Something new: Chickpea and pumpkin salad + little strawberry tartlets

Back in the groove here, and i've got a couple of recipes to share that i decided to try out tonite. The first is a warm salad, complements of one of my fave books: Casa Moro. For pud, the recipe is complements of the June 2008 issue of olive magazine. Both have made it into the 'keeper' category of my recipe database.
We drank a really crisp Sauvignon Blanc with the meal -- see the photo above. It worked perfect with the lemony tahini sauce.

Chickpea and pumpkin salad with tahini sauce
Serves 4

For the salad:
1 kg pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into 3cm cubes
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 garlic clove, crushed (i used 4)
salt
pepper
olive oil
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
250g cooked chickpeas or 1 400g tin drained
4 Tbsp roughly chopped coriander

For the tahini sauce:
1 garlic clove, crushed into a paste with salt
3-1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (i used juice of 1 lemon)
3 Tbsp tahini
3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 220C. Toss the pumpkin cubes with allspice, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil and spread out on a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 15-25 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender.


2. While the pumpkin is cooking prepare the tahini sauce. Mix together the garlic paste, lemon juice and tahini until combined. Thin to desired consistency with water. Finally, stir in 2 Tbsp olive oil. You want to be able to drizzle the finished sauce and it should be balanced between the lemon flavour and the tahini flavour.


3. When the pumpkin is done, mix in a bowl with the onion, chickpeas, chopped coriander and season to taste with salt and pepper.


4. To serve, transfer the salad to a shallow serving bowl and drizzle with the tahini sauce. NOTE: i served this with couscous

Mini strawberry tartlets

For the tartlet cases:
180g plain flour
1 Tbsp chopped hazelnuts
60g icing sugar
90g chilled butter, diced
1 egg

For the filling:
150ml double cream
200g white chocolate

To serve:
strawberries, halved

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C. First make the pastry. Whizz together the flour, hazelnuts and icing sugar together with the diced butter in a food processor until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. With the machine on, add the egg and process until it forms a ball of dough. If the mix doesn't come together in a ball add a splash of ice water.


2. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until thin. Cut out 16-24 small circles and place the circles in the holes of a tartlet mould or mini-muffin pan. Chill the cases in the freezer for 20 minutes. NOTE: i was able to get 16 tartlet cases, but probably could have gotten more had i rolled the dough out thinner.


3. Remove the cases from the freezer and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until light brown. Cool on a cooling rack.


4. While the cases are cooling make the filling. Heat the double cream over a bowl of simmering water and add the chopped chocolate. Whisk constantly until well incorporated. Pour into the tartlet cases and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.


5. To serve, halve a strawberry and poke into the tartlet filling.