Bean Croquettes

So remember how I was making the delish rice (spelt) crispy peanut butter chocolate (carob) treats and I said I couldn't ever follow a recipe, have the right ingredients, or measure correctly? (here's a link to the blog for a recap). So tonight was no exception. My TKD recipes have been turning out sooo well... until tonight. I always try to go off the cuff to create something new and fun, but tonight it wasn't working for me. Check out the nice picture I took of the finished product! It actually didn't look half bad!

At work sometimes I click around thekindlife.com and learn from others who have tried various recipes in The Kind Diet (see above TKD link). A lot of people said they had trouble with the Black Eyed Pea Croquettes so I was going to not make the recipe at all. But this morning I was looking through the book and they looked so easy and for once I *thought* I had all the ingredients.

I get home and pull out my ingredients and get to work. I remembered reading that people had trouble mashing the beans in a food processor. I have a biscuit cutter aka general chopper that works great for stuff like this so I used it and felt like I was doing really well! I had a can of black beans and needed 1/2 cup more for the recipe so I just threw in a can of kidney beans too (I totally forgot that it was BLACK eyed PEAS required in the recipe (I knew it was some kind of black bean. Seriously... I have recipe issues!)
But I didn't know I was doing anything wrong, I was actually really proud of myself! Look at my little croquettes! I ended up with three extra and figured I could maybe take them for an exciting lunch tomorrow and brag about what an awesome cook I am learning to be. (A secret vegan goal of mine is to make people jealous of my awesomeness and convince everyone to convert LOLOL. Ok I am totally kidding it SOO isn't for everyone. But don't knock it until you try it. You will drop weight super fast, have crazy amounts of energy and look/feel awesome. Who isn't down for that?).
So Meanwhile I had my oil (I didn't have safflower oil, only vegetable oil. Is there a difference?) on the stove. I know I'm a southern girl and all, but I have never friend anything in my life. I had the oil in there on high and no boiling. I just figured I'd drop a croquet in there and see what happened... Well THAT is what causes the bubbles... who knew?? Oh! and in the back is the 'dipping sauce.' Again, I didn't have the right ingredients AT ALL. Instead of barley syrup I used rice syrup. It's the consistency of molasses as you recall from my previous post and it has to be boiled so you can do anything at all with it. I KNEW I had some dijon mustard in my house. But of course as all this frying/boiling is going on there is none to be found. So... I had to use the ONLY thing even remotely close... honey mustard. It is like some Kraft cheap stuff I have had for who even knows how long.

Anyhow so I put the croquettes on a paper towel to 'dry off' and 'rest' or whatever for a while. I am sorry this picture looks so disgusting. It was the black beans kind of falling apart.
Ok so the final step was to get this all plated up and eat. I had originally told Gav he could have some but after a quick sample I didn't think they would go over well with him. So he got some ravioli instead haha. I took a bite and they were crisp (not burned) on the outside and the inside was hot, but really mushy. The sauce (glaze) was much too sweet (totally my fault) and I got a headache pretty much immediately after eating these (I'm going to blame the sauce). I re-read the recipe. I had done soo many things wrong (mainly the type of beans and the sauce). I felt like I had to eat a salad to get the gross oil taste out of my mouth. I'd give these a C-. I really wanted them to be good, but they just weren't. I'm not sure if I will attempt them again. OH! But I must add that in the recipe Alicia says the consistency I made them (crisp on the outside, soft inside) is correct. I guess the last kind of croquette I had was salmon and this is far, far from that.