Foodie update

I seem to remember I promised to report back on the new-recipe-a-week I so foolishly committed to a few months ago. Well, I have sort of kept my promise although I didn't keep many notes. (Come on - coming up with a nightly meal bores me rigid, so the thought of actually cataloging the burden was never going to appeal to me now was it?)

One of the first things I tried was a vegetarian beanburger, which should have had a red flag and one of these on the page. What was I thinking? Actually I'll tell you my rationale. The Queenager is a red meat vegetarian. I know, I know. What the hell is that? She knows she needs protein till she's grown up (and beyond) so she's eating chicken for now, but will give that up in the near future.I keep telling her "you can't just give up meat. You need to get your protein from elsewhere" blah, blah, so the idea behind the burgers was to start introducing non-meat dishes in the house. ("What a superb, nurturing, caring mother", I hear you saying.) I did however, overlook the fact that to the Man-child veggies are torture, only one grade below water-boarding. Furthermore, both teens have never been able to tolerate the texture of anything remotely bean-ish, declaring it "fuzzy" and almost gagging in unison at the mere sniff. (Little guy was practically brought up on my split pea soup, which when thick, made perfect baby food.)

So, the burgers consist of kidney beans, butter beans, onion, garlic, dried thyme, breadcrumbs, soy sauce and lemon juice. (If anyone is really interested I can give you the measurements, but I fear most of my readers will either glaze over or die of shock if I post them here.) You basically thrown them all in a pan of olive oil for a while, shove them through the blender, shape them into burgers and fry again in the oil. (Aren't we supposed to say "saute" these days, instead of "fry"?)

After all this, the burgers were still the texture of very soggy Weetabix. Not good when you're a burger, so I bunged them in the over for a while to try to harden them up. Ignoring the impending failure, they were duly sandwiched and served with small roast (or "roasted" as they say here) potatoes. Even though I loved the taste, I have to say, as a burger, it was a rather horriying experience - the contents of the bun oozed out of all sides when the teeth dug in. All three kids reeled back in horror, looked up at me then we all burst out laughing.

I think I re-pure'ed them and used them as a dip.

Oh well. Rip that one out of the recipe binder. And buy myself one of these t-shirts (available from Razzle.com)

('Fessing time - I haven't bought one yet, nor was I approached by the company at all to mention this product. I just thought it suited me to a tee!)

.