Gluten-Free Chickpea Brownies

Okay, I wasn't going to get this up so soon, as I have this massive backlog of posts to get up, but all I've been hearing after showing a couple of sneak peeks on Instagram and Facebook is….GIVE US THE RECIPE.

And I'm only here to please!

My aunt from Canada is adorable, she's bright, bubbly, crazy about sales and the Goodwill shop, and also quite into her food. On her most recent visit to Melbourne, she brought down this recipe that she had photocopied at work, from the a 2010 Healthy Cooking magazine, with me in mind. 

It's quite interesting watching the general awareness of gluten allergies go up over the past couple of years. I'm not celiac, but I used to get the worst tummy pains from eating a lot of bread, cake, pizza etc so went cold turkey from gluten for many, many, many years (I started being gluten free when I was in grade 8).

I'm a little bit naughtier these days, as my body has slowly readjusted and I will tuck into a slice of gorgeous bread every now and again, but I am super appreciative that there are so many options, especially in Melbourne, to go gluten free with. 

I've never had an issue with making gluten free brownies before, I've always just used gluten free flour, and to me, you can hardly tell the difference if they're done well. And really, it's not that hard to do brownies well. 

However, chickpeas are one of those ingredients that you just would never put into sweets…yet here we are. Chocolate and chickpeas. 

It sounds incredulous, but it works. Or at least all three times I've made the recipe now. The lack of flour, instead being replaced with chickpeas give you beautifully dense and moist (MOIIIIST) brownies, and surprisingly you really don't get the flavour of the chickpeas at all. I've given these to a room of boys playing videogames (how I spend my afternoons every now and again…) and asked them what they thought was in it. They all looked at me puzzled until I told them the secret ingredient!

What I also love about this recipe is that there is no butter. No butter and only 2 tablespoons of oil. So they're like, kinda healthy. Surely. Protein brownies I say! (Or so I tell myself when I come home from the gym and scoff down two or three.)

And one more thing I love about this recipe (cause I clearly don't love it enough already), it's so freaking fast. Brownies are in the oven before you can even begin contemplating if you should lick that chocolate spoon clean….

Gluten-Free Chickpea Brownies

15 minutes to prep

30 minutes baking time

1 and 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate (I used 200g of chocolate, but nothing stopping from you using a little more!)

1 can (400g) garbanzo beans or chickpeas, rinsed and drained

3 egg whites

1 egg

2 tablespoons instant coffee granules (magazine said optional, I think essential, gives more roundness to brownie flavour)

2 tablespoon canola oil (I used rice bran oil)

1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Dash of salt

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160C

2. Melt chocolate using preferred method (I bain marie it) and stir until smooth. Allow to cool.

3. Place beans, egg whites, egg, coffee granules, oil and vanilla in a food processor (if you don't have a food processor, you could probably just pop it in the blender). Process all until smooth. 

4. In a small bowl combine the brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Add it into the processor with the bean mixture. Process until combined.

5. Gradually add chocolate into the processor and process until blended.

6. Pour the batter into a 9 inch square baking pan, either sprayed with cooking spray or lined with baking paper. Bake in a fan force oven at 150-160C for 30 minutes. When ready, a toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle of the brownie should have moist crumbs on it, you don't want it to come out clean otherwise it's overcooked!

7. Cool completely on a wire wrack.

8. Devour in 5 minutes!

I've only just realised that my recipe was uploaded in a very timely manner, as I can also participate in this month's Sweet Adventures Blog Hop of Cake and Three Veg! Excite!

Thanks to 84th and 3rd for hosting this month's SABH!

Trois Gourmand

2 years ago I was taken to a most gorgeous French restaurant, run by one the smiliest and hospitable French men I have ever met, with a very well cultured silvery moustache, in Ho Chi Minh city. I distinctly remember telling my friend who shared this little treasure of a restaurant with me, that I wished I could take Brad here.

Well, 2 years later, I did exactly that. 

Although Le Toit Gourmand had moved from District 1, into an elegant and spacious, traditional colonial house in District 2, and been renamed to 'Trois Gourmand'.

Getting to Trois Gourmand is a bit of a trip, and I was quite glad I had had the foresight to take screenshots of the maps and directions the website provided (which I highly recommend you do too if you ever visit), to help our taxi navigate to the restaurant.

Nestled in a quiet residential area, you step through the gates into a tranquil oasis, with a lush garden, pool and soft lights. It's all quite romantic. 

The interior is white table cloths paired with deck style chairs, relaxed fine dining. I love how bright and airy the place it is, the warm timbers creating a very soothing atmosphere. It makes for a perfect date night spot, as they generously space out the tables, ensuring you have plenty of your own space. 

