Vegan MoFo - Stopover 6 - Monaco

I'm back to my world trip this time stopping off in Monaco, the second smallest country in the world. Even though it measures just under 2 km in area, I still managed to find some dishes that are tied to Monaco. The first is socca, naturally vegan chickpea crepes that are also linked to Nice nearby in the south of France. The other was a dessert called Prince Albert mille feuille, a pastry filled with custard, cream and strawberries.

Socca is a fairly regular breakfast item at home on weekends ever since recipe testing for Terry Hope Romero's new cookbook Vegan Eats World, it's also become my solution for running out of bread. Apart from the resting period it's so easy to put together and tastes great. We normally love our socca with sun-dried tomatoes as well as olives and this was the first time I had been out of them but they worked well enough with olives and onions.

I had great plans for the mille feuille and when it can to the execution, everything went wrong. The puff pastry sheets were pre-baked using a flattening method I saw in this post, unfortunately mine didn't need quite as hot an oven or as long as the recipe stated so the first batch were a burst mess after half the cooking time. A pre-prepared batch of almond cream didn't turn out as thick as I was expecting. I also had woes with an initial batch of custard due to being distracted by a family drop-in and had to remake another batch. When it came time to put the few untainted ones together, I was weary and did a very rushed job. The main thing was they tasted fantastic and my decision to add lemon flavoured icing was a wise one indeed.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Did you know?

Monaco's flag is the same as the flag of Indonesia. The only difference is that the Indonesian flag is wider. The red and white colours of the flag are the heraldic colours of Grimaldi, the name of the ruling family of Monaco since 1297.

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

Purple Patch

Purple Patch is a relatively new vegetarian cafe in the bayside suburb of Sandringham. It has been on my radar to visit since where's the beef recently reviewed it. There aren't many vegan friendly cafes on my side of town and although this one isn't really that close to home, it's in an area that we pop into frequently to purchase coffee beans.

The staff at Purple Patch were very friendly and extremely thorough in explaining all of the menu items and how they could be made vegan. I had my heart set on a breakfast styled meal as we rarely go out to a cafe for brunch and was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a big brekky fry-up, tofu scramble or some home-made baked beans on offer.  

After much indecision I settled on the flatbread with lentil hummus, avocado, tomato and olives (without feta). Whilst the bread was lovely, fresh and warm and the hummus had a nice flavour, everything else on the plate was very simple and underwhelming which made the whole meal feel lacking. My soy latte was filled with a lot more foam than milk yet I didn't mind as it meant that the coffee was nice and strong.

The man ordered the chilli bean and cheese quesadillas which were made with vegan cheese on request. He enjoyed the quesadillas and kindly gave me a few bites to sample. The beans were delicious, mildly spiced for chilli lovers like us and the tortillas were lovely and crispy. The man's long soy macchiato was strong and well made which kept him happy.

It wasn't until paying the bill that I looked over the options again and regretted not trying something on the lunch menu. Perhaps a Thai curry or Ethiopian stew would have suited my taste better!


Purple Patch hasn't had a lot of attention in the blogosphere and only seems to have been reviewed by where's the beef so far.


Purple Patch
19 Bay Road, Sandringham
9598 2378

A bunch of brunches

Tofu scrambles have been a habitual weekend brunch item for such a long period when I have the time to cook something up. Although I adore a good scramble and love how it can be changed up in a multitude of ways, I reached the point where I grew tired of cooking and eating scrambles. My last few brunches have been a lot more interesting to eat and photograph so I decided to post about them.

My first effort was centred around trying out some Mexican styled home-made baked beans. The beans had a great flavour although they were tainted by the odd chewy bean here and there. Making up the rest of the plate was avocado, steamed spinach with a drizzle of lime and garlic, a grilled home-grown tomato and some delicious mushroom chicharrones. Last year I made tofu chicharrones from Viva Vegan and loved their taste but not how oily they were. Mandee from Cupcake Kitteh gave me inspiration to try this wonderful marinade out with mushrooms and I have been making them like this since as they are seriously delicious without the guilt.      

I gave the home-made baked beans a miss the following weekend and opted to use some tinned ones instead. The man prefers the sweet chilli variety with a bit of hot sauce added. Some of the same elements from the following week were on our plates again and there was also tofu bacon and some fantastic faux eggs. The faux eggs are adapted from one of Terry Hope Romero's testing recipes so I won't be sharing my version of this until the book is released.

