ZB's Vegan Recipes

Upcoming vegan happenings in Sydney

2010-01-29T13:38:00.002+11:00

My goodness but I've neglected this blog, haven't I?

Many things have happened since I last posted in here, the most vegan-centric of which being that I became a shareholder in naked espresso, Sydney's premiere vegan breakfast cafe, so have been very busy with managing the cafe as well as working full time.

Some fun stuff is happening in my personal life too, but that's neither here nor there :)

So the combination of the above has equalled lax blogging.

However!

I am here to spruik some great vegan happenings in Sydney:

1. Sydney Vegan Bake Off, February 14, 2pm to 4.30pm

The inaugural Sydney Vegan Bake Off will be held at naked espresso on Sunday February 14, in conjunction with my publisher, aduki (www.aduki.net.au).

Doors open at 2pm for submissions, judges are Lisa Dempster, Helen Falzon (the 5 year old daughter of Charles, the owner of naked espresso) & (rock god) Steve Kilbey. I hope I do not faint from the OMGSteveKilbey!!ness of the day ;)

More details, including a poster (should you wish to poster up your neighbourhood) and a submission form, can be found at the aduki website. Hope to see you there!!

2. Introduction to Vegan Cuisine, March 27, 10am to 4pm

I'll be running a vegan cooking class via the Sydney Community College on Saturday March 27 from 10am to 4pm. Ingredients organic where possible, cost for the day (including ingredients) is $139. For more details and to enrol, go here.

I'm settling on the menu for the day - everything that my students will cook - & this is what it looks like at the moment:

Bruschetta
Classic
Garlic scented lightly toasted bread (sourdough or gluten free) topped with fresh tomato, basil & garlic in olive oil & balsamic vinegar
Avocado & Marinated Mushroom
Garlic scented lightly toasted bread (sourdough or gluten free) topped with lemony mashed avocado & herb marinated mushrooms.

Pesto Pasta Salad
Classic basil pesto – basil, pinenuts, olive oil & garlic - tossed with pasta, fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives, capers & white beans.

Pesto Quinoa Salad
Spinach, rocket & walnut pesto tossed with nature’s greatest protein source, quinoa, as well as chickpeas & green stuffed olives.

Quiche
Classic spinach & rocket quiche, where eggs and cream are replaced with heart healthy silken tofu & roasted garlic, all encased in a savoury shortcrust pastry.

Caramelised Onion Tart
A deeply savoury white bean, roasted garlic & nutritional yeast filling is topped with sweet & flavourful caramelised onions, in a gluten free savoury shortcrust pastry.

Portobello Burgers with Caramelised Onion & Tempeh Bacon
A burger with the lot: marinated Portobello mushrooms, seared & baked, in a burger with the classic trimmings (beetroot, tomato, iceberg lettuce) & topped with tempeh bacon & caramelised onion jam.

Rice Paper Rolls
Fresh & easy, rice noodle discs filled with bean vermicelli, shiitake mushrooms, spicy eggplant & tofu, spring onions, carrots, mint, coriander & sprouts, served with a garlic-chilli-soy dipping sauce.

Risotto
An Italian classic with a twist, Arborio rice cooked in a tomato stock, spiked with mushrooms & served with a salad of fresh tomatoes & basil, dressed in balsamic vinegar.

Lasagne
Hearty & comforting, layers of a deep & rich tempeh sauce, a thick béchamel sauce & lasagne sheets make a delicious traditional lasagne, served with roasted garlic & herb bread & a green salad.

Tiramisu
Double baked vanilla cake fingers are soaked in liquer spiked espresso, layered with a vegan take on vanilla mascarpone & dusted in rich dark cocoa.

Choc Cherry Squares
Cocoa-rich cake squares studded with sour cherries & chunks of dark chocolate & topped with a decadent soy cream cheese & chocolate icing.

Vanilla Soy Milk & Vanilla Ice Cream
I will demonstrate making vanilla soy milk with 3 ingredients – soybeans, vanilla pod & water – in a soy milk maker. This vanilla soy milk will be sweetened with maple syrup & made into vanilla ice cream with an icecream maker. This is simply a demonstration of how easy it is to make a healthy vegan icecream from 4 ingredients, with some patience & great kitchen equipment!!

September Sydney Vegan Bake Sale

2009-09-24T12:38:00.002+10:00

Just a quick note - we'll be running the Sydney Vegan Bake Sale again on this Saturday, September 26.

Come by the DIY markets in Newtown between 8am and 3pm - outside Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, opposite Newtown Station - and buy some tasty vegan goodies!!

Your money will be going to Donkey Welfare with Heart this month!

Cruelty Free Living Festival - November 1, 2009

2009-09-24T12:35:00.002+10:00

The Cruelty Free Living Festival is happening at Belmore Park again this year, which is great news after the huge response and turnout last year!!

I'll be doing a dessert cooking demonstration (last year I did biscuits, am puzzling out what to do this year - any thoughts?) and also be helping out at the Naked Espresso stall, where we'll have Primal Pies, coffee, vanilla slice and lots more - come by for a chat!!

You want to find out more? Click here and enjoy the awesome!

One Day Cooking Course - November 21

2009-09-24T12:30:00.002+10:00

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted anything, but distracting things have been happening and distracting me. I'll try to get back onto the blogging bandwagon, but I can't promise anything soon...

However! I will be running another Introduction to Vegan Cuisine class (the one in August was a screaming success, I must say!) in November - Saturday 21 to be exact.

Here's the link for the course description and to enrol - Introduction to Vegan Cuisine.

Here's the rundown:

"Veganism, a lifestyle where there is no consumption of any animal products whatsoever, is a rapidly growing subculture. Due to its’ strong ethical grounding, alignment with healthy eating principles and minimal impact upon the environment, it appeals to many different people for many different reasons.

Vegan cuisine is bright, tasty, easy and satisfying, and incorporates flavours and techniques from cultures around the globe.The course will cover nutrition, a range of cookery techniques, and act as an introduction to all things vegan – as well as showing how easy and healthful vegan cuisine can be!

Organic and in season ingredients will be used where possible.

So if you are interested in learning more about vegan cuisines and ways of incorporating it into your everyday lifestyle, then this is the course for you.

Agenda

Why vegan?
What are vegan ingredients, where do I find them and how do I use them?

Students will receive comprehensive information booklets and recipes, and cook a vegan feast that will be enjoyed by the whole class.

Recipes will cover breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert dishes, inspired by cuisines from around the world. "

I always have a great time running these classes, and this will be an intensive day, as I plan on cramming as much cooking as possible into the 6 hours!!

The class is run in Leichhardt and starts at 10am and runs to 4pm, and the cost is $129.

Queensland Adventures 2 - Lunch at My Heart Garden

2009-08-21T19:41:00.002+10:00

My Heart Garden...what a wonderful place! It's in St Lucia, near the UQ campus, and the moment that I walked into the sunfilled, fresh smelling and very calm shop, I was ready to sit and relax and eat until I couldn't walk. Which is just as well, as that's what we ended up doing!

Our host for the day was Kapila and the lovely woman in the kitchen was Durba - there was a lovely (and very ego boosting whilst entirely embarrassing for me) moment when Susan told Durba that I'd written Vegan Indulgence and Durba got very excited because she has a copy at home and was really happy to meet me. And I her, and Kapila, they were both just so friendly and sweet and totally engaged in what they're trying to achieve with My Heart Garden.

Also very good about having a photo taken to celebrate the wonderful time I'd had there.

So. The important stuff. The fud.

I was so happy because OMG I wanted to eat everything and couldn't (but did try very hard to do so), so if you are in Brisbane you MUST go there and try as many things as possible!!

Many foods!!

I got one of the little Not Sausage Rolls home to have as midnight snack (I ate it and a peanut butter chocolate cupcake that Susan made me in the hotel bed whilst reading the third Sookie Stackhouse novel - I'd read the first on the plane and the second the previous night. It was at that moment that I realised that I was on holiday....)

There are many more yummies on display, but you'll just have to go and experience them yourself.

Anyhoo, Susan and I both had the Bliss Burger, a wonderful lentil patty on a bap with mango chutney and vegan mayonnaise and salad and peanut sauce and NOM!

Another shot, I hear you say? Oh well, okay then.

Then Susan and I decided to attempt to break the most-desserts-eaten-in-one-sitting record, by sharing the following four (yes, four) desserts.

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing, heated up so that the icing turns all saucy

Banana Pudding Brownie (yes, from Vegan with a Vengeance)

We rested for a bit after finishing these ones - here we are halfway through our first round:

*ding ding* Second Round!!

Maple Pumpkin Cheezcake (with bonus Susan-taking-food-porn shot in the background)

Finally, the piece de resistance, the Nanaimo Bar. This was...head explodingly sugary (seriously, I had to take painkillers after eating it - so very worth it!), but also really tasty and definitely addictive. I had never had a Nanaimo Bar before, but my understanding is that it is a Canadian delicacy brought recently to these distant shores. My thanks, Canadians, for bringing this ridiculously sweet sweet to my attention!!

Of course, my favourite thing about going out to eat with other people who have food blogs - taking photos of food in public places is not as weird when both of you are doing it.

We sat and groaned and drank peppermint tea and regretted (but not really) the dessert craziness, before rolling off to Susan's place (where there was much cat worshipping of Sahara, Gizmo and Dim Sim), and then heading (much too early for our poor stomachs) to Loving Hut for the last meal of the day - and the meal that would defeat Susan!! But more of that later...

My Heart Garden
Shop 5/225 Hawken Drive (opposite Coles)
St Lucia 4067
Telephone: (07) 38708898

Queensland Adventures 1 - Breakfast at Alibi Room, Brisbane

2009-08-05T11:22:00.003+10:00

I just spent a week in Queensland, starting with visiting family and friends in Brisbane and culminating in doing the catering for my uncle Rod and his wife Margaret's shared 60th birthday party and 20th wedding anniversary in a grand venue at Peak Crossing.

I took lots of photos and have lots of stories, so each of the experiences gets a separate (picspam) post!

I arrived in Brisbane on Monday, and had lunch with family on my father's side - my grandfather, my cousin Janet and my aunt Margaret (who I haven't seen in at least 30 years) - at a Lebanese place in West End, and then met my not-cousin, Rod's wife Margaret's son Leif, for coffee and many vegan chats - he and his partner Lyndal are vegan and very excited about having an all vegan feast at the shindig I was catering, and I was very excited to have other vegans attending!

Tuesday was devoted entirely to eating my way around vegan Brisbane. I abandoned my diet for the day and had a great time being led around vegan Brisbane by the lovely and talented Susan.

We started the day with breakfast at the Alibi Room in New Farm.

We had the Kombi Driver's breakfast, a giant plate containing hash browns, vegan bacon, vegan sausages, scrambled tofu, baked beans, spinach, mushrooms, tomato and sweet potato chips. We got the smaller size for "one" and split it between the two of us, which was more than enough food. I can't imagine getting the double sized one for "lovebirds" and trying to finish it!! I got a coffee, which was okay, but I have been spoiled by the brilliant coffee and (sadly left-the-country) barista at naked espresso in Sydney...

Some photos:

The initial decimation of the Kombi Driver's plate:

My plate and coffee

The house made hash browns were freaking amazing, and the scrambled tofu was better than I was expecting, spicy and herby.

Susan ignoring me whilst she noms and I take photos...

All in all, despite the lack of "vegan toast", a pretty good start to the day.

We went to Fundies for supplies for the shindig (but where I actually just got almonds in dark chocolate arglenom), a magic shop where Susan got a plush sleeping sickness and a sparkly pink Slinkee and Sol Bakery to grab sourdough for the shindig (best.bread.ever).

Then, it was off to enjoy a marvellous lunch at My Heart Garden, which is the subject of my next post!

Sydney Vegan Bake Sale - July 25

2009-07-16T19:13:00.002+10:00

Remember the Sydney arm of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale and how well it went? Well, we've decided that we're going to run a regular bake sale, with the profits to different animal charities every month (or whenever we run them).

To kick off this fabulous plan, we're going to be at the Newtown DIY Markets on Saturday July 25, from 8am to 3pm (or when we sell out!!), with a wonderful range of donated vegan baked (and hopefully some raw) goods...

I'm planning on making my signature sweeties, melting moments, as well as a couple of types of choc chip cookies, and I'm hoping to get the time to make some cherry pies and (possibly) custard fruit tarts.

If you want to keep up to date with the Sydney Vegan Bake Sale is doing, there are some great internet resources:

The blog - Sydney Vegan Bake Sale
The tweets - SydVeganBkSale (while you're there, feel free to follow me also - ZuckerBaby is my name everywhere!!)
Facebook - Sydney Vegan Bake Sale and the event July Sydney Vegan Bake Sale While you're on Facebook, come and join Vegan Sydney!!
If you want to help out, by either baking/making something, or by relieving us so that we can run away to get coffee/food/go to the loo, email sydneyveganbakesale@gmail.com

Looking forward to seeing lots of folks there!! It'll be another great day for Sydney's vegan community!!

I love it when a plan comes together

2009-07-06T20:25:00.004+10:00

Ever since I started this new diet thing, I've been noodling about with a macncheez replacement recipe. I started off with an idea lifted from Veganomicon's Mac Daddy, which uses a cheez sauce made from stock and nooch, and adds crumbled and flavoured firm tofu to the sauce and pasta to provide body and depth.

Since I wanted to use firm tofu as the centre of the casserole, I couldn't use white beans in the sauce to thicken it, so decided on cauliflower as a nice thickening agent.

Below is the tasty result of my random trains of thought....

Cheezy Tofu & Cauliflower Bake

Ingredients

Flavoured Tofu

150g firm tofu
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon Braggs
2 teaspoon hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cheezy Cauliflower Sauce

170g cauliflower
1 vegetable stock cube
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon Braggs
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon mixed savoury herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme)
1 teaspoon olive oil

Topping

20g sesame seeds
1 teaspoon olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius.

Flavoured Tofu

Crumble the tofu to a mixture of textures - small bits, larger bits, and all bits in between. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Set to one side.

Cheezy Cauliflower Sauce

Steam the cauliflower until tender. Put the cauliflower, crumbled stock cube, water and lemon juice into a medium saucepan over a medium-high heat, and simmer, covered, until the cauliflower is falling apart. Take off the heat and cool for five minutes. Whizz until smooth and thick with a hand blender.

Place back on the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, mix well. Simmer until thickened, about 2 minutes.

Layer the flavoured tofu and cheezy cauliflower sauce in a small casserole dish. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the top and drizzle with the olive oil.

Bake until bubbly and the top has crisped a little, about 15 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

I ate this with a green & mushroom salad, tasty good times.

Cauliflower Soup with Tempeh Croutons

2009-06-29T19:44:00.003+10:00

As it's winter, I'm beginning to explore a range of soups for dinner. I mix a protein with vegetables and seasonings, whizz with the blender and boom! Soup in 30 minutes.

This soup is fine by itself, but the smoky tempeh croutons really make the dish sing.

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

70g white beans
150g cauliflower, cut into florets
20g spring onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small chilli, minced
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon mixed savoury herbs (heavy on the sage)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon barley miso
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 to 2 cups water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Method

Steam cauliflower until tender.

Heat olive oil in saucepan over medium heat. Saute spring onion, garlic and chillies for one minute. Add the beans and coat with the spring onion. Add mustard seeds, mustard, herbs, cumin, coriander, miso and mix together into a paste. Cook, stirring constantly, for two minutes. Add water and lemon juice, mix together well, and bring to a simmer for ten minutes.

Add the steamed cauliflower and simmer for another ten minutes. Take off the heat and cool for five minutes. Using a hand blender, blend until as smooth as possible. Place back on the heat, stir in the nutritional yeast and simmer for another two minutes, stirring constantly.

Serve topped with the tempeh croutons (recipe below).

Tempeh Croutons

Ingredients

100g tempeh
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Mix the liquid smoke, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and water into a small saucepan and put over a low heat and slowly simmer.

Cut tempeh into 1/2cm slices, and then into 1cm wide croutons. Put the croutons into the warm marinade and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Take off the heat.

Pour 1/2 tablespoon olive in a baking dish. Pour in the tempeh and remaining marinade and make sure that the tempeh is in a single layer.

Bake until the tempeh is sticky and dark golden and the marinade has all evaporated.

Cool until the soup is ready.

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale!!

2009-06-29T19:09:00.002+10:00

I've been so excited for the last couple of months, knowing that the Sydney arm of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale was coming up.

I got involved in the bake sale thanks to Mandee's invitation, and she, Michelle and I met up a couple of times and talked on the intarwebs, organised a time, a place, a charity (WSPA) and what we were going to make. Mandee also got a whole bunch of other vegans on board to bring along yummies to sell as well. We also tried to figure out what we'd do with the leftovers and decided to take them to work to sell to workmates.

I decided to go with a biscuit theme, and spent 5 hours one night after work churning out four and a half dozen large chocolate chip cookies (variations on my standard recipe) and 5 dozen melting moments - some gluten free and some chock full of gluten.

Gluten Free Double Chocolate

Gluten Free Classic Choc Chip

Classic Choc Chip

Double Chocolate

Gluten Free Mocha Chip

Vanilla Melting Moments, awaiting their icing. I also made chocolate, passionfruit and gluten free lemon (and chocolate) melting moments.

Mocha Chip

And (finally!) Choc Chip & Almond Chunk

Mandee has a great wrap up of the day itself, which was amazing and brilliant and so much fun and I met so many lovely people (boy, vegans are way pretty and shiny and fabby, aren't they?) and we raised $908.70 for WSPA!!!

I'm hoping that we'll be able to run a bake sale again sooner rather than later. Not that I've already started planning what I'd make or anything (cherry pie, custard tart, almond cookies, sausage rolls - anyone?)

One Day Cooking Class, Open for Enrolments

2009-06-29T12:49:00.003+10:00

Just a quick one (I have a report on the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale and a lovely soup recipe to share - tomorrow, I hope!) to let folks know that if they're interested in getting a fun and tasty introduction to vegan cuisine, I'm running an one day class on Saturday August 29.

Here's the rundown:

"Veganism, a lifestyle where there is no consumption of any animal products whatsoever, is a rapidly growing subculture. Due to its’ strong ethical grounding, alignment with healthy eating principles and minimal impact upon the environment, it appeals to many different people for many different reasons.

Vegan cuisine is bright, tasty, easy and satisfying, and incorporates flavours and techniques from cultures around the globe.

The course will cover nutrition, a range of cookery techniques, and act as an introduction to all things vegan – as well as showing how easy and healthful vegan cuisine can be!

Organic and in season ingredients will be used where possible.

So if you are interested in learning more about vegan cuisines and ways of incorporating it into your everyday lifestyle, then this is the course for you.

Agenda

Why vegan?

What are vegan ingredients, where do I find them and how do I use them?

Students will receive comprehensive information booklets and recipes, and cook a vegan feast that will be enjoyed by the whole class.

Recipes will cover breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert dishes, inspired by cuisines from around the world. "

I always have a great time running these classes, and this will be an intensive day, as I plan on cramming as much cooking as possible into the 6 hours!!

The class is run in Leichhardt and starts at 10am and runs to 4pm, and the cost is $129.

You can enrol here.

Tempeh Balls with Tomato Sauce - rejigged

2009-06-23T22:06:00.002+10:00

I apparently can't get enough of this combo, but this is a rejigged version that I thought deserved its own recipe...

Spicy Italian Tempeh Balls

Ingredients

170g tempeh
1/2 tablespoon barley miso
1/2 tablespoon Braggs
1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
1 tablespoon garlic powder
3/4 tablespoon olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Pour the olive oil into a baking tray.

Grate the tempeh into a large bowl, and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well until the mixture sticks together when rolled into a ball. Roll into ten small balls.

Roll the balls in the olive oil to cover. Place evenly spaced on the baking tray, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until crisp and golden - turn once during the baking.

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

100g tinned tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tablespoon Braggs
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 cup water
1/4 cup fresh basil

Method

Mince the garlic, and place all ingredients bar the basil into a saucepan over a high heat. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until thick. Take off the heat, add the fresh basil, and process with a stick blender until smooth.

I roasted 70g cauliflower with the tempeh balls and serve it all topped with the tomato sauce. Mucho tasty...

Barter economy FTW!!

2009-06-17T21:45:00.003+10:00

I have two Bokashi bins, which I fill about every six weeks, and I love them. I think they're great for inner city living...until you have to empty them every six weeks.

I have got a kind of (dying and waiting for replanting in Spring) garden out the back, but I really don't have enough room for burying the Bokashi compost. What to do, what to do?

I went into the Watershed a few months ago to find out if there was a compost sharing community or something around Newtown, and there didn't seem to be one running. However, one of the women working at the Watershed offered to take the compost off my hands for her garden. I jumped at the chance and she came and picked up that lot soon afterwards.

This week I had reached the limit of fullness in the bins, and she was happy to come around again to pick up the compost, and she offered to give me some gifts from her garden. To my surprise and joy, this bounty greeted me when I got home this evening:

There are little hot chillies (which I used in tonight's iteration of Spicy Lentil Soup)

A green and gorgeous tangle of herbs, including coriander (already consumed tonight!), basil, oregano and mint

I'm assuming these are Asian greens - they look shiny and well tasty!

A beautiful big bunch of rhubarb - I'm going to make breakfast rhubarb crumble with this! Yum!

And finally plump purple wondrous smelling lavender - I'm drying this out and will put it into my clothes drawer, mmmmm!

I'm feeling very blessed and lucky at the moment - some wonderful things are happening in my life - and finding these gifts on my doorstep today really gave me a joyful feeling of community, and that is a wonderful way to feel!!

Spicy Red Lentil Soup

2009-06-16T19:44:00.003+10:00

This? This was freaking awesome. I love love love red lentil soup, ever since I had the most delicious version I had ever tasted about 10 years ago, on an icy winter's day in Katoomba. My boyfriend at the time was a chef, and I got him to deconstruct the flavours and ingredients and started making red lentil soup obsessively. I don't think I've made it for at least two years, but after tonight's effort, I think I'm obsessed again!!

The only problem I had with this was figuring out how much dried red lentils make up 170g cooked red lentils. I think I overestimated this time and have adjusted the recipe accordingly.

Ingredients

70g dried red lentils
3 cloves garlic
1 pickled chilli
1 teaspoon chipotle chilli
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
170g chopped canned tomatoes
1/2 stock cube
2 cups water (plus more as required)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

Mince the garlic and chillies together. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Saute the garlic and chilli for a minute, add the red lentils and mix well. Add the dry spices and cook off. Pour in the tomatoes and stock cube and mix well. Add the 2 cups of water, mix, and simmer until the lentils are softened and cooked. If the mixture gets too dry, add more water as required.

Take the soup off the heat, cool for 5 minutes, and puree until smooth. Put back onto the heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

I served this with guacamole and fresh shredded beetroot that I dressed with lemon juice and flaxseed oil - the juices from the beetroot made a great drizzle for the soup!!

I'm looking forward to making this tomorrow night and beyond!!

