Deconstructed shepherds pie

Deconstructed seems to be a buzz-word in the foodie arena these days. I'm not usually the type of person to keep up with the latest trendy terms yet it seemed to be the perfect description for a dinner we had recently. I had been hunting around for a recipe that used silverbeet (aka. swiss chard) and lentils and then threw in pie as an extra search term for good measure. A recipe for a lentil and swiss chard shepherds pie with onion gravy that Joanne from Eats Well With Others had posted sounded interesting although the recipe was calling out for me to deconstruct it.

Shepherds or cottage pies are very popular at home with everyone but me! I make them fairly regularly to please the boys even though they never really enthuse me. I don't mind these pies on the the night but there are always leftovers and the mashed potato topping tastes pretty awful when it's not freshly made in my opinion. When I discovered this recipe I thought to myself why bother going to the trouble of constructing and baking the pie when the individual components could just as easily be served on their own. The beauty of this idea was that I could make enough mashed potatoes to serve on the night without there being a need for any leftover spuds.

Joanne mentioned that the onion gravy was the highlight of the dish which had grabbed my attention. My gravy making endeavours often end up in the garbage and then the packet mix comes out to ease my frustration. Even though I subbed in dried thyme for fresh, I was very pleased that this turned out to be one of the nicest gravies I have made from scratch. This onion gravy is a recipe I will definitely come back to again and am looking forward to trying with fresh thyme!

Another minor change I made to the process was to utilise the stems of the silverbeet and cook them and the leaves in with the lentils rather than cooking the silverbeet leaves separately and dirtying another pan. The overall meal was hearty and satisfying and I was happy to have leftovers of the lentils and silverbeet and onion gravy and no mashed spuds for a change. Perhaps I won't bother with a fully baked shepherds/cottage pie in the future, deconstructed pies of this kind could be here to stay!


Deconstructed lentil and silverbeet shepherds pie with onion gravy
(Adapted from Eats Well With Others, originally from The Meatlover's Meatless Cookbook)

Wine braised lentils and silverbeet

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 French shallots, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, diced
½ teaspoon dried thyme (or use 1 spring of fresh thyme)
½ cup puy lentils (or use brown/green lentils)
2 tablespoons red wine
¾ - 1 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
400g silverbeet, stalks diced and leaves roughly chopped

Heat the olive oil in a deep sided frying pan on medium heat, add the shallots, garlic, carrot and thyme and fry for about 5 minutes or until slightly softened. Stir through the lentils followed by the red wine and increase the heat to cook off the wine. Pour in ¾ cup of water, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Add more water if the lentils are drying out during this time. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add the silverbeet stalks. When the lentils are tender, add the salt, stir through the silverbeet leaves and cook for a couple of minutes until just wilted.

Onion Gravy

3 tablespoons dairy-free margarine
2 large onions, sliced into thin half moons
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or use 2 sprigs of fresh thyme)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cups water
1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon water
½ teaspoon salt
pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce

Melt the dairy free margarine in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Stir though the onions and thyme and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the water and increase the heat to an active simmer. After the liquid has reduced by half, stir through the cornflour/water mixture and turn the heat to low. Cook for another 5 minutes then season with salt, sugar and soy sauce.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

700g potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
1 teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups water
1 tablespoon dairy-free margarine
couple of splashes of soy milk

Place the potatoes in a saucepan with the garlic, salt and water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Drain the potatoes in a colander. If you have a potato ricer, press the potatoes and the garlic through a potato ricer into a large bowl. Stir through the dairy free margarine and a few splashes of soy milk. Alternatively use a potato masher to mash the potatoes, garlic, dairy free margarine and soy milk together.

Perfect pizza

On weeknights I tend to cook relatively healthy meals most of the time which means I don't mind having a splurge on something a little less healthy on the weekends. Pizza and calzones are examples of the more indulgent meals that we enjoy on these occasions. Last weekend I had a vague plan to make pizza and wanted to use up some beetroots so I made another batch of beetroot pepperoni on Friday night.
 

The following day I noticed our freezer was half full of mock meat from a shopping expedition to Vincent Vegetarian Food over six months ago and realised that I had never tried any of these mock meat products on pizza before. A further scrummage in the fridge revealed some other interesting leftovers I'd forgotten that had potential pizza toppings written all over them - tofu bacon and tempeh burgers. The original plan of a beetroot pepperoni pizza was transforming into a vegan meat lovers pizza before I knew it which sounded even more interesting!

After layering the pizza base with tomato paste, chopped onions and garlic, on went the mushrooms, beetroot pepperoni and tofu bacon. Next up was the "chicken" mock meat, chopped up tempeh burgers, a drizzle of BBQ sauce, followed by a layer of cheezly. This was the tastiest and most delicious vegan pizza that I've made and we all enjoyed it so much. Even though it didn't have the healthiest toppings, it's not a combination I can see happening around here again unless of course I'm graced with the same leftover ingredients at the same time.

