Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Rhapsody in brown




This is ECB Butternut Squash and Falafel Coronation, everyone's favourite vegetarian jubilee meal. I made it for a vegetarian-stacked family picnic and explained its back story on the day, which guaranteed it being eaten because everyone had to try it after that. It actually received quite positive reviews, though it did draw the revealing comment that it was "not like anything I've ever tasted before".

It was certainly a big step up from the riddle wrapped inside an enigma coated in breadcrumbs that was Peri Peri Breaded Tofu. It's strengths and weaknesses are well summed up by one of the other reviews: "like curried egg but with falafel".



About making it:

1. It's a bit cheeky to list roasted butternut squash as an ingredient outside of a "using leftovers" recipe, though that kind of thing is very much the norm these days. I roasted half a butternut pumpkin, which gave me just over double the recipe amount, and added the lot because it seemed right and I wanted it to go around.

2. The ingredients list chopped onion and garlic, which are then never mentioned again, so I decided to give them the most charitable interpretation and include them in the falafel mix after a quick soften in a frying pan with the spices.

3. The falafels themselves were good, and as with the breaded tofu, the dish's best moment was just before its final assembly, when everyone was still pure and innocent:


(Above shows the 150 g pumpkin quantity specified in the recipe: not enough to balance the falafel IMO)

Then the recipe says to break the falafels in half, which means they are no longer cute and they crumble even more when combined with the pumpkin and mayonnaise.

4. The falafel spice + Keens curry combo is more successful than the Peri-Peri + masala combo, but there's no getting away from the fact that this is another bit of slightly forced match-making between flavours not found together in nature - or in any living culture. That's why it gets the "unlike anything tasted before" response. It pains me to reproach these dishes on these sorts of grounds because arguments from nature or tradition are my least favourite thing in the whole world, but I'll still say it's the "fusion" element that makes it a worse dish than the same thing with, say, paneer or boiled eggs instead of the falafel.

The breaded tofu heralded a first test that was a big ole mess for the English and seriously corroded the morale of their team. If these dishes are predictors (allegories?) of Test results - and why not? why not a vego version of goat entrails? - then we have a better omen here for our guests, but not better than a draw I'd say.

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