On Australia Day, I decided to cook us up an Egyptian styled breakfast for something even more different. I bought some tins of ful medames from a Middle Eastern store a while ago after being slightly disappointed with my previous ful medames attempt when I cooked fava beans from scratch. The instructions on this tin said to "heat and eat" but I found that the beans needed some lemon and garlic to perk them up. The ful medames were topped with faux eggs, chopped home-grown tomatoes and parsley with some home-made pita bread on the side. The man wanted to know why he wasn't getting the full spread he was becoming accustomed to but I really loved this breakfast.

To appease the man, I went back to a full spread last weekend. Tinned baked beans, tofu bacon, spinach and home-grown tomatoes with a huge dollop of home-made pesto. I usually photograph my own plate but had been snacking along the way and wasn't very hungry by the time everything was prepared, so this is the man's enormous serve of the lot.

Instead of making up a chiccharone marinade for the mushrooms this time, I threw them into the remaining tofu bacon marinade which worked quite well. I also made some tattie scones which I have seen Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe and more recently Theresa of The Tropical Vegan post recipes for. I loosely followed Theresa's recipe although I didn't measure any of the ingredients and just made them by feel. Tattie scones are served for breakfast in Scotland and are made up of mashed potato, flour, salt and oil which are rolled out flat and fried on each side. Tattie scones will included in these types of brunches every so often as they were really nice and quite easy to make.      

These brunches haven't been the fastest meals to prepare but I have enjoyed having so much variety on my plate. They are generally consumed very late in the morning which means there is no need for lunch, a small afternoon snack normally sees us through until dinner. And after all this time without a scramble, I'm really starting to crave one again!

Breakfast burritos

Breakfast burritos have always sounded like a fantastic idea to me although I must admit to never eating one before. Last weekend I decided it was time to give them a try with a tofu scramble filling. Smoked tofu seasoned with cumin, oregano, chipotle chilli powder and lime juice felt like a good combination of ingredients, along with some mushrooms and the man's favourite vegetable - broccoli. The broccoli seemed a little out of place but it was purely there to keep a promise.

After making the scramble, it was just a matter of filling the tortillas, folding them up and then grilling for a minute or two on each side. I had some sofrito, cashew cream and guacamole leftover from dinner which were perfect condiments for the burritos. This was a slightly different kind of brunch to ones I usually make on weekends but it is a meal I am very likely to make again as it was fairly quick to prepare and we loved it!

Mexican inspired tofu scramble burritos

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
1/2 cup water
1 large shallot or 1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
100g button mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chilli powder
300g smoked tofu, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2-4 teaspoons lime juice (I used 4 which I might reduce to 3 next time)
salt and pepper, to taste
4 flour tortillas

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan, add the broccoli and cook, stirring for a few minutes until browned. Pour in 1/4 cup water, cover and steam for another minute. Transfer the broccoli to a plate.

Add the other tablespoon of oil to the pan and fry the shallots/onions and garlic on medium for about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the mushrooms with a pinch of salt and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and juicy. Add the cumin, oregano, chipotle chilli powder, smoked tofu, tomato paste and 1/4 cup water and stir well to combine. Cook for a few minutes until the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the heat and add the lime juice to your desired taste. Season with salt and pepper.

Place spoonfuls of the filling in the centre of the tortillas and then wrap them up to enclose the filling. Heat a non-stick grill pan or frying pan over medium heat and cook the burritos for a minute or two on each side. The burritos should be cooked seam side down first and carefully flipped over when slightly browned. Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and hot sauce.

Chilli bean crepes

Some leftover chilli beans were found hiding in the fridge just before Father's Day which gave me an idea for Sunday brunch. I would reheat the chilli beans, make some guacamole, grate some cheezly and serve all of this in crepes!

We were smitten with savoury crepes a couple of years ago, first made for us by my sister in Cairns and then at a market stall she recommended when we headed over to Darwin. My sister's crepes were filled with goat's cheese and tomato which was a variation of her feta and tomato market stall favourite. Another type of crepe we sampled from the market contained chilli beans, cheese and sour cream which was another delicious combination. After we arrived home, both varieties were on our weekend brunch menu for a while before other things took over and they were forgotten.

I hadn't really thought about making crepes after going vegan, mainly because our beloved fillings had been so heavy in dairy products. The time had come for our weekend brunches to have a shake-up, tofu scrambles and baked beans had been standard fare for a while and were becoming a little mundane. After looking through several cookbooks, I decided to try the savoury crepe recipe from Veganomicon.  

