My inability to return a Modern Cook's Year to the library and the success of the carrot dhal led me to try another recipe, the pea and charred scallion fritters. I think what particularly attracted me to this recipe was the use of cannellini beans, a can of which I have had for some time.
As the post title indicates, the fritters didn't turn out as I desired. They were quite bland, with none of the ingredients truly expressing themselves. The charred scallions added only a slight caramelized flavor, the peas a tiny sweetness, the mint a faint herb flavor, and then rest was just mushy bland white beans.
The cause was either user error – I used approx. 1/3 the amount of scallions called for in the recipe – or a combination of what I would say is user error and an annoying (to me) feature of this cookbook, that the multi-component dishes must be all completed for the recipe to shine.
In this case, the pea and charred scallion fritters recipe not only had an accompanying spiced yogurt recipe, but also a herb salad. And both of these sides required not-particularly-common ingredients. As is my way, I omitted the salad and yogurt hoping that these fritters would be good (but perhaps not great) on their own. They weren't. When can I return this cookbook?
Now to the steps required to make the fritter portion of this dish. Start by charring the scallions in the oven or a grill. I roasted them in the oven for approx. 15 minutes before they started to brown.
Then prepare and pulse the remaining fritter ingredients before shaping and pan frying.
I also fried the fritters for longer than the recipe called for to get crispier edges. While the fritters weren't great on their own for dinner, the leftovers added some easy protein to my lunch salads the rest of the week.
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