Sometimes, steemit life can be a bit like playing 'Second Life' or a good massively multiplayer online role-playing game. I have been pretty much dedicating myself to steemit full time for the last four months and it keeps cropping up in my day-to-day, that I may perhaps be getting drawn too far down the rabbit hole 😉 In all seriousness though, most steemit-life things that I experience are overwhelmingly positive. Recent activities have included getting involved in a fantastic writers' challenge called 'finish the story' which you can read more about here and helping to set up a fully functioning charity on the blockchain called @projectgiving, check out more about that here.
The thing which I love most about steemit though, is the little moments of inspiration that come from reading other people's posts. The latest example of this was around a food post which I read a few days ago. I bookmarked it thinking these fritters look really good, I'll make these later and then out of that post this exercise in food experimentation was born. The post I read was for a simple and very tasty looking spinach fritter which uses chick pea flour/gram flour. I voted the post, bookmarked it and thought little more about it until yesterday afternoon when I got a massive craving for Indian food.
After getting back from the allotment with some green goodies I remembered that post and looked in the cupboard. Gram flour, check ✔. Spinach, a big fat no ✕. So I decided to try an adaptation with some of the veg I had collected from the allotment. As per usual with cooking, I got a bit carried away but the results were really tasty. I followed @sherylneil's recipe as far as the gram flour/cumin mix and then ended up going my own way with measurements and ingredients.
Gluten Free Vegan Quinoa and Sweet Potato Pakora
Ingredients:
1 cup of chickpea/gram flour1 tsp of cumin powder1 tsp of dried chipotle chilli flakes1/3 cup of water1 spring onion chopped1/3 cup of quinoa1 medium sized sweet potatoa handful of french beansa sprig of fresh coriander or basil1/3 cup of vegetable oil for frying
Method
1) Mix gram flour, cumin and chipotle flakes together. Add the water and stir until it resembles a thick-ish paste.
2) leave to stand for 15-20 minutes as gram flour absorbs water differently to regular wheat flour. You may find after 15 minutes that the batter is thicker, if so just slacken it off with a tablespoon more water.
3) While the batter is setting add quinoa to a saucepan with plenty of water and boil for 20 minutes, adding your peeled and chopped sweet potato into the pan after the first 10 minutes. This saves time and effort and basically means the potato gets the 10 mins it needs and the quinoa the full 20 minutes cooking time it requires.
4) While the batter sets and quinoa/potatoes cook, chop your french beans, spring onion and basil/coriander and set aside ready to stir into the mixture once it has rested.
Feel free to add more spring onion to your taste. I have a dietary issue which means I can't tolerate large quantities of alliums without getting sick.
5) Mix the onion, beans and herbs into the batter mix and....
Then
6) Drain the sweet potatoes/quinoa and leave to rest drain for a while, 20-30 minutes. This stops the mix from being to wet as there is enough time for the quinoa in particular to dry out properly.
7) Add the sweet potatoes to one side of the mixing bowl and mash roughly with a fork, then stir it into the mix with the quinoa making sure you are left with a thick gloupy texture.
8) Refrigerate for 10 minutes to allow the mixture to bind together.
9) Put a frying pan on to high heat but don't add the vegetable oil yet. While the pan heats, there is time to make a pretty looking sharing plate. I used chopped lettuce from the allotment to make a bed round a dipping sauce made from sweet chilli, the juice from allotment tomatoes and some ketchup. I then added spoonfuls of chopped tomatoes.
10) Time to fry! Add the oil and then add half wooden spoonfuls (I did full spoonfuls and mine were much to big), making sure not to touch them after they hit the pan for the first minute. Swish the oil around a little to give them a deep fry effect and then flip them carefully and flatten after this first flip. give them a minute on this side and then continue flipping every 30 seconds until you get a golden brown colour. When cooked, dry the pakora off on kitchen towels to get rid of excess grease and serve on your sharing plate in the spaces between each dollop of chopped tomatoes.
Voilà, excellent with a Tiger beer 🍺
The pictures used in this post are my own property taken while cooking. If you have enjoyed this food blog you can check out my other work on my homepage @raj808. Thanks for reading.
If you would like to join a fantastic community where we strive to help new steemians grow and develop, why not join me at #promo-mentors discord group which you can find here. I am one of the poetry/fiction mentors over at #promo-mentors, if you have any questions or need any guidance with either of these tags please don't hesitate to ask for me, @raj808.
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