Roasted Pumpkin Seed Piles with Honey and Fleur de Sel

*raw organic green oily pumpkin seeds (as opposed to dry white type of seeds)
*set organic local honey, 1 tablespoon
*Fleur de Sel (sea salt) in grinder
*organic extra virgin olive oil, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup, enough to just coat seeds. I have found greek olive oil works better than italian for some unknown reason.
*frying or other shallow pan
*plastic cutting board, large, or other flat surface for laying out the piles.

Cooking this recipe is very simple but moves very quickly once it starts. You can make a lot or a little. In all it should take no more than 5-10 minutes to prepare, with a little longer for the piles to cool and set.

Put your pan on the fire at medium high heat. Add olive oil to pan. Allow oil to heat for a few minutes. You may test it by dropping one seed into the oil. When tiny bubbles form around the seed, the oil is hot enough. Do not allow the oil to be hot enough to smoke at any point in the recipe.

Add pumpkin seeds. This will cool oil down slightly. Stir seeds constantly, assuring each seed is coated. Seeds should begin to sizzle and pop, and oil and seed mixture should again be up to medium high heat. Continue stirring. Increase heat only very slightly if needed. Continue stirring.

Add honey. Use as little as possible to be certain every seed can be coated, too much might make it too gooey instead of crisp. Fold and stir the honey into the seeds and oil so that honey melts completely. Adding the honey should cause seeds to cook a bit hotter and sizzle more. Stir stir stir. Seed roasting is complete when they seeds begin to look puffy. Once this begins happening, you may choose to remove from heat immediately, or else try to wait until most of the seeds have puffed. Don't stop stirring or allow the seeds to burn.

Remove the pan from the heat. Lay out your plastic cutting board or other (preferably plastic) flat surface. Grind about 1/4 teaspoon Fleur de Sel per 200 grams of seeds into mixture and stir thoroughly. Take a 30 second breather.

Tilting the pan slightly, use a table spoon to quickly scoop out small measures of seeds, straining oil and honey mixture out of each scoop. Lay each scoop out in a pile on the flat surface. Each pile will settle and spread out a little, and some oil mixture will drain out of it. Stir the remaining seeds again between each scoop. Be careful not to burn your fingers on the hot pan! Space the piles about an inch apart.

It probably will only take 30 to 60 minutes for the seed piles to cool. Once cool, each pile can be removed as a whole from the flat surface. They should have a bold glossy dark green color. The piles are eaten like cookies, and should be satisfyingly sweet and crunchy on the outside, with a touch of salt, and chewy and nutty on the inside.

ps. I'll add a picture real soon now, (they all disappeared before I had the chance!) Until then, imagine peanut patties except instead, pumpkin seeds not peanuts, and no corn syrup.