Carob Noodle Soup

I found a cheery carob tree on the walk home from work the other day. I jumped to get a few pods, ground them up finely and made these very subtly sweet extruded noodles with them. I'm not sure why people always gravitate toward sweets with carob, thinking the flavor is like chocolate, it really isn't. In any case, matching with other ingredients was a challenge. In the end I went with a vegetable broth, a few bits of leftover seafood from a Thai salad and other vegetables. Really pleasantly sweet in a vegetative way.

I bet this would go really nicely with pork too, and chilies. I think you can buy carob flour commercially, in which case mix about half a cup with about half the volume of flour and an egg for one serving.

And of course be sure to check out my new book NOODLE SOUP

Fermented Akara BLT

About a week ago I was walking downtown (Stockton) and found a Caribbean/West African grocery on Harding. I've seen it before but I'd never been down here on foot. Stopped in and found akara flour. I'd made them before from black eyed peas, and they made it into either my beans book or pancake. But I'd never made them from flour. I mixed up a batch, fried in palm oil. My son and I said, eh, ok. Even with peanut sauce. SO I left the batter on the counter to ferment for about 5 or 6 days. Beautifully sour. Fried up a batch today, like little pancakes in a pan. Then what to do with them? Japanese was my first thought, since a fermented bean should go wonderfully with fish. But then it hit me. A proper BLT. It is SO nice with the sour bean fritter. What a slider!