Keeping it Together-the Art of The Vegan Babycake

I was inspired to make a dish that would go with my brother in law Tom's Tomatillo Salsa (now officially named "Tom Tom Salsa") since he was kind enough to send some of the tasty stuff back home with us. AND! I had some home grown broccoli and green beans that I blanched earlier today as well as some corn on the cob leftover from last night's dinner.

The question then becomes, how do you put it all together with other foodstuffs that you have in the house to make something yummy? Veggie Fritters came to mind, especially since I already  had carrots (always have carrots in the fridge), zucchini, scallions and garlic.

Then, the predictable, yet Very Difficult Vegan Dilemma!!!! How do you hold it all together without eggs?

Time to call in the expert! So I call my dear friend Pam, chef-owner of the Garden Cafe. She generously offers me priceless tips on a regular basis. (Pearls of her wisdom gleaned from her maybe millions of hours of expert cooking.)  How lucky can a food obsessed vegan girl get? 

Priceless Tip #1: Chop all veggies Very Small or they can break up the pancake.
Priceless Tip #2: Get the oil nice and Hot and have the batter Very Cold so it sizzles nicely in the pan.
                          (Cast Iron pans are great...we'll talk more about it soon.)
Priceless Tip #3: Make the batter about the Veggies, not the flour/pancake part = More veggie, less pancake.

Pam suggested I use unbleached white flour and a little leavening.  A few recipes I found on Google under "vegan veggie fritters" had similar suggestions. So here is what I came up with:

Savory Garden Babycakes w/Tom Tom Salsa

1 small to medium zucchini, grated
2 carrots, grated
1 cup blanched broccoli chopped fine
6 or so blanched haricort vert (skinny green beens) chopped fine
1 or 2 blanched corn cobs (kernals removed with sharp knife after blanching)
1 small head local garlic, roasted***
3-4 scallions minced
2 TBS fresh thyme minced
1/2 cup unbleached white flour (I substituted 1/8 c with cornmeal as I love the grainy texture)
1 tsp baking powder
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil for frying

***To roast garlic:
Slice the tippy top off of a whole head of garlic(..just enough to expose the top of each clove)
Place garlic on a small piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1 tsp olive oil. Close top of
foil over garlic head and place in 350 degree (toaster) oven for about 35-40 minutes. It is
done when garlic cloves are very soft and garlic oozes out of the skin when pressed.
This is soooo goooood as it is. You can spread any extra on a cracker and have an
unbelievably delicious treat, just save enough for the babycakes!

WARNING! Once you try this easy way to roast a head of garlic, you may not be able to stop. My friend Karen (a fine and beautiful cook, baker and gardener) served whole roasted heads of garlic broken open with crackers so that dinner guests could squeeze the oozy garlic onto a cracker themselves as a simply made and delish appetizer.

Back to the recipe:

-Grate, mince and chop all veggies and combine in large bowl
-Squeeze garlic out of the cloves and mix into the veggies
-Refrigerate for 1/2 hour or so
-Mix flour and baking soda in separate small bowl
-Sprinkle flour mixture over veggies and add 2 TBS rice or soy milk
-Toss mixture together
-Season with salt and pepper
-Do not over mix or it will become too pasty

-Heat the oil in the Cast Iron Pan till it sizzles when a (little) drop of water hits it.
-Form the small a little less than palm sized babycakes with your hands and lower them gently into the hot oil.
-A good size is about 3" in diameter...less likely to break.
-Move them around a bit with a spatula so they don't stick.
-Turn over when brown and crisp on the first side. Then repeat on second side.
-Place done babycakes on paper towel lined platter while cooking the rest.

Serve topped with a generous dollop of vegan sour cream , Tom Tom Salsa*and Curried Hot sauce (We were lucky enough to have Tom's home grown, homemade but a wide variety of hot sauces are locally available in health food and other food stores.) If you're thinking a little pretty and fancy, serve them on a bed of fresh greens.

We had them with a green salad simply dressed with extra virgin olive oil, and a sprinkling of sherry vinegar, salt and pepper.

* Recipe for Tom's Tom Tom  Salsa in Blog dated Aug 1, 2011.

You can use almost any combination of veggies, chopped, minced or grated small, depending on what's in your garden, what you have at home and what is available locally/seasonally. Veggies amounted to about 3 cups total.

Same with herbs..experiment with what you have fresh. Babycakes can also be made with a Mexican, Indian or Asian flare by changing the type of herbs, spices and other elements such as adding beans or grains....I will share  my experiments with these other elements in the future. Meanwhile, have fun improvising!

These babycakes were outrageously delish and the condiments lent coolness (sour cream), lightness and sweetness (Tom Tom Salsa) and spiciness (curried hot pepper sauce) to the crispy "vegginess" of it all. The only problem was not enough. The above recipe serves 3. I suggest doubling it because they are light, bursting with flavor (the roasted garlic...?) and easy to eat.

Even my daughter gave them a "Wow, these are good, Mom. Can you make them again tomorrow?"...and that's saying something!

Luv to u all.