on belmont street

on belmont street
Originally uploaded by The Starling Tattoo

sorry for the hiatus, folks.
soon to return with thoughts, a recipe perhaps, and some love.
- starling

smear the walls with coconut oil

even though i am sick with the oregon plague, or possibly because of it, i felt an urge to cook last night, so i tried my hand at chickpea cakes! this is also going to be used for our tMG cookzine, hence the odd title, those of you who aren't into tMG. :)

i wandered around the internet a bunch and basically don't have the exact ingredients for anything, so i made up my own recipe, based on a couple that i found.

if i was to be honest with you, i would say that perhaps i got sick because of the following reasons:

1. i have been awful at making sure that i get the right things in my diet
2. i have been even worse at remembering to take vitamins and other nutritional supplements

so this is perhaps all my own fault.

i am now re-resolved to get back on track and be smart about what i am eating.

therefore, i give you my recipe.

Something For the Idols to Eat

a healthy pinch of thyme
a pinch of celery seed
a bit of white pepper to yer taste
a pinch of cayenne pepper
a clove of garlic
2 1/2 tbsp siracha

1 can chickpeas
1 half green pepper
1 half red onion
1 jalapeno pepper
a bit of fresh parsley

1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp flour

olive oil
veggie oil for the fryin'


1. open up yer chickpeas and dump them into a colander and rinse em for all they're worth. get all the little shells off them and throw those away.

2. cut up yer green pepper, red onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic clove, and parsley nice and small, little diced delicious squares.

3. saute the above squares, excluding the parsley, in a bit of olive oil. i like to saute things until the edges start to get the tiniest bit black. you may not want to do it this long.

4. now comes the fun! mash the chickpeas! if you want to have not as much fun, you can do it with a food processor. if you want to have infinitely MORE fun, you can just put them in a stainless steel bowl, wash your hands really good, and do it with your HANDS. it's like playing with play-dough all over again. at any rate, mash them. you don't have to make them into puree or anything, some of the pea pieces can be left.

5. put the spices and siracha in with the mashed chickpeas. mix it up!

6. mix your cornstarch into a tiny bit of water, let it dissolve and then mix that in to the mashed chickpeas, add the flour, and mix it up!

7. add the sauteed squares of goodness and MIX. IT. UP!

8. let it sit in the refrigerator for at least a half an hour or until you're ready to fry them up.

9. shape them into little cakes and fry them in oil. i only did them in about an inch of oil in a deep skillet, and flipped them after about two minutes on a side. they turned out great, a little crumbly, but then we got lots of delicious tiny crumbles that were very crispy.

10. set the table with three extra places. you know who they're for.

11. dust your idols off. give them something to eat.