Marinated Tempeh/Tofu Steaks & Shiitake Mushroom Sauce

2009-06-16T19:23:00.003+10:00

I had friends over for dinner on Monday night (dinner and Castle, which is so much fun!), and had a really hard time figuring out what to make. The following recipe feeds three relatively hungry folks (and follows the rules of my new diet, I might add!) As a first go 'round, it was okay, but there are things that I could happily tweak in it.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

Marinated Tempeh and Tofu Steaks

380g tempeh and tofu
2 tablespoons miso
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
3 tablespoons BBQ sauce
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon Braggs
1 teaspoon liquid smoke

Shiitake Mushroom Sauce

150g rehydrated shiitake mushrooms (weighed after being rehydrated)
150g onion
210g canned tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
70g chickpeas
60g tamari almonds
reserved mushroom soaking liquid (about 2 cups)
reserved marinade (about 1/3 cup)

Method

Cut the tempeh and tofu into 10cm wide, 25cm long, 1cm thick "steaks".

Whisk the marinade ingredients - miso to liquid smoke - together, add the tempeh and tofu and marinate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Remove hard stalks from shiitake mushrooms and cut shiitake mushrooms into strips. Slice onion into half moons. Mince garlic.

Blend the tomatoes with 1/4 cup of the reserved mushroom soaking liquid until smooth. Set to one side.

Blend the chickpeas and tamari almonds with 1/4 cup of the reserved mushroom soaking liquid until smooth. Set to one side.

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil in a frying pan over a medium hot heat. Fry the tempeh and tofu steaks until just coloured on both sides, and transfer to a baking pan. Cover the baking pan with foil and place in the preheated oven. Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes, the last 10 minutes uncovered.

In the same frying pan, heat the remaining olive oil and add the onions. Fry the onions until translucent, then add the garlic. Deglaze as required using a little of the mushroom soaking liquid. Add the blended tomatoes and the reserved marinade. Simmer until the mixture begins to thicken a little. Add the blended chickpeas and almonds, the shiitake mushrooms and the remainder of the mushroom soaking liquid. Simmer until thickened - if it gets too thick, add 1/3 to 1/2 cup water as required.

Serve the tempeh and tofu steaks on top of coleslaw (with a dressing of 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon of seeded mushroom, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 3 tablespoons flaxseed oil and salt and pepper to taste) topped with the mushroom sauce.

I really liked using the chickpeas and nuts instead of flour to thicken the gravy/sauce, and it's definitely something I'll try again.

A whole new world

2009-06-13T21:52:00.002+10:00

So, I have begun a new diet regime in an attempt to actually drop the weight that I've been attempting to shift for the last 2.5 years. This was created with a naturopath and is not quite as crazytimes as I expected it to be. In fact, to semi-misquote a friend of mine, "you say, give me the most restrictive diet you can, and I will make it into something fabulous." I am having a great time making interesting and diverse and tasty dishes under the following rules:

Breakfast: 30g unsweetened cereal + 1 piece of fruit + 240mL soy milk OR 170g tofu/tempeh + 170g cooked vegetables
Lunch: 170g legumes OR 170g tofu/tempeh + 170g cooked vegetables + 170g salad + 1 piece fruit + 1 tablespoon olive oil + 1 tablespoon flaxseed oil
Dinner: 170g legumes OR 170g tofu/tempeh + 170g cooked vegetables + 170g salad + 1 tablespoon olive oil + 1 tablespoon flaxseed oil

The great thing about this diet is that it is teaching me how to appreciate portion size, and it's making me think really hard about making new and exciting ways of eating protein and veges.

I've made up a great breakfast cereal of organic puffed rice, rolled quinoa and rolled amaranth, which I've been having with organic pear and vanilla soymilk, and which has been a great start to the day!

Lunch is a fairly standard bowl o' food - today was chickpeas, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, sprouts and grated carrot, dressed in a flaxseed oil/lemon juice/hot sauce/salt dressing.

Dinner is where I've been having lots of fun. I've only been on the new regime for a couple of days, so I only have a couple of examples (and recipes!) to date. I also have a restricted set of veges available to me at the moment, so the "salad" section of the meal has been a variation on red coleslaw - red cabbage, grated beetroot, grated carrot, dressing as per lunch - for both meals.

And now for some actual recipes!!

Smoky BBQ Miso Tempeh Skewers

Ingredients

170g tempeh
70g mushrooms
100g baby tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons miso
1/2 tablespoon liquid smoke
2 tablespoon BBQ sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method

Cube the tempeh. Whisk together the miso, liquid smoke, BBQ sauce and water. Marinate the tempeh overnight.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius.

Cut the mushrooms into chunks. Alternate tempeh, mushroom and tomatoes on a skewer. Place onto a baking tray, and drizzle with a little of the marinade - reserve at least 2/3 of the remaining marinade to make a sauce - and the olive oil.

Bake for about 30 minutes, turning once, until the tomatoes have started to crinkle and split.

While the skewers are baking, put the reserved marinade and another 1/3 cup water into a saucepan over a high heat and cook down until there is about 1/3 cup thickened sauce left.

Serve the skewers drizzled with the marinade, and red coleslaw on the side.

Tonight's dinner was shared with Phil and Neibi, and they seemed well impressed with this concoction!!

Tempeh-Bean Rissoles with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

Rissoles

100g tempeh
70g borlotti beans
50g carrot
30g peas
10g spring onions
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 tablespoon miso
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Tomato Sauce

90g baby tomatoes
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Rissoles

Steam the tempeh for 10 minutes. Cool.

Finely slice the spring onion, and place into a large bowl. Add the beans and mash well. Grate the tempeh and carrot into the bowl. Add the peas. Mix together. Add the herbs and mix well. In a small bowl, whisk together the miso and lemon juice, then pour into the tempeh-bean mixture. Using your hands, mix and squeeze the tempeh-bean mixture together until you can form a patty using the mixture.

Drizzle the olive oil into a baking tray.

Using about 2 dessertspoons of tempeh-bean mixture, form into 1cm thick rissoles. Coat both sides with the olive oil, and place in the baking tray. Bake, without turning, for about 30 minutes or until the edges of the rissole are browning and the top is dry. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes after removing from the oven before serving.

Whilst the rissoles are baking, make the:

Tomato Sauce
Roughly chop the tomatoes, and place into a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients - use only 1/3 cup water at this point. Cover with a lid and set onto a high heat. Cook until most of the liquid has cooked off, and keep adding a little more water and cooking down until the tomatoes are almost completely broken down - about 25 minutes.

Serve the rissoles topped with the tomato sauce.

I have spent the last couple of nights feverishly writing down ideas for meals, so thought I'd share some of those ideas here:

Borscht with Beans
Tempeh Steak with Noochy Cauliflower Mash
Ginger Miso Chickpeas and Broccoli with Cos Salad
Indian Spiced Chickpeas and Cumin Raddichio
Roasted Beetroot and Tempeh Bacon with Cos Salad
Creamy Coconut Thai Style Curry
Cheezy Tofu Casserole
A take on the Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad from Veganomicon
Beans and Vegetables in Pesto
Tempeh/Tofu Steaks with Shiitake Gravy on Red Salad
Red Lentil, Tomato and Kale Stew
Tofu Kale Saag
Not Really Bruschetta

I look forward to trying these ideas and sharing them all with you folks out there!!

Photoless recipes

2009-05-21T21:41:00.002+10:00

I have had a couple of days of good cookings, but unfortunately a camera suffering from lack o' batteries. However, much as I love the food pornage, you don't need that all of the time when the recipes are tasty!!

So, last night I made a yummy Indian inspired curry, using kale for a supernutritionally boosted saag sauce. I'm calling it Gobi Muttar Saag, which I think is close enough to correct.

Gobi Mutter Saag

Ingredients

1 small onion
1 inch piece of ginger
1 large red chilli
3 cloves garlic
6 whole cardamom pods
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 large cauliflower, cut into bite size florets
1 cup peas
3 cups (about 1 medium bunch) young kale
1/2 flaked almonds
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons Nuttelex

Method

Finely chop the onion, ginger, chilli and garlic. Set to one side.

Steam the kale until bright green, then put into a food processor with flaked almonds, oil, 1/2 cup water and salt, and process until as smooth as possible.

Steam the cauliflower and set to one side.

Melt the Nuttelex in a frying pan over medium high heat. Saute the onion, ginger, chilli, garlic and cardamom pods until fragrant and the onion is softened. Add the peas and cauliflower and toss through. Add the ground coriander, ground cumin and cinnamon, and cook off for 30 seconds.

Stir together and add the kale and almond mixture to the pan, along with the other 1/2 cup water.

Cook until the liquid has reduced, leaving a thick bright green sauce.

I served this over a protein rich quinoa pilaf (1 cup quinoa cooked in a rice cooker with 2 cups vegetable stock, 6 cardamom pods and a cinnamon stick snapped in two). Was fabulously delicious and nutritious!!

----------------------------------------------------

I have very fond memories of my mother's cooking - non vegan, of course, but damn fine. She taught me great food skills and started my interest in food and cookery from my helping her in the kitchen (and then taking over the kitchen, because I'm a kitchen control freak). I occasionally make a version of the green curry she used to make, and it's a lifetime dream of mine to veganise her salmon cakes that we used to have with steamed broccoli and cheesy sauce.

But my favourite comfort food that she taught me to make was cheesy tuna pasta bake. And tonight, for the first time since becoming veg*n, I found myself inspired to veganise it. And I did so quite successfully!! This recipe needs a few tweaks, but I am really happy with it, and it definitely hit all of the comfort food/mum cooking spots I was needing to have hit. So, without further ado:

Not My Mum's Tuna Bake, But Damned Close!!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups grated tempeh
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 sheet nori
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon dried dill
2 tablespoons soy Dijonnaise (or soy mayo with 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon Braggs
1 tablespoon umesu
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons Nuttelex
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons barley flour
1 1/2 cups hot vegetable stock
1 cup soy milk
1 1/2 tablespoons barley miso
1 1/2 cups chopped parsley
350g vegeroni pasta shells

Method

Grind the nori sheet and sesame seeds together until sesame seeds are powdery and the nori sheet is in small pieces.

Mix the grated tempeh, sesame seeds/nori mixture, paprika, white pepper, salt and dill in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the Dijonnaise, lemon juice, Braggs, umesu and water together. Pour into and mix with the tempeh. Set to one side.

Put the vegeroni pasta shells on to cook as per the ingredients on the packet. When cooked, drain and refresh with cold water. Set to one side.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Melt the Nuttelex in a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat. Saute the onion until translucent and softened. Add the barley flour and stir to form a roux, and cook off for a minute.

Stir in the hot stock a little at a time, stirring continuously to ensure that there are no lumps. When the stock is finished, use the soy milk. When the sauce is smooth and coats the back of a spoon, whisk in the barley miso.

Add the tempeh mixture to the white sauce, mix through thoroughly and cook for a couple of minutes. Mix the drained pasta into the tempeh/white sauce, and add the chopped parsley. Pour into a casserole dish and smooth the top, then dap the top with little knobs of Nuttelex.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is browned and bubbly.

Ensure that you have people to share this with, and a side salad, otherwise there could be extreme overeating taking place...

Notes on this recipe - I used to hatehatehate parsley when I was a kid, and now the parsley flavour totally made this dish for me. Also, you could make the white sauce with nooch instead, but I had read somewhere that miso adds a "cheezy" flavour and so wanted to try it, and probably will continue to use it in white sauces for casseroles as it really does add a certain somethin' somethin' in the background flavour. And lastly, I could say with this recipe that I am truly over my tempeh hatin' ways, as I really enjoyed the tempeh flavour in this dish.

...Though, having said that, I do wonder if I could make this with chickpeas...Hmmmm...

And now, time for bed, methinks! Good night to all, and to all a good night!

May the Fourth (be with you) Birthday Dinner

2009-05-05T20:15:00.002+10:00

My friend Phil's birthday is May the Fourth, and I've always remembered it due to the puntastic value of that date. I love how everyone now seems to refer to it as Star Wars Day, which is fun.

So my gift to Phil was dinner and some Castle watching, and I'm happy to say that the meal was really tasty good times.

Phil's girlfriend Neibi brought over some marvellous 1970s style placemats (as well as dressing as Princess Leia, which was brilliant - less brilliant was my being Anakin Skywalker due to my sticky-uppy blonde hair), balloons, pink glasses and orange straws in a fabby straw dispenser.

Neibi provided food creation support, including the smearing duty for the incredibly tasty roasted garlic pesto bread, which I made using great wodges of basil from my garden!!

Roasted Garlic Basil Bread

1 1/2 heads roasted garlic (about 1/2 cup)
1 cup firmly packed fresh basil
1 teaspoon Herbamare seasoning salt
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 cup Nuttelex
3 tablespoons olive oil

Process all of the ingredients in a food processor until the basil is well chopped and the rest of the ingredients are smooth.

We had a loaf of ciabatta given to us by Charles at naked espresso, and I sliced it on the diagonal and Neibi smeared the slices with the mixture.

The oven was preheated to 200 degrees Celcius, and I put the slices under the grill until the mixture was melted and the bread was golden.

Dee-freaking-licious. I'm telling you. Give it a good Aussie bash, your tastebuds will thank you!

The bread was a side dish to the main event - classic lasagne. Here is the lasagne, just before slicing and rampant consuming, posing with the side salad and Phil's birthday cake. And, of course, the fabulous table decorations.

Classic Lasagne

Filling

1 packet tempeh (about 1 1/2 cups)
9 shiitake mushrooms (fresh are fine, but dried and rehydrated have a great bite)
2 small beetroot
1 1/2 heads roasted garlic (about 1/2 cups)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cans tomatoes (about 4 cups)
1 cup water
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon chilli flakes
1/2 tablespoon onion flakes
1/4 cup dried Italian herbs
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1/4 cup Braggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons BBQ sauce or tomato paste

White Cheezy Bechamel

2 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup soymilk
3 tablespoons plain flour
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
1/4 Nuttelex
1 teaspoon Herbamare seasoning salt

1 packet no cook lasagne sheets

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Filling

Chop the tempeh, shiitake mushrooms and peeled beetroot in a food processor until finely chopped. Pour into a bowl and add the mashed roasted garlic.

Heat olive oil in a deep frying pan over a medium high heat, and add the tempeh mixture. Saute for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic powder, onion flakes, chilli flakes and Italian herbs, and toss through for a minute. Pour in the lemon juice, hot sauce, Braggs and BBQ sauce/tomato paste and stir through well. Pour in the tomatoes and water, and mix thoroughly. Turn the heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes, or until thickened and rich. Take off the heat.

White Cheezy Bechamel

Melt the Nuttelex in a saucepan over a medium high heat. Cook the flour in the Nuttelex, then add the garlic powder, salt and nutritional yeast to form a paste. Slowly add the hot stock, stirring in between every addition of stock to form a smooth paste and then sauce, and finish with the soymilk.

Putting it all together

Pour a 1/2 cup of the filling onto the base of a casserole dish, and layer with lasagne sheets. Alternate filling, lasagne sheets and bechamel, finishing with lasagne sheets and bechamel on top.

Place in the oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a knife finds no resistance in the pasta sheets.

Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving, this will make it firmer and easier to slice and serve.

Then....NOM!!!

Phil and Neibi, about to enjoy their meal:

Close up of Phil's requested birthday cake - ginger cake with lemony icing.

It was a wonderful night. I really enjoy making food for other folks, and it was great to celebrate Phil's birthday with him and Neibi, two folks who I not only adore and enjoy spending time with, but who I love a great deal.

Perfect Quiche

2009-05-04T22:22:00.002+10:00

I spent most of a week planning and thinking about and tinkering with a quiche recipe in my head, and I finally made it and ate it with great relish and enjoyment on Friday night.

I've posted about my quiche making efforts before, but this has to be my favourite quiche iteration - simple, tasty, very much more-ish.

I made the base from the Cheezy Quacker recipe from have cake will travel, using a mixture of amaranth and barley flours. It's such a good base for quiche.

And with that, here's the rest of the recipe:

Green Quiche

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celcius. Make the Cheezy Quacker crust as per the above recipe.

Filling Part 1

1 head roasted garlic (about 1/3 cup)
2 packets firm silken tofu (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon Herbamare seasoning salt
2 tablespoons hot sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup soymilk
1/2 teaspoon umesu
1 tablespoon onion flakes

Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and process until very smooth.

Filling Part 2

2 cups, firmly packed, rocket
2 cups, firmly packed, baby spinach
1/2 cup, firmly packed, fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup olive oil

Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and process until chopped.

Mix the greens into the tofu mixture well.

Pour into the Cheezy Quacker shell and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the centre is slightly wobbly. Turn off the oven and let the quiche cool in the oven for 10 minutes before serving.

Then nom. Nom. Nom. And nom some more.

Not food related at all, but still pretty...

2009-04-21T13:19:00.002+10:00

Just a quick one to put in a link to my non-food (well, mostly) based adventures. I had a Platinum ticket to a Supernatural convention on this past weekend, and I've resurrected my old and long unused non-food blog to post some picspam.

I did cater for the Platinum afternoon tea that was held on the Sunday, but I was so exhausted after doing the work for it that I didn't take photos!! I made mini sweets - Banana-Choc Truffle Tarts, Chocolate Mousse Tarts in Chocolate Pastry, Cherry Tarts in Chocolate Pastry, and Passionfruit Melting Moments. Imagine it if you can!! Mucho tasty.

So, instead of food pretty, pop on over to my old Meanderings blog for Supernatural men pretty.

I'm hosting a Mexican feast this weekend, so hopefully will be back with lots of food pretty some time next weekend.

Monday March 23, 2009

2009-03-23T20:17:00.002+11:00

Yeah, so this whole blogging every day thing took a dive this week. My excuse: I've instituted a new exercise regime which means I go to the gym and pilates at 7 in the morning rather than the evening - but I haven't actually gotten the whole getting 8 hours sleep thing before getting up at 6am thing down yet, and have consequently been exhausted upon reaching home.

Additional to the lack of blogging, the whole new regime has meant that I haven't cooked much in the last week, eating mostly salad bowls for lunch and pawpaw salad from Green Palace for dinner most nights. Exciting! ... not...

Onto other business, now that I'm actually here.

This loldog caught my eye this week, and really describes that way I feel about all animals, not just companion animals. It's as close as possible as I can get to explain why I'm vegan - simply and complexly because I choose not to use another being's innocent life (say, for instance, via the research or food industries) purely to serve my own selfish "needs" (or more precisely, "wants").

Anyway, vegan rant off my chest, let's talk about food, shall we?

I made mini pizzas on either Thursday or Friday last week, and they went off pretty well, which I was very happy about.

I got a gluten free crust and spread it with some salsa left over from Tuesday's Mexican meal. I topped it with mushrooms, vegan pepperoni, green olives stuffed with garlic, and Cheezly mozzarella. I cooked it in a really hot oven (220 degrees Celcius) for 10 minutes, and then switched it to just the grill and was really happy to see that the Cheezly mozzarella melted impressively. I sprinkled the pizza with fresh lemon thyme, and fresh basil leaves from my garden.

I served the mini pizzas with a cos lettuce salad, with sprouts, nutritional yeast, pepitas, flaxseed oil and balsamic vinegar.

The weekend's foods were mostly made up of pasta (first in almost three weeks, was pretty happy with that) and Lebanese foods from Granpa's Lebanese in Hurstville.

Tonight's dinner was a revisiting of a great salad I made some time in October last year - a kindoflikecaesarsalad.

Creamy Ozymandias Dressing (it's not Alexander, but it is a bit fruity...)

Ingredients

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon mustard
1 tablespoon spelt syrup
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon capers liquid
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 cup soy milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 cup soy cream cheese

Method

Whizz everything up in a food processor until very smooth.

I marinated tempeh strips in a marinade of sweet soy sauce, pomegranate molasses, Braggs, tamari, umesu, garlic powder, hot sauce, apple cider vinegar and smoked paprika, then fried the bejesus out of them and left them to cool a little whilst I made the salad.

The greens for the salad were rocket, spinach and cos. I roughly chopped them and tossed them in half of the dressing. I added sliced pear, walnuts and the torn up tempeh strips. I drizzled a little extra of the dressing over the whole thing and then I nommed on down. Very very nice. Will definitely be making that salad more often. And I have leftovers for lunch, yay!

I've got a good week of menus planned out, and have a plan of actually sleeping for more than five hours each night, so should be back on the blogging horse from now on!!

Tuesday March 17, 2009

2009-03-17T21:51:00.002+11:00

Tonight it was a delicious not-really-raw-but-kind-of meal. Yesterday, March 16, was a write off due to making cakes all day, and getting takeaway all day. Today was a bit better, and dinner was definitely a win.

I have mentioned before my love of Mexican food. I could eat spicy beans and guacamole salsa and pickled chillies until the end of time. So tonight I thought I'd make some semi-raw Mexican style foods.

Clockwise from the back: beetroot, carrot and cumin salad; bean and nooch cheez; pico de gallo salsa; guacamole; pinto refried bean style dip. I used cos lettuce leaves as taco shells, and topped off the tasty tacos with bean sprouts.

The beetroot, carrot and cumin salad was fairly simple - grated beetroot and carrot, sprinkled with whole cumin seeds and the juice of half a lemon. Very fresh and bright to eat.

Bean and Nooch Cheez
Ingredients

1 can navy beans, rinsed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons flaxseed oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Braggs
1/2 teaspoon umesu

Method

Whizz all of the ingredients together until smooth. Set aside for 30 minutes for the flavours to come together.

Pico de Gallo Salsa

Ingredients

1 small red onion, chopped finely
3 small tomatoes, chopped roughly
1/2 bunch coriander, chopped roughly
1/2 large red chilli, minced
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt

Method

Mix together all of the ingredients and set to one side for 15 minutes to let the flavours meld. The salt will draw out lovely liquid, which I like to sprinkle over my tacos after all of the different fillings have been piled on top of them.

I didn't get a decent photo of my guacamole, but my tried and true recipe is something along these lines: ripe ripe avocados, some minced garlic, some minced chilli, salt, lime and lemon juice, smush until smooth, and then set to one side for 30 minutes or so to let all of the flavours come together. No tomatoes, no coriander, no cumin, just lovely avocado singing out over beautiful aromatics.

Refried Beans Dip

Ingredients

1 can pinto beans, rinsed (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 1/2 chipotles, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
3 tablespoons flaxseed oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon Braggs

Method

Whizz all of the ingredients together until smooth. Set aside for 30 minutes for the flavours to come together.

Sexy close up of the finished dinner!!

Sunday March 15, 2009

2009-03-15T20:11:00.003+11:00

Aaaand a delay occurred. This was mostly due to my having a rampaging social life this week, which was fun but did put a dent in my raw life and my blogging.

The missing meals:

Thursday March 12, 2009 - green smoothie; leftover coleslaw, rocket & spinach salad with walnuts & dressing, nashi pear; and takeaway from Green Palace (had a meeting with Charles, who runs naked espresso, that ran into my standard dinner time).
Friday March 13, 2009 - this was crazy carbs day. Raisin toast with peanut butter; giant salad & roasted vegetable roll; and dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Juju's for my friend Neibi's birthday.
Saturday March 14, 2009 - breakfast at naked espresso; lunch was rice paper rolls & chilli salad from Green Palace; and dinner was mall food - Tex Mex burrito - with my friend Phil, in between bands at the Monster Session gig at Manning Bar. Bands of my youth, there was much much dancing, pogoing, shimmying and feeling a little bit like I was at a school reunion.