The mixture is simple to prepare although like many other crepe recipes, the batter needs to sit for a least an hour before it's ready for making crepes. Our growling stomachs couldn't quite wait for an hour to pass (we made it to about 45 minutes) but this had no detrimental effect as the crepes still turned out perfectly. It was a different way to use up left over chilli beans and we also managed to consume one or two crepes topped with lemon juice and sugar as well!

Savoury Wheat Crepes (Adapted from Veganomicon)

3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1 tablespoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1/4 cup water

Place the flours and salt in a bowl and combine well. Pour in the soy milk and water and whisk until a smooth mixture results and no lumps remain. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Prior to making crepes, give the mixture a quick stir.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high and lightly brush with melted dairy-free margarine. Pour about 1/3 cup of the mixture into the frying pan, swirling the pan to ensure that the batter spreads out into a thin layer. When the mixture has set, flip the crepe over and cook for another minute. Remove the cooked crepe and repeat the process until the mixture has been used up.    

Chilli beans

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red capsicum, chopped
2 teaspoons chilli seasoning mix (based on this recipe which I'm constantly tweaking)
1 x 400g tin diced tomatoes
1 x 400g tin kidney beans, rinsed and drained
salt, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the onion until soft. Stir through the garlic, red capsicum and chilli seasoning mix and cook for a minute. Add the tomatoes and kidney beans and simmer for about 10 minutes until the capsicum is tender. Season with salt and serve.

Chilli bean crepes

For each crepe, add spoonfuls of the chilli beans onto one half of the crepe. Sprinkle with grated cheezly and add dollops of guacamole and/or vegan sour cream. Fold over and serve!

A day of breakfasts...

Saturday turned out to be a day of two breakfasts, a mid-morning one and the other in the evening. Our weekend breakfasts tend to be tofu oriented more often than not so it was time to branch out and give something else a shot. The man has always been quite partial to baked beans so I wanted to provide him with some beans that had fresh ingredients and none of the crappy preservatives that are added to the tinned variety.

The night before I had made preparations by simply soaking some dried navy beans in water. The next morning, the beans only required a quick simmer for 30 minutes in which time the sauce to cook them in was being prepared. After that it was a matter of combining the two and placing the pot into the oven for an hour. The recipe that I used was adapted from Cheater Baked Beans in Veganomicon and after reading Cindy's post I adjusted the amount of sweetener (golden syrup in my case) to a little under half and threw in some smoked paprika to give it a smoky flavour.

This was my first attempt at home-made baked beans and I was thoroughly impressed with how they turned out. A dash of liquid smoke could also be a good addition next time around to give them even more delicious smoky flavours.

There has been a block of smoked tofu in my fridge for a couple of weeks and the way that I like to use it most is in a scrambled tofu. Several times recently my plans to make this haven't come to fruition so I decided to make a scramble on Saturday night for dinner. Tofu scramble more often than not is a brunch item for us although there have been a few occasions where it has made it to the dinner table.

Tofu scrambles are rarely made the same way twice as I usually incorporate vegies that need using up along with whatever other flavours take my fancy on a given day. Half a batch of seitan was looking for a home so this was fried up in chunks and then sliced into bite-sized pieces. A tin of kidney beans was thrown in to give this meal an extra protein boost.

After this wonderful day of breakfasts, there was no cooking required the following morning. A simple reheat of left over beans and scramble meant that both were on the brekky menu with no effort required...

Smoky baked beans (Adapted from Veganomicon)

200g dried navy beans
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced finely
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 x 400g tin diced tomatoes
1/4 cup (scant) golden syrup
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 bay leaf

Place the navy beans into a bowl, cover with water and leave to soak overnight. Drain the beans, rinse thoroughly, then place into a saucepan with fresh water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat the olive oil in a medium casserole dish, add the onions and sauté for about 10 minutes or until slightly browned. Add the garlic and stir through for a minute. Mix in the tinned tomatoes, golden syrup, mustard powder, salt, allspice, smoked paprika and allspice and simmer for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes are softening.

Drain the beans when they have finished cooking and add them to the tomato mixture. Cook in the oven for an hour, stirring once about half way through.

Serve on toast with tofutti cheese slices or with fresh parsley or other fresh herbs of your choice.

