Second Class

Gazintas and Gazontas


The dishes we enjoyed at our second class do not have recipes as such. I “created” them based on a simple principle of piling a variety of ingredients on top of some basic foundational food (that's the “gazontas” - foods that go on top – the “gazintas” are what goes in.).

The salad starts with wheat berries (from Whole foods) – 2 cups – which were slowly boiled with water to cover for about 45 minutes. (There were no gazintas - just water and wheat)
Watch carefully so they don't dry out. Add water as necessary, and test a few wheat berries to determine if the consistency is what you'd like. They should have some resistance to the teeth, but not enough to cause dental damage. I cooked them the day before so they were cool to start with. Additional ingredients (the gazontas) were red onion, avocado, dried cherries, parsley, raspberry vinaigrette and a sprinkling of pine nuts. The pine nuts had been toasted in a dry frying pan to bring out the flavor and aroma. Be careful not to let them burn.

The hot dish was polenta which was cooked in vegetarian broth. I used 1 cup of dried polenta meal (again from Whole Foods) and 4 cups of broth. I heated 3 cups of the broth and stirred the polenta into one cupful cold broth to make a “slurry” which was then slowly added to the hot broth. The idea is to prevent the polenta from clumping. (I think I was successful with this). Another gazinta was about a teaspoon of butter (more would have been even better). The polenta cooked up rather quickly and was poured into a round cake tin to set while I made the tomato topping.

The tomato-based sauce started with a small amount of chopped shallots sauteed in olive oil. Then chopped red pepper, a can of (rinsed) ready-cooked black beans, a large can of diced tomatoes, a handful of chopped black olives, cumin, adobe chili powder and some oregano were added (amounts to taste). This all simmered together for ten or so minutes and then was set out to be spooned on top of wedges of polenta. Extra “gazontas” were chopped cilantro, chopped jalopeno pepper and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Other ideas for ingredients in the polenta are diced reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes, shredded spinach, shredded pimentos, parmesan cheese. Yummy.

The principle is easily applied to create many other dishes based on polenta, whole wheat pasta or some other staple food that can support the weight of the sauce. Other toppings could be braised greens like kale, spinach or chard with a dollop of balsamic vinegar and possibly nuts. Sauteed onions and mushrooms would be good, as would pureed squash with ginger, or green peas with celery, sauteed broccoli with shredded cheddar cheese. Alternative “gazontas” for the wheat berry salad could include cold beets with feta cheese, cherry tomatoes with basil and mozzarella cheese, cranberries and walnuts. Experiment with different salad dressings. You get the idea. Remember you're saving so much money by not buying meat you can splurge on the extras like pine nuts and cilantro.

Now it's Ruth's turn. I can't wait.