Today was a lovely day, with breakfast at naked espresso (again, yes) followed by a second viewing of Watchmen with my friend Luke. After the movie, we popped over to Iku and I had a burger and a surprise blueberry muffin while we geeked out about the movie. If anyone's interested in going to see Watchmen on the big screen and wants company, I am so into seeing it again (and again, and again)!

I bought a new kitchen toy for making zucchini noodles which unfortunately was crap and a waste of $20. I should have just coughed up the cash for the mandolin. *sigh* But I was still happy to make the zucchini noodles the old fashioned way, with a sharp knife, some patience and a willingness to eat slightly thicker noodles. I was a bit wary of eating raw zucchini, so after I sliced it up I tossed the noodles in the juice of half a lemon and let them sit whilst I made the sauce.

I wanted to incorporate protein and creaminess into the tomato sauce, and ended up making a pesto-like thick sauce which was incredibly tasty (though a bit unattractive to look at).

Tomato-Pesto Sauce

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 large chilli, roughly chopped
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 tablespoon capers
1 small avocado, roughly chopped
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons flaxseed oil
4 small tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons fresh lemon thyme
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons Braggs

Method

In a food processor, grind together the garlic, chilli, capers and almonds until they are broken down and combined. Add the rest of the ingredients, and process until thick and smooth.

I poured this into the bowl with the zucchini noodles and lemon juice, and mixed it all together and left it for another 15 minutes until serving.

I topped this with nooch for added ... noochiness...

I was really happy with this whole recipe, and am really glad that the zucchini noodles were so tasty!!

I got some red chard today, am looking forward to trying it in a green smoothie tomorrow!

Wednesday March 11, 2009

2009-03-11T21:24:00.002+11:00

Today was a stressed out, gah bastard day of working pain, why do I work again? kind of day.

Breakfast of green smoothie (parsley and kale with fruit is my favourite combination, not sure about the spinach with fruit combination though), lunch of spinach, rocket, sundried tomatoes, roast eggplant, walnuts, and my favourite dressing, and grapes.

Dinner was a story of major fail, that turned out not too badly, but was definitely not something I'd try again in the future.

I had marinated some tempeh in a marinade from the Candle Cafe cookbook, which was supposed to be a chipotle marinade with tomato paste, garlic, mustard, lemon juice etc. Unfortunately I put too much mustard in it, and it just tasted really unpleasantly of mustard. I put the tempeh in a baking tray in the oven, and tweaked the remaining marinade to something tasty to serve as a sauce with the tempeh.

I threw in garlic powder, onion flakes, oregano, cinnamon, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, Braggs, Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, water, lime juice, pomegranate molasses, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar and two more chipotles...it finally came to something that would be okay, though slightly too heavy on the cayenne pepper, if I put something in it to soak up the hot.

So I decided to crumble the tempeh into the sauce, along with butter beans and some minced cabbage, and cooked them all in there. It finally turned into something okay, and when it had cooled for 10 minutes, was actually quite tasty.

But ugly.

But moreish.

It went really well with the simple coleslaw I made - cabbage, apple, spring onion, celery in a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, seasoning salt and pomegranate molasses.

I was proud of myself for sticking to my menu for this evening (though I had to tweak it a little due to aforementioned fail), because my day sucked and all I really wanted to eat was a giant tray of macncheez and Minton biscuits and more macncheez and possibly some peanut butter and chocolate. Thankfully, didn't have any of those in the house (except the makings for macncheez), and knew that it would just make me feel a bit shit. Yay beans, tempeh and cabbage!!

I think the plan for tomorrow night is going to be zucchini "noodles" with tomato sauce, so will see how that goes....

Tuesday March 10, 2009

2009-03-10T22:23:00.002+11:00

I'm a little bit tiddly from dinner as I write this, so there's not going to be much of an update. Today was carb-tastic after breakfast (green smoothie), with Iku burger and sesame fudge tart for lunch, and dinner for a friend's birthday at a very authentic pizza place, where I had a gorgeous marinara pizza which was delicious.

I am feeling a bit heavy from the carbs, I have to say, so am looking forward to detoxing a little tomorrow with some tasty greens and fruits.

I don't have any photos of the foods consumed, so I'll instead entertain you with my new house decorations - prints of naughty semi-nude 1940s pinups!

I am slowly but surely decorating my house now that I've got the okay to put up pictures. I've been meaning to hang up these prints for the last three years, and they look as kitsch and fabulous as I thought they would. Having a great time.

And now, lots of water and then bed.

Until tomorrow, I wish you good eatings!

Monday March 9th, 2009

2009-03-09T22:44:00.002+11:00

This morning I made and consumed my first ever green smoothie. I didn't take a photo, because, well, I forgot (I'm not brilliant in the mornings). The smoothie contained: frozen banana, peach & pear, parsley, baby kale, walnuts, flaxseed oil, orange juice and water. The kale didn't blend down, but the tiny flecks in the smoothie were fine. And it kept me full for the whole 5 hours until lunch (though it helped that I was busy in a cafe kitchen making vegan vanilla slice - very distracting).

Lunch was Guzman y Gomez, tasty taco goodness.

Dinner was ginormous, but I was very hungry and it was mostly made up of greens, so didn't feel too bad about it. I made what I call my "beans&greens" mixture, which I've used for soups and pies and now salads. It's a flexible recipe, calling for whatever mixture of beans/proteins and greens are available.

Tonight's salad:

I lightly steamed broccoli and asparagus, then plunged them into ice cold water so that they stopped cooking and retained their crunch. These were tossed with butter beans, leftover spicy tofu which I cubed, half a chilli, garlic stuffed green olives, spring onions, rocket, spinach and my favourite lemon-nooch dressing. Very tasty.

Dessert: green grapes and a nectarine.

I suspect tomorrow will include lunch from Iku and an unknown dinner, as I'm going out with a friend for her birthday. Possibly I will have pasta, just for fun!

Sunday March 8, 2009

2009-03-08T20:46:00.002+11:00

A great day was today. Fabulous foods, lovely friends, I got more pictures hung on my hallway wall (slightly naughty 1940s lovelies, fun times!) and it rained. Some of my very favourite things.

Lots of foods consumed today. Sunday is breakfast-at-naked-espresso day, so it's always a good day. In keeping with my lack-of-bread raw-when-possible eating habits (which are accidental, I swear, but which I'm really enjoying!), I got the Aussie Breakfast - smoked tofu, baked beans, roast tomato, spinach and mushrooms - sans the usual additions of toast and hash browns. Most yumcious!!

I spent a lot of money at my local organic foods store, laying in the veges and fruits I need for the next week's foods. Then went to the mall and got picture frames. Exciting stuff!!

(Argh the sodding Sam Neill "eat meat" ad is on in the background as I write this. Hate. Hate. Hate.)

Lunch was at Foodorama at Newtown, where I got the vegan lentil burger sans burger bun. Lentil patty, grated beetroot, grated carrot, sprouts, hummous...tasty goodness!! .... There may have also been potato fries, but they may also have been my imagination....

Dinner was fantabulous, much enjoyed. And here it is!

Zesty Coleslaw with Olive Lime Pate and Walnuts

I always forget how much I adore coleslaw, but the every time I make it I rediscover the crunch, the tartness, the sweetness, the mixture of flavours...(OMG the fucking advert is on AGAIN! Argh!)....where was I?

Yes. Anyway. How 'bout a recipe for delicious, healthy, brain boosting vegan coleslaw, what do you say?

Zesty Coleslaw

Ingredients

1/2 large red chilli, minced
1 cup celery, finely sliced on the diagonal
1 cup apple, grated
1 cup carrot, grated
2 cups cabbage (red or green), finely sliced
1/4 cup spring onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons lime juice
6 tablespoons flaxseed oil
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon Braggs
1 teaspoon mild mustard

Method

Mix the first six ingredients together in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the last six ingredients. Pour the dressing over the vegetables, mix well, and set aside for 30 minutes before serving.

Olive Lime Pate

Not the sexiest dish on the planet, but my goodness, it was a damnably tasty dish....

Ingredients

1/2 cup green olives, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 large red chilli, minced
1 tablespoon lime zest, minced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
1 1/4 cups (1 can) cannellini beans
4 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons flaxseed oil

Method

Whizz the ingredients together in a food processor until smooth. Set aside for 30 minutes before serving.

I finished up my ridiculously tasty and filling meal with a great dessert of fresh fruit. Not the best photo, but what the hell. Dragonfruit (it's like eating perfume!!) and grapes.

Tomorrow I'm going to make my very first green smoothie, just to jump on the bandwagon!! I've got frozen banana, frozen peach, frozen pear, kale, parsley, baby spinach, flaxseeds, walnuts, flaxseed oil, oranges and limes to play with - I may also add some of the organic fair trade instant coffee to feed my caffeine addiction, see how it goes. So that should be fun! Monday is also the day that I cook sweets for naked espresso, so it's a very vegan food friendly day!!

Off to watch Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and then to bed.

Saturday March 7, 2009

2009-03-07T20:31:00.003+11:00

Today was a bit of a disappointment, food wise, during lunch, but then got better around dinner time.

Lunch was yum cha at Green Gourmet. Green Gourmet's yum cha is always a bit hit and miss, their service isn't brilliant, they always seem surprised when they're packed out, they never make enough food, and their wait staff have established wandering patterns that always seem to miss out my table - whichever one I choose. Thankfully I have no compunction in flailing my arms to catch the wait staff's attention - or crash tackling them, whichever seems to be the most effective at the time.

Combined with all of the above, today there were a young family sat next to us whose younger child had an ear splitting yell, and was dispensing it at great length and volume for the hour that we were there. So not the best of experiences, unfortunately.

I spent the day at my friend Phil's house. We watched a couple of episodes of Sledge Hammer and a couple of episodes of Jack of all Trades. Consequently my brain melted for most of this evening from the sheer ridiculous eccentricity of the shows. Sledge Hammer...well, you really have to see it to understand the extreme oddness. Phil had been told that Jack of all Trades, starring the fabulous Bruce Campbell and made as a companion series to Cleopatra 2525, was "as camp as an evening with Zsa Zsa Gabor." We definitely agreed with this opinion, and concluded that the whole show was very much "Carry On Campbell". Don't get me wrong, it's made of awesome, but it's definitely unvegan (ie made of cheese). Check out the title sequence for an idea of it's very unique appeal.

Anyhoo, it was very warm in Sydney today, and I didn't really want to cook, and I had some leftover carrot-almond pate, so I made a different flavour of sushi for dinner. I mixed organic hummous with the carrot-almond pate, and filled the rolls with that, avocado, cucumber, sprouts, spring onion, sliced chilli, spicy tofu, sundried tomatoes and roasted eggplant. Made the same dipping sauce as last time and nommed down. I love sundried tomato, tofu and avocado together, great flavour combination.

The mixture of hummous and carrot-almond pate was a bit wet, so the rolls weren't as easy to handle or sexy as they could be, but I think I managed to get a couple of good shots...

Watchmen!!!

2009-03-07T09:28:00.002+11:00

I'm taking a break from the scheduled food exploration/explanation to bring you a recommendation that you hie yourself down to your closest theatre wot shows those newfangled moving pictures and buy a ticket and then watch the Watchmen movie. Best thing you could do with your day, hands down.

Warning: This movie does contain graphic violence, graphic sex, graphic novel stylings and more graphic violence. It is complex and metaphysical and staggeringly physical. It is monumentally disturbing, like the source material.

I love Alan Moore's work, and am slowly reading my way through his back catalogue. When V for Vendetta was made into a film, I refused to see it because I love the graphic novel so very much. When I was finally forced into seeing it, I became as one with Alan Moore in his attitude towards film versions of his graphic novels: backing right off and wanting nothing to do with them. I mean, seriously, have you seen League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Jayzus. Godawful. And if you haven't seen it, don't see it to determine if it's really that bad. It's really that bad.

But V for Vendetta broke my heart and my spirit, so when I heard that Watchmen was being made (finally), I was not that excited - in fact, I was terrified that the filmmaker's would fuck it up. Then the first trailer came out, and it looked so much like the artwork of the graphic novel that I started to feel a bit better about it - until I remembered that V for Vendetta had promised the same thing.

But I kept hearing good things, and Wil Wheaton liked it, so I thought to myself, "Self," I thought, "Let's do this crazy thing. Let's watch the Watchmen" ('cos that joke never gets old...)

So, last night, on the opening weekend, I did just that. And for my tenacity in the face of what I thought was going to be a disappointment in some way, I was rewarded with the Star Trek trailer!!! I was very excited about that - so much so, that when the trailer was over, my friend next to me leaned over and said "So, do you need to change your underwear?" Heh.

Anyhoo. Watchmen. I really really really really really enjoyed it. There were some really violent bits that I couldn't watch, but that didn't take me out of the movie at all. I'm trying to figure out if I really liked it so much because it is ridiculously true to the source material, but I was with people who had never read the graphic novel who also really enjoyed it. I must note that really enjoying it includes feeling deeply disturbed by its' bleak and intensely dark (ie if you thought the Dark Knight was too dark, this blows the Dark Knight out of the water, dark-wise) view of a deeply flawed humanity.

So. Yes. Standouts. Visually stunning, and very close to the panels of the graphic novel. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a favourite of mine for his work in Supernatural (and also for being really ridiculously good looking), and he was absolutely perfect as the Comedian. Jackie Earle Haley was Rorsharch to a freaking tee, and really made the film for me. Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg was pitch perfect, really emotionally the centre of the film for me.

And for those of you who haven't read the graphic novel, the above means a whole lot of nothing. But if you're looking for a film that has real impact visually, is bleak and dark with dashes of very human emotional humour, has great action blocks and lots of explosions, then Watchmen is absolutely the movie for you.

So, what are you doing playing in the sun? Get yourself to a cinema!!

And if this rambling review hasn't done it for you, check out Margaret and David's opinions from the At the Movies review.

Thursday March 5, 2009

2009-03-05T19:41:00.002+11:00

Well, today was a grumpy day of not enjoyable experiences at work. Thankfully, my experience in the kitchen making dinner was definitely enjoyable and the outcome was my favourite pseudo-raw meal thus far this week!!

Tonight I made nori rolls, based upon a recipe in the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine cookbook from Blossoming Lotus. Their recipe is titled Carpe Diem Carrot Almond Pate Nori Rolls. And here's a sexy picture of my version:

As always, I faffed about with the recipe and I'm glad I did, because this was ta-ay-sty!!

ZB's Almond-Carrot Nori Good Time Rolls

Carrot-Almond Pate

Ingredients

1 cup almonds (soaked overnight)
1 cup carrots, chopped
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1.5 inch piece ginger, minced
2 teaspoons tamari
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 teaspoon umesu
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

nori sheets (about 6, depending on how much pate you use)
1 avocado, sliced
1 cucumber, sliced
2 spring onions, sliced lengthways
marinated tofu, sliced in lengths
sprouts

Method

Carrot-Almond Pate

Throw all of the ingredients into a food processor, and process until as smooth as possible. Mine was still a little grainy, but that gave the "rice" feeling when eating the roll, so I quite liked that.

Making a nori roll

Lay the nori sheet flat on a dry surface. Spread about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the pate onto 2/3 of the sheet. Place the avocado, cucumber, spring onions, tofu and sprouts down the centre of the pate. Carefully roll from the filled end of the sheet. Moisten the unfilled 1/3 of the sheet and seal the roll.

Let the rolls sit for about 15 minutes. This lets the nori sheet adhere and soften enough to be easily sliceable.

Slice and consume!! I made a simple dipping sauce: equal amounts of tamari and Braggs, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a splash of apple cider vinegar, one large (not too hot) sliced chilli, and a sprinkling of sesame.

NOM!!

I know that I'm going to make this again, and often. I love nori rolls, but I've always found them too heavy. These ones are definitely not heavy, and they are so very very tasty and more-ish!! I recommend giving them a try!

Wednesday March 4, 2009

2009-03-04T20:25:00.002+11:00

Today was a good day, foodwise. I got lunch from Iku, one of my favourite foods-dispensing shops. I love their various menus, and their lemon tart is the bestest dessert of bestest desserts everywhere throughout time and space. And I only exaggerate a little. Today I stayed fairly standard, and got the chilli Macro burger (tofu/rice patty, tahini sauce, dressing, greens, chilli sauce on a steamed spelt sourdough bun), with a side of salad (greens and chickpeas), with that bestest dessert, lemon tart, for sweety times!

I was at work, so I didn't get a photo. I do recommend eating at Iku if you find yourself near an outlet - yes, it's macrobiotic wholefood, but it's ultraubertastygoodfoods.

Dinner was a longwinded affair to make, but 2/3 worth it, with 1/3 still under consideration. I'm pretty sure I liked all of it, but am still contemplating.

So. The 1/3 that I'm not sure about....

Tempeh and White Bean "Sausage" Patties from Vegan with a Vengeance

They look pretty damned sexy, eh? I followed the recipe pretty much exactly, so these contain:

Tempeh; cannellini beans; garlic; fennel seeds; thyme; smoked paprika; nutmeg; tomato paste; Braggs; cayenne pepper and gluten free breadcrumbs.

These have a very strong tempeh taste, and are quite salty with a bit of bite. I'm not sure about them, I have some ideas to fiddle with them - less Braggs, more herbs, probably a little sweeter. But as with all of Isa's recipes, this is an easy and non-fail recipe.

My happy-making 2/3 was the salad. I kicked off by wanting to make a recipe called Tabbouleh Orientale from a little cookbook I have called energy foods. Of course, being me, I wandered off topic a little. And I'm glad I did, because it was made of supergood!

So, this had carrot, celery, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, finely chopped baby kale, garlic chives, mint, parsley and basil (more on which later). I dressed it in, yes, my favoured lemon-nooch dressing. It was NOMtastic!! I was worried that the kale would be tough or bitter, but it worked really well with its' earthy flavour, and added lots of tasty and nutrients. Yay!

Basil from my garden OMG!!

It was exciting to pluck something from my garden and then use it immediately in a wonderful salad. It's a small start, but it's still a start!

In non-vegan times, I bought pre-sale tickets for a MADNESS gig!! I think my head will explode when I see them live for the first time evah ZOMGBBQ!!1!one!!

Tuesday March 3, 2009

2009-03-03T20:04:00.002+11:00

Well, to misquote Billy Bragg's Waiting for the Great Leap Forward: "... ZB's optimism fell, At the first hurdle"...

Yup, I got takeaway tonight. My excuse being that I worked an extra long day and really could not be arsed, but that's not much of an excuse, now, is it?

*sigh*

However, out of the vegan takeaway options available, it was probably the most healthy. Also, it gives me a chance to talk about vegan-friendly eateries.

The "Hi I'm a vegan, can you cater for me?" conversation is dull and tiresome and frustrating and ultimately up to how convinced you can be by the person serving you. I really like Mexican food, because it's usually fairly easy to make the vegetarian options vegan by removing the (American influence) cheese and sour cream, as long as the beans don't have lard or cheese in them. And whilst there are a number of "trusted" Mexican places around Newtown, my favoured quick, cheap and very cheerful takeaway place is Guzman y Gomez.

These guys have lovely vegie options, with the best vegan choice being the soft vegie tacos - corn tortillas with black beans, onions, mushrooms, guacamole and pico de gallo salsa. I was greeted today by a sign saying "Tofu is Back!" which was very exiting - the tofu is tossed with spicy tomato sauce, and served in the corn tortillas instead of the onions and mushrooms. Three soft tacos for $10 - ka-ching, awesome value for dollars!!

So tonight's dinner was soft tacos with tofu, and a giant bowl of rocket and spinach with my (you guessed it) favourite lemony-noochy dressing. Followed it up with dried dates, raw almonds and grapes.

NOM!

Tomorrow should be a better day, where I make White Bean and Tempeh Patties from Vegan with a Vengeance, and some sort of salady affair.

What's your favourite, or most accomodating, non-vegan eatery?

Monday March 2nd, 2009

2009-03-02T21:08:00.002+11:00

I am very tired, and can't think of a witty title, so have decided that unless extreme inspiration strikes, the titles of the blog posts throughout March will be the day and date of the month. Bland, perhaps, but I like to think of it as a base flavour on which to layer the awesomeness of the day and foods consumed therein!!

Today was a good day - tiring, but good. Mondays are my day to make cakes and sweets, and do R&D, for naked espresso in Newtown. Today I made: Carrot Cake Bites from some leftover carrot cake and soy cream cheese - kind of like truffles with a heart of carroty cake goodness; Beesting cake; and version 0.4 of a vegan Vanilla Slice. I'm waiting to hear tomorrow as to whether the vanilla slice set properly - fingers crossed! Can you imagine going to a vegan cafe and getting a pie and a vanilla slice? It's too damned Aussie for words!! Heh.

Tonight I tried an almost raw dish. I took the inspiration from the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine cookbook from Blossoming Lotus - "Aiyah's Garden Living Corn Chowder" (forgive the ridiculous recipe title, just quoting here....)

This thick soup uses a base of corn, with avocado as a thickener, and a little zing from chilli. I changed up the recipe a little.

ZB's Almost Raw Thick Corn Soup

Ingredients

3 cups water
3 cups corn
1 cup avocado
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup onion
1 tablespoon Braggs
1 inch knob ginger, peeled and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pickled chilli, minced
1/4 cup lime juice
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 can red kidney beans
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped

Method

Put all of the ingredients, bar the kidney beans and coriander, into a bowl and whizz with an immersion blender until thick and as smooth as possible.

Stir through the kidney beans and chopped coriander. Chill in the fridge and serve chilled.

As I have been doing all of the last week, I accompanied this meal with a ginormous salad.

I've been obsessing with the following salad dressing:

2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
4 tablespoons flaxseed oil
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon Braggs
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Whisk the first four ingredients together until combined, and then whisk in the nutritional yeast. Pour over greens and raw nuts and NOM!!

Superextremecloseupdude!!

All in all, very happy with my first almost-raw experience, and am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!

Happy veganniversary to meeee!

2009-03-01T21:38:00.004+11:00

I moved back to Sydney from five years in the Blue Mountains in December 2002. I was coming out of a long term relationship, I was distressed by the events and only just emerging repercussions of September 11, and I only had a few friends in Sydney.

Two of my friends invited me over to their house regularly to make dinner. They were both vegan, and one of them had harangued me for the past five years to move from vegetarianism to veganism. I had managed to avoid making that move, ignoring the animal liberation information he sent me, clinging to my cheese and eggs and yoghurt and honey. But making dinner in a vegan home, almost every Friday night, with laughter and love (and alcohol - let's not forget alcohol) and enthusiasm...that got me thinking.

Some time in March 2003, I bought two packets of haloumi, lots of fresh roma tomatoes, and fresh basil. I ate fried haloumi with sliced tomato, basil, olive oil and lemon juice for about three meals in a row. Then one night I went to sleep a vegetarian, and woke up a vegan.

There are many reasons for going vegan - ethical, environmental, health - and I can't remember that thoughts of any of them passed through my mind when I made the decision. I just knew that being vegan was the right thing for me. People ask me why I'm vegan, and I quite seriously reply "Because it's awesome!", and I mean that absolutely sincerely. I became vegan because it made me feel better than anything else had ever felt before.