Four ways with bratwursts

Over the past month we have become smitten with bratwursts, vegan ones of course! My interest in bratwursts began when Joey of Flicking the V's posted about a tasty sounding European stew she had made based on a recipe in The Guardian. A few months later Cindy and Michael of where's the beef wrote a post from their travels in Berlin that gave me a severe case of food envy. They had eaten doner kebabs where the seitan was cooked on a spit and currywurst. I had never heard of currywurst previously but vegan sausages covered with a curry ketchup sauce sounded pretty darn tasty to me.

Now that there were two recipes using bratwurst I was keen on trying, a decent vegan bratwurst recipe was all that I needed. Mihl of Seitan is my Motor came through with the goods in a single post, a currywurst recipe plus seitan bratwurst. The seitan was a little different to others I have made as it included tofu in the mixture, I've seen plenty that incorporate mashed beans but never tofu and my eyes brightened even more when I noticed that it called for smoked tofu! I'm not fond of mashing things to put into seitan as the texture of the dough can be uneven and harder to work with so I chose to whizz the tofu up in my blender with some water instead. The smoked tofu gave the bratwursts a wonderful aroma as well as adding to the flavour.

The bratwurst stew recipe from The Guardian was full of many elements that we usually enjoy although I don't recall pairing mustard with sun-dried tomatoes before. This was a very hearty meal and apart from using finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes rather than a paste, vegan sausages and vegan chicken stock, I didn't change a thing about it. Stews don't usually get my gents enthused although anything with seitan is usually popular so we all enjoyed this meal.

Next up on the cooking agenda was currywurst and chips. It's not meant to be the healthiest of meals and is usually served with fried chips. I lightened it up by serving the saucy sausages with some oven baked potato fries and peas on the side. The currywurst sauce was rather spicy using only a pinch of cayenne so perhaps the curry powder I used gave it some extra heat. This meal was another household success!

A few weeks after the batch of sausages were used up, the man asked if I could make bratwursts for a special request. He was keen to have one of these sausages in a hot dog roll loaded with fried onions, vegan cheese, ketchup and american mustard. This turned out to be a wonderful idea and it was perfect for a quick, not so healthy dinner on a Friday night. I wasn't in the mood to style the hot dog nicely which is why I don't have a photo of this.

I was out of smoked tofu when the second batch of bratwursts were made so I used plain tofu instead and added smoked paprika to the dry ingredient mix which worked out fine. A recipe for bratwurst stroganoff from taste.com.au landed in my rss reader just after I had made the batch and given the perfection of the timing, I had to give it a try. When I read the ingredient list I smirked a little as it was so far from being vegan yet I had bits of leftover cashew cream, tofu bacon in the fridge and of course the seitan sausages to stand in for the animal based products. The man adored my recent attempt at tempeh stroganoff although the young man and I weren't as keen on it so it was great that we all loved this version equally.

All of these recipes were very quick to prepare as the seitan had been prepared at least a day in advance.  Next time I make a batch it will be difficult to decide which way to serve these bratwursts as these 4 ways were all fantastic.


Seitan bratwurst (Adapted from seitan is my motor)
Makes 8 large sausages

2 cups gluten flour
4 tablespoons chickpea flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
4 teaspoons dried marjoram
2 teaspoons onion flakes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons smoked paprika (if not using smoked tofu)
130g firm tofu (use smoked if possible)
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
400ml cold water

Combine the gluten flour, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, marjoram, onion flakes, salt, pepper and smoked paprika (if using) together in a large bowl. Place the tofu, garlic and water in a blender and process until no lumps remain. Pour the contents of the blender into the bowl and mix everything together thoroughly.  Knead the dough until it becomes smooth then allow it to rest for 5 minutes.

Briefly knead for 30 seconds then divide the dough into 8 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a thin sausage shape, place it in a piece of aluminium foil and wrap it up securely. It's important that there is some room for the sausages to expand whilst cooking so don't wrap them too tightly otherwise they may burst out of the foil.

Place the sausages into a steamer and cook for 30 minutes or cook in the oven at 180C for 30 minutes. Allow them to cool completely then refrigerate overnight before using in recipes.


Currywurst (Adapted from seitan is my motor)

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 seitan bratwurst sausages, cut into 2cm pieces
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons curry powder
pinch cayenne pepper

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat and add the sausages. Cook until lightly browned then flip over and cook on the other side until browned.

Mix the ketchup, water, soy sauce, curry powder and cayenne pepper together in a small saucepan and cook on a low heat for 1 minute.

Serve the fried sausages topped with the curry ketchup sauce and chips on the side.


