chickpea fries with spicy aioli

I really like french fries. I like french fries way too much, I want to eat them all the time. I like them with stuff on them, I like them unadorned. I want to order them any time I see them on a menu, I have to hold myself back occasionally and order something an adult might eat. I also wanted to make them at home, and I have tried and failed. I have tried lots of different ways with very little success. Complicated methods that involve triple cooking, parboiling and freezing several times. I have tried frying quickly in super hot oil and more slowly in merely quite hot oil. I have tried the strangely convincing cold oil method that Cook's Illustrated lulled me into believing in, and then dashed all my hopes. I have still never made amazing, crispy fries at home.

Enter chickpea fries, or panisse as they are called in France, which are very easy to make at home and fill the french fries niche perfectly: salty, crispy and highly dippable. Traditionally these would be deep fried in olive oil, but deep frying is such a pain, and stinks up your house. I roasted these in a hot oven with a little slick of oil and they were beautifully crisp with puffy, pillowy soft insides. You can call them panisse if you are serving them at a dinner party and fries if you are serving them to a toddler. Or me.

These are slightly healthier (or a lot healthier, depending on how you assess the healthiness of potatoes and chickpeas) than potato fries, so eating a whole bunch of them doesn't give me the guilt hangover of eating a load of french fries. I mean, they are basically hummus. You can't feel too bad about eating hummus can you? No, you can't.

Chickpea flour might be tricky to find, but I have had good luck in most big grocery stores, or in Indian or Mediteranian groceries.

chickpea fries

Adapted from the New York Times

• 2 cups chickpea flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp each, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper
• finely chopped parsley

Bring water to a boil in a medium sized saucepan. Slowly add in chickpea flour, stirring vigorously to avoid lumps. Cook over medium heat until very thick, like the texture of wet cement.

Pour batter into a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and chill for at least an hour, or overnight if you wish.

Pre-heat oven to 450°F. Cut the set batter into batons, squares or whatever shape you like. Batons are good for dipping though. Roast in hot oven in a little oil, turning fries after about 10 minutes, or when the bottoms are deep brown, and cook about 10 more minutes. Serve sprinkled with salt, pepper and parsley and dip in spicy aioli.

spicy aioli

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (use vegan mayonnaise to make the whole recipe vegan) 
• 3 tbs lime juice
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 clove finely minced garlic
• 1 tsp each salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients well in a small bowl.

butter tart bars

I associate butter tarts with Christmas. When I was growing up, my family used to make dozens of butter tarts in advance and freeze them to eat over the holidays and bring to parties. Except that I developed a taste for frozen butter tarts and would eat directly from the frozen stash. We used to make them with frozen tart shells, which have a pleasing, slick quality and impossible identical thinness that I can never achieve with homemade pastry. I also find the homemade shells are often thicker than I like. I know I'm a blasphemer, but I think the pre-made shells were usually better.

Transforming the tarts into bars with a gooey, just-set filling over a shortbread crust is quicker and easier, with no fiddly shells to fill, and the texture of the base reminds me of the frozen pastry shells. Making butter tart bars seems a bit less Christmasy than tarts, so I don't feel weird making them all year round. Butter tarts usually have either raisins or nuts; I prefer raisins. Their stickiness enhances the goopiness of the filling. Butter tarts were developed in Canada and they are very similar to American pecan pie, but they are always made in bite-size tarts rather than as one big pie. Except when they are made as bars!

butter tart squares

adapted from Canadian Living

crust:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350°F. Blitz all ingredients together in a food processor until the texture of sand. Press into the bottom of a parchment-lined 9 inch baking tin. Prick all over with a fork, bake until pale gold, about 15 mins.

filling:

• 2 tbs butter, melted

• 2 eggs beaten

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 2 tbs all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 pinch salt

• 2/3 cup raisins

Combine everything in a medium bowl, mix until evenly incorporated. Pour over hot crust and bake 20-25 mins, or until the top is crackly and crisp. The filling should still wiggle and jiggle a bit-it's very important not to overcook it so it winds up too set. Err on the side of slightly under baked.

Cool in the pan and cut into squares. These freeze well, but they taste great frozen, so watch out for snacking accidents.

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

jammy walnut cookies

I'm totally fascinated by aquafaba, a new egg white substitute that has been getting popular in the last year or two. Aquafaba is something I have been unknowingly throwing away for years, and before I saw it in action, I couldn't really believe that it was actually going to work. Aquafaba is chickpea brine, the water that I have been tipping out of canned beans and pouring away down the drain! But it has a secret power to become an uncanny egg white replacer. It makes very fluffy, glossy meringues indistinguishable from egg white meringue. Uncooked aquafaba meringue has the faintest beany smell, but sugar and a bit of vanilla takes that away, and cooked, the stuff is an incredibly convincing egg white mimic. 

To make it work, it helps to reduce the aqua faba by about 25% to thicken it slightly, so 1 cup becomes 3/4 cup. To reduce, heat over medium heat in a small pan for around 10-15 minutes, checking the volume frequently until you get 3/4 the original volume.Now, every time I eat chickpeas I save the liquid in a jar in the freezer for later. I can be frozen and then reduced after, or reduced and then frozen.

These cookies are soft and chewy, with a molten, caramelly little jam puddle through the centre. 

jammy walnut cookies: 

Adapted from The New York TImes

• 1 ¾ cups blanched almonds, toasted

• 1 ½ cups walnuts, toasted

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup aqua faba, reduced by 25%

• ½ cup raspberry jam

Grind almonds and walnuts in a food processor until mostly finely ground, a few bigger pieces are ok. Combine nuts with sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in a medium bowl. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix aqua faba with the whisk attachment on medium speed until very frothy, about 3 minutes. Fold into nut mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, overnight if you like. 

