Trying Times in the Kitchen: Challenge Recipe 1

 I've made quite a few black bean burgers in my day so I thought this recipe shouldn't be too much different.  I failed to appreciate, however, the immense importance that adding egg and flour have in making patties or pancakes of this sort.  I figured a home made nut butter would do well to replace the egg, and, if absolutely necessary, corn starch would perform the same role as flour.

I used Bittman's recipe as only a very basic inspiration for the kind of flavor we were hoping to get, his use of parsley showed me that these would be more savory than sweet; a new approach to pancakes that I liked.  The end goal was to have a nutty, rich flavor that didn't drown out the squash and as such I set about putting these ingredients together:

This was WAY too much, but it is delicious and will be a staple of my sandwiches while it lasts.  I only used 3 Tablespoons in the actual recipe.

I love my food processor and find many uses for it including making the nut puree, breaking down the squash and mincing the garlic and oregano.  With hummus as my archetypal consistency, I set to work getting the ingredients chopped up and worked into a nice batter.

Chili-Garlic Paste, brown mustard, garlic and fresh oregano added a nice brightness to counter the heavy nutty taste of the squash and nut puree

With everything combined and ready to rock, I heated up my pan and poured in the first pancakes.  It didn't work at all and left me with a serious mess; nothing stayed together as ended up pushing a bunch of browning mush around a buttered pan.  Blast! 

I added some leftover rice I had along with some diced pepperjack cheese, hoping the sticky rice would add some solidity and help bind while the cheese would melt and glue things together in its own way.  This was better but still awful overall.

I caved in and added about 2 or 3 tablespoons of corn starch.  Being that it is so similar to flour I thought it not unlike cheating, surely there is a less obvious substitute!  But alas I had to yield to the need for a half decent final product and in went the fine white starchy powder.  The results were notably better and I finally had a real batch of cakes on my hands!  The taste is quite mild but well balanced, the garlic and oregano added a nice fresh taste to compliment the heavy nutty quality of the mustard, squash and nut puree.  Having some leftover, I think I'll prepare some kind of mint and cilantro sauce to add on top and we should be good to go!

3rd try is inescapably the charm