Christmas In A Strange Land

 

When I first arrived in Italy a year seemed like a gapingly big amount of time. And now, three months  later, it seems like if I blink too fast it might be gone.

Three months! Ye Gods, how did that happen? I have spent the last three weeks staying with a wonderful Turkish girl in Palermo. I was planning on going Wwoofing much earlier than this, but I arranged to go after the New Year, which, when you think about it, makes a lot of sense actually.

 So I spent my first Christmas away from my family.

We were invited by Senem’s boss’s to spend Christmas at their house which was wonderfully lovely of them and it was a simple affair. I made Moussaka and spiced chocolate brulee’s. We ate homemade bread, drank wine and talked. A friend of theirs, a stylish old turkish gentleman who spoke not a word of english arrived towards the end of the meal and we coaxed him into trying the aforementioned spiced chocolate dessert. He ate it with gusto and when he was asked if he liked it he motioned to his face and said, ‘Isnt it obvious?’

Made me feel happy.

 It has struck me as humorous that I came half way around the world and still spent my Christmas without snow. But Christmas to me has, and always will be, about good food and nice company. It does not need to be an extravagant affair, only a enjoyable one.

And I will see snow eventually. Hopefully soon. That’s right folks, I have never seen snow.

 On the penultimate day of the year there was a charity concert being held in a town 2 hours drive away and we spent the week trying to organize a lift. Everyone said maybe and perhaps and we will see how it goes. Friday arrived and everyone decided it was too far or they were busy or they had to stay home and wax their otters… so we said, fine, whatever, and caught a train 3 hours to the city which had the unlikely name of Barcelona PG.  We henceforth reffered to it as ‘Fake Barcelona’. Not long after arriving it began to rain. So we danced in the rain. It rained on and off for the whole concert and we stuck it out like the adventurers of old, freezing and wet and dancing till our teeth were chattering. We finished at 1 am, dripping wet and cold to the bone but smiling. We arrived home at 5 am and fell promptly asleep. New Years was not fantastic (not bad, just not great) but I always seem to have a bad new years (no idea why) so I didnt mind.

Some of my other adventures from the last few weeks include; seeing the last King of Italy’s summer palace… Next to which there was a antique museum which had just opened a week before, curated by this nice looking gentlemen…

Being let inside a gorgeous old spanish Villa to explore and waltz secretly amongst the fading opulence..

Making Pizza in Senems ill equipped kitchen using a new recipe that I had never used before involved cooking the pizza in a frying pan with a no-knead dough. It turned out amazingly… Who woulda thunk it?

Dancing in the kitchen of some Transylvanian friends while drinking sangria after a ferocious game of Settlers of Catan…. And visiting the gorgeous castle-by-the-sea not far from Catania. It was a sad goodbye to these wonderful friends I have made in Sicily and if I have any say in the matter I will see them again. The saddest part of travelling is the continual good bye’s. But the memories and the moments make it all worthwhile…

 

Warm Lentil Salad With Red Wine and Cherry Tomatoes

What is the long and short of it?

– The Short of It –

1 kg of dry puy lentils
2 small brown onions, roughly diced
6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
5 tbls of olive oil
few good lugs of red wine (the rest for drinking)
1 large bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley
water, as you go
500gm of cherry tomatoes
salt
Some nice white cheese, fetta, cherve or mozzarella, as you like
2 eggplant, diced

Put the diced eggplants in a bowl and toss with 1 tbls of salt. Put to the side.
Fry onion and garlic in a large pan with a wide base till fragrant in olive oil for 5 minutes on a low heat, stirring with a trusty wooden spoon.

Pour in lentils and stir, thoroughly coating in onioney oil. Fry 2 minutes, stirring as you go.
Pour in red wine (about 200ml). It will sizzle and absorb. Add 500ml of cold water. Add some salt (1tsp). Turn down heat to very low and let it simmer away for 20 minutes.
While its doing its thing, sit with a friend or some good music or both and pick the leaves leisurely from your parsley. Keep the stalks for something else. You want the whole bunch picked in a little bowl ready to go.

Rinse and strain your diced eggplant. Pat dry on a clean tea towel. Fry in a little olive oil over a medium heat till lightly golden and soft. About 4 minutes.
Put aside.
Stir your lentils. Add a little more water if it has all absorbed.
Cook lentils until they are soft. It may take 40 minutes all up. But they take care of themselves really. When they are ready and soft turn off heat, check the seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Heat a frypan to hot and sear the cherry tomatoes in a little olive oil till the skins split and they are piping hot.

Stir tomatoes, eggplant and picked parsley through and sprinkle with your white cheese of choice.
Serve in summer as a lunch or in colder weather as a lovely side dish. Or for a wonderful appetiser with some crusty bread.
Enjoy and remember the joy of simple flavors.

Serves 10 as an appetiser or 6-8 as a light meal on its own..