The owner of Trois Gourmand, is still the charming French man I mentioned earlier, Gil. Portly, smiley and with that very distinguished silvery moustache, he welcomes you into the space like it is his house. He offers you wine and his love of wine is evident (he has a sommelier background), his collection is on display to be marvelled. He even imports his own selection of French wine to cultivate the ultimate wine cellar in Ho Chi MInh!

The menu is filled with French classics, dotted with a couple of Asian twists and no qualms about flourishing a truffle or two. You pick and choose your menu, with an extensive list of entrees and mains, you can pick one or two of each, depending on how hungry you are and what your budget is. 

And then you are given truffle ice-cream to start. Yes. It is the best kind of palate cleanser/starter/refresher, whatever you want to call it, that you could ever have. In a tiny martini glass, it is richly infused with truffles, that is easy to smell, and is just so arresting in it's unusual combination of cold, icy and…truffly. 

Following that, another little amuse bouche of scrambled eggs with truffles. Yup. Two rounds of truffle already. It's creamy, with silky folds, it's just one, or maybe two mouthfuls, but however many the mouthfuls, it is glorious.

I don't think I'll ever tire of swooning over bread from Vietnam. Seriously, I just love the crunchy crusts and the fluffy light bread inside them. I could easily just buy some from the bakers and munch on it, without any condiments!

At my insistence that one of us get it, Brad started with the foie gras spring roll which was just as amazing as I remember it being last time. Searingly hot, the outer casing just crisped away to reveal the smooth and ever so rich foie gras within. A most unusual way to have this 'noble' ingredient, but it just worked so well. 

I had some buttery scallops (with a little potato puree I think) which were just a lovely way to start the meal for me.

Being in a French restaurant, Brad decided it would be hard to go against a classic and for his second entree, ordered some escargot. Dripping in butter and slathered with garlic and herbs, the smells intoxicated the nose and each escargot was a slightly chewy, garlicky little morsel. Mmhmm.

I couldn't help repeating what I had last time, and ordered the black pudding with apple. Black pudding is served two ways here, a giant thimble of black pudding served cold and a short, fat cylinder of hot black pudding, on a little be of apples. They both take on quite different characters, the hot black pudding really heavy and rich in the mouth, and the general meaty flavour I found was much stronger. The cold serving was still very enjoyable and a little more elegant and refined on the palate. 

On to mains. Although we were feeling quite full already! And just to make matters worse, we both got pretty darned rich mains. As you do. Beef cheeks on truffled mash with…wait for it, foie gras, for Brad. It is kind of ridiculous. It is kind of fabulous. Actually it is plenty fabulous. It is rich through and through, with decadent, smooth and creamy mash (or puree maybe?), and the succulent beef cheek that just fell apart in the mouth. And just to put you over the top, the disgustingly, but beautifully rich foie gras. This had every opportunity of overwhelming the dish, but it worked well…it just ended up being…well, very heavy and food-coma inducing.

And although my dish did not have the magic foie gras or truffle in it, I still struggled through it, a stuffed rabbit leg with mash, a little potato stack/gratin thing and some greens. The rabbit leg was to die for, the meat was tender and juicy, although I did find the thick and dark gravy rather overwhelmingly rich. Especially after a couple of glasses of wine! Thank goodness for a handful of greens on the side to get something a bit lighter in the system. I was a touch disappointed with the potato offerings though, the little gratin/bake thing was served cold and I found the rough texture of the mash not as desirable, especially after seeing how creamy and smooth Brad's was!

We eventually managed to get through everything, albeit quite slowly. Brad might have had to eat more of my dish than he should have…

Then while waiting for my friend, who said she would join us for dessert, it was cheese time.

But not just any cheeses. These cheeses are homemade by Gil, and my, he is awfully generous with his handiwork. 

There is a selection of two soft cream cheese, one with spring onions and the other showered with mushrooms and truffles, which spread onto bread like a dream and have a delightful tartness to them, complimenting the other flavours. 

We were given a full serve of the truffle soft cheese. We nearly ate all of it. I do not kid. 

And just because that is not enough, we are also given a plate of hard cheeses, my favourite was infused with rosemary. I loved smelling like I was outside in a herb garden, there was a nice saltiness to it that complimented the savoury herb. 

So my friend ended up running fairly late. We just sat there eating cheese for a good hour. They did not once think of taking away the cheese from us. How many places do you know like that? So unrushed, so relaxed.

Finally my friend did arrive, Brad and I had had time to digest our rich meals and it was time to consider the sweeter side of things. 