Sausage stroganoff (Adapted from taste.com.au)

olive oil spray
4 seitan bratwurst sausages, cut into 2cm pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, sliced into thin half moons
3 cloves garlic, minced
350g mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ cup tomato paste
1 cup vegan beef or vegetable stock (I used Massel beef stock)
8 slices pre-cooked tofu bacon, chopped
¼ cup cashew cream
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
salt and pepper

Heat a deep sided frying pan over medium heat and spray lightly with olive oil. Cook the sausages until lightly browned on one side then flip over and brown lightly on the other side. Transfer the cooked sausages to a plate.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan, add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir through the garlic for a minute, then add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft and beginning to release liquid. Add the paprika, tomato paste, beef/vegetable stock, pre-cooked sausages and tofu bacon and stir thoroughly. Allow it to cook until bubbling then stir though the cashew cream and dill. Season with salt and pepper.

A series of scrambles (part 2)

The man and I have been holiday deprived for what feels like forever and with a new pup in our care the situation wasn't looking like it was about to change any time soon. Our compromise was to find some pet friendly accommodation and head off for a 5 day long weekend for a bit of relaxation time. We found a suitable cottage for us in Johanna Beach, 30 minutes out of Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road which was a small pocket in that region we had yet to explore.

When it comes to holidaying I like to be prepared when it comes to food. On this occasion I spent all of my time and energy organising meals that the young man could reheat with minimal fuss as he wasn't coming away with us. As we were going to be self catering during the trip it felt like I was relocating most of the kitchen although I did try to be strict and limit our supplies to a few tins of beans, rice, bread, a couple of dried herbs and spices, tofu, soy milk and of course, plenty of fresh fruit and veg. The food I ended up cooking was fairly simple yet it all tasted great. Some of the meals we enjoyed were a thrown together tofu and vegetable curry which lasted a couple of nights, chorizo sausages in hot dog rolls and fried onions, sandwiches for lunches and one of our favourite tofu scrambles.

This Mediterranean styled scramble isn't one of the young man's favourite versions as he detests olives and isn't very fond of sun-dried tomatoes so it was the perfect time for the man and I to have another fix. It was originally made up on a night when there was a household of adolescent males over eating pizza and watching a football game so I wanted to throw something quick together for the two of us. At the time I wasn't sure if I would be able to replicate the meal as I hadn't taken notes or measured anything but it's pretty much worked out the same on a couple of subsequent occasions. I love the flavours of oregano, basil pesto, olives and sun-dried tomatoes in this scramble and the mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach all blend in nicely.

Ollie seemed to enjoy his holiday just as much as we did and loved going to the beach and having his first swim. We also managed to see a few sights like the 12 Apostles and glow worms at night in Melba Gully. It wasn't the longest break but it was wonderful to wind down and recharge our batteries for a bit. Now to catch up on all of those blog posts I've missed reading lately!

This is the second part of my scramble series. Click here to read about my Mexican inspired scramble.


Mediterranean tofu scramble

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small brown onion, sliced into thin half moons
2 cloves garlic, minced
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
350g firm tofu
2 medium tomatoes, diced
15-20 kalamata olives, cut into halves
50g sun-dried tomato slices, drained of excess oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
2 teaspoons basil pesto
75g baby spinach leaves
3 spring onions, sliced (optional)
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry the onion until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir through the garlic for a minute then add the mushrooms and cook until soft. Crumble in the tofu followed by the oregano and stir until everything is combined.

 Add the tomatoes, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, water, salt and basil pesto and allow to cook until the tomatoes are soft and almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Stir through the spinach and spring onions (if using) and serve immediately with some freshly cracked black pepper when the spinach has just wilted.

Borscht and pretzels

Borscht has been on my cooking to-do list for such a long time. I'm not quite sure why I wanted to try it so badly, was it the brilliant colour calling out to me or an opportunity to build up my repertoire of beetroot recipes? Certain things about borscht didn't really appeal to me, like serving it cold. Chilled soups are something I'm yet to get my head around and muster the guts to try, perhaps on a hot summer day when it makes a bit more sense. Warm hearty soups are what I need in the middle of winter in Melbourne.

I had been eyeing off a borscht recipe in World Vegetarian Classics for ages yet it seemed a bit too chunky for my liking. A few weeks ago Johanna posted a version that was mostly blended, I preferred the sound of this texture so I used both sources for inspiration and came up with something in between the two. Cashew based creams have been my preferred replacement for dairy sour cream for ages but as there was some silken tofu that needed to be used quickly I whizzed up a tofu/cashew cream to serve with the soup instead.

After sampling pretzels at Gasometer recently, I was keen to give them a try at home and tracked down a recipe on Peas and Thank You. This seemed like the perfect occasion to make them! I was playing a dangerous game by serving soup for dinner (which is generally frowned upon) and thought that some freshly baked pretzels might win me back some brownie points.

Mama Pea's recipe was written using a stand mixer with a dough hook which I don't own so I changed the process around to suit a traditional kneading method and used my prior bread making knowledge and judgement at times. After the dough had been kneaded, rested, rolled out and shaped, the pretzels had to be boiled for 30 seconds prior to baking. This is similar to a step I've read about in bagel recipes. The only problem was that I forgot to add bicarbonate of soda to the boiling water which is supposed to give the pretzels their shine and colour!

