Black Bean-Sweet Potato Cakes

Tackled a new recipe last night from my brand spankin' new cookbook 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains. It was a gift from wifey for Christmas.

Black Bean-Sweet Potato Cakes
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and grated
1.5 cups cooked black beans
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
salt and pepper
1-2 Tbsp canola oil (I used coconut oil instead, it makes everything taste magical.)

The plan was basically to combine everything and then "drop the batter on the griddle by the spoonful to make pancakes about 3 inches in diameter."

This is what the "batter" looked like:

As you can see, spoonfuls were not in the equation. (Please excuse my mess!)

I forged ahead and tried to form patty-like shapes anyway.



The product tasted pretty good, but just wasn't holding together. I called in for backup, who suggested adding another egg and baking it in the oven instead. Well......the end result wasn't good. I think it was the chunks of egg interspersed with potato.



Mystified, I turned back to the recipe. I followed the instructions. The recipe on the next page was for Black Bean-Potato Cakes. These called for cooked potatoes. So perhaps I shall try this recipe again, slightly altered. For now, it's time to clean the kitchen.

A New Year Begins

Had a wonderful break in Oregon, so very happy to see my loved ones. I caught a nasty cold on the plane ride back and am still recovering. Saint Louis was beautifully full of snow, and Camille much smaller than I remembered her!

First week started out pretty slow, in part because of the cold. Classes this term appear to be a bit calmer, likely because I'm only taking four and not five; Pediatric Nutrition, Managerial Aspects of Public Health Practice, Epidemiology, and Environmental and Occupational Health. EOH is a Saturday class, darn it! I won't be leaving STL til spring break. :/

Work with HELP is going to be different this term. We have high school students working on production, and a host of other helpers for various tasks. We'll be spending more time in the schools with kids and staff trying to increase the consumption of all the delicious food we make! There was talk last term of doing some gardening projects with neighborhood families, which would be fantastic! I'm taking over the HELP media, so check these spots for HELP related news:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Healthy-Eating-with-Local-Produce-HELP/190295706675?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/HELPgrant
http://www.healthyeatingwithlocalproduce.blogspot.com

Since this sickness has me housebound, I made Garlic Lime Chicken soup with jalapenos to try and clear the ol' sinuses. It turned out good, but needed roux to thicken it. Does anyone ever use cornstarch for thickener? It's such a pain to pull out another pan to make roux when my kitchen is already trashed and dinner still isn't ready!