any variety. I’m also somewhat of a kitchen gadget snob and I have a pressure cooker (if you don’t have one, you’re living like an animal). I promise you that a pressure cooker will save you money in the very short run*.

My secrets for cooking garbanzos are the following:

1.     Soak the beans for 24 hours, or more

2.    Cook with salt, and other spices. I like bay leaf and turmeric (I can never remember the English for turmeric and had to look it up, cúrcuma en español)

3.    Cook in pressure cooker for 15 minutes

4.    Turn off gas and let them sit

Drain and eat. They are so good that you can eat them like popcorn, or use them in recipes. I don’t like to make stews with beans (except lentils which cook quickly). Instead I cooks the beans separately and then add them to the stew. The cooking times are very dissimilar so almost anything you cook them with turns to mush.

* For starters, dried beans are much cheaper than canned beans (here they come in glass jars and are also more expensive). You use a lot less energy, for any hippies out there. You can use cheaper cuts of meat and turn them into something exquisite in a matter of minutes in a pressure cooker.