Similar to Gasometer's pretzels, I topped mine with coarse sea salt and caraway seeds and served them with vegan mustard butter - a mixture of dairy free margarine and seeded mustard. The boys weren't very keen on the soup but they loved their pretzels. Borscht isn't going to become one of my favourite soups but I did enjoy it's earthy flavour and was happy to eat the leftovers for lunches. On the other hand the pretzels were an absolute highlight that I'll definitely have to make again, perhaps a little shinier next time.     

Borscht - Beetroot soup with kidney beans and cabbage (Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe and World Vegetarian Classics)

1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
3 medium (500g) beetroot, diced
1 large (200g) potato, diced
1 large (200g) carrot, diced
4 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
1 x 400g tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
¼ small head green cabbage, finely shredded
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
300g silken tofu
½ cup cashews
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
Finely chopped fresh dill, for garnish
Freshly cracked black pepper

Place the onion, garlic, beetroot, potato, carrots, water and salt in a stockpot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

Meanwhile place the tofu, cashews, lemon juice and salt in a blender and process until no chunks of cashews remain. Transfer the contents to a bowl and refrigerate. Rinse out the blender.

After the soup has simmered for an hour, transfer batches to the blender and process until smooth. Return the blended soup to the stockpot and reheat gently. Add the kidney beans, cabbage and red wine vinegar and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the cabbage has just softened. Serve garnished with the tofu/cashew cream, dill and freshly cracked black pepper.


Pretzels (Adapted from Peas and Thank You)
Makes 4 large pretzels

1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons raw sugar
1 teaspoon dried yeast
¾ cup lukewarm water
2 ½ cups plain flour
2 tablespoon dairy free margarine, melted
10 cups water
2/3 cup bicarbonate of soda (I forgot to add it this time!)
Coarsely ground sea salt
½-1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Dissolve the salt and sugar in a jug containing ¾ cup lukewarm water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes or until the yeast starts to look foamy.

Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the contents of the jug into the well, followed by the margarine and mix the ingredients with your hands to form a rough dough. Turn the dough out onto a clean floured bench and knead for at least 5 minutes or until the dough is soft and supple. Rest the dough in an oiled bowl covered with a tea towel for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Cut the dough into 4 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece of dough out into long thin strands using your hands, each piece should be approximately 60cm long. Shape each piece of dough into a pretzel knot and press the knots together gently so they do come apart during the boiling process.

Preheat oven to 230C. Bring 10 cups of water plus 2/3 cup bicarbonate of soda to the boil and line an oven tray with baking paper (I didn't use baking paper and one of the pretzels stuck to the oiled tray so I would highly recommended using it). Gently lower a pretzel into the boiling water and allow to cook for 30 seconds. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon and place on the oven tray. Repeat for the other 3 pretzels.

Bake the pretzels in the oven for 12-14 minutes until golden brown.

Soup, casserole, cake and a new family member

Life has been a little crazy over the past couple of weeks which means that blogging has taken a backseat. There are so many posts I would love to be writing as I've been cooking up plenty of interesting meals, unfortunately there aren't enough hours in the day so I haven't had the time to follow most of them up with a blog post.

Our time has largely been devoted to our new family member Ollie. Long time readers of my blog may remember the heartache we experienced last year with our dog Jasper after he was diagnosed with a bone cancer. Jasper successfully went through a hind leg amputation and lived an active and happy 6 months before deteriorating rapidly when the cancer spread to his lungs. It was a devastating experience and has taken almost a year for us to feel ready to accept another dog into our home.

We went through a lengthy period of attempting to adopt a dog via various rescue organisations. After a lot of waiting, red tape and many close calls we ended up finding an older puppy outside of these organisations that was in just as much need, if not more, of a good caring home. A group of young international students had purchased a border collie puppy from a breeder obviously without having any knowledge of dogs or this particular breed of working dog. The pup had been confined to the inside of their house for 5 months, was never walked, trained or even desexed and had developed into a bundle of frenetic energy that just wanted to jump all over people. They were so desperate to get rid of the problem they had unknowingly created and didn't even bother to say goodbye when we took him off their hands!

In just over a week with us Ollie has learnt to stop jumping on people (most of the time), walk on the lead, sit, stay, drop and go to his bed. He is a sweet pup that is very eager to please but there are still a lot of areas where he needs work, including learning not to chase our dear old cat Monty! It has been an exhausting period as he can be the equivalent of a badly behaved toddler at times although it is wonderful to have a canine companion around the house again.

A couple of weekends ago I pulled up some more borage plants to make soup. This dark green soup was very basic and adapted from an old celtic recipe which we initially enjoyed and likened the flavour of the borage to spinach. Unfortunately the leftovers didn't fare as well! The following day the soup was very thick and set like jelly. It thinned out a little after it was reheated although the flavour wasn't as nice as it had been on the first day. The man thought that it tasted like egg yolk and although we did finish our bowls I'm not sure that I would use borage this way again.

