Today, April and the hedgehogs are going to tell you about their latest experiment with The Vegg. Are you sitting comfortably?
Good. So, the hedgehogs woke up this morning, and Buttercup thought she saw a bird outside, but it was really just a couple of leaves, and Hedgie told her she was being silly...
...and we've lost your attention. Sorry. So, The Vegg experiment! Last time, April and the hedgehogs made an omelet from The Vegg Cookbook. Even after baking it in the oven for a bit, April's omelet was very soft and not nearly as "set" as she would have liked it to be. Interestingly, Jen from Living the Dream @ Deer Run had made the exact same omelet just two days earlier, and found that her batter was too thick even to pour!
This time, April decided to make Chris Dixon's Baked Frittata on page 57 of The Vegg Cookbook (also posted on the blog here). Her hope was that something that *started out* being baked would set up better.
At her host Duane's house, April only has access to a mini food processor (her camping blender has gone on walkabout somewhere in her van, and isn't ready to come back yet). The Vegg powder, garlic, water, spices, and arrowroot powder all fit in one batch, but the 12 oz. of silken firm tofu would not. April mixed a bit, poured it into a big bowl, added a bit more tofu to the food processor, mixed that, added it to the bowl, and continued until all the tofu was mixed. She then finished mixing the "eggy"mixture together by hand.
For filling, April used an onion, two large mushrooms, 4 slices of Upton's Naturals Seitan Bacon, and six small potatoes. She wanted to add some broccoli, but was afraid that there would be too much veggie matter for the eggy mixture to set well. After roasting the veggies for 30 minutes and seeing how much they cooked down, she realized that she could have added the broccoli (and the second onion, and the third mushroom, and some more bacon). Well, knowledge for next time.
The hedgehogs wait patiently for the frittata.
After baking the frittata for 35 minutes, the very top looked somewhat set, so April sliced into it. Unfortunately, it was still quite gooey underneath.
She put the frittata back into the oven for another 20 minutes, at which point the top had puffed up like a souffle and was looking very brown.
It was a bit more solid than before, but was still like a very thick custard under the top layer. April used 8 tablespoons of arrowroot powder instead of the 6 called for in the recipe, as well. Duane thinks that a wider shallower pan might work better next time (April was worried about a larger pan fitting into the toaster oven, but Duane swears it will fit).
As for flavor, both April and Duane thought that the frittata was very good. The creaminess of the eggy mixture paired well with the roasted veggies. Duane ended up adding extra salt, pepper, and garlic to his second slice, and said that it helped, so April will double the amounts of those things in the eggy mixture next time.
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