The soy bombs are on regular rotation in this kitchen, but we try to mix 'em up a bit. This time I pulled a seasonal accompanying side out of my bookmarked recipes: celeriac salad from stonesoup. It's a 4th generation descendant of the French celeriac remoulade, using creme fraiche or sour cream instead of mayonnaise and a variety of acidic substances (two mustards, two vinegars and lemon juice) to keep that fast-browning celeriac fresh. Though it gradually loses a bit of crunch, we happily continued to munch the leftovers for several days. Even better, this tart and abundant dressing meant that the soy bombs didn't require any extra condiments.
I finally got around to making these soy bombs a few nights ago...
ReplyDeleteThe mixture was looking pretty bland and I was worried I would still be able to taste tofu (!) so I added a bit of sesame oil and five-spice. They were so good!
They reminded me quite a lot of pork dumplings or dim sims or something asian that I used to eat, and in a good way...
Mine crumbled a bit but I think perhaps I could use a bit more peanut butter to fix that. Such a winner!
I'm taking some to a BBQ tomorrow to try cooking them that way, I will shape them on skewers and get them grilled, I think it will work fine but of course you can't beat lots of oil for taste!
Fantastic, Stoo! These seem to have won over a couple of severe tofu-skeptics. :-)
ReplyDeleteI bet the sesame oil and Chinese five-spice worked really well! They are favourite flavours of mine. The soy bombs conjured my vague memories of pork mince when I tried them, actually.
I think the crumbling is quite common - you definitely need to distribute the peanut butter as evenly as possible (I wonder if heating it would help). Oven baking them works quite well, too, and reduces crumbling in my experience. But as you say, it's never quite the same as the flavour that comes from frying. :-)
So i tried them at the BBQ with mixed success... I couldn't get them onto skewers because they kept falling off, they just don't have that binding power like real meat does. I just shaped them into little patties... they were fine but definitely not up to the fried ones :)
ReplyDeleteI tried using a bit more PB which helped a little but not heaps, and you could start to taste the PB, so i guess i will try think of something else which might help (an egg would i think but then it's not vegan, which won't suit some people).
But last night I used the leftovers as dumpling filling (just bought some skins from an asian shop) and that worked pretty well... i can definitely imagine mixing in some mushroom and some more asian flavours like some coriander, ginger, more soy. Then you don't have to worry about them holding together either, because they're just filling!
Ah, it's a shame they weren't quite the same hit on the BBQ! I'm sure this mixture would make a great dumpling filling... unfortunately all of my attempts to use wonton wrappers have been complete failures. :-P
ReplyDelete