Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Instead of throwing these out when you clean out your pumpkins, you can roast them with some spices and they make a great snack.

I have tried to make these before but I always found them to remain too hard and chewy even after roasting for a long time. This time, after reading some comments on the internet, I decided to try and boil them first and then roast them. This worked well.

Once you have removed the seeds, put them in a strainer and wash them well, making sure to remove all the pumpkin pulp;
Place them in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes;
Preheat oven to 250ºF (120°C);
Strain the seeds and spread them out on a clean tea towel. Blot to dry;
Place the seeds in a bowl and toss with oil (they should be well coated);
Season with a large pinch of sugar, salt and chiptole powder (or any spice you like);
Bake for 1h15, stirring the seeds regularly every 15 minutes;
Turn off the oven but leave the seeds in for another 30 minutes;

Comments

Blanched Garlic

I t seems that the subject of blanching garlic has come up recently for me several times and I have been recommending what I learned in cooking school for this process, i.e. bringing the peeled cloves to boiling, in water, up to 3 times (cover cloves with water, bring to a boil, strain and repeat 2 more times). Each time the cloves are boiled, their flavour will mellow. I blanch garlic in order to remove the bitterness and potent bite of it when it is raw. This is especially useful in recipes like gaspacho, hummus, aioli, as I find the taste of raw garlic tends to overpower the more delicate flavours of the other ingredients. This is really a question of preference and if you like garlic, then by all means, go ahead and use it raw to your hearts content. For me, garlic is good but in small doses and I find myself now using blanched or pickled garlic scapes from Québec (fleur d'ail) more and more in many recipes that call for regular garlic....

Tourtière du Québec (French Canadian Meat Pie)

One of my fondest food memories is of my mother preparing 10 tourtières at one time in the evening after dinner as she got ready for the upcoming festivities. For French Canadians, this is the time of year when we prepare the Tourtière that will be eaten during the Holidays.

Nutella Stuffed Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie

Inspiration: Thanks to Little Spice Jar for this one! When a family member loves Nutella and it's their birthday and the universe puts a picture of this fabulous recipe on your Pinterest feed, you really have to go with it! Turns out this was a great hit and really easy to make. Check out this fabulous recipe for a giant Nutella Stuffed Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie at Little Spice Jar ! Great alternative to a birthday cake and so very good.

EpiCurious Generations

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