Recipes – Page 4 – a hippie with a minivan

Falafel with Taratoor sauce

I remember the first time I had Falafel. I was in high school and working at a veterinarian’s office for the summer and on my lunch break I would go to a little family run place called “Café Joe” that was a few blocks away. They made the most amazing Falafel from scratch and I remember just loving the texture and taste. It was crispy and fried but tasted fresh and light. When I stopped working there and went back to school I would go out of my way to visit at times until one day I went by and they had sold the restaurant. When I left my mom’s and headed into my own place, I would buy those dry mixes to make falafel at home but it was never the same. It tasted… well.. processed and from a box mix. However, a few years ago I found this recipe and have never looked back. This is the good stuff… This is it.

This recipe calls for dried chickpeas… you really need to use dried chickpeas. Canned chickpeas just won’t work… the reason? not because it is snobbish, but because the mix is actually made with uncooked soaked chickpeas. Cooking them (or using canned) will not result in the right texture or flavour. The down side to that is that you do have to think ahead.

So… for the Falafel…

2 cups dried Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans (soaked for 12-24 hours)
1 medium onion
2 -3 garlic cloves
2 -3 slices bread
2 tbsp parsley
1/3 red pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes *optional
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 ml water
1/2 tsp baking powder
125 ml water
vegetable oil ( for deep-frying)

When your chickpeas have soaked long enough, drain and put in the food processor. Add onion, garlic, bread, parsley, and red sweet pepper. and process until mealy. Move to a bowl (or use the pulse mode on processor) and Add spices, flour, 2 tsp baking powder and water and mix well.

In a small dish mix the remaining baking powder and water. Dip your hands in the water and form balls of the chickpea mixture the size of walnuts.

Deep fry in oil at medium high heat until golden brown.

Crispy on the outside and soft and fresh tasting on the inside

Serve on warm pita bread with Taratoor sauce (recipe below) and any other toppings you might enjoy (parsley, tomato, pickled turnips etc)…

For the Taratoor Sauce

3/4 cup tahini
1 garlic clove, crushed
Juice of 1 – 1 1/2 lemons
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp finely chopped parsley

In a deep bowl beat the tahini with the crushed garlic and lemon juice until creamy. Add water bit by bit, beating well after each addition. If using blender / food processor put all the ingredients in and process until creamy. Add salt and parsley and stir. Taste and adjust. The sauce should have some tang to it not too lemony.

Yumm….

Dehydrated Pumpkin

Did you know that I love my dehydrator? I mean really, truly love it?

We had a blast carving pumpkins at Hallow’een, but there was no way that I would let them go to waste. I mean, gnocchi, pumpkin cinnamon buns, pumpkin butter etc… How can I not make all of those?

However, pumpkin purée takes up so much space and I desperately need to unfrost my deep freezer. So I wondered… can I dehydrate it? Well… Of course I can!!!

cut the pumpkin in half and place it face down (or face up if it carved 😉 ) in a pan and bake at 350 until tender… (you can also do the same with any other squash)

(Xavier’s Pumpkin grew a chin in the oven…)

The peel will be very easy to just peel off… so do that and place the purée on your dehydrator tray and follow your dehydrator’s instructions for veggies.

I found that the easiest way it to first put it on a non stick paper on the tray first and then when it is half way done flip it onto the tray so that it can dry completely. You don’t really have to do it, but If you skip this step it will stick inside the little holes of the tray and it will be time consuming to clean up…

Tear the dehydrated purée into pieces and place in the blender and process…

What you get is a crushed dehydrated pumpkin…

See that jar? That is actually 5 pumpkins worth 🙂

To rehydrate, use 1/4 cup of powder with 1 cup of boiling water. Let sit and cool before using in a recipe 🙂

and don’t forget to do those seeds too!

Family Apple Pancake…

Apples are back in season which means that Apples are plenty, delicious and cheap…

Yesterday we left on a whim to go apple picking and came back with 55 lbs of apples for about 30$… It has been beautiful lately and yesterday was no exception, It may be fall but it was warm and sunny and a perfect day to be out in the orchard picking apples off the trees and eating them within seconds of being picked..

The boys and I have been peeling and preparing apples all morning, preparing them for the dehydrator and for apple sauce and fruit leathers and whatever else comes to mind…

One of our favourite apple recipes is Apple Family Pancake… I have been making it for a few years and it has only improved with time…

This makes enough for all of us for a filling breakfast and then usually there is a bit left in the pan for picking at for the rest of the morning.

4-5 apples (peeled, cored and chopped)
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp butter
3/4 cup oats
1/4 cup slivered or chopped almonds*
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract*
1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups of milk (coconut, almond, soy etc)
2 cups of flour
3 eggs (beaten)
2 tsp baking powder

* these are optional but since I have started adding them, there is something missing when I don’t. The almond extract is the key!

First thing is to take a pan and put about 4 tbsp of butter in it. A large Cast iron skillet works best here, but any large heavy pan will do in a pinch (if you are using a cake pan a 9 in would be good).
Next, place the pan in the oven and pre-heat to 400… the butter will melt and the pan will get hot and get coated which is the goal here.
While the oven is heating up, mix the eggs and milk in a bowl, add the flour and baking powder (which you can mix together using a fork while it sits on top of the liquids and then mix until well incorporated without over-mixing. This should resemble a thick pancake batter.
In another bowl, place the apples, sugar, oats, almonds, cinnamon, vanilla extract and almond extract and then pour the melted butter over it all (remember… it’s in the oven) and mix well. Try to not eat all of this mixture right away… it basically tastes like a raw apple crumble!
Pour the batter into the hot pan and then pour the apple mixture on top and spread evenly and then place in the oven and bake for about 25-30 min….
Wait for the smell of apples and cinnamon and almonds to permeate your home and for everyone to start drooling..