The other night I baked a tortilla casserole to use up some very old corn tortillas that had been in the fridge for ages. I made the tortilla casserole from Viva Vegan a while ago and didn't have the right ingredients for it this time so I created my own version. Rather than topping it with a creamy nut/tofu based sauce, I crumbled some plain corn chips followed by grated cheezly. The sauce that was spread within the tortillas included pinto beans, corn kernels and diced mushrooms. I love the concept of a tortilla casserole as it's like a Mexican styled lasagne, this recipe is simple and versatile as it could be changed up to suit whatever vegetables or beans happen to be on hand. This meal was fantastic and just as tasty as I recall the one in Viva Vegan, it's definitely something I'll be repeating again as it was a hit with all of us.

A recent acquisition to my ever growing pile of cookbooks is World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Grogan. I wrote about Bryanna's delicious tofu "fish" fingers recently which is a recipe that is posted on her blog. I have made a handful of recipes from World Vegan Feast recently and they have all been fantastic. I had been eyeing off a recipe for a lebanese semolina cake with lemon syrup from the book and ended up making it with limes as my mother in law gave me heaps from her tree. The semolina cake which is also known as sfoof was supposed to be topped with slivered almonds and as there were none in the house I used some chopped pistachios instead. This cake had a nice tangy flavour from the syrup, a different texture from the semolina and it was so lovely and moist. The syrup is supposed to keep the cake fresher for a longer period. I'm not sure we will be able to test that theory as I have a feeling that it won't last long around here.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back into more regular blogging soon, for the time being I'll leave you with these three recipes.

Borage soup (Adapted from a recipe on celtnet)

2 tablespoons dairy free margarine
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup basmati rice
4 cups vegan chicken stock (I used Massel stock powder)
450g borage leaves, washed thoroughly
½ cup cashews
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
Salt and pepper, to taste
Garnish borage flowers

Melt the margarine in a stockpot over medium heat and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the rice and stir thoroughly so that all of the grains are coated. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Stir through the borage leaves and allow to cook for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the cashews, water, lemon juice and salt in a blender and process until a smooth paste results. Stop the blender and scraping down the sides a few times if necessary. Transfer the contents to a bowl and refrigerate. Rinse out the blender with warm water.

When the borage has cooked for 20 minutes, transfer the contents of the pot to the blender and process in batches until it is completely smooth. Return the blended soup to the stockpot and reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the soup ladled into bowl with a dollop of the cashew cream, garnished with borage flowers.


Tortilla casserole (Inspired by Viva Vegan)

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
150 g mushrooms, diced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 heaped teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 x 400g tin pinto beans, drained and rinsed
400g fresh tomatoes, chopped (or use a tin)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup water
½ teaspoon smoked salt (or use regular)
6 small corn tortillas (15cm diameter), cut into halves
Large handful of plain corn chips
100g cheezly, grated
Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and salsa picante

Preheat oven to 180C.

Heat the oil in a deep sided frying pan over medium heat, add the onion and fry for about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the garlic for a minute, then add the mushrooms and cook until softened. Add the cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika and stir until fragrant then add the corn kernels, pinto beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, water and smoked salt. Allow to cook for 10 minutes.

Spread a thin layer of the sauce in the bottom of a 20cm x 20cm baking dish and layer a couple of tortillas on top. Repeat the layering another 2 times finishing with the sauce on top. Crumble a large handful of corn chips on top followed by grated cheezly. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes then remove the foil and bake for a further 10 minutes. Serve with cashew cream, guacamole and salsa picante.


Sfoof - Lebanese semolina cake with lime syrup (Adapted from World Vegan Feast)

¾ cup raw sugar
¾ cup water
grated zest of 1 lime
juice of 4 limes (about 2/3 cup)
½ cup pastry flour (low gluten)
1½ cups fine semolina
1 teaspoon turmeric
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups raw sugar
1 cup soy milk
zest of 1 lime
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup pistachios, chopped roughly

Place the sugar, water and lime zest in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir through the lime juice thoroughly, then pour the contents into a jug and refrigerate until required.

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper and grease lightly with dairy free margarine. Combine the pastry flour, semolina, turmeric, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. With a hand held mixer, beat together the soy milk, sugar and lime zest in a large bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Add the contents of the small bowl and the oil and beat at medium speed for 5 minutes. Pour the batter into the cake tin and sprinkle the chopped pistachios on top. Bake for 35 minutes on until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 10 minutes, then remove carefully from the tin. Using a bamboo skewer, pierce small holes all over the top of the cake then pour the cooled lime syrup on top.

A series of scrambles (part 1)

Tofu scrambles are one of the most popular meals in our house so I make them on a fairly regular basis. I hardly ever cook them for brunches these days and prefer to whip one up as a casual dinner. If it's a tried, tested and previously loved formula then I usually make an enormous batch as the leftovers are fantastic for work lunches throughout the week.