Tofu scramble

Olive oil
1/2 batch steamed red seitan (from Viva Vegan)
2 spring onions, chopped
1 small red chilli, copped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
300g smoked tofu, crumbled
125g firm tofu, crumbled
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 small carrots, grated
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 x 400g tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Heat some oil in a large frying pan and cook the seitan in batches on both sides until browned. Allow to cool a little then chop into bite sized pieces.

In the same frying pan, add a little more oil and fry the spring onions, garlic and chilli for a minute or two. Add the tofu, soy sauce, smoked paprika, cumin, carrots and zucchini and cook, stirring until the vegies have almost cooked. Mix through the kidney beans and cook for a minute or two more.

A Huge Hearty Brunch

This morning when I set out to cook brunch there was plenty of time up my sleeve as hubby was out for a couple of hours so I decided to make it a big one - and it was! It was made up as I went along, a couple of things were already in my mind when I started however many more elements were added along the way.

I began by marinating some thinly sliced tofu strips in soy sauce, nutritional yeast and liquid smoke to make tofu "bacon", then proceeded to make a vegan pesto as there was a surplus of basil waiting to be used. The pesto was made by blending a bunch of fresh basil, 1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts, 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, 1 clove of crushed garlic, olive oil (not sure of quantity) and a pinch of salt.

After the tofu strips had marinated for 30 minutes, they were cooked on each side in a frying pan until nice and crispy.

Tofu omlettes from Vegan Brunch were a roaring success last week so I made another batch and decided to fill them with mushrooms, spinach and spring onions. The mushrooms were cooked with a bit of Nuttelex, a pinch of dried tarragon and salt and pepper. The spinach had a quick burst in the microwave and then a bit of pesto stirred through.

Only one piece of toast was required to accompany the omlette and this was topped with the remaining mushrooms, spring onions and tofu "bacon". Half a grilled tomato topped with pesto was also served on the side. This was an amazing brunch and the home-made pesto made it extra special...

It kept us satisfied until dinner and there was left-over tofu "bacon", mini omlettes (which are great in sandwiches) and pesto for this weeks lunches!!!

Viva Vegan - Vegan Brunch muffins

There's nothing like waking up on the weekend and spending some leisurely time in the kitchen cooking up a yummy brunch. I try to make something special at least once a week, sometimes this can be a tofu scramble or as my crew are rather fond of english muffins they also feature regularly...

There has been a teeny bit of a obsession at our house with the awesome chorizo sausage recipe from Viva Vegan, one of the first things to be trialled from the book. Vegan sausages have never worked for us until now, whether they have been the dreadful tasteless store bought ones or even home made varieties. I would have made at least 4 batches of chorizo in the past month and depleted my supply of gluten flour in the process. We love to have them in bread with some fried onions, tomato or BBQ sauce and another special sauce that has been a recent find from the blogosphere - Chipotle Ranch Dressing. I discovered this when looking for a vegan alternative to Subway's southwest sauce for my husband, he absolutely loves this and so do the rest of us - Thanks Matt!!!

Onto the muffins... This week I decided to combine chorizo with mini omlettes based on the Tofu Omlette recipe from Vegan Brunch which worked a treat. The end result of the muffins were a slice of Toffuti, some baby spinach leaves, a mini-omlette, sliced chorizo sausage, topped with some chipotle ranch dressing. These were delicious and I will definitely make weekend muffins this way again.

Served with a mixed berry smoothie.

Mini tofu omlettes (Adapted from Vegan Brunch)
Makes about 12

2 minced garlic cloves
500g silken tofu, lightly drained 
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fine black salt
1/2 cup chickpea (besan) flour
1 tablespoon cornflour
Extra olive oil for frying

Place garlic, tofu, nutritional yeast, olive oil and black salt in a food processor and pulse until a smooth texture is formed. Add the chickpea flour and cornflour to the food processor and process until combined. You may need to scrape down the sides with a spatula a couple of times to ensure that all ingredients are combined into the mixture.

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Pour a little less than a muffin size (as the mixture will spread) into the frying pan and allow to cook for about 3-5 minutes, until it is appearing to become dry and changing colour. Flip with a spatula and cook for a minute or two on the other side. Transfer to a plate and keep warm in a low oven while the other omlettes are cooking.

Depending on the size of your frying pan you may be able to cook several omlettes at a time. I was able to fit 3 at a time in my frying pan.