I used to have arthritis, with my joints swelling painfully during winter or particularly damp or humid days. I haven't had that happen since I become vegan. I've stopped smoking, taken up a low GI diet, written and published a cookbook, run cooking classes, started working part time as a pastry chef for a vegan cafe, explored growing my own edible garden, and have grown into a desire to create food from scratch.

My veganism expresses itself mostly through food. I find food - the rituals of preparation, cooking, serving, sharing - an absorbing and positive experience, and want to share it with everyone that I can. It's a safe place to bring veganism to light, it's a great place to show the passion, inventiveness, joy and frankly awesomely tasty goodness of vegan food to others, and I believe that it helps people think differently about what and how they consume.

Six years ago, I became vegan for no reason other than it seemed like a good idea at the time. Six years on, I have grown into veganism being the definition of my experience of life, which I embrace and enjoy to the fullest.

As a celebration of my six year veganniversary, I'm going to spend the month of March exploring vegan food each and every day, and sharing that exploration with you. Some of my goals for this month:

To eat less takeaway food
To try more raw food
To try some recipes from my collection of vegan cookbooks
And to cook lots and have a great time!

I hope you can join me for this vegan meander through March! Please comment and suggest things I can try (savoury foods preferred)!!

Oh, and if you're not already, please consider going vegan for the month of March, and seeing where it takes you!

Just some photos of recent foods

2009-02-15T22:31:00.002+11:00

I've been varying between imaginative and fun foods, and just cooking something as quickly as possible for nomming after the gym. Not that the two are separate concepts, but I've been having a lack-of-imagination moment or twelve.

I hosted a bbq for friends on the day before Australia Day. I made really exciting gluten free burgers and lamingtons, but only really managed to get photos of the entrees:

Sundried Tomato Mini Quiches

Pastry of gluten free flour, nooch, oil from sundried tomatoes & iced water. Filling of soy cream cheese, silken tofu, nooch, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper.

Not!Tuna Salad

Variation on a theme: chickpeas, walnuts, pickled cucumbers, capers, dill, seaweed flakes, sesame seeds, soy mayonnaise, lemon juice, celery, flaxseed oil, salt.

The weather in Sydney has gotten very rainy in recent days. I love this weather, and love cooking in it. I'm trying for high protein, low processed carbs, so came up with this ugly but tasty meal:

Tempeh Stew with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Tempeh "stew" (sort of more of a sauce, really): grated zucchini, carrot, tempeh, onion, garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes, chilli, mixed herbs, Worcestershire sauce, Braggs, lemon juice. Sweet potatoes tossed with olive oil and sea salt, baked in a hot oven whilst the stew cooked.

Finally, a concoction in my favoured theme of "beans'n'greens":

Butter Bean and Spinach Pasta Soup

Minced garlic and lemon zest, butter beans (half mashed), lemon juice, pasta cooking liquid, nooch & finely chopped spinach. Could be a pasta sauce, but I enjoyed it as a broth-like soup.

I made a fabby roasted capsicum spicy BBQ sauce tonight, will get the recipe up soon!

What's your favourite recent meal?

Parmigiana - Quick and Easy Style!

2009-01-14T20:54:00.002+11:00

I had a yearning for either Tempeh Reuben or Parmigiana for dinner today - don't know why, it's been 800 million degrees and I really should just be yearning for salad...it's probably the new exercise regime (personal training 3 times a week, pilates 2 times a week), what with muscles screaming out for more protein and carbs!

Anyhoo, since I had some chickpea-but-actually-black-eyed-beans cutlets that I had made earlier and frozen defrosting in the fridge, and no sauerkraut, I thought I'd got the parmigiana route.

And it was good. And it was quick.

As mentioned above, chickpea-but-actually-black-eyed-beans cutlets (from Veganomicon) had been made in bulk a couple of weeks ago, and frozen in one serve lots. They had been defrosted overnight, and then put into a baking dish with a little olive oil and baked at 200 degrees celcius. I bought some vegan organic plain pasta sauce, which I spooned over the cutlets when they had cooked for about 40 minutes (turned once) and are firm and crispy. The cheez sauce I made from pinto beans, lots of nooch, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon juice, oat milk and seasoning salt - put 'em all in a bowl and whizzed the heck out of them with a hand blender. That went on top of the cutlets at the same time as the pasta sauce.

All back into the oven for another 20 minutes or so. Then stacked on a plate with baby cos that's been tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then nomnomnomed....

Megasupercompletecloseup!

Pure Vegetarian - Vegan Cooking classes

2009-01-12T21:22:00.002+11:00

It's that time of year again! I'm running classes again in March - this time for 2 consecutive Saturdays, from 10.00am to 4.30pm. I'm planning lots of fun stuff - given the length of the days, there'll be lunch dishes, afternoon tea, and there's always food to take home and enjoy the next day!

I tend to throw a lot of recipes at people who attend the classes - I'm in the midst of planning this next lot of recipes, and I'm thinking somewhere around 15 or more recipes per day. I use mostly organic ingredients, aim for some gluten and soy free dishes, and avoid using highly processed meat and dairy substitutes - instead we'll make dishes with nutritional yeast and make seitan from scratch.

I like to split up the day - we'll have a sit down lunch, and probably a sit down afternoon tea as well. It's a great way to socialise and learn more about the vegan lifestyle. I love love love running these classes, and they've been falling off attendance wise a little in the last 6 months, and I would be incredibly saddened if the college decided to cancel them.

So! Tell your friends, tell yourself, bring your family and come along for lots of great food, reams of information, and the opportunity to meet new folks who are interested in veganism - about 80% of my students are not vegan, so it's not a requirement to be vegan to come along!

Details!

When: Saturdays March 7 and March 14, from 10am to 4.30pm.
Where: Leichhardt Campus of the Sydney Community College
How much: $229 in total, including ingredients
How do you enrol? Go to the Sydney Community College website here!

Hope to see some of you there!

Interview and Review Roundup

2009-01-12T21:04:00.002+11:00

Just a quick post with some links to interviews I've done in support of Vegan Indulgence, and reviews of said book. It's been an interesting ride, with mostly positive responses, for which I am greatly thankful. Putting recipes on a blog is scary enough, putting out a book is terrifying and incredibly rewarding.

A scan of the review from Vegan Voice - I was really happy to be reviewed (predominantly positively) in this magazine, which I have enjoyed for years.

I recently did a wide ranging, very fun interview with abolitionist-online, and you can find it online now!

A wonderful review from Veg World, which I have been meaning to post since it came out in August, and which humbles me with its' passionate praise.

The juggernaut has slowed, and it's been nothing but a joy. I hope that everyone who has bought my book has found at least one recipe that they enjoy - hopefully more!!

Refried Beans

2009-01-06T21:15:00.002+11:00

So, one of my goals for 2009 (and into the future) is to make more foodstuffs for myself, rather than buying them. This will eventually include jam, relish, chutney, pickles, non-dairy milk and tofu, but for the moment I've settled for making refried beans from scratch.

ZB's Totally Inauthentic but Tasty Refried Beans

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cooked pinto bean, mashed (leave some whole ones for texture)
1 medium onion, diced
1 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce, minced
2 small tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
2/3 cup water
1/2 tablespoon Braggs
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional - I just put it into everything these days!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil

Method

Heat olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Saute onion in olive oil until translucent, and add the chipotle and adobo sauce and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes. Add the diced tomatoes, and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the smoked paprika, coriander and cumin, and cook off for 30 seconds.

Pour in 1/3 cup water and mix well. Simmer until the tomato has begun to soften, about 5 minutes, and add the remaining 2/3 cup water and Braggs. Mash the softened tomato and continue simmering.

Add the mashed pinto beans, bit by bit, and the nutritional yeast, and stir well into the tomato mixture. Simmer until the mixture is thickened and "dry". About 3 minutes before serving, stir through the minced garlic.

I served the refried beans over ridiculously perfect roasted potatoes, topped with tomato, olives and guacamole, with a side of baby spinach and rocket dressed with balsamic vinegar and linseed oil.

Sandwichy Goodness, Risoni Risotto, Scrumptious Salad

2009-01-05T21:07:00.002+11:00

More photos and lack of recipes...Many greens have been my pleasure to consume recently!

Sandwich of Doom

Sunflower seed sourdough loaf, veggie burger (really not very good, unfortunately), beetroot and wasabi dip, squooshed avocado, mushroom, tomato, spinach, rocket and a dressing made of linseed oil and balsamic vinegar. I had this sandwich three lunches in a row, and kind of wish I had one now. Ridiculously tastingly good.

Risoni Risotto

The best way for me to eat risotto these days. Risoni gives the bite and creaminess of traditional risotto, and allows me to indulge in one of my favourite foods.

This one was a mushroom, lemon and greens risotto. Lemon zest, leek and garlic sauteed in olive oil, with fresh shiitake and button mushrooms, add the risoni and cook with vege stock as per standard risotto. Lemon juice and roughly chopped greens added just before serving. Yum!

Rice and Chickpea Salad

I made red kidney bean curry (m'eh) and spiced rice for dinner last night. I had some rice left over, and came up with this ridiculously sexy and tasty post-workout uber-salad.

Rice, chickpeas, diced tomato, kalamata olives, coriander, mint, rocket and spinach, dressed with a dressing of flaxseed oil, lemon juice, Braggs, umesu and nutritional yeast. ZEDOMG!!1!1 So incredibly tasty and good. Highly recommended that you give it a go.

I'm getting into the summer style of eating again, which is good. Lots of vegies, lots of lemon juice (well, that's not anything new, I love my lemon juice!), lots of legumes. Food is good.

naked espresso

2009-01-03T12:29:00.003+11:00

So, there's a not-so-new (as in, opened three months ago and I've taken a while to get there!) all vegan weekend breakfast place sharing the premises of Basil Pizza in Newtown. The owner is vegan, the equipment for making breakfast has all been purchased new, the coffee machine is all vegan (Bonsoy only), there are gluten free options offered as well, and it's got a lovely range of breakfast offerings, laid back but friendly service, and I highly recommend going along one morning to support this great vegan business!!

I went there for the second time this morning, and actually remembered to take photos this time!

My friend Phil got the Organic Buckwheat Pancakes, which are served with strawberries and banana and pure organic maple syrup. Numtious!

My friend Neibi got "The Morning After" Giant Fry Up, with sausages, hashbrowns, "bacon-style" rashers, tomato, mushrooms, spinach, baked beans, sourdough toast. So big it needed two photos, and I still didn't get everything into shot!!

I got the Scrambled Tofu, lightly curry flavoured, with baked beans, fried tomato, hashbrown and sourdough toast.

The food is hearty comfort food, made with love and vegan passion. The premises are open only on the weekend, from 9am to 1pm.

naked espresso
126 King Street
Newtown (near Missendon Road)
Tel: 95194880

Laksa fun

2009-01-02T09:15:00.002+11:00

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone had a marvellous NYE. I spent it in a fabulous Japanese restaurant (with only one non-vegan hiccup, huzzah!) eating wonderful food and drinking chuhai and having a great time with two of my closest friends. Followed by really good champagne, fireworks on the telly, and home by 1am.

My New Year's resolutions, such as they are (I try to give myself achievable goals, rather than fixed-in-stone "resolutions"), include getting back into the low GI lifestyle. To that end, I capped off a high protein day yesterday (scrambled tofu for breakfast, tofu/vegie patties on bread with lots o' salad for lunch) with a gorgeous vegetable heavy laksa, and lots of it!!

I don't really have a recipe, more a series of suggestions (as with my scrambled tofu).

As a base, I use the vegan tom yum paste that I buy in giant jars from Vegan's Choice - I have seen it in other Asian groceries. Vegan's Choice also carry a laksa paste, but I'm hooked on the tom yum paste - very sharp and lemony! I tend to add to the base paste - last night I added kecap manis, umesu and Braggs.

If you can't get the tom yum/laksa paste, there are some tinned curry pastes available in supermarkets that can be used. Maesri's red curry paste is accidentally vegan, and gives the hot flavour and red colour you want from a laksa. You need some tamarind paste to go with this red curry paste, to give the sharp and sour, and some palm or dark brown sugar.

Cook off the paste without oil (there's more than enough in it!) in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. When sizzling, add the extra flavours - tamarind, sugar, kecap manis etc - and cook off. Pour in a half/half mixture of coconut milk and water and simmer.

I love lots of vegies in my laksa. Last night I had: carrots; broccoli; button mushrooms; shiitake mushrooms; red capsicum; snowpeas; bok choy; bean sprouts; coriander; mint and spring onions.

I put the carrots, broccoli and both types of mushrooms in the simmering soup, and then put mung bean noodles in a bowl and covered with boiling water. When the noodles were ready - clear and expanded - I put them in the bottom of my serving bowl and then topped them with the red capsicum and bok choy, and ladled over the hot soup and vegetables. All of this goodness is then crowned with a handful of bean sprouts and the coriander, mint and spring onions, with lemon wedges on the side of the bowl for added citrus tang. (Excuse the over-expressive descriptions, I've been watching a Nigella Lawson marathon on Lifestyle Food. She does go on, doesn't she?)

So. Yes. Not so much a suggestion as a sort of recipe. I love laksa, and I'm always very happy and energised whenever I eat a big bowl that I've made.

Savoury Mince on Toast

2008-12-31T10:45:00.003+11:00

When I was a kid, we'd have savoury mince on toast as the leftover dinner towards the end of the pay week. It's a strangely addictive meal, especially when topped with cheap tomato sauce. I've tried various vegan iterations, usually using a bolognese sauce, but it's never been quite the same. Last night I decided that I would do it as I remembered it, full of chopped veges and cooked relatively quickly. Of course, I used a couple of flavourings that wouldn't have been in my childhood dish - Nutmeat and chipotle - but they worked really well and the end result was fan-fricking-tastic.

Savoury Mince

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped carrots (measure after chopping - about 1 1/2 carrots)
1/2 cup chopped beans (measure after chopping)
1/2 cup corn kernels (about one corn cob)
1/4 cup snowpeas, sliced thinly on the diagonal (measure after chopping)
1 cup grated Nutmeat (about 2/3 tin)
2 baby leeks, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 chipotle in adobo sauce, minced
1/2 to 3/4 cup passata
1 teaspoon Italian herbs
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon HP sauce
1/2 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup of water (may not be required)
oil

Method

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, and heat the oil. Saute the baby leeks until softened, then add the beans and carrots and continue sauteing. Add the grated Nutmeat, Italian herbs, garlic, chipotle and corn kernels and stir together until it starts sticking a little. Add the tomato paste, barbecue sauce, HP sauce and vegan Worcestershire sauce and stir together thoroughly. Finally, add the passata and lemon juice and stir through. The mixture should be a little liquidy, so if it is too dry, add the 1/4 cup of water.

Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the liquid in the mixture has reduced to a thickened gravy consistency. Take off the heat and stir through the snowpeas.

Serve over toast, topped with nutritional yeast and tomato sauce.

Look ma, no hands! curry

2008-12-31T10:26:00.002+11:00

The other day was incredibly warm, and I was feeling incredibly lazy. I wanted Indian style curry, but without the effort of standing over a hot stove and stirring and all of that other fun but enervating effort.

So I thought, "Self", I thought, "How about a hands free curry?" And thus the following so-called recipe was created...

Look ma, no hands! curry

Ingredients

1 medium eggplant
4 cloves garlic
3 small tomatoes
1 cup mushrooms
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup passata
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water (not all may be needed)
1/4 cup Nuttelex

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.

Cube the eggplant (1cm x 1cm square). Lightly crush the garlic cloves, keeping them and the skins on. Put into a baking dish and toss with the tablespoon of oil.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the eggplant is starting to soften. Add the salt, spices and passata, and bake for another 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, mushrooms and enough of the water to moisten and create a gravy. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are softened and the liquid is gravy like. Stir through the Nuttelex just before serving.

I served mine with quinoa that I cooked in the rice cooker and then tossed with a little Nuttelex. For some fresh crunch, I topped everything with finely chopped spring onions. And of course, one has to have mango chutney!

Garden update

2008-12-30T16:12:00.003+11:00

Well, I hope everyone had a brilliant Xmas and are looking forward to an exciting and happy New Year!!

I went to a friend's mother's place for Xmas lunch - he's been vegan for about 13 years, and his mother is very very good at vegan Xmas foods (and other non-seasonal vegan foods), so I had a very lazy Xmas this year! Entree: roast onion, tomato and olive mini tarts. For mains, she made fabulous roasted potatoes, pumpkin and onions, steamed beans, and got tofu skin drumsticks which she also roasted and served with mustard sauce (but I ate them with lots of extra mustard!) Desserts were a berry and custard trifle thing, and a fantasmagorically good plum plait. I'm drooling just thinking about it. The irony of the plum plait is that the recipe was adapted from a "Dairy Foods" cookbook from the seventies!!

No photos, though. Too busy eating!!

My garden wanders along apace. Here's some photos tracking its' growth (and/or gnawed status):

The tomatoes have doubled in size. Two of the plants are going yellow, but they seem to be happy still!

All of the tomato plants have little flower buds appearing! Yay!

The marigold that was planted with the tomato plants has been gnawed severely by something, but is thriving enough for a flower bud to have formed:

It does look a little like Audrey, doesn't it? I'm slightly worried...

The spinach went to seed.... *sigh* The strawberry and lemongrass is going well, though

Onions = destroyed. Eggplants = struggling. Marigold = proud and upstanding

The capsicums are going batshit, so have left their crazed growth until last!

Check out the tiny capsicums!!

And the gorgeous marigold in flower:

Last but not least, my Lucie cat generally being a gorgeous girl

I've decided that one each of a viable tomato, capsicum and strawberry is going to make this iteration of the garden a win. So it's going well, methinks!!

How does your garden grow?

2008-12-06T22:43:00.002+11:00

I finally got my vege and herb garden up and running with much family and friend help a couple of weeks ago. There was a family outing to Bunnings to purchase additional seedlings (yes, not organic but about to be raised organic, so let's see how it goes...) and buy different types of soil. Then a couple of days later Phil and Neibi came over for dinner and a nice quiet meal of lasagne, garlic bread and salad gained the addition of seedling burial and branch removal. Awesome fun.

Everything seems to be surviving okay - some funny coloured and dying leaves, but new growth popping up everywhere. The only real casualty of the whole experience has been three strawberry plants. There's one left, and it has a new couple of leaves growing, so fingers crossed.

The garden makes my courtyard look so much more...useful...even though the garden beds are styrofoam boxes!! And I'm still minus a planter for the herbs, so they're still all in pots. But they'll be replanted prior to Xmas...

So! Pictures!

Even though I got the cats cat grass to distract them, Squeak still attempts to eat the lemongrass. *sigh* And isn't my red watering can fabulous?

Tomatoes, basil and marigold (go, companion planting, go!)

More tomatoes, basil and marigold, with a sneaky radicchio

Squash (with a mixture of unhappy looking and happy leaves), radicchio, coral lettuce and marigold

Mostly spinach, with a lone strawberry and marigold. There are a couple of strawberry plants that just aren't doing anything, so I think I might yoink them and put in the cucumber seedlings I have before they get completely destroyed by snails.

Okay, mostly herbs. Basil, sage, coriander, lemongrass, cucumber, parsley, mint and some worm wee in the wine bottle at the back.

Baby peas and capsicum and the ever-present marigold.

And as you can see by the tags, onions (gnawed upon by Squeak) and eggplant.

All the seedlings have pretty much doubled in size in the last 2 weeks, and my first crop should be sometime towards the end of December/beginning of January - which is really exciting!! I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens with the plants. I'm happy that the cats have chosen to ignore the boxes (this might be due to the sheer preponderance of plants and sticks and stuff we put into the boxes) and I hope that continues. I'm carefully saving water from rinsing veges, draining pasta etc, and using that for watering the plants.

If you haven't already, I heartily recommend starting a vege garden, even if it's one tomato plant and some chives and basil. You'll have the ingredients for a pasta sauce in no time!!

Did I mention that I love Tex Mex?

2008-12-01T20:44:00.004+11:00

Going back through my blog archives, as I do occasionally, I realised how often I blog about Tex Mex. And you know what? I'm good with that! Simple ingredients, ridiculously brilliant tastes, and so many different dishes. I love sharing Tex Mex with friends - I think it's a great dinner party experience - and so last night was well chuffed to have some of my favourite folks over for dinner...

Left and then clockwise: Stephen, Neibi, Phil and finally my mum. Neibi and my mum are holding up the home made blue corn tortillas that we all made together.

Did I say blue corn tortillas? Check it out:

I recently got three different types of masa harina (white, yellow and blue) from a great Aussie Tex Mex online delivery service, Fireworks Foods (the website is well dodgy, but they've got great products and great service!), as well as a tortilla press. So last night I made tortilla dough, my mum offered advice when the dough turned out waaaaaay too sticky, and Neibi exerted her personality on the tortilla press. After a few false starts, all went well, and we got about 14 great little tortillas out onto the frypan and then into a warm oven. Tortilla dough is pretty much equal amounts of masa harina to warm water - and it's amazing, the dough retains heat for so long!!

I offered a whole bunch o' dishes to go with the tortillas (which were, let's face it, the main reason for the dinner party):

Starting in the middle on the left, we've got onions and mushrooms fried with cumin; refried beans; great globs of guacamole; rockmelon salsa (rockmelon, chilli, spring onion, lemon juice, linseed oil); roasted beetroot and kidney beans stir fried with roasted garlic and chipotle; blue corn tortillas; pickled cactus; queso (cashews, corn flour, onion flakes, salt, chilli flakes, nutritional yeast) and finally salsa verde (tomatillos, garlic, chilli, lemon juice, coriander, vegetable stock). There was also a tomato salsa (tomatoes, olives, spring onion, chilli).

Way too much fun - but just enough food for the five of us, and for me to have leftovers for lunch! I gave Phil and Neibi a bottle of my salsa verde and I froze the remainders.

There was even a pseudo Mexican dessert. Chocolate icecream (from Vice Cream) with spiced cashews (cinnamon, cayenne pepper, salt and maple syrup) which I made in my awesome icecream maker. I'm practicing for Xmas - I think everyone's going to get icecream, I've got so many ideas for flavours!!

An awesome feast, and I'm never going to buy tortillas from the supermarket ever again!!

Beetroot Risotto

2008-11-29T10:35:00.002+11:00

I love risotto. Love. Love. Love. I have about 25 different risotto recipes that I used to make all of the time - and then I'd change them and make new ones and risotto is so easy to make and has so much flavour and nomnomnom.

But I can't eat arborio rice any more *sob* and I've been having a really hard time getting the texture that I love and the flavours and the whole thing to come together with other grains. Risotto with risoni has been the best texture option, but I wanted to use something grainy and not pasta-y. I've tried quinoa based risotto before, and it didn't rock my world. However, a couple of nights ago I decided to make risotto, couldn't find risoni at the supermarket, and had some quinoa kicking about at home. So I decided to give it another go.

Oh yeah, it was a win!!

So here's the recipe....There's lots of prep (roasting the beetroot and garlic, cooking the quinoa, making beetroot stock, making a cashew paste) but it takes less than an hour and is really incredibly worth it.