I haven't blogged much about tofu scrambles before so I figured it was time to start posting a few of my scramble recipes starting with the household favourite, a Mexican inspired tofu scramble. This scramble has been made several times over the past year with many tweaks along the way and I'm pleased to have recorded the recipe now so I can refer back to it next time I'm making a batch.

Broccoli is hardly an authentic Mexican ingredient but try telling that to the man who insists that it goes into almost every scramble I make! I love to include lots of vegetables and find that sliced mushrooms, grated carrot (sometimes also zucchini) and spinach leaves thrown in at the end are barely noticeable. The equivalent of a tin of red kidney, black or pinto beans are always an addition which give the meal an even bigger protein boost. As you can see in the photo below, my large deep sided frying pan is so full at the end it can be quite a struggle to stir the final ingredients through without making a mess.

The recipe has been written with a few variations in the ingredients. I don't always have smoked tofu on hand but the scramble works just as well with plain tofu and some extra smoked paprika. I normally use 2 teaspoons of chipotle chilli powder which makes it fairly hot, 1 teaspoon is quite mild if you are not a spice fiend. A hot sauce like salsa picante or sriracha is wonderful drizzled over your serve if you require an extra kick.

So that's it for part 1! I haven't set myself a timeline nor do I know how many of these posts I'll be writing at this stage. There are a few more that are ready to go in the recipe sense and plenty of other different scramble ideas floating around in my head.


Mexican inspired tofu scramble

1 head broccoli, cut into small florets and stalk sliced into bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, sliced into half moons
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
250g button or portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1-2 teaspoons chipotle chilli powder
1-2 teaspoons smoked paprika (use 1 teaspoon if using smoked tofu, 2 if using plain tofu)
2 x 350g packets firm tofu (or 1 x 350g plain tofu, 1 x 300g smoked tofu)
2 medium carrots, grated
1/3 cup tomato paste
½ cup water
1 x 400g tin red kidney beans, pinto or black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons lime juice
½ teaspoon salt (it may need a little more salt if not using smoked tofu)
freshly ground black pepper
75g baby spinach leaves

Lightly steam the broccoli and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large deep sided frying pan, add the onions and fry over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until soft. Stir through the garlic for a minute then add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft and beginning to release liquid. Add the cumin, oregano, chipotle chilli powder and smoked paprika and stir for a minute, then crumble in the tofu with your hands. If using smoked tofu, chop this into very small cubes as it doesn't crumble well.

Add the carrot, tomato paste and water and stir thoroughly. Allow the liquid to cook off which should take between 3 to 5 minutes, then stir through your choice of beans, steamed broccoli, lime juice, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Finally stir through the spinach leaves until just wilted and serve immediately.

Bloggers night out at Gasometer

I haven't been using Twitter very long and am not in the habit of constantly checking up on the numerous tweets that people send out frequently so it was fortunate that I happened to be checking my Twitter page right when Theresa of The Tropical Vegan announced that she was coming to Melbourne. Theresa was travelling for work and her arrival on a Sunday night meant that she was free for a dinner date. After a bit of tweeting back and forth dinner was arranged at Gasometer.

It was wonderful to meet up with the lovely Theresa as I have been reading her posts for a couple of years and enjoy her recipes as well as hearing about gardening and house projects and more generally life in the tropics (Townsville) because I am quite fond of the Far North Queensland region. Which is exactly what we spent our time chatting about as well as our families, jobs, pets and of course, veganism, food and blogging.

Theresa had her heart set on the pastrami burger which is the perfect choice for an out of towner. I chose to try something different and ordered the broccoli, spinach and leek pancake with roasted root vegetables. The pancakes were light and delicious, the combination of greens in the filling tasted fantastic, the flavour of the leeks was apparent without being overwhelming and the creamy paprika spiked sauce on top brought it together perfectly. An even nicer surprise were the roasted vegetables on the side, the potatoes, beetroot, carrots, garlic and beans were delicious, cooked to perfection and presented attractively on the plate. This was the largest quantity of vegetables I've had in a meal at Gasometer.

When Theresa and I said our farewells, we both had little surprises in store for each other. Theresa made this adorable elephant for me as a thank you which has the sweetest little tail, gorgeous eyes and just look at that big long trunk. I haven't come up with a name for him/her yet but I really think it needs one. 

In the afternoon, I made a tangy lemon slice which was a recipe I had bookmarked from Kari of bite sized thoughts. I won't bother posting the recipe as I didn't change anything apart from adding a bit of lemon zest to the base. The only issue was I hadn't taken note that the slice needed to be refrigerated 2 to 4 hours prior to slicing. With just under an hour to spare, I whacked it in the freezer for a bit which seemed to suffice. I brought along some of the slice for Theresa in case she was in need of a sweet snack during her stay in Melbourne.

