sunday night supper: all the fixins

So, Drew told you about the bread, and I told you about the chicken, but it takes a whole 'nother post to finish telling you about the delicacies we enjoyed last night. The chicken was served atop a bed of Basque-flavored garbanzo beans with a pepper coulis.

Usually I just make garbanzo beans from a can, but I decided to try dried beans for Sunday Night Supper. I bought a 1 lb. bag of beans and soaked them overnight in water and 1 tsp. of salt. Then, Sunday morning I boiled them. When you bring them to a boil, all of this weird foam will accumulate on the surface of the water. You need to skim that off until the water becomes clear.

Then, drop in a minced onion, a minced clove of garlic, 1/2 a can of tomato sauce, a bay leaf, a tiny jar of pimentos, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 hours.

Once the beans are cooked, drain them and put them in the bottom of the casserole dish that you cook your chickens in. The chicken jus will coat the beans as the chickens roast, and the beans turn out really delicious. I tossed them with 1/2 cup chopped parsley and a bunch of green onions to serve.

The beans would be good just like that, but they're even better with my Roasted Pepper Coulis.

Roasted Pepper Coulis

(a Kaytie original)

2 red bell peppers

1 yellow bell pepper

1/2 can tomato sauce

1 clove of garlic, roasted

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

salt & pepper

Stick a pepper on a hot eye on the stove. You don't put it in a pot or anything; just put the pepper directly on the stove. Turn with a pair of tongs. Char the skin. Once the skin is blackened, rub the skin off. Repeat with each pepper. Then chop the peppers fine. Put them in a pot with a little butter and saute until very soft. Add the herbs, garlic, and tomato sauce. Saute a little longer to let flavors combine. Then blend (I use my stick blender, but you could put in a normal blender). After blending, add the butter a little at a time, whisking as you go. Then it's done, and you can put it on whatever you want--beans, chicken, pasta, your fingers.

I'd be remiss, however, if I didn't mention the excellent contributions of our Sunday night guests. First, Arthur made a tortilla. (He swears that the Spaniards call a frittata a tortilla. Whatever. It was a delicious frittata made with onions and potatoes. Wish he'd give me the recipe).

The tortilla/frittata made a great starter. Doug & Tott contributed excellent beer, and Eleanor brought some really tasty wine. It's a good thing no one had to work this morning. Oh, wait...

We ended the evening with Lindsey's Red Velvet Cake. While the cake may not be Basque or Spanish, who cares? It was so good. She made a homemade buttercream icing (or is it frosting?) that I could have eaten on its own for breakfast this morning. It was perfect: not too rich, not too sweet. It complemented the cake, rather than competing with it.




So, all in all it was quite a lovely Sunday Night Supper. See you there next week.