Roasted Beetroot and Garlic Quinoa Risotto

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups quinoa
3 cups vegetable stock
3 medium-large fresh beetroot, with stalks and leaves
1 head of garlic + 2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
1 teaspoon onion flakes
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 vegan stock cube + 1 litre water
2 tablespoons Nuttelex
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil + 1 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
dash hot sauce

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Cut the stalks and leaves off the beetroot and set to one side. These will be used later. Scrub the beetroot and put onto a baking tray. Bake in the oven for 1 to 2 hours, until slightly blackened outside and cooked inside. Set aside to cool. When cool, peel and cube.

Cut the top off the head of garlic and drizzle with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Bake in the oven until soft and the top is golden. Remove from the oven and cool.

Cook quinoa is three cups of vegetable stock until tender - about 20 minutes in a rice cooker, 35 minutes on the stove. Set to one side.

Mince the 2 cloves of garlic. Wash and finely slice the beetroot stalks. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and saute the garlic and beetroot stalks. Add the stock cube and litre of water. Allow to come to a simmer, and cook for about 15 minutes. Strain the garlic and stalks out of the liquid. Return the liquid to a low heat and allow to simmer.

Grind the cashews, nutritional yeast, salt and onion flakes until a fine powder is formed. Squeeze in the roasted garlic and lemon juice and process until a paste is formed. Set to one side.

Wash and finely slice the beetroot leaves. Set 1/3 aside.

Melt the Nuttelex in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the cooked quinoa and stir through. Pour in a third of the beetroot stock and stir through until absorbed. Add half of the cubed beetroot. Pour in another third of the beetroot stock and stir through until absorbed. Add the remaining beetroot and the cashew-garlic paste and stir through until well mixed. Add the 2/3 of the beetroot leaves and stir through. Finally, add the final 1/3 of the beetroot stock and stir until absorbed. Take off the heat.

Whisk together the 2 tablespoons olive oil, balsamic vinegar and hot sauce. Toss with the remaining 1/3 of the beetroot leaves.

Spoon the risotto onto a plate and top with the dressed beetroot leaves. Serve and consume!!

Tasmania, casserole, chickpea salad

2008-11-29T10:06:00.002+11:00

This is a quick photo post to share some fun stuff I've been doing recently.

I went to Tasmania a few weeks ago - not the easiest place to be a vegan, though Hobart does offer Sirens, an awesomely fancypants vegetarian and vegan restaurant (though check the wines before ordering - I ended up with one that had been fined with egg, milk and fish - boo!) The food is fabulous, though. If you're in Hobart, find it and eat there. Okay?

For those folks who have watched Veronica Mars, and know my obsession with Logan Echolls, they may know that Logan is often referred to as a "wooby". Hobart not only contains my new favourite restaurant, but also my new favourite lane (not that I have a current favourite lane...)

A town in the middle of Tasmania had this beautiful mill in the middle of a town that was so Georgian that I kept expecting Jane Austen to pop her head out of a doorway.

I recently found some blue corn chips, and had a great time making nachos with them. I did a leftovers nachos casserole (as you do), with the chips, rice, tofu, Not!BBQ pork, asparagus, shiitake, refried beans, kidney beans, Veganomicon cheez sauce...ummm...I'm sure there was more stuff in there, as there always is in leftovers casseroles! None of the inside shots (I ate it smothered in guacamole) were really that attractive, but I liked the contrast of colours in this pre-slicing shot.

When the weather was getting warmer (right now it's pissing down and cold and I have a cold and it's all about the "where the hell is Spring/Summer now?" questions - though I do prefer this weather, I'm just a little seasonally confused), I made this chickpea "tuna" salad, with chickpeas, walnuts, capers, pickled cucumber, soy mayo, lemon juice, mustard, seaweed flakes, chilli flakes...and I'm sure many more ingredients - I did just end up throwing things in there! Tasted great, though, and is a refreshing warm weather meal. Served on cos lettuce here...

New Adventures with Vegetables!

2008-11-04T21:47:00.002+11:00

Sometimes I get stuck in a rut, and food is pasta/fake meat/curry/pasta/repeat the same damn recipes all of the time, and you forget what fresh vegetables taste like, look like and what wonders they are to cook with.

That's why I'm always thankful to have a fortnightly delivery of fruit and vegetables from a home delivery organic company, because I get the "surprise" box, which generally has something in it that I've never cooked with before.

This fortnight's box had broccolini and baby carrots in it, which I'd never really thought of buying or using, but have become more interested in due to them turning up on almost every dish in the last series of Great British Menu!

So I decided to make a fancy pants-esque dinner last night, using some tofu-tempeh balls I'd made on the weekend, steaming the carrots and broccolini, and making a lemon cheezy sauce using leeks and Cheezly Edam. I also had a little bit of pasta with it.

The lemon cheezy sauce was everything I had wanted it to be!! Leeks, garlic, capers, flour, water from the boiling pasta, lemon juice, nooch, Cheezly Edam and some white pepper. So creamy and tart. Mmmmm....

Unfortunately I overcooked the carrots and broccolini a little, but it was the first time cooking with them, so I was pretty happy with the outcome. Plus the tofu-tempeh balls make everything good!

Tonight I continued the cooking-something-I've-never-cooked-before theme, and made the most amazingly vegetable laden dish of numminess!!

I had two baby bok choy from the box o' surprise veges, and snow peas, beans, and two types of capsicum. I made a tofu gyoza filling that my friend Jen taught me - extra firm tofu, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, spring onion, ginger, cabbage (well, some sauerkraut, to be completely honest), Braggs and cayenne pepper - and used that to stuff in between each of the leaves of the bok choy. Check it out pre-steaming:

I decided to steam the stuffed baby bok choy, and serve it on a bed of soba noodles and sweet and sour BBQNot!Pork and vegetables. I made a sauce from tomato sauce, maple syrup, Braggs, powdered ginger, fresh ginger, juice of two oranges, hot sauce, soaking liquid from the shiitake mushrooms and chilli flakes, simmered for 2o minutes and then thickened with cornflour.

I stir-fried the onion, beans, snow peas, red and green capsicum and mushrooms, adding defrosted gluten BBQNot!Pork at the last minute and then adding most of the sauce and letting it come to a bubble.

All served up, ready to be eaten:

I'm really happy with this meal (or, more precisely, the two meals in one!), because it's the first time I've made a gorgeous sweet and sour sauce, and it's the first time I've stuffed bok choy - it's easier than it appears to be, though figuring out how to get rid of all of the grit needs to be done before I make this again!!

I've still got some veges in the crisper, and I'm looking forward to figuring out how to use them as scrummily as possible!!

Decadence is Avocado Pasta Sauce

2008-10-29T21:42:00.002+11:00

Years ago, when I was vegetarian and I lived in the Blue Mountains, a friend of mine who is a great and passionate cook made me the most incredibly decadently rich pasta meal I think I've ever had. The integral ingredients were ripe avocado and lashings of parmesan cheese. It was an intense taste and texture that I have yearned for more than once over the intervening time...

A couple of months ago I had a glut of avocados, and a can of eggplant puree, and some nutritional yeast kicking about and I thought of that taste and texture and gave it a bash. The sharpness that the parmesan brought wasn't there, but my god it was good.

I recently bought a number of avocados that have all ripened at the same time, so tonight I made the dish again - a new iteration! - and hereby present the recipe as part of VeganMoFo. The main trick here is not to cook the avocado - cooked avocado has a bitter fatty taste - but to slightly warm the avocado sauce and allow the pasta to cool a little before tossing it through the sauce. I think that you could play with this recipe as long as you keep the main experience - silky smooth ripe avocado, creamy tahini or baba ganoush, smoky back-flavour, and the tartness of chilli and lemon.

Also, not the sexiest picture, but trust me that it tastes astonishing and is very sexy to eat!!

Avocado Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 very ripe avocadoes
1/2 cup tahini
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
4 cloves garlic
1 bunch chives
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon hot sauce or 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon umesu
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
spinach fettucine

Method

Cook the fettucine in salted boiling water.

Mince the garlic and chives, and put into a bowl with the avocado flesh. Mash well until as smooth as possible. Add the rest of the ingredients and continue mashing until very smooth.

When the pasta is almost ready, divide the avocado mixture into 4 large serving bowls, and add a couple of tablespoons of the hot pasta water to each of the bowls and mix through well.

Drain the pasta, divide into 4 portions, and allow to cool for a minute. Add to the avocado mixture in the bowls and toss through well.

Top with nutritional yeast and chilli flakes.

This will be a warm, not hot, dish. You can also skip the step of adding the hot water to the avocado completely, and cool the pasta completely, and serve as a cold pasta dish.

As we're coming into avocado season, I urge you to give this lush and rich dish a try!!

Mmmmmmmango...

2008-10-26T22:42:00.002+11:00

My first mango of the season (and, for the first time in years, this is a season when I'm looking forward to mangoes - sometimes I don't like them...):

Superawesomemegacloseup of juicy goodness:

And on the other end of the spectrum (baked versus raw spectrum, that is) - a lovely moist carrot ginger molasses muffin, using a recipe from The Garden of Vegan as a base (I've had that cookbook since 2003, and this is probably the third recipe I've made from it - but definitely a great muffin recipe!)

The new garden...

2008-10-26T22:21:00.002+11:00

...it slowly grows.

This morning I walked to the Marrickville Organic Farmer's Markets (for the second time - I thought it was held on Saturdays, so I walked there yesterday - d'oh!) and found a lovely stall with organic seedlings, many of which I purchased.

I still don't have the raised garden beds set up, but these seedlings should be okay for another couple of weeks until such time as I do get my courtyard all soiled up.

Tomatoes - I got four tomato seedlings:

Lookit! Flower = soon to be food!!

I got 2 types of basil - standard and Greek.

Standard (all illuminated and backlit by the sun - lovely!)

Greek - beautiful teeny leaves:

The tomatoes and basil will be companion-planted.

The base herb everyone should have in their garden - continental parsley!

And finally for today's haul, four strawberry seedlings. These are going to be planted in hanging baskets as a way to avoid slugs and snails - also I think it will look really pretty and be something of a talking point. Additional bonus - apparently planting in hanging baskets can increase fruit yield by 50%.

There are many other seedlings I want to get (it's a little too late into the planting timeline to produce seedlings from seeds, so I'm going seedlings this year...): lettuce, rocket, carrots, potatoes, chives, garlic, onions, raspberries, beetroot, beans, peas...definitely more, but I can't remember what else I want!!

I'm happy to have gotten these seedlings, because with them sitting there lookin' at me, it's harder to put off starting this fabby garden thang...

Tofu of the Scrambled variety...

2008-10-26T21:55:00.002+11:00

Scrambled tofu is a ubiquitous vegan experience, and many blogs have featured it, but I thought I'd talk a little about my take on it.

Pre-vegan, I loathed scrambled eggs and omelettes. Mostly because of the eggy issue (I hate the smell), but also because my mother made them soft and in what I felt was a far too uncooked manner. So on the rare occasions I made them, I would cook them until dry and beginning to brown - so mostly it all just tasted of fried.

Even with my scrambled egg dislike, I really didn't get the whole scrambled tofu thing. I just avoided the savoury breakfast....

And then one day, after being vegan for a little while, I had the urge for savoury breakfast and I made scrambled tofu for the first time - and have been a convert ever since!!

Things I must do when I make scramble:

Crumble the extra firm tofu between my fingers until there are bigger bits, crumbly powdery bits, and every bit in between.
Include garlic, spring onion, sliced mushrooms and cubed tomatoes.
Have both dried herbs and fresh herbs (and/or baby spinach or rocket).
Add some apple cider vinegar and let the mixture sit and meld (the vinegar helps to break down the garlic and herbs and force their flavours into the tofu)

Things I usually don't do when I make scramble:

Add nutritional yeast (except for the times that I do)
Add turmeric
Add chilli (though I do sprinkle some hot sauce on top after it's all done)

So. Yeah. Those are my scramble guidelines - I do recommend trying the apple cider trick, it does add a little somethin' somethin' to the experience.

In closing, I give to you this morning's scrambled tofu:

Served on blueberry waffles, with shallots, garlic, tomato, mushrooms, green stuffed olives, parsley, spinach, rocket, Italian herbs, umesu, nooch, Braggs, apple cider vinegar and cracked black pepper. Cooked in olive oil until beginning to stick and brown a little.

Tasty!!

Iterations of pasta...

2008-10-21T19:52:00.003+11:00

When I'm feeling a little uninspired, I fall back on pasta with [ingredient]. This week I have done two iterations of much the same pasta dish - lemon sauce with greens.

So, first iteration from Saturday (I think).

Lemon sauce of melted Nuttelex, lemon zest, garlic, spring onion, nooch and lemon juice. Organic penne, petit pois (or baby peas to you and me) and torn basil thrown in at the last minute. Lovely and fresh tasting.

Tonight's iteration - lemon sauce as above, but with some olive oil and some of the cooking liquid from the pasta to make it more liquid, with asparagus cooked quickly with the pasta, shredded spinach and stuffed green olives. All topped with faux fish fingers.

Less fresh and more filling, but lots of fun and great to eat!!

Lemon nooch sauce is a great light sauce, and a break from pasta with tomato-based sauces - plus it takes only as long as the cooking the pasta, making the sauce at the last minute. Which is always helpful when you want food quickly after work!

Cat Companions

2008-10-17T21:16:00.003+11:00

My two girls are the most important things in my life (yes, even more important than food!). I thought I'd take a cue from Susan and devote some space in this recipe blog to my long term companions.

Lucie (actually, it's Lucie Moglet Carlos MacAllister the Kitten Cat and her Sunshine Band Rodziewicz Drew)

My flatmate found Lucie in the gutter of a main street when she was about 4 weeks old - eyes just opened, unable to walk, didn't know how to go to the toilet...I fed her with an eyedropper and rubbed her tummy and helped her go to the loo (the first time...yeah, right down my front because I was holding her at the time. Ick.) She's been with me for 15 years now, and is still feisty enough that after our most recent house move she scaled a sheer 8 foot tall fence and wandered off across the neighbouring houses into the distance. She came calmly back in response to food, but frankly, she's far too capable of exploration for a cat of her age, and enjoys torturing me with this fact!!

I have two cats, and I really shouldn't have favourites....but Lucie's my favourite. She's my baby girl.

Paw Extreme Closeup!!

The other feline in my life is Squeak (just Squeak), who followed me home one night after I had given her scritches when she was sitting outside a theatre in Katoomba. I think she had been treated quite badly before she found me, because she was a very skittish kitten who would soil herself at loud sounds, and needed constant attention.

She still needs constant attention, and has the loudest purr of any cat I have ever encountered, and she loves people and people love her.

She's a little...well, I joke that she has one brain cell, which isn't very nice, but she is very very sweet and she loves nothing more than to sit on your lap and stare fixedly at you with great love and purr in a very concentrated manner. I do love her dearly, and I feel bad when I pay too much attention to Lucie and not enough to Squeak. But she does get lots of attention from visitors!

She's lovely, but doesn't photograph very well - in fact she photographs as if she were the spawn of Satan. But here are some shots where she looks a little more beatific...ish.

Unfortunately, these girls really don't like each other. I introduced Squeak when Lucie was five years old, and it's just been a warzone since then. As they're both entering senior life (yeah, right - did I mention that Lucie climbed one of the trees in my backyard three days ago?), they're able to at least sit near each other without too much fighting and scratching. And on those rare occasions where they're within two metres of each other, I feel overwhelmed by the need to take photos.

Winter is conducive to being friendly, when there's only one concentrated source of heat.

And they often sit on the arms of armchairs or the couch, when I'm in between them as a buffer. Or where there's sun and neither of them are willing to give up the warm spot.

And those are my girls. Without them my life would be much poorer, and I think that having them as my companions definitely put me on my path to veganism. But mostly, I am utterly grateful for their having chosen to spend their lives with me, and I hope I've made their lives as happy as they've made mine.

Oh Tex Mex...

2008-10-17T21:02:00.003+11:00

I love me some Tex Mex beans. I could eat Tex Mex beans pretty much every night, and I have to work hard not to!!

When I first became vegan, I thought I would not be able to have nachos again, because I thought of nachos as needing to be smothered in cheese and sour cream. I learned from a couple of friends of mine, both of whom had been vegan for years, that in fact the cheese and sour cream hide all of the beautiful flavours of beans, refried beans, tomatoes, spices, smokiness...*drools* Instead, they had a great range of sides to go with whatever Tex Mex dish they were serving - guacamole, salsa, sauces, lettuce, tomato, olives, mushrooms...

I have passed this wonderful knowledge onto my friends and students, and am continuing to refine my spicy beans mix every time I make it. Currently it involves garlic, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, tinned chipotles in adobo sauce, kidney beans, tinned tomatoes and refried beans. It's great in enchiladas, burritos, and of course, smothered over corn chips as nachos...

This week's rendition of nachos included shredded Strong Cheddar Sheese, and was topped by a spicy savoury pineapple salsa and lots of guacamole.

Pineapple Salsa
1/2 medium pineapple, cut into small chunks
2 spring onion tops, sliced thinly
2 pickled chillies, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Toss the ingredients together (including any pineapple juice produced by cutting it up), and let sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. The salt will pull out liquid from the pineapple, so stir before serving.

When nothing but sandwiches will do...

2008-10-17T20:42:00.003+11:00

That's open sandwiches, by the way.

I have strayed off my recipe plan for the week, and entered the dangerous land of bread. But bread used merely as a base for crazed amounts of vegetable-y tasty goodness.

So, I had bruschetta a couple of nights ago. Got a sourdough baguette and cut slices on the angle, brushed with garlic and baked in a slow oven until just coloured. I made two vege toppings - classic tomato, garlic and basil (with a dressing of olive oil and, in a non-traditional twist, some umesu), and some marinated mushrooms (button mushrooms sliced, with a marinade of minced spring onion, parsley, flaxseed oil and lemon juice and white pepper). I also mashed some avocado, and sliced up some Strong Cheddar Sheese.

Et voila

Tasty breads

Mmmmmmmushroom

Tommmmmmato

Tonight, I realised that I had some tempeh still marinating from Monday night, and decided to make BLATs, but made open style. So, sourdough baguette sliced on an angle, spread with avocado, mayonnaise, sliced tomato, tempeh bacon, topped with rocket and dressed in flaxseed oil, umesu and apple cider vinegar.

So. Very. Good.

And I took some sexy photos, so here's the many angles of tonight's BLATs...

I highly recommend the miniature open sandwiches - you can get creative and inspired, they'll always look really cute and groovy, and they taste really good!! Here in Australia it's coming up to what I think of as bruschetta (and strawberry) season and I'm looking forward to lots of dinners of bruschetta followed by fresh strawberries. Yay!!

Upside down and topsy turvy!

2008-10-14T23:47:00.005+11:00

My world is both askew and cockeyed (though they are often the same thing). I just watched an episode of Two Fat Ladies, the British cooking show featuring two marvellously eccentric women whose marvellousness was tempered by their penchant for using animal products in every.single.thing I ever saw them make.

However, the episode I just watched (which I am beginning to think that I may have dreamed) featured two recipes that were not only vegetarian, but vegan!!

Admittedly, these were alongside 6 recipes featuring lard, more lard, fish, meat, cheese etc, but really - if you've ever seen the show, the idea that there were fruit and vegetables used and not smothered in animal bits is fairly world wobbling!

So, what were these wondrous things?

One was a tomato summer pudding - a pudding tin lined with bread soaked in passata, with a filling of fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil, topped with more passata soaked bread, pressed down with a saucer and tin for 12 hours in the fridge. Turn out, slice and serve.

The other was Peaches Cardinale - whole peaches poached in sugar syrup (containing a vanilla pod), peeled and topped with raspberry sauce (strained raspberries and sugar mixed together).

I feel the urge to make these recipes purely for the OMG they came from the most unexpected place value!!

Oh cooking, how I love thee

2008-10-14T20:44:00.002+11:00

So, I'm making good progress with my list of planned meals. Last night, I made a fabulous salad that, coincidentally, met the criteria for the ppk's VeganMofo Iron Chef challenge (pears and nuts) - apart from being 12 hours late. Ah well, I'm going to talk about it here anyhoo, because it rocked my socks off.

This is my Compelling Salad (named for my friend Neibi's comments upon sampling it): Waldorf with a hint of Caesar - it's like a vegan amalgamation of the salad trends of the last 40 years!! What's it got in it? Torn cos lettuce, VwaV's Tempeh Bacon, walnuts, luscious organic pears and a dressing made from the Blue Sheese, adapted from one on their recipes page (scroll about 2/3 way down the page).

I had this again today, and added fresh ripe strawberries - took the salad from pretty damned fine to OMG knee trembling good. Highly recommended. Share with your friends. Or not. I recommend that you leave the dressing for at least an hour, if not longer, before using - the flavours meld and intensify and the sharp sudden "blue" taste is not as prominent.

I came home from a grumpy day at work and set to work on an Indian feast - 2 hours later, check out the spread:

I had so much fun!! I used every damn pan in my house and have a huge amount of washing up facing me tomorrow night, but ye gods those were 2 well spent hours. My mood has lifted immensely, and I feel like I've achieved something brilliant.

I decided to make three curries: Tofu Saag, Channa Masala and Baigan Bharta. Here's the starting point (well, really, the third of the way through point, because I'd roasted the eggplant and made the ginger/garlic paste and chopped the leeks and deseeded the green chillies and steamed and blended the spinach...but let's pretend the prep has been done already, and this is the start point, okay?)

I've started getting a little compulsive about TV chef prepping my ingredients...I should probably stop watching Lifestyle Food, shouldn't I?

Baigan Bharta base - eggplant that has been roasted and peeled and mashed, leeks (or onion) finely chopped, tomato roughly chopped, and ginger and garlic minced together.

The end result, full of plump peas. It was nice, but I don't know if it was the eggplant (the first time I've used an heirloom eggplant), but this was a little watery and didn't pack the smoky punch of flavour I was hoping for.

Tofu Saag base - silverbeet that has been steamed in its own liquid, squeezed out and blended smooth with peanut oil and lemon juice, leeks and silverbeet stems minced together, tomato (my addition to the recipe) and organic tofu.

The finished product - all hot and creamy (due to the addition of the remainder of the dressing from the Compelling Salad!) and probably my favourite of the three curries tonight.

Channa Masala base - much the same as the Baigan Bharta - leeks, ginger/garlic, tomatoes, chillies, and a rinsed tin of chickpeas.

My second favourite of the night - I added sundried tomato paste instead of tomato paste, and some tamarind paste, and those two really lifted the flavours up a lot. Fresh and hot and tasty.

All served with brown basmati rice cooked with stock, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods, as well as mango chutney and lime pickle. Num. Num. Num.

The recipes were all pulled from the web, ingredients scrawled on a piece of paper, and then I guessed at the amounts of spice and additions outside of the recipes. So I don't really have any recipes to offer, but I do recommend looking up the dishes and taking a recipe from the first google page (it's what I do) and giving it a bash and then adapting it as you go.

