Pea, Quinoa and Feta Fritters and random bicycle moments

Usually I make a recipe and once it is right, I feel free to mess about with quantities and ingredients.  On my first attempt at these fritters I substituted brown rice, didn't measure ingredients and they were brilliant.  Yet I still felt compelled to make them again following the recipe that inspired me.  Which was every bit as good.

Which just reinforces how recipes are so helpful and yet so restrictive too. They are a great starting point.  However every kitchen is different, seasons change and we need to be able to adapt accordingly.

I originally bookmarked the fritters because I am always on the lookout for mint inspiration because it grows like a weed in our garden.  When I made the recipe I had some home made pesto in the fridge and used this instead of the mint and parsley.  Because peas and pesto go so well together.

I wish I had taken a photo of the fritters on the first night when I used brown rice.  It was too crazy.  Sylvia had a friend over and I got confused about times and my focus was elsewhere.  So the next night I did it properly.  The best thing about following the recipe was that it made just enough for two.

On the first night I fried enough fritters for two and put the rest of the mixture aside.  I was too lazy to fry any more the next night and made a rather good celery and white bean soup.  Adding the rest of the mixture to the soup gave it heaps of flavour.

And while we are striding into the world of random moments I have a few to share about bicycles:

• When we went swimming last week we locked our bike next to a mother and daughter who could not remember the combination of their bike locks.  Luckily we have two locks so we locked our bikes together and loaned them our second lock.

• I was really sad to hear of the death of a cyclist on Sydney Road in Brunswick.  He was hit by a driver opening their car door without looking and fell into the path of an oncoming truck.  It is something I fear when I ride my bike on busy roads.  Hence my preference for the Upfield bike path.  There is talk of making changes on Sydney Road to make it safer for bicycles but I see so many drivers breaking the laws that it seems there is a problem with the culture of driving there as much as the road rules.

• Speaking of rules, there is a law in Victoria that children under 12 may ride on the footpath accompanied by an adult on a bike.  Sylvia and I were pulled up by some PSOs (pseudo policemen) going under a train tunnel on our bikes.  They thought I was making the law up.  I range Bicycle Victoria (now Bicycle Network) to check and told that the underpass is Metro (ie public transport) land so road laws don't apply.  So the next time we went that route past a PSO, I was telling Sylvia to dismount but the PSO just smiled and waved her on.  It is hard to obey rules when you get inconsistency!

• On a happier note, it is really nice that one of Sylvia's friends also rides her bike to school regularly.  It is always fun to see them racing down to the bike shed to take their bikes out to ride home.

Back to the fritters!  We ate them for dinner with mock tuna salad, lettuce and corn on the cob.  They would be delicious for a picnic and a lovely green snack for St Patrick's Day which will be here before we know it!

I am sending these fritters to Shaheen for her Vegetable Palette event that is focused on spring vegetables this month.  (It is not Spring in Melbourne but peas are a great spring vegetable if you can get them fresh!)  I am also sending them to Karen for the March edition of her Cooking with Herbs event.  And finally they go to Gluten Free Fridays #132 which is run by Vegetarian Mama.

More GF finger food on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Baked rice paper spring rolls
Polenta quinoa sticks with rhubarb sauce
Quinoa pizza balls
Red lentil koftas
Sesame hummus bites
Sushi with sticky walnuts and edamame

Pea, quinoa and feta fritters
Adapted from Couscous and Consciousness
serves 2

1/3 cup dried quinoa
2/3 cup water
1 cup peas, defrosted
1/4 cup besan
1 heaped dessertspoon pesto
100g feta, crumbled
salt and pepper
oil for frying

Tahini dressing:
2 tablespoons tahini
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon olive oil
flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place quinoa and water in a small saucepan.  Cover, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and rest with lid on for 5 minutes.  Mix cooked quinoa with peas, besan and pesto.  Blend about half the mixture - I do this by roughly blending with my stick blender.  Mix in feta and season.

Shape small handfuls of mixture into patties.  Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large heavy bottomed frypan and fry until golden brown on both sides.  Drain on kitchen towel.  Serve hot with tahini dressing.

To make tahini dressing: mix everything in a small bowl until you have a creamy sauce that you can pour over the fritters.  Keep any leftover sauce to add to a salad dressing or use as a sauce for other dishes.

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