Vegan brunch: Fennel Risotto, Smoky Shittakes, and Fried Bananas

So Cathy got a copy of Vegan Brunch to give away on Planet Veggie and my friend Tracy won it but she lives in the US so I said I'd send it to her if I could make something out of it first. Meg and I flipped through it and in the savory section there was a lot of tofu, which I don't mind but Meg refuses to eat, but I didn't want to wait until I felt like making brunch to do something with this and I really wanted savory for dinner and not sweet.

In the end I decided to make Fennel Breakfast Risotto, which was REALLY REALLY good. I cheated a little in that I didn't buy quite enough vegetable stock and so I topped it up with a chicken stock cube and a little extra water. So not exactly vegan, but vegan in spirit. Other than that my only issues were that a cup and a half of chopped shallots is a LOT of shallots to chop by hand and I really wish I had a food processor, and that risotto is a lot of work in the stirring (not unique to this recipe, obviously). This was really great, I'll be saving the recipe to make this again.

I also made Smoky Shittakes, which were meant to be sauteed shittakes cut in half, but I didn't read the recipe carefully and sliced them instead. I also didn't find any liquid smoke so just used soy sauce. I think it actually worked out though. I topped the risotto with them, and they added a really nice salty nutty almost-crunch to the (clearly slightly underseasoned) risotto.

As a side we had bananas, dredged in flour/ginger/cinnamon, and fried. I neglected to tap off the flour (too many pans going at the same time, clearly) so they were a little too bready, and because I had bananas instead of plantains they weren't sweet enough to offer the counterpoint to the savory risotto & mushrooms. If I were to do them again I'd put a little sugar in the breading. Instead we put some honey over them, and it turned out great.

Thanks, Cathy, for the competition, and Tracy, for letting me borrow your book for a bit. Let me know how you get on!

Running Music & Great Wall Marathon Swag Bag Contest

Big B on the Road is insane enough to be running a marathon on the Great Wall of China. I've just started reading his blog based on a Twitter tip from Runners Lounge, so I'm just speculating when I say this is his first marathon. Great Wall for your first time sounds both cool and, as I said before, slightly crazy. Though I suppose not so much more crazy than running a marathon, which I also have done and intend to do again.

Anyway. To go along with this, he's looking for some new music for his iPod, and giving some stuff away. Basically, go to his blog and suggest your favourite running song for a chance to win some cool stuff from his marathon. But even if you don't win that great prize, there are (as of this writing) 24 songs you can add to your own running playlist. And who couldn't use some new tunes?

What's Behind Door #4?

My office has showers, which makes the whole bike-to-work thing actually feasible for me. Mostly they are quite nice but this morning I went into a new one that I hadn't tried yet. Note to self: sometimes, it's better to just go with something you know is ok, rather than try something different in the hopes that it will be better. For example, shower #4, which has a dribble for water pressure and no hot water. Which of course I didn't find out until I was completely unpacked and nude, so here's me shivering and staring at my naked ass in the mirror because it didn't even get warm enough to steam up an unventilated room.

But before that, there's the commute. Reelights fitted yesterday make an at-first-annoying-later-soothing-and-rhythmic noise every time they go past the magnets. Except for the front one, which actually goes thwap thwap thwap until I look down and find that I haven't tightened the Pitlock properly and the light is pointing back at me and flashing only occasionally. Luckily today for the first time I've remembered to put my toolkit in my bag so I pull over and dig it out and tighten the nut. I also forgot to switch the Garmin back to "cycling" after Saturday's run so the display wasn't showing the things I'm used to looking at while cycling. I turn my head to check out the pace and try to convert that into mph in my head while riding and nearly drive myself into the back of a bus before skidding out and getting excited because I used the correct hand to brake with even though things are backwards in this country.

11.9 miles, 1:09:54.

Run Bulldog Run is running (ha ha) a competition wherein you can win a copy of Dean Karnazes book. Head on over to his blog if you're interested in winning your very own 50 in 50.