I'm taking this in to work tomorrow to share with a workmate. I find cooking for other people, whether it be readers of VeganMoFo, or someone at work who is fascinated by vegan food, means that I cook better and more often than I normally would - I guess it's all about showing off, eh? It's a win/win situation, 'cos I'm feeling healthy and happy with the cooking I'm doing, and also I get to witness other people enjoying it, which does a person's heart good.

Tomorrow...*goes to check list*...I think either Barley Risotto or Sesame Broccoli and Smoked Tofu...hmmmm...

Sunday at home...

2008-10-12T20:22:00.002+11:00

...means making lots of foods.

Breakfast on Sunday, for those of us who work the Monday to Friday job, should always always be a treat. Sometimes I go out, sometimes I stay at home, but I always make sure to have something different from my usual breakfast.

This morning's breakfast was blueberry waffles (bought frozen, heated in the oven), organic bananas and strawberries and Strong Cheddar Sheese.

Nekkid:

Smothered in maple syrup:

Lunch was something very simple, but mucho tasty. Organic baked beans, with a bit of Herbamare seasoning salt, hot sauce and nooch stirred through whilst cooking, served with spelt sourdough piled high with avocado. Dude. So good.

I spent some time today planning foods for the rest of the week, based around the box of organic fruit and veges I got last Wednesday. Listy list:

Barley risotto with two mushrooms (button and shiitake) cooked in sun dried tomato stock
Tofu saag with spiced rice
Waldorfesque - pear, walnut, celery and cos salad with Blue Sheese dressing
Carrot, snowpea and glass noodle salad
Broccoli and asparagus sesame salad with smoked tofu
Warm salad of roast tomato, garlic and smoked tofu with barley and rocket
Beans and greens pie
Jerk shiitake mushrooms (a take on Jerk Seitan from VwaV)
Citrus tart with citrus/vanilla buckwheat shortcrust pastry
Apple walnut breakfast muffins

So, for dinner I made this:

I roasted cherry tomatoes, cubed smoked tofu, garlic cloves, sea salt and peppercorns in olive oil in a very hot oven for 30 minutes. I cooked pearl barley in vege stock until tender. I mixed the barley into the roasted tomatoes et al, then dressed with balsamic vinegar and maple syrup, before stirring through chopped rocket and a handful of roasted hazelnuts.

So very very good. I had to stop myself from having seconds, leaving myself with an awesome lunch tomorrow!!

I'm hoping to keep to my list of foods, and VeganMoFo will (fingers crossed) help me achieve that goal.

Last but not least, my ongoing attempt to create a lovely citrus tart (please excuse the inevitable cat hair):

I'm still some way off from perfecting it, but it's okay. I managed to make 2 (oops), so I'm hoping that it's nice enough for other people to want to eat - I think the lovely nutty buckwheat crust may freak folks out a bit. I'll wait until it's totally chilled to make the call, but I'm pretty sure I'll take it into work anyway...

I liked today, it was filled with slow moving, relaxed watching of cats in the sun and making lovely new foods that I've never had before. Always a good day when that happens. Made of win.

Memeymemeykins

2008-10-09T22:41:00.002+11:00

I don't think I've done one of these before - at least not that I've published - but as dinner tonight was essentially dinner from last night except on bread and minus the tomatoes, and I'm feeling somewhat uninspired, I thought I'd take on the memelistything wot I found on Iron Chef Vegan (amongst the 80 million other blogs I'm trying to keep up with during this VeganMofo - I'm failing completely most of the time - that's going to be lots of reading on into the next couple of months!)

1. Name a song that involves food in some way.

Dinner Bell - They Might Be Giants

2. What criteria do you use when choosing a new cookbook to buy?

Pretty pictures. Use of wacky grains like amaranth. If there's a mention of veganism as a way to lose weight I'll hide the cookbook at the back of the shelf at the bookstore whilst saying "Pffft bollix!"

3. What did you eat today?

Breakfast - Apple and cinnamon Crunchola with oat milk and banana

Lunch - 2 gluten/lentil/refried bean empanadas with 1/2 an avocado, salad leaves, spicy chilli sauce, soy yoghurt and a banana

Dinner - Smoked Cheddar Sheese, avocado, Cheatin' Pepperoni, cherry chutney on spelt sourdough, followed up with nutty Moon Cake and tofu ice cream from Vegan's Choice.

4. Name a vegan food that you know exists but you have never tried.

Pretty much any food that folks talk about on the ppk that's available in the US/Canada/Europe.

5. The Food Network just called and needs you to start your new show tomorrow. What will the title of the show be?

Eat the Rich. Same as my imaginary cafe wot I've been planning since I was 17.

6. Favourite hot sauce or other spicy condiment?

I have developed, since I became vegan, a huge taste for hot sauce. Technically, the hot sauce/nooch mixture on top of something creamy like macncheez OMGNOM!

7. How old were you when you became vegetarian/vegan?
21 - Vegetarian; 27 - Vegan

8. Favourite vegan cheeze?

I love Sheese (see previous post) but my favourite vegan cheez is really Dragonfly's Bulk Dry Uncheese Mix (or as I call it, Casheez). So very tasty. I am in the midst of moving from the desire for cheese flavour to the desire for nooch flavour, I think.

9. Cutest baby animal?

Can I pick, um, all of them? Kittens, yus. Lemurs. Llamas. More lemurs. And bendy baby ruminants with giant knocky knees.

10. Favourite type of jam/jelly/marmalade/preserves?

Red Raspberry Jam from Dalfour. My mum's marmalade, and her tomato quetta.

11. Do you take any vitamins/supplements?

1 x multivitamin per day, and a B12 shot every 2 months (my B12 was great until I started on my medication, which sucks all of the B12 out of my system...stupid medication)

12. What food/dish most embodies the Fall season?

What's this "Fall" of which you speak? *whisper whisper* Oh. Autumn. Um. Beer? Or more precisely, pumpkin.

13. What food would you have a hard time living without?

Legumes.

14. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

Coffee.

15. It’s 10PM and you’re starving. What do you eat?

Nothing. I'm very controlled by my special diet thing (long and boring story) and I only eat three times a day, and only with 5 hour breaks. So it's 7am, midday and 6pm feeds for me. If I found myself hungry at 10pm I'd drink some water and go to bed.

16. If you have an animal companion, what is his/her favorite food?

I have obligate carnivore cats who like occasional vegan treats. Lucie loves vegan ice cream and Smoked Sheese, and Squeak is fond of Cheatin' Chikin and Cheezly Cheddar. That's it for the vegan portion of their diet, though.

17. Worst injury you’ve gotten in the kitchen?

I have a triangular scar on one of my fingers on my right hand from an injury I got from a commercial clingfilm dispenser when I was working as an apprentice chef in 1999. I really should have gotten stitches, as the dispenser cut deeply and pushed the skin from base knuckle to middle knuckle of the finger (ow), but I just pushed it all together, wrapped up the injury, put about 5 gloves on my hand and finished my shift. I don't think I've ever seen as much blood as I saw when I took off my gloves at the end of the shift.

Gross, huh?

18. When you have a food-related question, who do you call?

Cookbooks, vegweb, ppk, wikipedia, Google. Oh bless the interwebs.

19. Summer is ending- What food will you miss most?

Or to put it another way, Spring is just starting, which food are you looking forward to? Asparagus, strawberries, stone fruit.

20. What snacks do you keep in your purse/backpack/desk at work?

See long winded answer to 15 - no snacking for me!!

21. Favourite soup to make on a rainy day?

Spicy Red Lentil and Tomato - fricking fabulous.

22. What’s your favourite combination of fresh vegetable and/or fruit juices?

Apple, carrot and ginger.

23. Favourite brand of root beer?

Erm. I used to love Bundaberg Ginger Beer (I don't drink soft drinks any more... *sigh*)

24. Make up your own question!

How do I meet Richard Till?

sings What a vegan kind of daaaayyyyyy!

2008-10-08T21:36:00.002+11:00

Today (well, after work anyway) was a great vegan day. Lunchtime was fun, too, with my empanadas, and feeding my workmates vegan cheezcake is always fun. But for me, this afternoon ranks very high on my vegan-o-meter.

Why? Because two very cool things happened. One was that my favourite vegan cheez was in stock at my favourite vegan faux meat store, Vegan's Choice, for the first time in...12 months? A really long time anyway.

And what's my favourite vegan commercially available cheez (I love making Dragonfly's Dry Uncheese Mix)? I don't mind Cheezly, but I find it fatty and chalky, and can only eat it in things, not by itself. But there is a vegan cheese that I yearn for based purely upon its' flavour. That would be Smoked Cheddar Sheese. I have been daydreaming about this creamy, sharp, smoky vegan cheez since the first time I tasted it. I am incredibly excited about the fact that it's back in stock - so excited that I bought a metric ton of Sheese this afternoon, as well as crackers (yup, Sheese is good enough to eat plain on crackers - love!!), bread (Sheese and chutney sandwiches, here I come!), chutney, faux meats to have with the Sheese...well, you get the drift. I'm really looking forward to making up a ploughman's on the weekend!!

I got 2 Smoked Cheddar, 2 Strong Cheddar, 1 Cheshire Style, 1 Blue Style (I want to make pear and walnut cos salad with blue sauce, nummy!!) and 1 Spreadable. They'll last, unopened, until July next year (ah, processed food. How you freak me out), so I'll be able to offer some to my upcoming house guests so that they too can experience the joy.

I cracked open a Smoked Cheddar and the Spreadable, as well as the Cheatin' Pepperoni and sesame poppy crackers, and had myself a very rich dinner!!

Sexy avocado, baby tomato and sea salt

Mmmmm, smoky...

Spreadable and Cheatin' Pepperoni

I found everything tasty and rich, and don't know that I can face Sheese again until at least, ooh, tomorrow...

Loaded down with the many food purchases, I came home to find that my Bokashi bin had been delivered, huzzah!! Bokashi bins are benchtop composts, with a microbial inoculant containing beneficial micro-organisms, which ferments the vegetable waste and breaks it down without any smell, and you can drain off liquid to use as fertiliser and when the waste breaks down you mix it with soil and then use the soil to grow lots of yummy veges and fruit, the waste of which you...put into the Bokashi bin!!

I've got a tiny enclosed courtyard in the new place, but I'm going to get planters and hanging pots and set up a small organic kitchen garden, and the Bokashi bin is definitely a positive starting point! I'm very excited and terrified at the idea of growing my own veges and fruit, especially since I'm convinced that I've got a black thumb, but I really want to start living as sustainably as possible, and to do that I need to grow stuff - so I'm going to give it a good Aussie bash!! Wish me luck!!

Thus ends my very happy vegan feeling day! Huzzah!

So much Black Forest cake...

2008-10-07T21:40:00.002+11:00

I spent Friday night making chocolate cakes, chocolate mousse, chocolate truffles, soaking cashews, packing various kitchen implements and generally panicking. And why? Because on Saturday I performed not one, but two, cooking demonstrations at the fifth annual Under the Blue Moon Festival.

My day started at 6am, when I got up and got everything together for the day - I had a stall as well. Got dressed in my very much dominatrix lookin' outfit (at least that's what it seemed like by the end of the day, given some of the reactions!!), and headed out to set up the stall.

Froze my tits off for about three hours by myself, kept company only by these magnificent beasts!!

There was a horse drawn hearse that had come up from Melbourne to be part of the festival, arranged by the funeral services company TJ Andrews. Had a great time chatting to the horses and their cowboy handler.

Did my first demonstration...did I mention that it was monumentally bucketing down? I had an audience of about 10 huddled underneath a cover, and it was great fun! I made cashew creme (thank you Mim for your food processor!), and then constructed a Black Forest Cake with the chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, cashew creme and Morello cherries. Sliced it up and offered it up for free and suddenly had about double the number of folks lined up for the cake!! Rolled up some truffle balls and then haphazardly packed myself up.

Oh, I forgot to mention that my dress up for the demonstration was added to with the Waspie corset, which was fabulously comfortable to work in, which was a relief!! There's a goofy photo of me, relieved and happy to have finished that first demonstration, here. Thank you Emster Graphics - Emmy was lovely and friendly and liked the cake (which is always important!)

The second demonstration came after the sun had come out and the rain had stopped, and there was a fairly large group watching me - nerve wracking. I got a lot of support, though, and only a couple of silly questions ("Why are you vegan?" comes the voice. "Because it's fucking awesome" is my measured reply, and there's a huge laugh and whooping and applause from the watching audience. Fabulous!) Free cake tends to do that to people...

Packed up, went home, got changed, went out to dinner, went home at about 10pm and essentially slept for the last two days. Watched The Good Life (and that's a whole other post for this month) and woke up on Monday morning having dreamt the recipe for this:

Black Forest Cheezcake

I had leftover cake tops that I'd cut off the cakes for the demonstration, extra soy cream cheese, cherry juice, chocolate...What else was I going to do with it? So the cake got ground up for the base, and the filling was cashews, soy cream cheese, custard powder, vanilla, sugar and cherry juice, topped with chocolate icing, cherries and chocolate curls. When I figure out what the recipe actually is, I'll post it!

Tonight I made empanadas for the first time ever, which I'm really happy with. I'll post photos later in the week.

What else?

Inside shot of the cheezcake:

A great scrambled tofu and Vegan Dad sausages, with big ole salad, that I had for lunch during my first week in the new house.

And finally - more horsies!!

Collapsed in heap...

2008-10-04T00:07:00.002+10:00

So today has been excruciatingly hot, and of course I had put off baking until today, and couldn't put it off any longer. So I am overheated and knackered.

But!! Since getting home at 7pm I have made two base cakes for Black Forest Cake, chocolate mousse (after a hideous moment when I realised that every single packet of silken tofu I had was rotten [don't ask me how] - luckily I had vanilla soy yoghurt in the fridge and used that instead, which turned out quite nicely), and a massive batch of chocolate truffle mix (which I'm hoping like hell will be firm enough by tomorrow). I'm leaving the packing and panicking until tomorrow morning - choosing sleep over organisation :-) I think everyone will be better for it...

So, yes, my first couple of VeganMofo posts are with the no-pretty-pictures and a bit whingy, but give me a couple of days when I've had some sleep and it'll be all vegan fun all of the time!

That time of year again...

2008-10-02T21:15:00.004+10:00

Hells yeah, it's VeganMofo. The aim being to post about the joys of vegan food and lifestyle every.single.day. of October.

And I've already missed a day. And this post is going to be a bit crap. But it's a start!!

So today I'm going to talk about...

...moving house and suddenly wanting to cook again. I moved last Tuesday, and for the last week have been cooking more than I have in about 6 months. I made risoni risotto and scrambled tofu - not that exciting. I made Vegan Dad's breakfast sausages and pepperoni (though I made mine with sundried tomatoes and garlic instead of peppercorns) - pretty damned exciting!! To top it all off, I made moussaka for the first ever time in my life - I'd post a photo but it did look a little like lumpy baby vomit after I served it up. Tasted like awesome, though!! And finally, my proudest moment was making coconut-lemon sago pudding, inspired by the Iku scrumptiousness. For my first time cooking sago, and for not having all of the ingredients (in that I used oat milk, water and coconut essence instead of coconut milk), I was pretty damned impressed with the effort. And have been eating it all week, because I made a metric ton of it!!

...cooking demonstrations in strange places. I'm taking part in the Under the Blue Moon festival this coming weekend, with a stall selling aduki titles and 2 performances/cooking demonstrations throughout the day. I'm making cashew creme for everyone to see, and then doing an awful lot of "here's something I made earlier" to create (in the first session) Black Forest Cake and (in the second session) Chocolate Truffles. In a pinstripe skirt, skintight naughty Betty shirt, waist-cinching corset and platform heels. I'm aiming to exude a sort of dominatrix/Gordon Ramsay vibe...It's going to be a blast!! But probably strange...

...missing nooch. I didn't have nooch in the house for a couple of weeks and began to yearn for it something chronic. And explaining to anyone else that you are jonesing for a fix of deactivated Vegemite-smelling yeast flakes is...well, you just don't explain it to anyone who isn't a vegan, that's what you do.

...Lifestyle Food. I got cable telly for the first time in my life and have found it almost impossible to tear myself away from Lifestyle Food. I finally found out who Rachael Ray is (who piqued my interest not through her own work but through the amazing dessert work of a ppk poster), and am deeply involved in the outcome of Great British Menu. It matters not that I wouldn't ethically condone or cook 90% of the meals, I find comfort in being able to watch other food obsessed folks be food obsessed and make some sort of living out of it. Plus it does give me ideas. And I'm in love with the Hairy Bikers, for a lot of reasons, but in great part because they don't seem to actively loathe veg*ns. I don't ask for much...

...avoiding baking. I should be making stuff for the cooking demonstration, but I'm knackered (I started a new job this week, tired, tired, tired).

That will have to do. Another post tomorrow, I swear. And possibly there may be photos of amusement from the festival, you never know...

VeganMofo! Oh yeah!

Great Vegan Bake-Off videos

2008-09-03T19:06:00.002+10:00

Slowly but surely, there are videos about and of the Great Vegan Bake-Off emerging.

There was a camera crew from Channel 31 doing lots of interviews, and the outcomes of all of that can now be found on youtube!! Woo hoo!! Thankfully, they edited out the frothing-at-the-mouth-sugar-high ZB and edited in the bits where I apparently make sense!

And this one is an animation of the photo streams from the day...it's awesome but slightly disturbing...

I just embedded videos in a blog post! I feel so very technological!!

Enjoy!

Melbourne! Book Launch! Bake Off! Tattoo! Melbourne!

2008-08-21T21:33:00.003+10:00

So, here's my report on the Vegan Indulgence book launch and vegan Melbourne experience.

Legend...wait for it....ary.

And we're done!

Let's do this mostly in photos, 'kay?

Thursday

Knee high [Samette style] vegan boots from Vegan Wares - measured and ordered.

Lunch at Las Vegan Bakery - bueno and mucho tasty. I had a entil burger and chips and some lemon cake and some chai and lots of chats with Lia and Liam and it was brilliant and I'd like to go back please thank you. If you're on Facebook or MySpace, go and befriend Las Vegan - they are more than worth it!! Plus, you know, whenever you're in Collingwood - eat there!!

Dinner was...at a pizza place in Altona, where we had two types of pizza and garlic bread, after walking Dallas along a bizarre beach from which you can see the refinery. No food photos (though the pizzas were freaking fantabulous), but here are some pretty pictures from the walk:

Swan!!

Refinery sunset

Rockpool

What did I do on Friday? I know I went out to the Casino in the evening with some fellow Browncoats, and consumed copious cocktails. Oh yes! I'm pretty sure that's the day that I had a pork roll from Fitzroy, and then had an Oreo milkshake from Shakeaway from High(Knife)Point Mall.

I was crap at taking photos of the food I consumed, can you tell? I was too excited about having access to it all!!

Saturday...well, Saturday was all about the Great Vegan Bake-Off...which went absolutely out of control - it was amazing!! There were about 80 people there, and 39 entries. I hated being a judge because I was constantly being astounded by every new dish I was testing!! It was really incredibly difficult, and really lots of sugary fun. I know that there is always going to be controversy over who did and did not win, but I felt that it was mostly about getting a big group of vegans and vegan-friendly folks together in a room and celebrating just how incredibly talented, persistent, inventive and overall awesome we vegans are. And I think on that level, the Bake-off was a roaring success.

Witness the creakingly overladen (still to be further laden!) tables of treats:

Third place getter in the top corner - Vanilla Slice with Passionfruit Icing

The winner, top left hand corner: Kickass Lemon and Berry Cheesecake

I don't seem to have any photos of the second place getter, Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Cupcakes.

For a more comprehensive and possibly more entertaining wrap up, go to aduki's wrap up. It's also got links to lots of photo sets, just to show the diversity and talent of vegan bakers in Melbourne!! I'm looking forward to that talent being shown off on an annual basis!!

I recovered from the insane sugar rush (I was hot and sweating and shaking and a little sugared out by the end of judging!) by consuming Lord of the Fries - a burger and a cone of fries smothered (and I mean smothered) in vegan gravy. Oh.My.God. My arteries are going "clang" just thinking about it, but I consumed that meal twice in two days and damn it all I'd do it again, I tells ya!!

Then there was beer.

On Sunday I made pancakes and tempeh bacon with maple sauce for breakfast, and then wandered around the Victoria Markets, discovered a vegan date and walnut loaf, had LotF (as previously mentioned) for lunch, and had noodles at a little vegetarian place in Fitzroy (I think - it's all starting to get a bit fuzzy by this point!) for dinner. There was napping and playing with the cutest staffy in the world somewhere in there as well.

I may have fallen a bit in love with Dallas. Don't tell my cats!

Monday was tempeh BLAT for lunch and then off to get tattoo done....and then home again because they were busy on that day and I only really finagled my way in on the Tuesday by pulling the "out of state vegan wants a vegan tattoo please please" thing. But thankfully it worked.

Dinner on Monday was $10 Parma night at the East Brunswick Club - OMG!! Giant vegan parma on chips with salad, followed by two different vegan cakes (I shared them with someone, I swear!) in a pub with an enterprising chef. So fucking brilliant. Plus got to meet a lot of the ppk crew, and hang out with Lia and Michael from Las Vegan again.

Tuesday...pies! sausage rolls! pasties! Donuts, omygod the donuts!!!

These were not all for me, I hasten to add!! I took a box of these donuts, and pies, sausage rolls and pasties back to Sydney for my vegan donut deprived friends! All from La Panella in Preston. I'm already planning my next trip to Melbourne around getting more goodies from there!! My favourites were the (unpictured) sausage rolls and pasties. Tomato sauce-y goodness!!

And finally, tattoo!!! I went to Down to Earth Tattoos in Essendon, vegan run, vegan staff, vegan inks, vegan tattoos. Yayayayayayyayay!! I got a little creature from the Moomin books (it appears under the chapter list in Comet in Moominland and nowhere else, and it looks so quizzical and surprised, that it just makes me happy every time I look at it!) It's on the upper inside of my left forearm. Lots of 3/4 length shirts for me in the office from here on in!!

I am enamoured of Melbourne, for many reasons (the weather, the buildings, the trams, the tinyness of it, the non-Sydney-ness of it), but have now got another ginormous reason. I know that I barely scraped the surface of the vegan-friendliness of this city, and damned if I'm going to miss out on sampling all of its' delights, food or otherwise! I'm definitely going to be back down there soon!

And now back to your regularly scheduled food blogging! (Probably)

Vegan Indulgence ordering and availability information

2008-08-06T10:16:00.003+10:00

So, it's the day before Vegan Indulgence hits the shelves, so I thought I'd give some notion of from where it can be purchased.

Online

aduki independent press, for both Australian and international orders
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Cruelty Free Shop
Food Fight!

"Real" Life

Organic food stores, health food stores, book stores (such as Dymocks, Megalong Books etc) - go and ask if they carry aduki titles, or contact aduki for more information on stockists.

Last, but not least, I will be taking copies for sale to my upcoming Vegan Indulgence workshops. Come along and make some tasty treats for a day, and buy a copy into the bargain!

Some teaser pics and a teaser recipe

2008-08-03T10:51:00.002+10:00

So, Vegan Indulgence comes out in ... 4 days (August 7) and I've got a pre-publication copy of it, and if I do say so myself it is stunning. To celebrate the upcoming release, I thought I'd share some photos from the many weeks of photo shoots (thanks, Martin!) that didn't make the book, and also provide the recipe for, between you and me, my favourite biscuits out of the book - Coconut Raspberry Sandwiches.