A tarte tartin for Brad, which was richly caramelised, lots of pomme, not so much tarte, but y'know, that's totally okay with me.

At my friend's suggestion I got the nougat ice-cream, which came dotted with candied fruits and nuts. Not something I would usually pick, given my preference for rich, creamy and chocolatey goodness, however this did dessert, although sweet, was quite refreshing and a much needed relief from the heaviness of everything else in our meal!

We laughed, we gossiped, we discussed life over dessert and took our time to pay the bill (which was ridiculously cheap, something like $120 including a bottle of wine) and slowly rolled our bodies over to the door and into the cab they called for us, to head off to another bar to continue drinking elsewhere (where I then proceeded to damage my 50mm lens. Sigh!) 

I do adore Trois Gourmand, it is amazing value for money for the traveller, although it is quite rich, but maybe it's just because we happened to not menu plan very well and chose all of the richest dishes. There are some other great looking seafood dishes on the menu that may have made for a lighter meal! It's a little bit of something special, the atmosphere is welcoming and relaxing and it's a nice little escape from the scooter lined streets of Ho Chi Minh. 

So if you're ever in Ho Chi MInh, and looking for a special meal to treat and pamper yourself with, consider Trois Gourmand. Actually. Don't consider. Just go. Just go and enjoy a little bit of homemade cheese magic. You know you want it.

Trois Gourmand

18 Tong Huu Dinh Street

Thao Dien Ward, District 2

Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam

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South of Johnson

My flight from Malaysia landed at a disgusting 7am in the morning. That's 4am in Malaysia time. Do you get how gross that is? My body clock was crying.

However, it does make for a good opportunity to pop by a cafe on the way home and skip all the crowds that you would normally get at peak hour.

But as always, once (poor) Brad picked me up, it was the usual dilemma of: 'Where to go?' Whilst I'd love to check out more of the cafes in Brunswick, I'm often too overwhelmed (and in this case sleep deprived) to pick somewhere since there are so many cafes I haven't visited in that area.

Instead, I directed Brad to South of Johnson, since I had heard it does usually get busy, so it would be nice to be able to just waltz in and grab a table.

And exactly that we did. Other than us, at 8am in the morning, there were only two other tables in the usual 'warehouse-chic' style cafe in Collingwood. The decor's a bit of an eclectic mix, fresh flowers and eiffel towers (ooh a rhyme!), and I particularly loved this giant glass bottle that had a mini garden in it. Naturally was too sleep deprived to think of taking a picture. Of course.

Although for a space with several black or grey walls, it still felt quite bright and cheery, although not overbearingly so. Quite nice. Quite nice. 

After being in Malaysia for two weeks (and a pretty mediocre flight), nothing was more comforting than a giant glass of soy chai latte. I purred. I must have. My fingers tightly curled around the warm glass and held it close to my heart, where I could lazily inhale the sweet and the spicy, and sip on the creamy and velvety milk. 

Yeah, I could never do drugs. I get addicted to stuff way too easily…

Brad got the omelette filled with roasted pumpkin, goat's cheese, baby spinach, pinenuts and sage on sourdough toast. Just lovely fluffy eggs and some tasty fillers. Love goats cheese. Not blasting out of my head amazing, but comfortable food. 

It had to be corn fritters with coriander, tomato relish, sour cream and smoked salmon (you can also have these goodies with bacon) for me. Just look at all that corn in those suckers! After 2 weeks of loads of carbs, heavy shrimp sauces, curries, all things fried or deep fried, this was just so refreshing, all that sweet corn, the fritters were well seasoned with a touch of spice to them, and went well with the smoked salmon which was cool to the touch, light and sweet and the sour cream which was slightly tangy. Always love a good relish as well.

With a menu as big as the one that South of Johnson has, it definitely has me wanting to revisit as all the dishes sound interesting, particularly some of the sweeter ones...

All in all, it was a lovely brunch and just what I needed after getting off the plane. I'm absolutely terrible when I get home from an overseas trip, all I want to do is talk Brad's ear off and all he wants to do at that hour is go back to bed…

South of Johnson

46 Oxford Street

Collingwood 3066

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Human Brochure - Canberra - Hot Air Balloons and Grazing Restaurant

My trip to Canberra was complimentary, with all expenses paid. I was invited to attend by Porter Novelli PR.

4:30am.

Ring. Ring.

It's 4:30am.

That's the time my hotel room phone rang, my wake up call. Why such an ungodly hour? You do have to feel a bit sorry for the hotel staff that actually have to be fully functioning and working at that hour, so as politely as I could, in my 'just-woke-up' croaky voice, I thanked them with a weak smile on my face. 

