From the Aegean countryside

Revithia Fournou (Wood-fired oven baked chickpeas)

Made by Mr. Spyros Tsigonias

This is a post about the day that my uncle Spyros invited us to his house in the country, to show us how he cooks a typical and loved recipe of the Aegean islands that he masters very well: Revithia (chickpeas) baked in a wood-fired oven.

We arrived to our meeting 30 minutes late, after getting lost on our way there- so we were a little tensed…But when we found Spyros with his good friend Stellios waiting for us by the fire, and they greet us with a warm smile, we felt like we were at home! In two seconds, a plate of roasted octopus that just came out of the fire was served;

As we watched Spyros and Stellios cooking in the small rustic kitchen, totally calm and concentrated, we started feeling the serenity of those two men that live in the country. Our rhythms slowed down and we were all in the same pace, working in harmony, like if we were doing it for years…

Souma was poured into our raised glasses and the toasting started: the first toast was given for our good health and joy, the second for Christos and Gelly to come back for Easter, the third for me to find a good man to marry. I am telling you, if you want to create an authentic Greek atmosphere during dinner, just give toasts for your unmarried friends to find someone good to marry…

The hours passed, and after two or three glasses of souma, a lot of jokes, some dancing, and the most perfectly baked sweet potato that I have ever tasted, we managed to captivate the simple steps of this incredible flavoured plate. Onions, garlic, rosemary, laurel and olive oil, create the perfect background that lifts off the chickpeas. The overnight slow cooking into the wood-fired oven is what makes this food s special; It is difficult for me to describe the aromas that filled the room the minute we opened the lid of the tsoukali (suitable traditional clay pot for cooking revithia).

With a light smoked flavour, the chickpeas were sweet, soft and full of taste…

We all left the kitchen, found shadow under the trees and started eating enjoying the countryside that was full of life. We felt like children again while he toasting and the jokes continued…

Everything we said, every happy thought during the cooking, was inside the food, in a way.

I looked around: surrounded by green hills full of yellow wildflowers, Spyros’s garden had onions, garlic, olive trees, rosemary and laurel growing under the warm spring sun.

words:  maria alipranti

photos: christos drazos

Revithia Fournou (Wood-fired oven baked chickpeas)  |  The recipe

 

 

• 1 kilo of chickpeas
• 3-4 large onions
• 6 gloves of garlic pealed
• 1 whole small garlic
• 1cup of olive oil
• 2 leaves of laurel
• Rosemary
• Salt
• Water

Soak the chickpeas overnight in water, wash them and drain them. Place the drained chickpeas into a pot, add the onions, chopped in big pieces, the garlic gloves, the whole garlic (no need to clean it, jus wash it), the herbs, and 2 pinches of salt. Mix the ingredients with a spoon, then add enough water to cover them-and a little more. Add the olive oil.

Cover the pot with a lid, and place it in the oven for slow cooking for about 8-10 hours.

It would be perfect if you could bake the revithia in a wooden-fire oven or into a fireplace, but an electrical oven would do.