It's always a fantastic experience to meet up with other bloggers even for a shy introvert like me. I'm glad I got the chance to meet Theresa in person and look forward to catching up again one day, if not in Melbourne then perhaps in the tropics!

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This is the third time I have posted about eating at Gasometer, you can read my initial post about the old US diner styled menu here and the current Eastern European menu here. Since I last posted about Gasometer, I've eaten here a few more times but haven't had my camera with me.

The mushroom schnitzels are challenging the pastrami burger as the man's favourite meal, they have a lovely crust on the outside and a tasty mushroom filling inside with an interesting texture and is served with a delicious gravy. It comes with a huge amount of mashed potato which isn't terribly exciting and some garlicky green beans to make you feel good about having something green on your plate.

We have also tried the pretzel and the mamaliga fritters from the smaller plates section of the menu. The pretzel is a perfect dish for sharing between 2, 3 or more people, it's a huge freshly baked bread topped with large flakes of sea salt and fennel seeds and served with a mustard butter. The mamaliga fritters were a bit hit and miss for us but we aren't huge fans of polenta. I was expecting a higher ratio of the vegan goats cheese filling to the outer layer of polenta and the quantity of vegan cheese didn't seem to be consistent between the balls with some of them containing a very small amount. The accompanying sauce tasted great and made the fritters a bit more interesting.

I would also like to add that the waiting staff at Gasometer are very accommodating about taking home leftovers for those times when you happen to order too much food. It's a difficult task to get the man interested in trying other places these days as Gasometer's food has totally won him over.

Gasometer's new menu hasn't had much coverage since I last reviewed it. Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe is the only veg*n blogger I could find that has posted about it recently.

Gasometer
484 Smith St, Collingwood
Ph: 9417 5538

Borage and tofu ricotta cannelloni

There has been a patch of borage in our front garden for several years which is pretty much impossible to get rid of. The borage plants have been removed on weeding days although they are incredibly resilient and always reappear before long. The plants have lovely bright blue flowers which happen to be edible and look very pretty as a salad garnish so I've been quite happy for the plants to remain in the garden as long as they are under control.

The man had been complaining about them recently and was threatening to do another borage cull. It led me to think that if the flowers are edible perhaps it is also the case with other parts of the plant. It turned out that my hunch was right! Searching on the internet led me to fascinating discoveries about this formerly pesky plant, the leaves, stems and flowers are all edible. I've been excitedly talking about using borage in recipes ever since!

Borage soup was the most common hit when searching for recipes and not far behind was a regional dish from Liguria, Italy for borage and ricotta ravioli. The Spanish parboil the leaves and then deep fry them and the Polish use borage to flavour pickled gherkins. I was very tempted to try out a soup first and then figured I may have better success with converting my fellows onto the borage bandwagon with a pasta dish. Ravioli sounded like a bit too much work so I went with making cannelloni instead.

Some care needed to be taken when picking leaves from the plants as the older leaves are covered in fine spines. The spines are supposed to disappear when they come into contact with liquid so I was a bit concerned when they remained after soaking them in water. When I had cooked them in a stockpot they were almost gone although there were still a few remaining.

I used my broccoli and tofu ricotta cannelloni recipe as the basis and tweaked it a little. On occasion my pasta dough hasn't worked out terribly well using half semolina, half flour so I went back to a straight flour mix this time and gave the dough a decent knead before it's resting period. For the filling I increased the amount of nutritional yeast and salt and also added in some lemon juice and nutmeg.

The young man was very surprised that it didn't taste awful, in fact he rather enjoyed the meal. He had misgivings about borage due to it's name. He was associating it with porridge which he doesn't like at all as their names are pronounced the same way. From what I had read, it was supposed to have a mild cucumber taste although mixed up in the cannelloni it was difficult to get a proper sense of it's flavour. It's appearance reminded me of a spinach cannelloni yet it had a slightly chewier texture.

It was pleasing that we all enjoyed the meal, especially as the star of the show was plucked from the garden and has been growing like a weed. The real test will be how we fare with something like borage soup which I'm planning to try soon. I'll leave you with a few tidbits about borage that you may find interesting as well as the recipe.

Interesting facts about borage

• The origins of borage can be traced back to Syria and it's cultivation spread throughout the Mediterranean.
• It is an annual herb that was traditionally used for culinary purposes and as a medical remedy.
• Nautropaths use borage to treat PMS and menopause symptoms. It has anti-inflammatory properties which diminishes respiratory symptoms.
•  Borage is used for companion planting with legumes, spinach, the brassica family, strawberries and tomatoes. 
• They attract lots of bees to the garden. Can you spot one in the photo?
• 100g of borage contains 10% of your daily needs of calcium and 20% of your daily requirements of iron so it's a great thing for veg*ns to eat. It's also a very good source of Vitamins A and C. 

