Harissa Chickpea Burgers with Cucumber Mint Yogurt Sauce

Last night was the first time in a while that the Monkey Scientist and I were in town at the same time as his roommate.  We decided to celebrate by making a little family dinner.  His roommate loves chickpeas so I knew when I sent him this recipe that he would interested.

The hardest part of this whole recipe was finding harissa.  We finally were able to find it at the mediterranean market/restaurant in Cleveland Park.  They just received a shipment so if you live in DC this is the place to go!

We really enjoyed this recipe. It was perfectly spicy - perfect for me and the MS's roommate, although of course the Monkey Scientist added sriracha on top.  I'm convinced he isn't satified with a meal unless his lips are burning!  I particularly like the pistachios.  That's something I've never included in chickpea burgers I've made before. I loved the yogurt sauce as well.  It's similar to a tzatziki, but with lots of fresh mint.  It was a great and fairly quick weeknight meal (with yummy roasted asparagus)!



Harissa Chickpea Burgers with Cucumber Mint Yogurt Sauce
from A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients
burgers
1/2 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 tablespoons harissa
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup pistachios, unsalted
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup bread crumbs
yogurt sauce
1 cup plain greek yogurt
1 cup cucumber, diced
3 tablespoons mint, minced
1 teaspoon lemon zest
salt and pepper

Instructions
1. In a skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. When hot, add the shallot and cook for 2-3 minutes, until translucent.
2. When soft, add the minced garlic, cumin, paprika, cinnamon and harissa, along with two tablespoons of water. Mix until combined and until it resembles a thick wet paste.
3. In a food processor, add the shallot/spice mixture, chickpeas, pistachios and salt; pulse until roughly chopped. Using a spatula, scrape down sides and pulse one or two times. Taste for salt (1 teaspoon was perfect for me); add more, if you like. Remove half of the mixture and transfer to a bowl. Add the egg to the food processor and pulse until the mixture is nearly smooth. Add the mixture from the food processor to the bowl and combine both mixtures.
4. Fold in the bread crumbs. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
5. In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, cucumber, mint and lemon zest. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of the chickpea mixture onto your palm and form the patties. Heat a grill pan over medium heat and brush it generously with olive oil. Cook on both sides for 3-4 minutes. Serve the burgers on burger buns or fresh soft pita (we toasted our pita in the oven).

Yields 6 burgers

Pistachio White Chocolate Chip Cookies

 So my aunt is one of my very favorite people in the world.  She is one of my close friends and I adore her.  And she must like me a lot too, because she got me a standing mixer for graduation!  It's very wonderful, so when this recipe was emailed to me by a listserv I subscribe to called "great recipes by M.R. Baker" I thought it was a wonderful excuse to try it out.

Pistachio White Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:
•    1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
•    1 cup of sugar
•    1 cup of dark brown sugar, packed
•    2 eggs
•    2 tablespoons of milk
•    2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
•    2 1/2 cups of flour
•    1 teaspoon of baking soda
•    1 teaspoon of baking powder
•    1 teaspoon of kosher salt (regular salt will suffice)
•    1 cup of rolled oats
•    1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped pistachios, raw and unsalted
•    1 1/2 cups of white chocolate chips

Instructions:
1 Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream the butter and sugars together on
high speed for three minutes.
2 Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat for 3 minutes, being sure
to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
3 In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder,
salt, and rolled oats. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture
slowly, being sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl
once or twice to ensure even mixing.
4 Fold in the pistachios and white chocolate chips. Drop heaping
teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets, add an extra
pistachio or two on top of each bit of dough for decoration if
desired.
5 Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to set up on the
cookie sheets before moving to a baking rack to cool completely.
Makes 6 dozen.

So I made a few adjustments.  First, I halved the recipe.  As you can see, it still made about 19 big cookies.  Second, I couldn't find raw, unsalted chopped pistachios.  Instead of scrapping the pistachios (which is, logically, what I should have done, I used salt & peppered roasted pistachios.  Probably not the best choice .... they didn't add great flavor.

Also, I used a trick that my mom's college roommate taught me... although it didn't work quite as well as normal because there were too many chips/pistachios for the batter.  About halfway through cooking, I take the baking tray out of the oven and rap it, I mean REALLY RAP IT. LOUD!  At least when this is done with the recipe on the back of the Nestle Chocolate Chips, it makes them so thin and crispy and DELISH!  This time, less of a wonderful effect.

Review:
Mind you, I'm a HUGE white chocolate fan and I really like pistachios, so I was expecting great cookies.  The concept - great.  The cookies had I used raw, unsalted pistachios - probably could have been pretty good. The reality (and I am convinced that raw, unsalted pistachios are hard to find... how do they crack open if you don't roast them??) - not so good.  The peppered pistachios probably made it even worse.  They had too much flour I think and the white chocolate chips were incredibly sweet in a not-so-sweet cookies.  They make me want to stick with my oatmeal scotchies. (Now THAT'S a good cookie!)

It's was not good.

(but shhh don't tell my friends yet, because I think they'll be eating them tonight! Or I could spare them and leave the batch in the kitchen at work and hope they slowly disappear throughout the day....)

yelleBELLYboo