Christmas Baking

I love mince pies & since I missed out last year I decided to make my own this year & they were yum. I based them on a recipe for orange mince pies from All Recipes.

The recipe is this, it did call for an egg wash before baking but I have left that out:

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups (255g) plain flour
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 150g butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons grated orange rind
• 1/4 cup iced water
• 3/4 cup bottled fruit mince
• icing sugar for dusting

Preparation method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Sift together the flour, sugar and cinnamon into a large bowl. Rub in the butter until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the orange rind. Stir in enough iced water to make a soft dough. Knead dough on a flour surface for 1 minute or until smooth.
3. Roll out to 5mm thick. Cut out approximately 18 x 7cm diameter circles, and 18 x 5cm circles, rerolling dough as needed.
4. Line patty pan holes using the larger pastry circles. Fill each pastry cup with about 1 tablespoon of fruit mince. Top with smaller pastry circles, pinching circles together to seal the edges.
   
5. Bake pies about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Cool slightly on wire racks. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

Easy & delicious.




I also decided to make the cookies & cream truffles from Fat Feminist Foodie to go in with a friends christmas present. I dipped mine in Sweet William white chocolate which worked really well. These are crazy easy & delicious, I gave my friend a bag of about 10 & she ate them all straight away!

Cherry & Vanilla Jam

I decided to make some cherry & vanilla jam last week, stupidly on a 38 degree day because I wanted to take some to my mum on christmas day. This jam is the best jam EVER! Jam is actually really easy to make (although I do panic a bit about sterilising jars) & I think it is one of those things that is really impressive if you make it yourself.

This is the recipe I based my jam on from Not Quite Nigella:

Ingredients

• 1kg jar of pitted sour cherries, drained (I used the jars of morello cherries you buy at Aldi)
  
• 1/2 cup of sour cherry juice from the above jar
• 800g caster sugar (this freaked me out & given that the cherries I bought were slightly sweetened I only used about 380gm of sugar)
• 1 vanilla bean
• Juice, zest and 4-5 seeds of 1 lemon (you are supposed to wrap the zest and seeds in a muslin pouch but I d not have muslin pouches ever on hand so I just peeled off thick strips of the lemon peel & added this as it was easy to pull out later)
• 50 gram packet of Jamsetta
  

1. First of all, decide whether you like your jam to have whole fruit, pulverised fruit or a bit of both and treat the cherries accordingly. I like whole fruit only so I don’t do anything to the cherries but if you like a smoother jam, blend cherries in a blender (you can cut them up although it will be messy). Place cherries, juice, sugar, lemon juice and muslin wrapped seeds in a large, heavy based saucepan. Slit vanilla bean in half horizontally and scrape the seeds with a knife and place seeds in the saucepan along with the rest of the bean. Cook on medium to high heat for 30 minutes until it has reduced by about a quarter.
2. Add the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until mixture reduces by a quarter. Meanwhile place 4 clean glass jars (I only got 2 jars out of this recipe) and the lids on a tray in a 200C/400F oven and bake for 10 minutes to sterlise them.

3. Remove the pouch of seeds and stir in the Jamsetta. Place a small saucer in the freezer. After 5-10 minutes take it out of the freezer and place a teaspoonful of the liquid onto the plate. Count to 30 seconds and then run your finger through the centre. If there is wrinkling or the line stays then it will set properly. If not, wash plate and place back in freezer and repeat every 3 minutes until the line holds.

4. Carefully ladle the jam (it will be very hot) into the jars. With rubber gloves screw the lid tightly and turn upside down for 5 minutes to create a seal. I also like to use the rubber gloves as you can wash down the sides of the jar if you’ve spilt a bit during the ladling process.

It looks good in the jar & tastes good straight from the jar


It is very tasty on toast



And it makes good jam drop biscuits!

Christmas goodness

For Christmas we went to my mum's place for lunch, she was doing meat for all my omni family & roasted vegies. She is more than happy to always offer a vegan option for us, but I decided to make something to take along. I was going to make tofurkey, but given that we currently have Greg's mum with us who does not understand what vegan is I thought that might be a bit weird. So in the end I decided to make some small savoury tarts.

I made asparagus & white bean puree as well as pesto, 'ricotta' & tomato. These were so, so good!! The asparagus & white bean tarts were based on this recipe from Vegan Yum Yum. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used short crust pastry tart shells that I made & blind baked first. I also made my own pesto which was basil, garlic, raw cashews, olive oil, nooch & salt & pepper all blended together. I thought these would be my favourites, but the tomato ones were even better! I blind baked the tart shells, covered the bottoms with my pesto, filled them with ricotta & topped them with tomatoes. The ricotta was super easy & super delicious & will be in all my lasagnas from now on.

"Ricotta"
- 3/4 tub tofutti cream cheese
- package of firm tofu (I think around 300gm)
- 1/4 cup nooch

Blend it all together - easy! This was based on a recipe I found here on Yeah, that vegan shit.

Everyone LOVED these, it is always good to win omnis over with tasty vegan food.