I mean, how upset could I be, it was my confirmation that I was definitely going to go on a hot air balloon ride! (If the team at Balloon Aloft decided that the weather conditions weren't good enough, I would have instead slept in...)

After staggering around my room, squinting as I flicked the lights on to locate my clothes, and dancing around in an attempt to warm myself up, I made my way down to the rather deserted lobby. A van picked up the 4 of us and shuttled us over to the Hyatt Hotel, where we had to fill out safety forms and have a quick briefing (where we were informed we had to inform the pilot about any electrical lines we might run into and…stock horses..?!) by the pilot.

After which we scurried into the vans and drove out to our potential first take off flight. 

Hot air ballooning is not so straight forward it seems, as once we got to our first spot, our pilot released a helium balloon into the air to test the wind. Unsatisfied with how it was blowing, we got back into the vans and eventually ended up in a park area near Questacon where the crew from Balloon Aloft set about getting the balloon ready.

It's quite a process! 

Tip the basket out, pull the balloon out on to the grass and lay it flat (which is not as easy as you think. The balloon is heavy!), set up incredibly high powered fans to start filling it up with air, before replacing that with the burners!

But with a couple of volunteers (I was too busy documenting the process), it wasn't long before the basket was set up right again and we were quickly told to all vault in. And then just like that, the ground started moving and we were up in the air. 

It takes a little bit to get adjusted to the burners randomly getting blasted (they're really loud!), but once you do and you stop jumping everytime they go off, you can really just begin to take in the view.

 Canberra is just gorgeous from above, and we were so lucky to just have the most glorious day with endless blue skies and a spot of sunshine. It's so bizarre as you just keep climbing up and up without even realising until you look down and notice that everything looked a little bit smaller than just a bit ago. Since the hot air balloon is moving with the wind you don't feel any tension or pushing and so you're just left calmly drifting along. 

Although the serenity might be occasionally interrupted by tradies on the same radio channel making crude comments about the European jockeys (it happened to be Cox Plate Saturday), asking how high the balloons are, getting excited by the notion of potentially bungee jumping from one (it can be done) and lamenting that the wife wants one of them to go on a diet! It makes for some good comedic relief. 

Before long, we had to land again, which went a bit smoother than I thought, and packed up the balloon, which again was quite amusing, as we had to go around punching it and squeezing it down, so that it looked like a trail of toothpaste coming out of the tube. 

By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 9:30…we had been up 5 hours already, and were absolutely ravenous. So we hustled into Ox Eatery, the restaurant attached to EAST hotel for a continental breakfast. I loved the interior, soft curved wood lines and, always my favourite, great big windows to let in that glorious morning light.

Dean (one of the other humans in the food and wine track) was very excited to see various flavours of Yalla yoghurt available, which lived up to all his hype and excitement. Seriously tasty stuff! We were also smitten with their very cute servings of bircher museli and I loved that their boiled eggs still had soft yolks! 

The only disappointment we had was that everyone on our table complained that their coffees were a bit burnt, which is a shame. I understand that the little eatery was full and that we came in towards the end of service, but you gotta keep your coffee game up! Although I also heard reports that those who came down for breakfast early had good coffees…bit hit and miss maybe?

I was also a little sore to find out when we checked out the next day that the coffee and tea wasn't included with the breakfast, but was actually an additional charge. Now, I have no issue paying for my tea, or coffee (if I should ever be inclined), but as they say with bloggers, it's about transparency. I just needed to be told first before I was offered! 

After second breakfast and a quick change (our schedule was so full!), it was back on the bus and off to Grazing Restaurant, which is also Capital Wines urban cellar, located out in Gundaroo, only about an hour out of Canberra. 

We were seated in an absolutely gorgeous setting on their patio, that looked out over their garden. Cleverly, they kept introductions brief and shortly after started bringing the food out. 

Over the course of the 6 course degustation, we started to learn about the food and wine landscape in Canberra. I was surprised to learn that there were so many winemakers in Canberra, and that the climate was suitable for many varieties of wine (although it makes sense when you think about it), due to the generally cool and dry climate. Shiraz, pinot noir and riesling are the most typical wines from this district, which we got a lovely little sampling off this particular afternoon.

We started our education in Canberra wine with Capital Wines 'The Swinger' 2012 Sauvignon Blanc. Oh my. Canberra, good first impression. WIth a floral and bright nose, it was quite sweet but fresh as well and I believe a lot of the group took to it quite quickly.