Resources used when researching borage

• Wikipedia page about borage
• Herb Expert - cooking with borage
• HAGC - The courage to cook with borage
• Self - Nutrition Data

Borage and tofu ricotta cannelloni (Adapted from my other cannelloni recipe)

Pasta dough

1 1/2 cup plain flour
pinch salt
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons olive oil

Place the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl, mix together thoroughly and make a well in the centre. Pour the water and olive oil into the well and work the flour into the water slowly until the mixture comes together. Turn it out onto a clean bench and knead for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes.

Borage and tofu filling

400g fresh borage leaves, washed thoroughly
350g firm tofu
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
pinch nutmeg

Bring some water to the boil in a stockpot. Cook the borage leaves for 2-3 minutes or until wilted. Drain into a colander then rinse with cold water. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

Place the cooked borage, tofu, nutritional yeast, garlic, salt, lemon juice and nutmeg into a food processor bowl and pulse for about a minute. The resulting mixture should be soft and crumbly and the borage finely chopped.

Tomato sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
700ml jar tomato passata
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper, to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan, add the onion and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes until the onion has softened. Stir through the garlic for a minute then add the tomato passata, basil and salt. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Season with pepper to taste.

Cannelloni assembly

Use a pasta machine or rolling pin to roll out thin sheets of pasta. Cut out rectangular shapes of pasta measuring the width of your baking tray. Place a line of the filling down the centre of the pasta, then roll up to enclose the filling. Repeat until the pasta or filling runs out.

Spread about 1/4 of the tomato sauce over the bottom of a 30cm x 20cm baking dish. Place the cannelloni tubes in the tray then cover with the remaining sauce. Cover with foil and bake in the oven at 180C for 40 minutes or until bubbling.

Tofu "fish" fingers with tartare sauce

Over the past year or so I have tried a few fish substitute recipes using tofu and none of them really hit the spot. I didn't bother posting about any of these unsatisfactory experiences and continued searching for a better recipe. Last week I tried one that was so good it was immediately requested to go onto high rotation.

I bookmarked a recipe for crispy tofu scallops from cookbook author Bryanna Clark Grogan's blog earlier this year and was interested to try it out as the tofu was marinated prior to being crumbed and fried. Other recipes I had attempted before this one had been battered in a seafood flavoured mixture. Rather than cut the tofu into the shape of scallops as Bryanna had done which would have resulted in leftover tofu scraps, I cut my tofu into strips to resemble fish fingers.  

The recipe sounded fantastic so I didn't want to change too much and only substituted a few ingredients that weren't on hand at home. The absence of dulse or nori flakes in my pantry was of no concern as I was certain that shredding half a sheet of nori would suffice. It did do the job although I would probably use a full sheet next time around. I'm always a little cautious when mimicking seafood flavours as they have never really been my thing. Bryanna had used a type of cereal made of bran flakes which gave her scallops a crunchy coating, I was quite happy to use some wholemeal breadcrumbs this time around.

Bryanna's accompanying tartare sauce recipe wasn't going to work out with the ingredients I had available and after a quick search I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that almost suited my needs. I substituted a couple of gherkins and some fresh dill for the sweet pickle relish and asked the man to be my taste tester as he has much more expertise eating tartare sauce than I do.  

The crispy outer layer of the "fish" fingers combined with the tender tofu within was incredible and the tartare sauce paired perfectly with them. I'm tempted to to give this a try with frozen and thawed tofu another time for comparative purposes although this is a recipe I don't think I'll be playing around with too much.


Tofu "fish" fingers (Adapted from Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen)

350g firm tofu, drained and pressed
1 cup water
3 tablespoons vegetarian stir fry sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tablespoon raw sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ - 1 sheet of nori, shredded in a spice grinder
½ cup plain flour
½ cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 crusts wholemeal bread, processed into breadcrumbs
Peanut oil or other vegetable oil, for shallow frying

Cut the tofu into thirds lengthwise, then cut each piece of tofu into 6 even sized sticks. Whisk together the water, vegetarian stir fry sauce, lemon juice, oilive oil, garlic, sugar, salt and nori in a deep sided dish and add the tofu ensuring that it is well coated in the marinade. Allow to rest covered in the refrigerator for several hours if possible, or at least 30 minutes.

Organise 3 bowls for coating the tofu fingers, plain flour in the first, soy milk mixed with apple cider vinegar in the second and breadcrumbs in the third.

Heat oil in a deep sided frying pan. Test the oil's readiniess by placing a breadcrumb into the oil, if it sizzles the oil is hot enough. Cook the tofu fingers in batches. Fry on one side for about 3 minutes and then flip over and cook on the other side for a further 3 minutes. Remove and place on paper towels to drain the excess oil.


Tartare sauce (Adapted from allrecipes.com)

½ cup vegan mayonnaise (I used Praise 97% fat free)
¼ small brown onion, very finely diced
2 gherkins, very finely diced
1 tablespoon dill, chopped finely

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl at least 30 minutes before serving. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until required.