I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

Beans and rice are a classic pairing, they work together culinarily and nutritionally. Usually one just simmers the beans, steams the rice and serves them together, as in a traditional red beans and rice. But I was looking for something different to do with the beans, and I had some pizza dough handy. A bruschetta came to mind, white bean bruschetta being another classic. Still, it didn't seem quite right, although it did get me thinking in a more Italianate vein ...

Since it's the middle of Lent, and we are keeping a Medieval style observance with no meat, dairy or eggs (except for one day each week), I also wanted to factor that into the recipes. I was still undecided, though, as I walked through the market. Two things caught my eye - an adorable little baby celery, and a lovely maitake mushroom. And I was off ...

• 1 cup black beans
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp salt (or so)

Serve with crackers or bread. I rolled out some pizza dough thin and cooked it till it was crispy and that worked nicely.

• 1/2 cup uncooked rice (about 1 cup cooked)
• 1/3 cup onion
• 1 good sized maitake mushroom, perhaps a cup's worth when cut up
• 1/4 cup textured vegetable protein
• 1/4 cup minced celery
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/8 cup water
• a splash of olive oil
• vegetable oil

Cook the rice in whatever fashion appeals to you. I steamed mine. Meanwhile, cut both the onion and the mushroom into small dice or even mince them. Mince the celery. It's important to get the bits as small as possible, or the balls will fall apart when you fry them. Put a splash of olive oil in a pan and sweat down the mushroom and onions with a pinch of salt.

When the onions are softened, remove from the heat and mix with the rice, the celery, the flour, the water, the salt and the TVP. If you don't have TVP or don't like it, use some bread crumbs instead. The mixture should hold its shape when you form it into balls roughly the size of golf balls. If it doesn't add more flour or water, depending on whether it's too wet or too dry.

Heat some vegetable oil in a pan, at least 1/8" and 1/4" would be better. When it's good and hot, put the balls in to fry, not too many at a time and well-spaced. Turn a few times as needed, and remove when they are brown and crispy.

I served them on a bed of greens with home-made pickled beets and pickled cucumbers.

You could, of course, make a risotto with the rice and mushrooms, then form that into balls and deep fry, which would be the classic treatment - especially if you put mozzarella in the middle. But if you put cheese in it, it's not Lenten. (At least, not in the 15th Century.)