A cream of tomato soup with Hobbit Farm goat's cheese toast and La Berre lemon infused extra virgin olive oil. Ah, what a way to start, fresh and zesty, it woke up the palate and got us licking our lips for more. 

Regrettably we didn't see much more cheese in the meal as Canberra's a bit too dry for dairy production, so there's not an abundance of local cheeses. 

Second course was Chef Kurt Neumann's "Snowy Mountain rainbow trout house smoked over Kyeema grapevine clippings, with olive tapenade, almond puree, puffed grains and watercress". What a curious combination! Although the description is a bit of a mouthful, I loved how unpretentious the flavours were in this, the smoke worked so beautifully with the puffed rice and corn, one of my favourite snack foods. Maybe a tiny bit over garnished, but I'm nitpicking here. 

With the rainbow trout, we had a glass of the Four Winds Vineyard 2011 Riesling, which I found to be surprisingly sweetly thick and even a bit syrupy, especially after the sauvignon blanc. 

Chef Kurt Neumann popped out of the kitchen briefly to say hi to us, all smiles and passionate about the local produce and wines in the region.  

This next course won my heart over, Chef Kurt Neumann's "Kangaroo tail and beetroot tortellini with our garden beetroot relish, goat's cheese and wattle seed burt butter". Visually striking, the tortellini was a twist of vivid magenta, sitting on a little bundle of rich and deep coloured beetroot. And oh my, wasn't it just lush, not what I was expecting out of tail meat, it was rich and tender and just went beautifully with the sweet beetroot. The addition of hazelnuts also won us over, making the dish more earthy and providing some texture contrast. I think everyone on our table loved this dish!

 

With the tortellini we drank the 2011 Pinot Noir from Lark Hill Winery, a winery that has been doing biodynamic and organic farming since 2003. My dad has taught me to be a little bit suspicious of Pinot Noir's, since he is himself a shiraz lover and tends to find that Pinot Noir's tend to be a bit lacklustre in flavour, although there have been some that have very much impressed him. However, I did really like Lark Hill's offering, with strawberries on the nose, it was a vibrant wine with soft tannins. Very much wanted to buy a bottle back for dad to see what he would think, but unfortunately Chris (I think), ran off before I could buy any off him!

In between the kangaroo and course four, we took a quick wander around the garden, absorbing some sun rays, admiring the herbs and array of baby vegetables, trying to avoid getting stung by the nettle (the sign for that needs to be a bit clearer!) and also visiting the chickens and giant ducks out the back. The chickens were so handsome!

Course four, we're getting there. Bungendore smoked lamb cutlet with Doodles Creek Aioli. After being exposed to smoked lamb cutlets for the first time the night prior, we were quite excited to have them again. And oh my. Fatty, delicious, smokey, kind of like bacon instead of lamb, but oh so juicy still because of fatty goodness. I know smoking's not an easy process, but I do hope it becomes a trend, as smoked lamb is absolutely the bomb. 

The lamb was paired with the 2008 Shiraz from the Lambert Vineyards, a deep and full bodied shiraz, apparently a very typical shiraz for the area. 

Dean was wriggling with excitement in his seat for this next course, the local free range pork belly 'sliders' with Lynwood onion marmalade. I mean. Really. Do I even have to say anything? Pork melted in the mouth, and I love sweet and spicy caramelised onions of any sort. I wouldn't minded if the bun was a bit softer, more like a brioche, but it did give the pork room to shine. 

The pig was matched with Capital Wines 2011 'The Ambassador' Tempranillo which was probably the heaviest of the wines we had for the day, a dark and very rich wine. It was interesting to hear that in Canberra, Spanish grapes tend to do very well, due to the cool and dry climate. 

And since clearly hadn't had enough to eat already, dessert was a brulee tart with new season strawberries. Ooh la la, those strawberries sung! Slightly tart, but so sweet, they could have very easily just served the strawberries on their own and I would have been doing a happy little happy dance. The brulee tart was also lovely, but I found that the pastry was a bit firm, I was a tad worried it was going to fly across the room as I tried to split it with my spoon! 

With dessert was Capital Wines 2011 'The Treasury' Late Picked Riesling, which smelt of honey and springtime, and was just a gorgeous little sticky. Not too rich and heavy as they can be, I quite liked the airiness this had to it. I quite liked it enough in fact to buy myself a bottle home later. Looking forward to a warm balmy day to crack that one open...

...and with that, I was ready to pass out. Seriously guys. I don't recommend hot air ballooning if you've got a packed out schedule that includes a lot of wine. Fortunately we did have a 40 minute ride to our next stop, the National Gallery of Australia, so I managed to get a little snooze in before we got there...