Baklava

Banana Cheezcake

Beesting

Cherry Pie

Choc Cherry Slice

Fruit Skewers with Blueberry Sauce

Orange and Fig Slice

Passionfruit Melting Moments

Coconut Raspberry Sandwiches

Ingredients

Biscuit
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy milk + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup custard powder
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup shredded coconut

Filling
1/2 cup vegan margarine
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
3/4 cup shredded coconut
Raspberry jam - about 1/2 a jar

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C/320 degrees F/Gas Mark 3. Line two biscuit trays with baking paper.

Biscuit
In a large bowl, beat margarine and sugar together until light and creamy. Carefully beat in vanilla and non-dairy milk.

In another bowl, sift flour and custard powder together. Fold into the margarine mixture until well combined.

Add coconut and mix through well. The mxiture should be soft and slightly sticky, but you be able to handle it without too much sticking to your hands.

Use two dessertspoons to form ovals of dough, about 5cm long. Place these on the baking tray, spaced out by about 5cm. Carefully flatten the ovals with the back of a flour-covered spoon to form a 1cm thick slightly oval biscuit.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the biscuits begin to colour on their bases and are firm to the touch. Leave on the tray for another 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Filling
Beat margarine and icing sugar together until creamy and light. Fold in coconut until well combined. Chill in the fridge until the biscuits are cooled.

Putting it all together
Match up the biscuits to the most even pairs. Spread 1/2 teaspoon of coconut filling on all of the biscuits. Place 1/2 teaspoon of jam in the centre of the icing mixture on half of the biscuits. Carefully sandwich pairs together, using the edges of the coconut icing to join them together.

Keep in the fridge. These will keep for about a week.

Variations/Notes
Use different flavoured jam or preserves - strawberry, pineapple or apricot - instead of raspberry jam in the centre.

Vegan Indulgence Cooking Workshops!!

2008-07-02T10:05:00.003+10:00

For those of you in Sydney keen to find out more about the joys of vegan baking and sweets making, there are two Vegan Indulgence Cooking Workshops being run by me through the Sydney Community College.

The first workshop is being held on Saturday August 23 from 10am to 4pm. The second workshop is being held on Saturday September 13 from 10am to 4pm. You can enrol online, via the links I've given for both of the workshops.

This should be a fun day, making some of the recipes from the book (and maybe a couple that aren't, but are fun to learn anyway!!) I'm really looking forward to it! And if you're a bit iffy about buying the book, come along and find out about the recipes, and there'll be books available if you end up wanting to buy one (or twelve!!)

I need a minimum of eight enrolments to get the class running, so tell your friends and family! I hope to see lots of smiling faces there!

Even more VI news!!

2008-07-01T09:32:00.003+10:00

So, Vegan Indulgence is now available for pre-order through aduki independent press!!

It's going to retail for AU$11.95, but if you pre-order, you can get it for AU$10! Bargain!

The list of recipes in the book is as follows:

Baklava
Banana Cheezcake
Beesting
Black Forest Cake
Cherry Pie
Choc Cherry Squares
Chocolate Melting Moments
Coconut and Raspberry Sandwiches
Creamy Fruit Sorbet
Creme Brulee
Frozen Banana Split
Fruit Skewers with Blueberry Sauce
Gluten Free Almond Citrus Syrup Bundt Cake
Orange and Fig Slice
Passionfruit Melting Moments
Peach and Coconut Tart
Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce
Raspberry Choc Mud Cake
Spiced Sweet Potato Pie with Candied Pecans
Tiramisu

So hie yourself over to aduki's shop and pre-order yourself a copy or three!

In other news, the flyer for the Vegan Indulgence book launch is available. We'll be running a vegan bake-off in Melbourne on August 9th, so if you want to enter, leave your email address in the comments and I'll send you the entry form. Of course, you don't have to enter to come along and give your support to all of the fabulous vegan bakers who'll be showing their mad baking skillz!!

And feel free to plaster Melbourne and the interwebs with the flyer!!

The cover has landed!!

2008-06-06T13:36:00.002+10:00

So, it's been a stupidly long time since I posted. I've started a new, hard core 12 hour day job, and frankly I haven't created anything fabulous to eat in a while (though I will have to share my favourite "greens and beans" packed full of iron, protein and calcium pie the next time that I make it), but I have got some amazing news.

The cover of my upcoming cookbook has been finalised and I can now post it all over the darn internets!

Too fricking cool or what??

For more info on what's in it and when it comes out (though I'm sure that there'll be lots of shouting about all of the stuff that's going to be happening closer to the date/s), go here:

http://www.aduki.net.au/books-forthcoming.html

Tex Mex Feast

2008-03-20T10:59:00.002+11:00

No recipes, just some piccies...

I had a couple of friends over recently for a Tex Mex Feast, and many good food noms were had.

We started off with a Five Layer Dip:

From the bottom:
Smoky Tex Mex Beans (I used chipotles for this one)
Cheezy Beany Sour Creme - inspired by Joanna Stepaniak's Gee Whiz Spread, but using Tofutti Sour Creme instead of tahini, and no pimentos.
Guacamole - mashed avocado and lemon, nummy...
Salsa Verde - using the recipe from theppk, with canned tomatillos from Fireworks Foods
Finally, just some chopped tomatoes and stuffed green olives.

Soup Course (yes, I had a soup course. I am a food geek of monumental proportions...)

Chilled Tomatillo, Avocado and Cucumber Soup, based upon this recipe (without the saffron ice - I just dumped a plain ice cube in the bottom of the bowl). Lovely, rich, creamy and filling, this tasted like a mix between guacamole and gazpacho. Highly recommended.

Main Course

I had made a vegan version of Puerco Pibil, using annatto paste and jackfruit, but found that I was allergic to something in the mix, and couldn't face cooking it or eating it, let alone taking a picture of it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make it again some day and not feel so icky whilst doing it. My guests really enjoyed it, so that's good! I based my recipe upon this one, which is from Robert Rodriguez, which is the only reason I wanted to make this, because I loved how Johnny Depp's character in Once Upon a Time in Mexico had a Puerco Pibil fixation.

Yes, I am that easily influenced by mass media and popular culture (and pretty boys). It's a thing.

Anyhoo, the other part of the main course was Everyday Chipotle Tamales from Veganomicon. Awesomely good, though finding dried corn husks was not possible - I just used fresh ones and got one of my guests, who is very good with origami and such, to do the folding of the tamales! The photo is not of the best quality, but I was well chuffed with how they turned out, so I had to take a photo anyway!

Enchilada Casserole

2008-03-20T10:43:00.002+11:00

Iterations of this lovely concoction abound in many blogs around the interwebs. Here’s my interpretation, using a cheezy spicy corn sauce inspired by Veganomicon’s Jalapeno Corn Gravy…

Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients

Cheezy Spicy Corn Sauce

1 cob corn, kernels sliced off
1 onion, finely chopped
2 pickled chillies, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Nuttelex
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
½ cup lemon juice
1 to 2 cups water
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
½ teaspoon dried sage

Other

½ batch Tex Mex Beans
6 to 8 tortillas
½ cup + ¼ cup olives, chopped finely

Method

Cheezy Spicy Corn Sauce

Over a medium heat, melt the Nuttelex in a frying pan. Add the onion and chillies and cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and translucent.

Sprinkle in the plain flour and nutritional yeast, and stir until the onion and chillies are all sticky. Pour in the water a ¼ cup at a time, mixing at first to form a paste, and then as more water is added, stirring to make sure there are no lumps.

Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, and then add the lemon juice, mustard and sage, and combine thoroughly. Bring back to a simmer, and stir through the corn kernels.

Once the mixture is bubbling and thickened, take off the heat.

Putting it all together

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Place tortillas to cover the bottom of a deep casserole dish – usually one and a half to form a layer.

Spread with some of the Tex Mex Beans mixture, sprinkle with some of the ½ cup olives, and spoon and spread some of the corn sauce over the top. Repeat until you run out of beans or tortillas, finishing the layer with corn sauce.
Sprinkle the top with the ¼ cup olives, and bake until bubbly and browned, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Sit for 5 to 10 minutes after removing from the oven, slice and serve with salad.

Snags, Mash and Gravy with Salad

2008-03-20T10:16:00.003+11:00

So, that was the mystery object….lovely vegan snags over sweet potato mash, with an onion and mushroom gravy, and a big ole salad.

Making the mash and cooking the snags are fairly self explanatory, but here’s my favourite gravy base, that can be fiddled about with to create infinite variations…

Onion and Mushroom Gravy

Ingredients

2 medium onions
1 cup button mushrooms
1 tablespoon Nuttelex
1 ½ tablespoons flour (plain, wholemeal, corn, potato)
1 to 2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon barley miso
1 teaspoon mustard
½ teaspoon dried sage
¼ cup lemon juice

Method

Slice the onions into thin half moons. Slice the mushrooms into even pieces.

Over a medium heat, melt the Nuttelex in a frying pan. Add the onions and mushrooms and fry, stirring constantly, until the onion is softened and translucent. Sprinkle in the flour, and stir to coat the onions and mushrooms – it will become very sticky. Slowly add the water, ¼ cup at a time, and stir to initially form a paste. Then as you add more water, stir to get rid of any lumps.

Bring to a simmer, stir, and pour in the vegan Worcestershire sauce, miso and mustard, and combine thoroughly. Bring back to a simmer, and add the sage and lemon juice, and combine thoroughly.

When the gravy is bubbling and thickened, stir one final time and take off the heat.

Stir sliced cooked vegan sausages through the gravy, and serve over mashed sweet potato.

What does one do...

2008-02-22T11:54:00.002+11:00

...with Not!Tuna in a packet?

I recently found, at Vegan's Choice, a frozen pack of "tuna". For some reason, I felt that I had to get it and find something to do with it.

But what?

I eventually settled on steaming it (I wish I'd taken a photo - it was a very weird oil covered pink frozen block to begin with) and then breaking it up into bite size bits, and making a pasta sauce with it.

And it was delicious! Not something I'd buy again on purpose, but something to keep in mind for future weird-meat-analogue food escapades...

Chilli Not!Tuna and Pea Pasta Sauce

Makes between 2 and 4 servings (depending upon how hungry/greedy you are)

Ingredients

3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons chilli flakes (or 1 fresh birds eye chilli, minced)
1 packet Not!Tuna (or about 1 and 1/2 cups of meat analogue of choice), steamed and broken into bite size pieces
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 cup frozen peas
1 to 2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons Braggs
juice of one lemon
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
olive oil

Method

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, and fry the garlic and chilli flakes until fragrant. Add the Not!Tuna and toss to coat with the garlic and chilli. Mix in the tomato paste, and deglaze with the lemon juice, vegan Worcestershire sauce and Braggs. Mix together well.

Pour in the crushed tomatoes, and about half a can's worth of water. Combine, and leave to simmer over a medium low heat for about 15 minutes.

Put on your pasta of choice to cook. I used wholemeal spaghetti for this, and it was a lovely combination.

Add the peas, and simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Take off the heat and stir through the parsley.

Drain pasta and place on plate. Spoon as much (or as little) sauce on top of the pasta as you want.

Optional: Sprinkle with some nutritional yeast and lemon zest before serving.

What is it?

2008-02-22T11:51:00.003+11:00

This is my favourite easy to make, quick and tasty meal. I made it last night after coming home from the gym, and ate waaaaayyyyy too much of it.

What do you think it is? (And yes, the easy way to figure that out is to read the image description...I didn't really think this through, did I?)

Description and recipe to come soon.

Recent random foods...

2008-02-21T14:34:00.003+11:00

...and bonus cat.

Gorgeous pumpkin-oatmeal cookies received as part of a ppk sponsored cookie swap (thanks, juicyfruitz!)

Tempeh Lasagne, inspired by aduki's Tempting Tempeh cookbook. Anyone who knows me in real life knows my general reaction to tempeh (picture a pea-soup-less version of the Exorcist), so the fact that I made this at all, let alone adored it and yearned for more of it, is nothing short of a miracle!

Squeak asleep in the sun. Just because, 'kay?

Badly lit and a little bit bland, but also nice, lettuce soup (which may or may not have been served with potato bits)

I discovered the supermacro button on my camera, can you tell? Banana Cheezcake.

An example of what happens in the couple of days after this vegan gets her 3 monthly B12 injection - 17 sweet dishes cooked in just under 36 hours, all for a taste test party for my upcoming book Vegan Indulgence . It was fun and well worth it!

Millet Sushi

2008-02-21T14:20:00.003+11:00

So I'm getting back onto the low GI bandwagon (and going to the gym three times a week, gah!), but I had the most ridiculous craving for sushi a couple of weekends ago. I had to have seaweed-y goodness stuffed with carbs and veges!

I'm currently favouring millet as my grain-to-replace-rice. I splurged on quinoa when I first discovered it, and though it is fabulous, I am really enjoying the soft yet chewy and a bit crunchy texture and the nutty flavour of millet.

So, I cooked some millet in a little too much stock, to make sure it would get soft and sticky, and then added some rice wine vinegar and mirin to it whilst it was still warm. Spread it out and let it cool. Next time I would probably work with it whilst it was warm. It does go hard fairly fast after cooling.

After cooking and flavouring the millet, the rest of the sushi was made in the usual way - except I didn't have a rolling mat, so improvised with some baking paper!! Worked out quite well, really...

Fillings were made: "fishy" tofu sticks (extra firm tofu marinated in soy sauce, kelp powder, lemon juice, vinegar, coated in polenta and then fried) with lettuce and spicy peanut sauce for one set of rolls, and lots of veges (and pickled radish!) for the other.

Aren't they all pretty?

Vege roll

Tofu peanut roll

These definitely hit the sushi desiring spot, and I think I'll be making millet sushi from here on out!

An actual recipe!

2008-02-21T14:06:00.003+11:00

I developed these...well, just because. They were going to go into my upcoming book, but got booted in favour of another chocolate-y biscuit.

So, for all of you biscuit fans out there, I present these fabulously fudge-y

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 20 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ cup plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup cocoa
• ¼ cup dark chocolate chips (try to find Tropical Source - I get mine from the Cruelty Free Shop)
• ¼ cup white chocolate chips (best ordered from the Cruelty Free Shop)
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ to 2/3 cup canola oil
• ¼ cup applesauce
• 1/3 cup vanilla soy milk

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius. Sift flour, baking soda and cocoa together. Add the chocolate chips. In another bowl, beat the canola oil and sugar together until thick and creamy. Beat in the applesauce and vanilla soy milk.

Pour half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the dry ingredients – you may have to give up on the spoon at this point and use your hands to mix.

Roll a dessertspoon of the mixture between your hands to form a walnut (with shell) sized ball. Place on a biscuit sheet that has been covered with baking paper. Flatten the balls slightly.

Bake for 5 minutes and then turn the baking sheets. Bake for another 5 to 7 minutes and then take out of the oven. Allow to cool on the baking sheets before transferring to a cooling rack.

These will be very soft initially but will firm up as they cool. Resist the urge to bake them for longer, so that you can maintain the great fudgey feel of them!!

Day Four...

2008-01-22T09:37:00.000+11:00

...I've lost some of my enterprising spirit over the last few days (had takeaway last night, courtesy of the boy) but am hoping to regain it today.

Otherwise, I've done pretty well with the pantry challenge:

I made bread (not so successful) and baked seitan (massively successful) on the weekend.

I'm still eating the bread, despite the fact that it's essentially dwarf bread and I should probably be going to war with someone and using it as a weapon. It's full of goodness, though (buckwheat flour, barley flour, rolled quinoa, wheatgerm) which may explain it's, erm, firm nature. Plus I made half of the dough into spiced fruit buns, and they're good, no matter what!

The seitan used some of the flavours I associate with lamb (sage, rosemary, lemon) and I used sweet soy sauce rather than standard soy sauce or Braggs, which gave a lovely sticky sweet crunchy exterior to the seitan roast. I'm really happy with it, and thankfully left myself enough gluten flour to make another one next weekend.

Hmmm....What else have I made?

Spicy pumpkin (and sweet potato) pasta sauce with fettucine and walnuts. A great standard, taught to me by an ex-boyfriend (who is now a very successful chef, which, yay!!), and used up the pumpkin and the fettucine.

Sliced seitan with sundried tomato, onion, lemon and mustard sauce, and mashed sweet potatoes.

Seitan and salad with BBQ sauce.

Angel hair pasta (discovered in the spaghetti jar after I wrote the list!) with arrabiatta sauce (tomatoes, garlic, chilli flakes)

I keep looking at the list, and muttering things to myself about eating only flour for the next month ;-) Hopefully this experience will teach me to buy more carefully...or possibly may encourage my hoarding nature, so that I buy in bulk!!

So, I could repost the revised list, but instead I'll post what I've used up completely so far:

Buckwheat flour
Plain flour
Dried apples
Peanut oil
Spiced Brown Sugar
Brown Sugar
Braggs
Angel hair pasta
Fettucine
Silken tofu
Broccoli
Pumpkin
Cheezy Quacker dough

So much more to go!! Will try and get photos soon....

I am cheating, though, and buying some additional ingredients in order to test recipes for the book. I'm still coming up with recipes, silly me! I've adapted the bavarois recipe to a creme caramel recipe, and I really want to try it. These extra ingredients don't count, as they're not for daily consumption, they're for the greater vegan cookbook good.

At least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night.

Enough rambling, more coffee!!

Pantry clean out or...

2008-01-17T20:15:00.000+11:00

...this time of year = broke ZuckerBaby.

An off hand comment from my boy ("You could probably live for months off what's in your pantry") has inspired me to do just that. With the exception of purchasing fresh fruit and veges and soymilk, I'm going to try and see how many meals I can make with, and how long I can eat out of, what I already have in my cupboards, fridge and freezer.

So, the first step was an inventory. Be prepared for the list o' doom. I had way more stuff than I thought I had in my cupboards, so this is going to be fun!

"Baking" cupboard (where I keep all of the stuff for recipe testing for the book, and other baking essentials and dry goods)

Maize flour (masa harina)
Semolina
Gluten flour
Potato flour (what do I do with this?? Any ideas?)
Rye flour
Almond meal
Raw wheatgerm
Pearl barley
Millet
Rolled Rye
Barley Flour
Buckwheat flour
Cornflour
Polenta
Sunflower seeds
Raisins
Steel cut oats
Macadamias (still in their shells - I have to figure out how to remove them!)
Blanched almonds
Hazelnut meal
Walnuts
Dried apples
Bottled Morello cherries
Self raising flour
Plain flour
Chickpea flour (besan/gram)
Hazelnuts
Pistachios
Mixed Nuts
Slivered Almonds
Arrowroot flour
Xanthan gum
Guar gum
Rolled quinoa
Dessicated coconut
Rolled oats
Poppyseeds
Cocoa
Baking powder
Bicarb Soda
NoEgg
Chocolate covered coffee beans
Agar Agar
Chocolate
Chocolate chips
Icing sugar
Brown sugar
Spiced brown sugar
Golden Syrup
Treacle
Flavours
Vanilla powder
Corn syrup
Custard powder

"Cookery" cupboard (all the things I generally use for dinners)

"Beef" stock cubes
Vege stock cubes
Balsamic vinegar
Palm sugar
Sesame Seeds
Canola oil
Umesu
Canned tomatoes
Cannellini beans
Tomato paste
Smoky BBQ Sauce
Soy flour
Popcorn
Worcestershire Sauce
Braggs
Peanut butter
Mirin
Nori sheets
Rice wine vinegar
Apple cider vinegar
White vinegar
Olive oil
Peanut oil
Sesame oil
Spaghetti
Fettucine
Cannelloni
Lasagne
Wholemeal spirals
Vegeroni sprials
Soba noodles
Spelt shells
Mac and Chreese
Rice paper sheets
Couscous
Nutritional yeast (I may have to get some more of this, it's become essential to my life!!)
Arborio rice (which I'm not supposed to eat, so don't know what I'm going to do about this)
Brown rice
Red lentils
Black Eye Beans (peas?)
White balsamic vinegar
Red wine vinegar
Kelp Powder
Tahini
Mineral water
BBQ sauce
Spices
Penne
Sea salt
Salt
Pepper
Soymilk

Fridge

Amaranth
Kalamata olives
Agave nectar
Spicy BBQ Sauce
Vegan mayonnaise
Sweet chilli sauce
Sweet soy sauce
Mango chutney
Pickled galangal
Pickled ginger
Barley miso
Sundried tomatoes
Blackstrap molasses
Pickled cucumbers
Branston Pickle
Chinese BBQ Sauce
Pickled Turnip
Tom Yum Paste
Dijon mustard
Yellow mustard
Pickled chillies
Hoi sin sauce
Nuttelex
Tamari pepitas
Silken tofu
Creamed coconut

Fruit and veges

Red cabbage
Chinese cabbage
Capsicum
2 lemons
2 avocados
2 tomatoes
bananas
2 oranges
Sweet potato
Garlic
1 red onion
2 lettuces
Broccoli
Cucumber
Celery
Parsley
Spring Onions
Carrot
Pumpkin

Freezer

Cannellini beans
Linseed meal
Edamame
Waffles
Yeast
"Chicken" balls
Spring Roll Wrappers
Linseeds
Pawpaw chutney
Coconut milk
Cheezy Quacker dough
Spring onion rolls
Vegetable buns
Chipotle chillies
Seaweed "fish"
Tortillas
2 bananas
Coffee

I suspect I am set for months.

Tonight's dinner? Quiche, using silken tofu, nutritional yeast, besan, salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard, soymilk, garlic and onion powder, broccoli, sundried tomatoes and the cheezy quacker dough as a crust. Nice, though a bit salty.

I am hoping to document this experiment closely - should provide lots of fun and bizarre recipes!!

Cookbook cooking

2008-01-10T09:37:00.000+11:00

So the title covers the range of topics I'm going to discuss in this long overdue post. Hello to the one squirrel wot is still hanging out to see if I ever post here again!! Love your work!!

Anyhoo, the last few months have been crazed. I was tutoring Term 4 at the Sydney Community College, working full time and writing and testing recipes for my very own cookbook, all at the same time. Add in some personal life dramas, and thus no posting for far too long.

But it's all settling down now. I'm almost done with the recipe testing (got about 5 recipes to go), and have discovered some great dishes while I was doing it (I'm so ridiculously proud of two: Tiramisu [one of my taste testers actually referred to the creamy custard mixture as mascarpone, which was pretty awesome] and Caramel Bavarois [I remember making bavarois when I was doing my apprenticeship, and loving it, and it's great to veganise a whipped cream and gelatine dessert...]).

I'm all set to kick off another round of classes for Term 1 of 2008, starting on February 9 (the day after I hand in the draft of my cookbook, eeek!) These are going to be organised differently, going for 5 hours over 4 weeks rather than 2.5 hours over 8 weeks. The advantage is that we can do stuff like seitan and cheezcake in the longer classes. The disadvantage is that I have to create completely new class plans. Eh. Potayto, Potarto.

