About two weeks ago my friends from Mazunte left Mexico, flying out from Mexico City. As always, I hosted them here, and on our last dinner we celebrated with a carnivorous delight: all-beef hamburgers with all-pork bacon strips, and lots of it! It was all very tasty, but we ended up not using half of the buns and a bag of fries. So to keep them from going to waste, I decided I wanted to make another such celebratory burgers, but instead of repeating the meat orgy, I thought I'd try Fabiola's vegan inspiration, that is hamburgers based on lentils and plantains.
Lentils and Plantains
So at first the lentils had to be soaked and cooked. Nothing out of the ordinary here, after all that's what you would do anyway. By this time the kitchen was filled with an aromatic smell.
Next came the plantains. They had to be EXTREMELY ripe, to make them nice and soft. The idea behind them is their stickiness. Since vegan cooking doesn't use eggs to make the lentils stick, we have to resort to an alternative. I estimated to plantains for half a kilo (a pound) of lentils, but next time I would definitely use less! The sweetness of the plantain makes the burgers... well, just too sweet.
Isn't the blender a wonderful kitchen tool? In less than a minute my plantains were pureed, so I added the lentils too and had the blender mix everything into a thick mass.
Herbs and Spices
Now comes my favorite part, of adding taste. Garlic and onion is always a give, so is a generous amount of chopped parsley, which is becoming my favorite kitchen herb. Salt and pepper, and also cumin went very well with the rest of the seasonings. In the end I ground a couple of dried chilis into powder, to add a bit of sting to the mix. Still, the sweetness of the plantains was dominant.
Failure in the Success
Once everything was well mixed, it was time to heat up the frying pan. Oh, how beautiful they were! And smelled so good too! And the taste ... heavenly (in spite of the sweet side). But in the pan they didn't have the desired behavior. Apparently the two plantains were not enough to make the mass stick together properly.
As it can be seen in the final patties, they were far from ideal. Though the taste was interesting to exotic, and in the end made some delicious burgers, the consistency of the patties was ... let's say, a bit inconvenient.
So what lesson can I take home from this culinary experience? Next time I'll skip the plantain all together, even if I have to opt for an egg to hold everything together. As for the spices and seasonings... yeah, that certainly needs some repeating, as I can still taste the delicious combination.