Heat oven to 325°.  Scoop golf ball sized cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, cool for a couple minutes and then carefully make in an indentation in the centre of each cookie. Drop a teaspoon of jam in each and then bake 10 more minutes, until the bottom edges of the cookies are golden brown and jam is bubbling. 

Kabocha, goat cheese and arugula pizza

Kabocha is a type of pumpkin. I like it for its mild sweetness, fluffy and slightly powdery quality. I especially like to cube it and roast it until it's chewy and caramelized on the outside and tender on the inside. Lately I have been roasting up a whole squash on weekends and then popping the crispy little cubes into salads, over rice and onto pizzas all week. It pairs really well with sharp greens like arugula and a bit of salty, tangy cheese. 

I'm not sure if the saucelessness of this pizza means it's maybe actually focaccia masquerading as pizza? It has no traditional sauce base, just some spicy, garlicky oil and a whole lot of arugula, which cooks down into a tasty goo underneath the cheese and squash. Anyway, maybe it's not a true pizza, but I feel weird saying I'm having focaccia for dinner, like eating an entire loaf of garlic bread for dinner or something. Which I would never do. But this is more substantial than a typical focaccia and has a deceptively large load of vegetables that make it a totally appropriate thing to eat for dinner. So it's a pizza I guess. 

kabocha, goat cheese and arugula pizza:

• 1 batch pizza dough (below) 
• 1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup mozzarella, sliced or shredded
• 1/2 a medium kabocha squash, peeled (if you want), cubed and roasted until golden brown
• a few big handfuls arugula, use more than you think you should
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• big pinch chili flakes
• 2 tbs olive oil 
• 3 tbs pine nuts, toasted

Preheat oven to the hottest setting, 500°  or higher. 

In a small bowl combine oil, garlic and chilli flakes. Set aside. 

Stretch pizza to fit in a cookie sheet or onto a pizza stone if you have it. Brush with the garlic oil and top with the arugula in a big mound. It'll cook down a lot so use plenty. Sprinkle kabocha , cheeses and pine nuts on top and sprinkle a little salt and pepper over it all. 

Cook pizza in hot oven until the cheese is blistered and brown, and bottom of crust is dark brown. 

pizza dough

adapted from smitten kitchen

• 1 1/2 cups flour 
• 1 teaspoon  salt
• 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water 
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Put flour, salt and yeast in a bowl and add water and oil. Stir until everything mostly comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a couple minutes. Lightly oil a bowl and place dough in the bowl, turning to coat dough with oil on all sides. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm spot for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size. 

pretzel, butterscotch & salty peanut blondies

I suffer from terrible indecision. Do I want a sweet snack or a savoury one? I don't know. If you are like me, rejoice, now you don't have to choose. These blondies are essentially big chocolate chip cookie squares with a load of salty bar snacks folded in. You can have it all. 

Butterscotch chips have a lovely, toasty, smooth brown sugar sort of flavour, but they are just a bit too sweet. Kind of like white chocolate, they are sort of simultaneously appealing and a bit cloying. Adding in the salty snacks balances out the butterscotch chips nicely, giving little pops of salty and sweet as you eat. 

pretzel, butterscotch and salty peanut blondies: 

Adapted from Bon Appetit and Smitten Kitchen, sort of smashed them together

• 1/2 cup butter, melted

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• a pinch of salt

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/3 cup butterscotch chips

• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

• 1 cup pretzels, lightly smashed

• 1 cup salted, roasted peanuts

Combine butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in flour and salt. Add butterscotch and chocolate chips, pretzels and peanuts and mix in evenly. 

Spread evenly in a 8"x 8" pan lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes until just set. They should be soft in the centre and just crispy around the edges. I like them just slightly underbaked, so they are chewy rather than cakey. 

Let cool a bit, but definitely try them still warm. Probably with a bit of ice cream.

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert

big herb salad

Perhaps you are feeling, as I am, just a little overfed after the holiday season. My personal chocolate:vegetable ratio has been way off for a few weeks and I needed a little correction. This salad is an excellent and delicious way to get an entire day's vegetable servings in one meal. So efficient! Any new year's resolutions you may have about eating mountains of vegetables will be so easy to follow now. 

The abundance of bright, sunny herbs in this salad has been helping to combat my feelings of cold weather grumpiness. It's the opposite of standard winter fare, cozy warm, soups and stews and hearty, heavy dishes. Those are good too, but sometimes I want another kind of comforting winter meal, one that feels light and bright and reminds me that winter cannot actually last forever. It feels really luxurious to use herbs this way, as generously as a vegetable rather than as a sparse topping. 

Adding some roasted salmon or falafel makes it into a very filling meal. You can swap or add herbs; cilantro and basil would be great in this too. 

big herb salad: 

serves two as a main meal, more as a side

• 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
• 1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
• 2 cups baby spinach
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 
• 1 cup pea shoots
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives, roughly chopped 
• 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 cup fresh mint, chopped
• 1 cup fresh dill, chopped
• a few slices of feta cheese 

Combine all ingredients and dress with yogurt dressing. Salt and pepper to taste. 

spicy yogurt dressing:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• juice from one lemon
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 2 tsp dried dill
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1  tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp crushed chile flakes 
• 1 tsp salt 

Blend all ingredients together and drizzle over salad. 

Photos: Tyrel Hiebert