A side effect of the recipe creation and cookery classes is that my desire to get creative for myself when making lunch or dinner is pretty much nil, and for the first time in a very long time I've found myself cooking almost completely out of cookbooks. And it's been great.

This week I decided to completely organise my foods out of cookbooks, and this is what I've made thus far:

Baked Seitan Roast from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Being Vegan by Beverly Lynn Bennet. It's pretty awesome, and makes a ridiculous amount of seitan. I like that it's halfway between the traditional method of boiling seitan and the easier method of baking seitan. Recommended. I'm going to try out some different flavours, too.

A couple of bread recipes from Vegan Planet. I was proud of myself for making yeasted bread for the first time, but not that happy with the look of the results. Tasty and chewy, though, so the loaves didn't go to waste.

A take on Not!Tuna Salad from Vegan Planet. Made with chickpeas rather than tuna or tempeh, I really liked this. Being me, I added heaps of herbs and pickled cucumbers and spices and heaps more soy mayonnaise than the recipe called for - all good! Served with salad greens, vegies and garlic croutons made from the Vegan Planet bread.

VwaV's Cold Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Seitan. Made this with rice noodles, and upped the spice value of the peanut sauce. Loved it.

V-con's Pumpkin Saag - I made it with a mixture of pumpkin and sweet potato, and with frozen rather than fresh spinach, and it was made of awesome. Served with millet that I'd stir fried with onions, turmeric and peas. Nummy.

V-con's Baked Pumpkin Ziti with Sage Breadcrumb Topping. This was easy to make, and nice tasting, but did not knock my socks off, sadly. I tend to go for flavours that are really strong and sucker punch me, and the mildness of this dish really didn't do it for me. I like that it's got a lovely balance of flavour, but I'm really unsure what I could add to this dish to help it suit my palate and not completely screw up that balance. Requires further contemplation.

I've still got plans to make a whole bunch o' burgers from Dreena Burton's Everyday Vegan; the Chipotle BBQ Sauce from the Candle Cafe cookbook; Caesar Salad, Chickpea Cutlets (previously attempted, but got a big FAIL 'cos I didn't use all chickpeas, I used a bean mix) and Mexican Millet from V-con; and more bread. It's going to be a fun weekend o' cookery!!

The only thing that I've been making that's not from a cookbook is my take on Chimichangas, otherwise known as deepfried burritos. I don't deepfry them, I panfry them, but it just gives a great crispy feel to the burritos and changes the experience completely!!

I've done a couple of versions, both with my smoky bean mixture. One version contained the beans and BBQ Not!Pork that I'd cooked in orange juice and Braggs, and the other contained the beans and a mixture of different types of olives. I top them with a salsa of tomatoes and pickled chilli and guacamole. Lots of fun and ridiculously easy to make.

My desire to take photos of my food is back up and running, so hopefully I should have some good food porn to provide soon.

Have fun and cook something new today!!

Make me smile

2007-11-06T14:52:00.000+11:00

I love being vegan. Love it. Sometimes I think I'm genetically wired to have reached this point in my life, and the reason I felt crap for so many years is because I wasn't vegan, and the reason I generally feel so good these days is because I am vegan.

I love being vegan. Love it. I believe that being vegan has given me the balls to go after my dreams, because fuck it. Every day you're faced with someone who doesn't believe as you do, who doesn't see the world as you do, and every day you have to be strong and proud and out there, because like it or not you are representing every damn vegan on the planet.

I love being vegan. Love it. I want to share it all of the time, and I get such joy being able to talk about it with people who are on the same wavelength, and who don't want to debate whether or not companies treat animals who are destined to be slaughtered humanely, because, hello, in the end they're getting slaughtered and there ain't nothing humane about that. Ever.

I love being vegan. Love it. I can stand in the middle of a bustling Cruelty Free Festival, listening to Steve Kilbey play Unguarded Moment, and know that he's playing this song that he refuses to play at "normal" gigs because he considers every single damn one of us in that room "his" people and fuck if that's not magic. Because we're all there for one reason - curiousity about what it means to live ethically - and what a great reason that is.

I love being vegan. Love it. Cooking vegan food, reading about vegan food, being jealous of insanely good vegan chefs, talking about vegan food, introducing friends to the joys of vegan food, thinking about vegan food, experimenting with vegan food and knowing that every day I'm making a conscious difference not only to the lives of the animals that I have saved by my lifestyle, but to the planet by saving thousands of litres of water and hundreds of kilograms of greenhouse gases - and I get to eat (if I do say so myself) damn fine food while I'm at it!!

I love being vegan. Love it. I never thought that I would define myself by this choice alone, but it has become my everything. Yes, I'm female, feminist, punk, post punk, ex pseudo goth, Browncoat, geek, gamer, ska chick, British comedy fan...but none of that describes me so much, places me so firmly in the world, in my consciousness, as simply stating that I'm a vegan. And all of those other things ;-)

I love being vegan. Love it. And no matter how often I'm frustrated by the world's seeming inability to understand that this is not a "diet", this is a constructed, meaningful, lifestyle, I am always soothed by communicating with my cats every day; by watching the birds play in the trees outside my office; by laughing at the antics of the puppies next door to my house; of seeing the living breathing sentient personality in each and every animal I encounter (human or otherwise); of being connected with this earth in a way I have never been connected to it before and being so incredibly thankful for that gift.

I love being vegan. Love it.

This post is dedicated to Sarah and Phil and Neibi, the first vegans I ever knew. Thank you.

Recipe Testing is Go!

2007-10-17T09:56:00.000+10:00

So I've set up a recipe testing site (set to "private") for posting recipes and getting tester feedback on the recipes. I've got four testers so far, but could always use more! So if you're interested in testing recipes such as the ones that went up this morning:

Orange-Fig Slice with Cream Cheese Frosting
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Cherry Brownies

then leave your details in the comments and I'll set you up to have access to the testing blog. I need an email address to do that!

I'm still going to post recipes here, but you're going to find that most of them will now be on the savoury side of life, as the cookbook I'm doing is all about the indulgent sweeties that vegans enjoy!!

Whee!! Most very much exciting yay!! Plus terrifying!!

Slightly panicked plea for enrolments

2007-10-11T09:14:00.001+10:00

There's just over a week until my next set of cookery classes starts (Monday October 22), and I'm a little freaked because I don't have the usual number of enrolments yet. Generally by this point it's either full or there are only a couple of places left. Currently, there are 6 places left. Which, I don't mind having a smaller class, but I'd like to think that there are more veg*ns out there who want to do some vegan cooking with other veg*n friendly folks!!

Sooooo, if you know anyone in Sydney who is interested in learning some vegan foods, with an enthusiastic and occasionally funny (and only rarely swear-y) tutor, get them over to the Sydney Community College website and do the enrol-y thing - right here.

Thanks!!

More photos...

2007-10-09T09:46:00.000+10:00

It's been another hectic month, personally and professionally. I've left my recipe book (the scrappy exercise book where I write down all of my experiments) at home, so here's some cookbook recommendations, some photos and a piece of news that is very new but definitely exciting...

The weirdest thing for me with cookbooks is that I buy them, and I read them, and I love having them, but I rarely cook directly from the recipes. I'll be inspired by the recipes, but fiddly about with them because I can rarely leave well enough alone. Plus, I like incredibly robust flavours, and I've found that most cookbooks don't have the robust flavours that I dig.

Having said all of that, of course Vegan with a Vengeance contains the most perfect recipes and I rarely deviate from them. If I didn't worship Isa Chandra Moskowitz so much, I would hate her due to my seething jealousy of her genius.

Speaking of Isa, here's my birthday breakfast treat - Chocolate Chip Pancakes topped with bananas, peanut butter and maple syrup (I also added a dollop of peanut butter to the batter...mmmm). Not really a breakfast meal, but damn fine nonetheless!

I went on a cookbook binge recently. I was trying to buy clothes, and bewailing the fact that all of the summer clothes I could find seemed to be waging a war against boobies. 'cos they'd fit everywhere but my chest, which was frustrating.

So I bought cookbooks, which always fit and always make me happy.

I got the Candle Cookbook from Amazon...it's interesting looking, and there are some great ideas in there. Nothing has leapt out at me and said "You must cook me now, dammit!" but I'm sure that day will come...

I also got The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Living - it doesn't tell me much that I haven't already learned from living as a vegan for the last few years, but I think it will be good for any of my students who are interested in moving to a vegan lifestyle.

What else? I got a low GI vegetarian cookbook, which inspired me to make a mushroom pate en croute (shiitake mushroom, lemon balm and spinach pate wrapped in puff pastry - fantastic!), with an unusual side dish.

Baked Rosemary Pumpkin and Apple Salad

Ingredients

250g pumpkin
2 medium apples
generous handful of fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons olive oil + 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons maple syrup + 1 tablespoon
sea salt
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.

Chop the pumpkin into 1 inch pieces, and core and cut the apple into eighths.

Toss the pumpkin, apple and rosemary together in a baking dish with the 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons maple syrup and sea salt.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the apple and pumpkin is tender. Remove the apple, pumpkin and rosemary from the baking dish, leaving behind the remaining cooking juices. Mix the 1 tablespoon olive oil, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar and apple cider vinegar together. Pour over the apple and pumpkin and toss gently.

Serve warm.

Last but not least, I got Vegan Planet. It doesn't have any food pictures (boo!!) but it does have a huge range (400 recipes!) of ideas and different pairings of foods and flavours, so that's very exciting.

I am, of course, well excited that Veganomicon is on its way - I still have to order a copy, but it's going to be totally worth it, I'm sure!!

I've been badly behaved when it comes to eating my dark leafy greens (I have a bizarre salad phobia - which is weird, because I really enjoy them when I eat them, I just dread the concept...), so I was really glad to have stumblingly created a gorgeous pesto (that isn't a true pesto, given that it doesn't contain any basil, olive oil, parmesan or pine nuts, but hey, it's an easy name to give it!)

The base recipe (which I'm still fiddling with) is spinach, walnuts, Tofetta, nutritional yeast, garlic and flaxseed oil. It freezes well, and can be used on pasta, or mixed with cheezy white sauce and poured over steamed cauliflower (highly recommended), or as a base for pizza, or to make herb-y bread to have with dinner, or on sandwiches. I'm really enjoying playing with it, and here's the first thing I made with it - angelhair pasta with spinach pesto, kalamata and green olives, and Cheatin' Chicken:

Yay for spinach and food processors!!

My exciting piece of news, which I'm not sure if I should be sharing 'cos the official formal signing hasn't happened, but I'm going to share because, you know, EXCITING!, is that the lovely folks at aduki publications have accepted my cookbook submission, and I will be writing and they will be publishing a cookbook of Vegan Indulgences - twenty sweet treats for vegans.

....

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! I'm a little bit happy ;-) Thank you Emily!

And anyone out there in blogland who is interested in (eventually, when I've bedded down what I'm doing) being recipe testers for me, please let me know - I would like to get as much feedback as possible!

Cooking adventures, quick picture heavy post...

2007-09-05T09:36:00.000+10:00

And the baking craziness has been continuing, with incredibly not low GI but fun to make (and to eat!):

Chocolate Melting Moments with Mocha Filling

Passionfruit Melting Moments

Double Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies

Really very good for you and hearty Breakfast Muffins

Various grains, spelt/rye/wholemeal flower, spices, blackstrap molasses and fruit of choice

And moving slightly away from the baking, may I present Experimental Amaranth Porridge

Oh so very hearty and filling!!

As summer approaches (vaguely), it's time to go crazy with the Rice Paper Rolling

Fillings for this one included mint, bean vermicelli, pickled ginger, marinated tofu, carrot, cucumber...you can do cooled baked pumpkin, shiitake mushrooms, lettuce...If it can be wrapped, it can be rolled!!

And last, but not least, an actual recipe!!

Baked Chickpea Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients

1 portobello mushroom per person
2 cans chickpeas
2 tablespoons Braggs Liquid Aminos
1 to 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
½ cup finely chopped parsley
1 cup finely sliced rocket
½ cup finely sliced oil free sundried tomatoes
Juice of one lemon
½ teaspoon cracked pepper

Garlic croutons

5 slices of day old sourdough
½ to 1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced

Method

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celcius.

Garlic croutons

Cut the slices of sourdough into 1cm square cubes. Heat a non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add half of the olive oil and heat. Toss in the cubes of bread and fry until they begin to get crisp and golden. Add the garlic and the rest of the olive oil. Fry for about another minute until both the bread and garlic is golden. Remove from heat and cool.

Roughly chop the garlic croutons when cooled, to form big breadcrumbs.

Filling

Pour the rinsed chickpeas into a large bowl and mash roughly – leave some big bits for texture. Add the garlic, spring onion, nutritional yeast, parsley, rocket, sundried tomatoes, half of the chopped garlic croutons and the lemon juice. Mix together with the chickpeas until chunkily smooth.

Putting it all together

Heat olive oil in a non stick pan over a medium heat, or heat a bbq grill and grease it with olive oil. Put the mushrooms onto the grill/pan and sear for a couple of minutes, or until the base is golden.

Remove from the heat and press about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the filling into each mushroom, mounding slightly. Sprinkle the remaining garlic croutons on top of each of the mushrooms. Grease a baking tray and place the mushrooms onto the baking tray and bake until the top is golden and the mushrooms are softened.

Serve with a big salad, and maybe some chunky spicy tomato sauce!! Share with good friends and enjoy the sunshine!

News of excitingness!!

2007-08-28T13:52:00.000+10:00

I have been a crap blogger recently, what with the massive flu, and then having my classes start up again (on Saturdays this time, so I'm working 5 days at my standard job and then one extra day as a food freak!), and also desperately trying to write a guest column about sweets for aduki magazine.

Oh yes, you heard right. I've written a little piece, with a couple of recipes, that will appear in aduki magazine's next issue, out on September 26. I'm very excited about this, not least because it's nice to be involved with an Australian independent magazine devoted to the vegan lifestyle!

A quick precis of aduki publishing (as taken from their website):

aduki independent press is a boutique publishing company based in Melbourne, Australia.

Our focus is non-fiction books, essays and magazines with particular interest in: community, environment, food, migration, politics, social justice and travel.

We publish work by new and inspired authors and cover topics and issues that are often overlooked in mainstream media.

And about aduki magazine (again, taken from their website):

aduki is a bi-annual food and lifestyle magazine for vegetarians, vegans and people interested in a healthier and more ethical lifestyle. Regular features include reviews, recommendations and information on: fashion, beauty, food and drink products, books, websites, restaurants, food stores, nutrition, recipes and permaculture.

Free print copies of aduki can be found at over 60 retail outlets in the Melbourne metropolitan area and electronic versions are available for free download below. As of September 2007 small quanities of print copies will be available in NT, SA and NSW.

For those unable to access free print copies, you can purchase them for a small fee from the website.

aduki publishing have recently published a couple of great vegan books - one is the Vegan Shopper, a wallet sized reference book with information on additives, animal derived ingredients and what to look for when you're doing your ethical shopping; and the other is Tempting Tempeh, a shiny good quality cookbook with 20 recipes using that protein powerhouse, tempeh. I've seen both of these books around Sydney in favoured vegan haunts, such as Green Gourmet and my local health food store, Dr Earth. I recommend getting copies, not just because they're awesome, but also to support locally produced vegan cookbooks - there are just not enough Australian based vegan ventures!!

Obviously, I would also encourage you to keep an eye out for the magazine and grab yourself a copy, flip straight to the Sweet Treats column and figure out what I look like once and for all....

2007-07-09T10:41:00.000+10:00

Another quick catchup wot contains photos, and then some recipes in the next post. Blogger, for some reason, doesn't want to let me give this post a title. Which is kind of appropriate, really.

I've been organising next term's classes - going to be lots of fun!! Made some changes to the lineup so that it's not so much about dinner (which was the "theme" for last term) and is more about taking stuff away with you (given that the classes are running in the mid-afternoon, this seemed like the best plan).

I've got a couple of photos from last term - on the last night I took my camera in, all ready to go crazy with the photo taking....and then it turned out that the batteries had died and I didn't have any more on me. *sigh*

So these photos are from an earlier class, one of the weeks where there were folks off sick. If any of the students who are in the photos are reading this blog and want the photos removed, please leave a message in the comments section!

One half of the class waiting around for the tofu quiches to finish cooking:

The other half of the class waiting for the quiches to finish cooking (notice how the table is set - we'd finish up the class with a big communal meal. Probably my favourite part of the classes!!)

Some examples of the foods my students cooked: Spinach and Sundried Tomato "Quiche"

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad and Tex Mex Salad

Chocolate Hazelnut Raspberry Brownies
Finally, as promised in my previous post, here's a sexy and very fun way to serve spicy beans (if you're bored of serving them as part of nachos, enchiladas, burritos, on top of baked potatoes, with dirty rice....)

Home made tostada goodness!! Take a burrito, press it in a bowl shape around a foil wrapped giant potato wot you don't want any more (or appropriately sized/shaped oven proof dish) and bake until browned on the edges - about 7 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool - it will harden as it cools. Fill it with beans, salsa, chilli sauce, guacamole...Serve it with shredded veges and corn chips...mmmmm....

Baking extravaganza recipes in the next post (which hopefully should take less than a month to write)!!

Catch up, catch up, catch up...

2007-06-18T13:07:00.001+10:00

....It's been a busy few months, with very little actual cooking taking place.

What's the news? Hmmm....

I've been running my vegan cookery classes quite successfully - I had a full class, but have had a couple of dropouts a couple of weeks into the class. Still have 13 folks going strong, though, which is great - and most of them are omnivores!! Very cool. Have been having a lot of fun, and am pleased to announce that I'll be running another set of classes in Third Term - August 4 to September 22. Do come along if you're interested in playing with some fun and yummy vegan foods!!

Like these ones:

Polenta Crusted Tofu Sticks

Extra firm tofu marinated in lemon juice/nutritional yeast, covered in polenta, shallow fried, served on wholegrain bread with cos lettuce and topped with home made mustardy tahini mayonnaise.

Or this lovely salad of peaches, avocado and rocket, topped with an olive oil/lemon dressing:

What else?

I've just finished reading Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World, and am feeling very inspired and happy to be vegan. That's cool.

Am thinking of putting together a pilot for a vegan cookery show - some time before the end of the year, though. I'm moving slowly.

I have many pictures of foods to be uploaded to the interwebs and written about, including stuffed mushrooms, a sexy-ass picture of different ways to serve spicy beans, and some yummy yummy choc-raspberry brownies.

I'm also going to ask my class if they'd be happy for their likenesses to plastered across the interwebs (or at least this section of it), so expect some photos from my classes soon!!

La Enchilada, La Enchilada, dididididididididi, La Enchilada....

2007-04-09T11:36:00.000+10:00

I love texmex (and actual Mexican) food, and it's always fun to find new, different, ways to consume many beans and spices!!

I've recently become very fond of enchiladas - they involve a lot of ingredients, and the prep time can be long, but they're actually really simple and the flavours are intense and gorgeous, and they're always an impressive dinner!! The below recipe will feed about 4 folks (or 2 folks for both dinner and the next day's lunch!!)

I make my enchiladas relatively soft on the spicy, so that the flavours can all shine through, but experiment with the levels of hotness - of the salsa, of the beans, of the salad...it's all experimentationpalooza!!

Enchiladas, ZB style

Ingredients

Bean Mix
1 can refried beans
1 can beans (red kidney, borlotti, cannelini, or even lentils!)

Salsa
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 to 2 fresh chillies, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
juice of 1 lemon
1 stock cube (optional)
splash of olive or canola oil

Guacamole
1 to 2 ripe avocados
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of one lemon
1 fresh chilli, minced

Other
Tortillas (corn or wheat)
1 batch Casheez Sauce
1/3 cup kalamata olives, destoned and chopped
1/3 cup pickled chilli (jalapeno, fefforoni), chopped
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 to 2 carrots, grated
3 cobs corn
lettuce/salad leaves
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped
juice of one lemon
ground cumin to taste
ground coriander to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
dash of olive oil

Method

Salsa

Heat the oil in a frying pan, and cook the garlic, onion and chilli until fragrant. Add the spices and cook until combined. Put in the tomato paste and mix well. Pour in the lemon juice and mix until fairly liquid. Add the can of tomatoes, and about half a can’s worth of water, as well as the stock cube. Cook until fairly thick, but still a little watery. Set about half to one side.

Beans

Put the remaining tomato mix back on the heat, and add the drained can of beans, and the refried beans. Mix until completely combined and becoming dry. Set aside.

Casheez Sauce

To the already made casheez sauce, add the chopped olives and chillies, and stir to combine. Set to one side.

Constructing the enchiladas

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius. Heat the tortillas (either in the microwave or in the oven) until softened. Pour a little of the salsa into a baking dish to cover the bottom.

Put a tortilla out flat, and put bean mix down the centre, leaving the top and bottom 2cm, and the left and right 4 cm clear of mix. Using about a third of the grated zucchini and carrot, dd grated zucchini and carrot on top of beans. Fold the top and the bottom of the tortilla in, and roll the left section over the bean mix, and keep rolling to the right. Place in the baking dish on top of the salsa.

Repeat with tortillas until you a) run out of bean mix, b) run out of tortillas, c) run out of room in the baking dish, d) run out of patience.

Pour the rest of the salsa over the now rolled tortillas in the baking dish.

Pour the olivey, chilli laden casheez sauce generously over the tortillas to fully cover.

Place the baking tray into the oven, and bake until the casheez is bubbly and gooey – about 30 minutes (though check at about 20 minutes).

Guacamole

Spoon the avocado flesh into a nice bowl. Add the minced garlic and chilli, and mash together. Pour in the lemon juice (and salt and cumin to taste, if desired), and mash until you reach your desired consistency. Set to one side.

Corn “Tyres”

Steam all 3 corn cobs until tender. Let cool a little and cut 2 of the corn cobs into “tyres” – cut the corn into half, and then those halves into thirds. Now you have tyres!! Set to one side.

Tex Mex Salad

Put the remaining grated zucchini and carrot into a bowl. Cut the corn kernels off the remaining corn cob, and add to the zucchini and carrot. Shred lettuce and coriander and add to the salad. Create a salad dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper and salt, whisk well, and pour over the salad to marinate slightly. Set to one side.

Putting it all together

Top the piping hot enchiladas with the guacamole and serve with sides of salad and corn tyres.

Eat until very full, and know that you’ve consumed many many tasty vegies!!

Vegan Cookery Classes

2007-04-01T09:38:00.000+10:00

'kay, this is an advert!! For anyone in the Sydney area, I will be conducting an 8 week vegan cookery course starting on May 9, through the Sydney Community College.

The classes will be held at the Newtown High School of Performing Arts, and are evening classes - 6.30pm to 9pm.

The cost is $199 for the full eight weeks. That includes facilities and foods! I will be sourcing my veges and fruit through www.lettucedeliver.com.au, and am hoping to get a couple of local health food stores on board re sourcing exotic vegan ingredients!!

The full class size is 16, and I need a minimum of 8 enrolments for the class to go ahead. You can book online here.

This is the first time I've ever done anything like this, so everything is a learning experience! If it goes well, I'm hopeful that the class will roll over into the next semester.

I really hope to see a great turnout, and a nice cross section of folks - vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, vege-curious....All are welcome!!