Okay, it's been awhile... I blame the intranet and my two week lack of cooking. The other couple of weeks were probably just laziness.

Anyways, in the spirit of not being lazy, I have compiled a few short lists:

Foods I'd like to make for the first time:

• Fondant
• Homemade tofu
• Mini bagels
• Cinnamon rolls
• Crumpets
• Lasagna

Ingredients I'd like to use for the first time:

• Artichokes
• Fresh coconut
• Japanese eggplant
• Israeli couscous
• Gigantes beans

And just because I always have trouble remembering this list..

Five foods I do not like:

• Peas*
• Lima beans
• Passionfruit* 
• Pickled ginger
• Blue cheese

* These are tolerable.

I don't know why I don't like pickled ginger since I like it in every other form, but so it goes.

Falafel Burger with Taratour Sauce

In an attempt to make a burger that was both "fake and fancy" I settled on the falafel burgers from Rebar.

However, there were a number of setbacks:

• I forgot to buy chickpeas when I went to the grocery store. Without chickpeas, these would be breadcrumbs, tahini, onions and spices. So I had to go back.
• The recipe says to roast bulghur and then grind it into a powder in your spice grinder. Apparently me and my mortar and pestle are not as powerful as an electronic device(!).
• I was lacking breadcrumbs so I crossed my fingers and used one cup instead of two.

In spite of these mishaps, the burgers turned out great. So did the taratour sauce. What I gathered from Wikipedia is that taratour is a Turkish word that means "has tahini in it" - which this sauce does - plus miso and chipotle and lemon juice, making it a great topping.

Mochi (aka Daifuku?)

I don't even know where to start with mochi... how about I've had four today? Or that they are really easy to make (you use the microwave!) and that they can be filled with red bean paste (one of my favourite foods!).

They're a not-too-sweet dessert made from glutinous rice flour (which is actually still gluten free - glutinous here just means sticky) which is wrapped around whatever filling you want: berries, red or white bean paste, even ice cream, apparently.

I made my bean paste from scratch, but after that they take about 15 minutes to make. Get the recipe from vegan yum yum.

Ch-Ch-Ch Chia Pudding!

I was astonished the first time I learned that people were eating chia seeds. This is probably because I hadn't thought about chia since the 80's and that was in a different incarnation. 

But the same chia seeds that can make you a chia pet are actually full of fibre, healthy omega fats and have magical liquid absorbing powers. Add enough liquid to chia seeds and you get chia gel. A seemingly popular use for this has been chia pudding. 

To make mine, I added a cup of vanilla almond milk to a quarter of a cup of chia seeds and left it in the fridge overnight. When I pulled it out for breakfast the next morning all the liquid was completely absorbed. I added a dash of cinnamon and dug in.

The chia gel is neutrally flavoured so I was mainly tasting the almond milk and cinnamon. Clearly, seasoning is paramount when eating chia gel straight up. A bit of honey stirred in improved the taste a bit, but it was still an odd textural experience. I don't think I'll be jumping on the chia pudding bandwagon but I do hope to use it as an egg substitute, like in these amazing chocolate chip yum cookies.