– The Long of It –

Lentils, lentils, lentils. There are so many kinds and so many ways to cook them. And yet, for some unfathomable reason, they seem to be view as a bland health food that you would only really eat because its good for you. Not because they are fantastic little pearls of wonder. Which they are. Just give them a little love. Sure, if you cook a lentil wrong it won’t be great, but the same with anything really.

Take the humble potato. Boil it. Boil it some more till its overcooked and filled with water. And then eat it. Without salt or butter or cheese or anything and you just couldnt imagine, in your wildest dreams, the amazing things you could do with this lumpy ground vegetable.

It is the same with so many ingredients, actually. All they need is a little love an understanding (do you see how food mirrors life) and your humble spinach or eggplant or broccoli becomes your best friend. So give lentils a go. Your eyes will be opened.

And for all you voracious lentil fans out there. .. This recipe can be added to the long list of reasons why you alread love lentils. Rich, flavorsome and fresh with herbs and oozing tomato goodness, you may wonder why you have never eaten them this way before.

Perhaps you have. What the hell do I know?

May you be haunted by the irresistable smell of frying onion and garlic… Miss Nom

Spotted Apple Of The South

Palermo. Where do I begin? Words swirl in my head at trying to aptly evoke the feeling that is this city.
Imagine, if you will, an apple.

A little withered, puckered perhaps, but natural. This apple is not coated with wax and polished to within an inch of its life before being displayed on a supermarket shelf for shoppers to stare at. It has spots, little rotten patches, it has lived. But if you dare to take a bite you will see that the fruit that is still good is sweeter, richer, filled with memories of sunshine. My lonely planet guide says Sicily is more of a expresso than a cuppacinno and I see this now. And no where more than Palermo. There are old parts of the city that if you walk through you feel as if you are not sure if you are still in Italy. The middle east, perhaps. Or here you are in Africa.
The markets are an explosion of color and noise and smells, all vying for attention. Stray dogs prowl between stalls, eating scraps from under the tables of the fish vendors. Artichokes piled so high you fear for their health nestle alongside zuchinis and abundant herbs.

Everything is wildly cheap. 1 euro for a kilo of almost any fruit or vegetable that is available. Trays of spices in little bags. Fennel, each bulb looking more appetising than the last.

Half rabbit carcases hang from hooks and enormous swordfish heads displayed alongside shiny trays of squid of every size… The vendors are all yelling at you in Sicilian and the sun is shining and your nose becomes assualted with a deluge of smells. One moment there is the aromatic scent of fresh oranges the next you are hit with wet dog. Fancy a sniff of salty seafood followed by a blast of hot black coffee? You got it.
I am staying at the house of a wonderful spanish girl in the old part of town. Last week I stood on the roof terrace. 360 panorama. In one direction is a huge baroque church, ornate and imposing.
Turn.
An apartment building so modern it wouldnt look out of place in Sydney.. all shiny white plaster and repetitive square windows.
Turn.
A narrow street, alley even, lit only by a dingy light that spills from small windows and between cracks. Large rusting sheets of tin lean lean against walls, bordered by piles of rubbish and a rummaging wild dog or two. Beams of wood criss cross between houses, for what purpose, I am not sure. The words ‘slums’ scuttles across my mind.
Turn.
Ancient stone building, crumbling and graphitied. Held together by sheer character and possible a little mortar.
And above and beyond all this the mountains sit. Ancient and unchanging. A beautiful thing, really, to see mountains while in a city.

From this roof you can get a feel for this mismatch city. A metropolis ran just as much by the mafia as by the government. It was under middle easter rule for over five hundred years, a trading port,  this is a city where it is sometimes hard to breath.. but it is easy to fall in love with the temerity of this puckered, spotted, sweet, sweet apple.

I have been in Sicily for just over two weeks now, and I am wonderfully glad that I came south. It may be december in Europe but it is hot and sunny by day and refreshingly cool by night here on the Island that gets that most days of sunshine of anywhere in Europe. I have spent a weekend in Favignana ( the dot of an island renkown for tuna fishing) swimming in crystal clear beaches and exploring rock mines that we later found out to be extremely dangerous…whoops!

We bycycled, cooked, talked and lay in the sun drinking beers.

This week I explored Syracusa’s ancient Roman and greek ruins with a Belgium guy named Gijs before bussing it to Agrigento to get all gangsta in the sun while enjoying the breathtaking valley of the Temples.

Almost defying gravity due to the awesomeness of this place…

Back in Palermo the night life spills out from the bars onto large piazza’s.. a thriving mass of humanity. On saturday we went to a live performance by a local band that was a fantastic blend of balcun and celtish sounding music where we danced till we were sweaty and laughing and out of breath…
The people I have met here are a wonderful bunch. Life somehow moves faster and slower here in the South and I am now in the process of organizing to do wwoofing (wordwide oppertunities on organic farms )… Next week the farm adventures will begin and a whole different experience awaits.. Excited plus! Come to Sicily.. Its glorious here!