Pumpkin Seeds

Ah yes the humble Pumpkin seed, as far as my history with pumpkin seeds go, I really didn't like them. They were kind of bland tasting and it was like eating little twigs that splintered and got stuck in my teeth. I could only eat one or two before giving up hopelessly as to what other people found to be so great about them. Sunflower seeds on the other hand were more my thing, but even then they had to be shelled before eaten, the pumpkin seed has no easy way of easily shedding its splintery exterior to reveal its flavourful insides to the eagerly awaiting tongue for its delightful flavour. Instead, it sits there, the entirety of its beautiful essence locked away by a barbaric exterior, one that has set up its woody palisade to protect its hidden wonders. Never letting its walls fall for even a second to let me a poor humble petitioner to enjoy the secrets locked within.

Well, I am sad to say, so to have I failed to bring the Pumpkin seed  into a realm into which I may enjoy it. The ones I made are still, just as the ones on the market, not enjoyable. However, I was given a complement on them by someone who does enjoy pumpkin seeds, so maybe it is just me who can't enjoy them.

As you all remember, in my last post, I made a Pumpkin Puree out of a whole Pumpkin. I had promised to make a pumpkin bread using both cooked and uncooked puree, that is still in the planning. But at the same time I mentioned that I was soaking the pumpkin seeds in a salt water solution overnight.

 I drained them and spread them out on my custom made non-stick baking sheet (more on that at another time). At this point I still had not cleaned them of the stringy bits that they were webbed in, inside the pumpkin. The soaking had remove most of what had still clung to them. After toasting them at a low oven temperature, the rest fell off. Because they were still wet when I put them on the baking tray, it took a little longer for them to start toasting, but once all the water was gone, they proceeded to toast fairly quickly.

The final product, a bowlful of lightly salted pumpkin seeds, delicious in every way except for eating. Ok that's a lie, but it is hard work to shell them, so it is slow going but still enjoyable once the shell is gone.

Croutons

First, I must apologize for my lack of postings lately, I don't have a good excuse, so I won't try and make one up. I've been playing this game NetHack and it has consumed a lot of my time, its really addictive. Anyway, I will attempt to set aside the game to post my creations and culinary adventures. I have kept documenting everything, I just haven't been posting.

As always, I have scorned the store bought when I can make a home made version, and in the fashion I do so often, I also avoided store bought ingredients, preferring to make them myself (sadly from store bought base ingredients). So this is actually two stories in one, the story of the French Bread and the story of the Crouton.

This story begins in a land far far away, in a time long forgotten, or rather my kitchen (3 meteres) and two weeks ago. I had made glorious loaves of French Bread, destined to be cubed and made into dry flavored bread known as Croutons.

In times gone by (when I was a child) I didn't like croutons, they were crunchy oddities amongst a bunch of readily chewy salad that was drenched in a salad dressing that I didn't care for to begin with. So as all good stories go, I didn't eat much salad or croutons throughout my teenage years, unless I had to... I was never a fan of adding 50 billion different items to a salad to make it appetizing and then drenching it with salad dressing, I liked simple salads, maybe some iceberg lettuce and some salad dressing; that was it!

About a year ago, I discovered that spinach goes great in a salad, a little bit of iceberg lettuce to give it some diversity and the barest amount of salad dressing I could get away with, and some croutons for some reason. Unlike the soggy ultra-colourful salads of my youth that I didn't much care for, I had a salad that I really enjoyed. The croutons brought new flavour packed cubes that could change the flavour from homogeneous to heterogeneous. Meaning that the salad never got boring, it kept changing between two delicious flavours, ensuring that each time I alternated it was like tasting it for the first time again. I was in salad heaven! I started making lunches out of salads, for awhile people thought I was a vegetarian because I was bringing so many salads for lunch... It wasn't until then that I realized I hadn't disliked the humble crouton, but rather the soggy diverse salads it had been put into.

All of this brings me to the present, when I went to make a salad and I reached into the cupboard where I store the croutons, only to find I had run out and hadn't bothered to tell myself to buy more. I was disheartened, the salad would be able to stand on its own with or without the croutons, but it wouldn't hold the same attraction to me that it had earlier. It was shortly after this that I realized, I was paying money for dry flavoured bread cubes, something that can easily be made in my kitchen. This was a beloved ingredient in my salads that I could make, I would never run out as long as I had the time to make more! A new era had been born!

 I started with a fresh loaf of French Bread, I ended up eating the ones I had made in a previous posting, so I made more and made the loaves with the knowledge I had gained about forming...

 The loaf was cubed and put into a bowl that was much larger than it. This wasn't done to make it look insignificant or because I had misjudged how much a loaf would make, this was to make tossing it easier with the oil and seasonings that I would soon add.

 I sprinkled garlic powder and dill over the bread cubes and then used a pump sprayer filled with Olive Oil as I tossed to evenly coat the cubes with oil. Not too much and not too little. Most importantly, the sprayer ensured that none would be drenched in an excess of oil.

 Once the cubes were coated to what I considered just right, I spread them out onto  a baking sheet and stuck it into an oven. I took it out every 5-10 minutes to toss everything so it would brown evenly.

The end result is delicious dry flavoured bread cubes that I can put into the salads that I love so much. I store them in an air tight ziplock bag in the freezer until I need to call upon there humble powers to elevate a salad to a new level of deliciousness. Also, since having made them, I have found they are a favorite snack of my roommates brother...

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

A friend of a friend, both of which are friends of mine, requested this for her birthday party. It is the first flavoured Hummus that I have ever made, and I learned a whole bunch about how added flavours interact with the base taste. Namely, I need to add more if I want it to have a distinct flavour!

For those of you who don't know, Hummus has a few different uses. It can be used as a sauce, a spread, and a dip. I've seen it used quite successfully on a vege-burger, though I personally prefer to eat it with assorted crackers.

Depending on what you are using as your base (Garbanzo beans or Chickpeas, dried or canned) you may need to take a few extra steps. I used dried Chickpeas and as such I had to boil them until soft (about 1-2 hours)








The water the Chickpeas were boiled in is saved and used to thin the Hummus when everything is blended together.










While I was letting the Chickpeas cool a little, I roasted some red peppers and coarsely chopped them. In retrospect, I shouldn't have chopped them as the next step was to blend everything in a blender. I could have roasted the pepper and then just tossed it in. It was an unnecessary step that I apologize for.






Blend the Chickpeas, Peppers, and all the other ingredients (Garlic, tahini, lemon juice and cumin). Once pureed, move to a storage or serving container and sprinkle with Paprika. Paprika is typically made from dried and powered red peppers so aside from making it look nice it will also add flavour.














Hummus
About 2 cups
You may substitute one 16-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained. Use water to thin the puree as necessary.
Pick over, rinse and simmer:
3/4 cup dried chickpeas
Drain and place in a pan with water to cover by 5 cm. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until very tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid. Transfer the chickpeas to a food processor or blender and add:
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
(1/2 teaspoon ground cumin)
salt
Puree until smooth, adding 2 to 3 tablespoons of the cooking liquid as needed to obtain a soft, creamy consistency. transfer to a shallow serving bowl and garnish with:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
Sprinkling of hot or sweet paprika

Unfortunately I don't have a recorded cost for most of the ingredients that I used, so I can't give a cost associated with the final dish. I apologize and I'll keep an eye out for prices so that I can update this post in the future.

However, I do know the ingredients and I have access to Wolfram Alpha, so I can provide the nutritional information. I made the wild assumption that a single serving would be 15 mL or an ample amount to spread on a single cracker.