You can cut into wedges and serve as is or drizzle with a bit of maple syrup…

Happy Apple season!!

Two Tier Neapolitan Cake…

Colin’s birthday cake order was a big one this year…

He wanted my vanilla butter cookie cake with chocolate butter cream icing but then wanted a smaller cake on top of that one with strawberry icing.

I am also starting to think that I need to invest in a few cake decorating tools and air conditioning. It was hot yesterday, 37 C (99F) with the humidity and even though I let everything cool it didn’t take long for the icing to start melting off the cake as I tried to decorate it using an ill fitted spatula and butter knife, but the result looked way better than I would have imagined and it tasted even better than it looked…

The first thing I did was to make full recipe, plus a half recipe of my favourite Vanilla cake which is made with real vanilla, butter and coconut milk giving it a butter cookie taste that I can’t get enough of.

Vanilla Butter Cookie cake

(recipe for one two layer cake)

2¼ cups cake flour (I never have this so I use Joy the Baker’s substitute for cake flour)
1 cup coconut milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (¾ cup), at room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¾ cups granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pan (grease and the flour)

2. Mix coconut milk, egg whites, and vanilla in a small bowl.

3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl or mixer bowl. Add butter and beat at slow speed (or use forks) until mixture resembles moist crumbs. (like when making pie dough)

4. Add all but ½ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed for 1½ minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.

5. Pour batter in prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes depending on size of the pan.

As I said, I made the full recipe plus a half recipe and poured 2/3 of the batter in my 9 inch round cake pan and then poured the rest into a 7 inch round pan and while it was in the oven I made the chocolate Butter cream frosting and then put aside and made a half recipe of strawberry icing, which was not only easy to make but the taste surpassed my expectations…

Those went straight into the fridge to use when the cake would be cool.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

1/2 cup butter
2 2/3 cups icing sugar, sifted with
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 – 1/2 cup coconut milk or cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1. cream the butter

2. sift together sugar and cocoa and add to butter and start mixing

3. add vanilla

4. while mixing, start adding the coconut milk or cream until you reach the desired consistency.

Beat with mixer for at least 2 min…

Strawberry Butter Cream Frosting

1/2 cup butter
2 2/3 cups icing sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup strawberry puree (I made it with fresh strawberries and my hand wand)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1. cream the butter

2. sift together sugar and cocoa and add to butter and start mixing

3. add vanilla

4. while mixing, start adding the strawberry puree until you reach the desired consistency.

Beat with mixer for at least 2 min…

I cut each of the two cakes into two layers and spread both chocolate and strawberry icing onto the first layer of the cake and added the top and iced it as if I just had one cake and then on a separate plate I iced the second tier (the smaller cake) as if was just a cake on its own also and then with one calculated swoop I placed the smaller cake on top of the larger one and added a bit more icing for good measure and then added a few fresh plump strawberry halves…

The Birthday boy was so happy!

Stuffed Buns…

I have always enjoyed dumplings, wontons and well pretty much any type of dough with something hidden inside… they are like little packages with a surprise…

I remember when I was young a friend of mine and I would go to China town in Montreal and buy these amazing steamed bbq buns and I loved them… and I bet I would still love them if they didn’t have a ton of red food colouring in them…

Last winter, I had a bit of pork left over from a batch of pulled pork I had made and after having eating leftovers, I decided to change things up a bit and added some hoisin and garlic black bean sauce and chinese five spice… it was such a delicious mix! I made my dough for buns and was about to make a normal batch of hamburger buns when I go the idea to stuff them with the mix…

What I ended up with was such a treat!!

These are absolutely amazing! They are easy and pretty quick to make, they are fun to eat and the kids love them and they are great to bring with you the next day for a lunch and can even be eaten cold..

First make the insides of the buns… this can be anything… bbq pork? shredded chicken? the meat mixture from my meat and sweet potato pie? curried potatoes?

My favourite?

1 lb of either ground pork or ground beef
1 finely chopped onion
1/3 cup hoisin
3 tbsp garlic black bean paste
1 tsp chinese five spice mix
1 tsp garlic powder

Sauté the onions in a bit of oil and then add and brown the meat. Drain and then add the spices and the hoisin and bean paste. Adjust seasonings if needed. Set aside and let cool.

For the dough (I use the same dough for hamburgers and hotdog buns):

1 1/4 cup of warm water + 1/4 cup of warm water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 1/4 tsp yeast
3 1/2 – 4 cups of flour
1 Tbsp kosher salt

First, proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water.

In a large bowl (can be by hand, on food processor or stand mixer), add the water, the brown sugar, the oil and the proofed yeast and mix. Add 3 1/2 cups of flour mixing in the salt with the flour at the same time and then start mixing. add flour until the dough comes together and then either knead by hand for 10 min, mix in the mixer for 5min or process for 45 sec.

Cut the dough into 16 equal pieces.

Flatten a piece of the dough and place it in the palm of your hand.

Place two spoonfuls of the mixture in the dough and then fold over and starting at one end start pinching the sides to close it.

Pinch it closed and turn over and place on a lined cookie sheet.