Cones With Roasted Chickpeas

A straight forward recipe, for a change, I was thinking while making cranberry milk fudge a friend of mine, Ratirupa, used to serve over 20 years ago as her “trademark”. I haven’t had it since. In the meanwhile, I moved abroad for a decade and she got a stroke that partially paralysed her. Although she is doing great, considering the physical challenge and the fact she is over 70-years old, she doesn’t make the sweet anymore.

I tried to re-create it by my taste-memory but was unsuccessful! Either I’m under a spell (lately nothing seems to come out as supposed to in my kitchen) or the sweet tasted better at another time, place and circumstance. The sticky combination of sugary milk and sour berries was a culinary highlight during my early years in an ashram. I still remember even the tiniest details about Ratirupa's visits which ensured her inspiring association and trays of fudge that lightened up the austerities we were performing.

Since the recipe had lost its’ glamour, I concluded not to post it. Instead, I started to develop a cheat puff pastry! Needless to say, what a doomed idea! Puff pastry is a labour of love because it is buttered, folded and refrigerated painstakingly many times. Even blitz or rough puff pastry shortcut requires rather a long procedure. It took me a dozen of pear filled hand-pies to notice I had gone astray somewhere in the borderland between phyllo and butter pastry. It wasn’t a bad destination though! As a matter fact, I returned with a recipe for cones!

During the past week I’ve made cones from refined wheat, unbleached spelt, wholegrain spelt and their combinations. Some of them were paper-thin, others were cookie-like and, yes, there were also flaky and buttery ones! The texture depends on flour and the thickness of dough. The cones go either with a sweet or savoury filling. Both ways, they are fun!

Chickpeas are a good source of zinc, folate and protein. They are high in dietary fibre and a healthy source of carbohydrates. However, they may cause indigestion, like gas or headache, for those with a slower metabolism. I find them easier to digest when soaked, boiled and roasted. Crunchy and absorbed with piquant spices, they make a delicious snack. In fact, if they weren’t so filling, it would be impossible to stop munching them!

Among other things, I served the cones with a salad made of cucumber, fava beans and roasted chickpeas with a yogurt dressing. Next I will try them with vegetarian kofta!

How would you fill the cones?

Thank you.