Chickpea thesis presentation snacks

The thesis presentations for my class are Monday and Tuesday of this week (technically today and tomorrow since I make these posts so late). I'm not going until Tuesday, and my presentation's ready to go, so I thought I clear my head with a three (non-related) course cook-off! First course was Hoisin Salmon, which I've actually made before, but I discovered the next day that it made a fantastic Salmon sandwich. Second course was the Cheddar Chive Beer Bread that I made back at St. Patrick's Day, and the third course is another new recipe from the Kitchn blog, Roasted Curried Chickpeas with Rosemary and Thyme. If I'm lucky, there will be some left for tomorrow, they're pretty damn tasty!

Roasted Curried Chickpeas with Rosemary and Thyme
Makes about 3 1/2 cups

Ingredients

2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, rinsed, drained and dried well
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly-grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped

Preheat the oven to 425°F.

Pour well-dried chickpeas onto a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and use a spatula to loosen up any chickpeas that are sticking to the bottom of the pan. Roast for another 10 minutes, or until chickpeas begin to crisp up. To test for readiness: don't rely on a change of color. When the chickpeas turn brown they've become burned. Instead, check with the press of a finger: you want them to be slightly crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside.

While the chickpeas are roasting, combine the olive oil, paprika, cumin, curry powder, salt, lemon zest, rosemary and thyme in a medium mixing bowl. Transfer the roasted chickpeas to the bowl and carefully toss them in the mixture until well coated. Return to the baking sheet and roast another 4-5 minutes. Once out of the oven, allow them to cool for 2-3 minutes; serve warm. 

The author (whom I'd love to credit properly but doesn't give there name), gives some extra tips for this recipe, especially drying the chickpeas before roasting them.

"There are many, many ways to do roasted chickpeas at home. You can start with dried beans and soak them overnight or use canned beans, which I did here. For canned beans, you just want to make sure you rinse them really well and, even more importantly, dry them really well. If they're not completely dry, they won't crisp up as nicely in the oven. I used a salad spinner to spin out all the moisture in my chickpeas before beginning."
They also recommend not screwing around with the salt and oil measurements for this recipe. You can fiddle with the spices as much as you like to get the flavours you want, but the salt and the oil do give the chickpeas a great flavour.

That late St. Patrick's Day recipe.. Cheddar Chive Beer Bread

I had a hankering for beer bread when St. Patrick's Day rolled around last month, and I happened to find this recipe on the Kitchn blog. Now, clearly because I was doing the beer shopping the day before St. Patrick's there was no Guinness to be found. The nice man at the LCBO recommended a Jamaican stout, Dragon Ale. Since I don't really drink beer, ever, I figured it was as good as anything and went with it. It turned out great, I was eating this bread for days! It doesn't keep more than about four though, when it hit that mark the beer taste started to do some funny things.

Cheddar & Chive Guinness Bread
makes one 8 1/2-inch loaf

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 (12-ounce) bottle Irish stout beer (Dragon Stout works too, however the bottles are not the right size, you need one and a bit.)
1 cup grated Irish cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/4 cup chopped chives
1/4 cup Irish butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375° F. Line 8 1/2- x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, or coat with butter.

In a mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour in the beer and mix until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Fold in 3/4 cup of the cheese and the chives.

Transfer the batter to prepared pan. Pour the melted butter evenly over top of the dough. Bake about 30 minutes then scatter the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over the top. Return the loaf to the oven and bake 15 to 20 minutes longer or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

Turn out and serve warm, sliced.

Things I've been doing instead of working on my thesis

1. EVERYTHING to do with the Francis Bedford exhibition my classmates and I have been working on for the past three months.  There's a fair amount of blood, sweat, tears and choice swearwords in this making of this exhibition, but I couldn't be prouder of the finished product.

 

2. Attempting to eat real food again, or at least waaaaaaay less take out and pre-made stuff.

One of the best breakfasts I've had in weeks.

3. Dyeing Easter eggs. Yep.

It's amazing what you can do with a pile of Tumeric and some time on your hands.

Back to regular posting soon, I promise.

Must. Make. This. Now.

Meg has done it again with this beautiful handmade paper lampshade! I'm already thinking about modifying it to cover my ugly bathroom lights.

Images courtesy of Craftzine and Meg Allan Cole

Check out her youtube video for it here!

I have to admit that I had some reservations about paper being so close to a bare bulb, but she covered that in her bulb and lamp choices. I think with my lights, I may be okay too. Now, if only it wasn't Easter and everything wasn't shut for the day... curses.

Things are coming along

I'm back from New York, and painted all weekend, so most of me hurts. Progress requires payments, I just wish I could do it in installments.

AIPAD was awesome, and I got to meet up with half of Team Rochester for dinner and drinks, which was awesome. The show had far more vintage and historic works than I expected, which was really fun to browse through. Actually knowing most of the names was handy too, so it's nice to see the education finally paying off.

Hi guys! Team Rochester shopping for the GEH's collection. And because this is me, spot the porn on the wall.

I also had the opportunity to see Adam Savage and Jaime Hyneman live, on stage in the Tdot. Oh Yes.

FAN GIRL MOMENT!! While Adam's hard to photograph in low light, Jaime was great at holding still for long periods of time.

They hit Toronto as part of their Behind the Myths tour, and my buddy and I got some really sweet, third row seats. I wasn't picked for any of the audience participation, but it was still awesome being that close. I know a fair bit of the show was scripted, but they made it seem fairly natural and friendly. It was an awesome show with a hint of danger and a splatter zone.

This is a mildly terrifying video of the paint ball aspect of the audience participation. The sound doesn't do it justice, but the paint ball gun/rapid fire machine gun they were using was incredibly loud and bass-y when it hit the target wall and person.

Paint! A lot of it! I spent the weekend painting the gallery for our upcoming exhibition. We needed about three coats in total, and while time consuming, it was totally worth it. Now I just have to scrape off the purple stuff I have everywhere. We'll be mounting the works in the next few days and will be celebrating the whole thing with a reception soon. I've already chosen the outfit for it.

Taping.

Painting, slightly fuzzily.

So. Much. Purple.

I have actually cooked a fair bit lately, I did a St. Paddy's special and some real experimentation for my birthday, all of which I will blog about a bit later when I'm feeling less dead. Here's a wee hint for the Paddy's recipe until I get back.