Zines and a recipe

Do you like food? How about cycling and/or camping? Are you a woman, a feminist, a queer person and/or a vegan? Do you like women, queers and/or vegan food? Then I suggest you get your hands on these two zines.

3rd Gear and Tofu and Trangias. Ziney goodness.

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Content note: There is a GIF at the bottom of this post.

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3rd Gear is a bike zine by women and queers, which explicitly aims to give a platform to voices not usually heard from in cycling magazines (which, let’s face it, are usually aimed squarely at people with most of the privileges). The zine is edited by Danni, who some of you might remember from her bike touring microadventures last year (September, December). Issue #2 features reflections, articles, art, bike shed updates and advice on topics including electric bikes and mental health (“Is that a cheat’s bike?” by Esther Johnson), the politics of cycling (“War on our roads: Entitlement, cycling and victim blaming” by Danielle Madeley), cycling as a trans person (“Transcyle” by Bobbi Jane), contributions from the folks of No Award, plus more!

Tofu and Trangias is a spin-off, also edited by Danni. It’s a vegan camping and bike touring cookzine divided in two sections - the first about pre-preparing foods to take with you, the second focussing on preparing and cooking when you’re out and about. It has recipes for cookies, spice mixes, curries, vegan sausage rolls, salads and more. As it’s an Australian zine, it’s biased towards Australian considerations (climate, ingredients, availability of water), but it’s definitely translatable to other places. I have a recipe in Tofu and Trangias, so obviously it’s a top quality publication. I thought I’d share my recipe here, to give you a taste (haha, get it?) of the kind of thing you might find in the zine. You can get your own copy of both zines from the Wrenchworthy store.

I'm sure my book deal and/or supermarket magazine career is just around the corner.

Recipe: Energy Balls

These tasty little treats have got me through many a mid-afternoon slump on long walks. They work a bit like scroggin, only you don’t end up having to eat the dregs made up of the crap nuts/seeds/fruit that you don’t like.

​Energy Balls (or Energy Truffles, if you are feeling fancy) are super easy to make and very forgiving if you want to experiment with ingredients and flavourings. They also keep pretty well without refrigeration, although the chocolate can melt if you’re out in hot weather . . . and there is the temptation to shove them all in your mouth at once.

All ingredients (except coating).

Recipe makes a lot more than this!

Completed balls with coating.

Ingredients

1. Nuts (2 cups / 250g). Pecans and cashews are my faves, though if I’m feeling flush I might add some macadamias. Almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts and peanuts are all fine - and I’ve made these with crunchy peanut butter once or twice. If you like seeds, add a few tablespoons of seeds.
2. Dried fruit (2.5 cups / 425g). I recommend including apricots and/or prunes because their stickiness helps hold the mixture together. I also like apple for its chewiness and dates or figs if I want a sweeter treat.
3. Chocolate (100g). I know! You were getting worried! But never fear, delicious vegan chocolate is the third key ingredient. Add a tablespoon of cocoa powder if you want a super-rich truffle.
4. Flavours - to taste. Feel free to experiment. Vanilla extract is a classic, but you could try orange zest and cardamom, or chilli and cinnamon, or coffee. Add sweetener if you want and/or a pinch or two of salt.
5. Coating - small bowlful. I’ve found the best options are dessicated coconut or sesame seeds - either of which can also be added to the mix. The coating helps stop the truffles sticking together and makes the whole eating procedure a little less messy. If you’re not going anywhere hot, you could also go the chocolate coating route.

Method

1. Prepare your workspace. Get out a big bowl, mixing spoon and food processor. Fill a deep plate or small bowl with your coating ingredient.
2. Quickly whiz the nuts in a food processor, enough to break them up without grinding them down to crumbs. Put them in the big bowl.
3. Whiz the dried fruit in the food processor, too. Add it to the bowl.
4. Break the chocolate into squares, then whizzity whiz it. Don’t break this down into dust: you don’t want enormous chunks sticking out of your truffles, but you do want some nice nibs of chocolate when you eat them. Add to the bowl.
5. Add your flavours and mix thoroughly, squishing the mixture together to check the consistency. You definitely don’t want it to be gloopy (if it is, add more nuts, seeds, or a handful of dessicated coconut) but you also don’t want it so dry that it crumbles to pieces when rolled (add some more prunes).
6. Roll the mixture into truffle-sized balls, big enough for a couple of bites. It will be quite sticky, and the dirtier your hands get, the more stuff sticks to them. Maybe there’s some way of avoiding this. I haven’t experimented.
7. Roll the balls in your coating ingredient, pressing down to ensure the coating is properly stuck on. Store them in a tupperware container between layers of greaseproof paper.
8. Eat. Sorry, I mean pack them away in your bag/panniers, go for a walk/ride, then eat.

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We've been off travelling for the last couple of weeks, doing a Channel to Channel walk across Devon and Somerset, then a canoeing trip down the River Wye. I'll try to get a post up next week with photos of those delightful places!

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