So here are all my tarts ready to go in my mum's oven


One of my presents from Greg was icypole moulds. I am very excited to make banana & maple syrup smoothie icy poles, but last night he made some icy poles with soda water & cordial which were quite nice.

The Press Club

I went to The Press Club for my work Christmas lunch today. We were trying to work out somewhere to go months ago & having read a review on Where's the Beef I had been looking forward to trying it so I suggested it, everyone was happy & off we went today.

When we first got there the waitress knew 2 of us were vegan & said that we could get a-la carte meals of spring vegetables or stuffed zucchini flowers or go for the 4 course kerasma where they bring out a variety of dishes. At this point, after essentially being offered a plate of vegies I was not too optimistic so we decided to go for the kerasma which proved to be the right decision. My meal was AMAZING! I didn't take photos but I should have because the food not only tasted amazing but looked amazing.

The 5 courses were:

• Tomato tea, marinated olives, pickled cabbage
  
• Steamed zucchini floweres with a watermelon & cherry tomato salad
• Risoni with mushrooms & roasted capsicums - seriously simple & the best meal I have eaten in a long time
• Spring vegetables with pine nuts, greek salad, cabbage salad & green beans in a tomato & breadcrumb sauce
• Dessert tasting plate - this was enormous & the absolute highlight, it was: watermelon, orange & mint salad, mango sorbet, berry sorbet, greek donuts with an orange sugar syrup

There was heaps of food & it was well considered & the service was friendly & attentive despite how busy it was. The only issue was that it was quite noisy, but we were seated close to the kitchen & there were a lot of big groups there. I am definitely going back there again.

vege2go

I was sitting at work yesterday procrastinating & thinking about what to make for dinner & I checked my emails & had an email from vege2go saying that they are now doing vegan lasagne - perfect, dinner sorted! I dropped in on my way home & got 2 vegan lasagnes, potato salad & rocket explosion salad. The vegan lasagnes are $9.95 each & massive!! Greg had a whole one, but I had half & then the other half for lunch today. I really, really like it - it had thin layers of pumpkin (I think but it could have been sweet potato), spinach & zucchini & was topped with a creamy sauce. There wasn't heaps of vegies in it but I liked it regardless & sometimes that is what you want anyway!


This is Greg's plate with with a whole piece & mine with half a piece.

Pumpkin risotto two ways

Continuing with my carb fest I made a pumpkin risotto last night because I had some pumpkin to use up. I wanted to make a baked risotto so I based my risotto on this recipe from Vegan Yum Yum. I have actually made that recipe before to the letter & it is delicious. I left out the tomatoes & herbs & added in roasted pumpkin & lots of fennel seeds. However given that my brain is not working so well at the moment as soon as I put the risotto in the oven & closed the door I realised I had used sushi rice rather than arborio rice but it still worked ok. Also, I should have added in the pumpkin later because it kind of turned to mush. I served it with a salad & it was quite nice but I am finding pumpkin super sweet at the moment.


I had heaps of risotto let over today so I made arancini. I shaped the risotto into balls, put a chunk of garlic & herb cheezly in the middle & rolled the balls in breadcrumbs mixed with nooch. I panfried these in a little bit of olive oil & then finished them off in the oven. I actually preferred the risotto this way & I had them with a salad of lettuce, roasted red capsicum, chickpeas & mango.

Sausage Rolls

Much like Tahn, I read Miss Ts post on her recent house warming & decided that I wanted to make the much raved about sausage rolls from Where's the Beef. Also like Tahn, upon reading the recipe I was very skeptical looking at the ingredients that these would make for good sausage rolls. But I had most of the ingredients & thought that I should at least give them a go. When I had everyhting in the bowl & was mixing it together I said to Greg that I was very unsure & was not expecting big things - except that I was expecting to hate them. But, oh my, these are so good!!! Greg said that he could eat 10 (which I did not allow) & we happily ate them for lunch again today. These are also super easy, especially if you have a food processor. I am definitely making these again & passing on the recipe to others.

A new vegan

So recently I haven't been posting very much because basically I have been feeling like crap. I am currently 13 weeks pregnant & have pretty much felt like I have had a hangover for the last 2 months - not fun. Plus, I am having some weird food aversions & pretty much just want to eat toast for every meal. I am managing not too, but meals have still been a massive carb fest.

But on the other hand, it is pretty exciting to be making a little person. Especially one who will have been vegan from conception & will hopefully choose to be vegan when they can make that choice.

I have been trying to find out about vegan baby formula & have had very little luck so if anyone knows anything about this I would be most appreciative. Or if you know of any great vegan pregnancy/parenting resources (particularly Australian ones) please let me know!

Ksubi

I don't talk about issues much, but the Ksubi animal cruelty issue has really pissed me off. If you haven't heard about it there was an article in the Daily Telegraph here. Seriously, why would you think that it would be a good idea to use doves as props at a party & frighten & torture them? Fashion Hayley has mentioned the party a few times on her blog, which is where I read about it & it sounded hideous.

Ksubi in the past have also used live rats in runway shows so you have to wonder about a fashion label that has to resort to stunts using live animals to get media attention.

Vegan Yum Yum Hurry Up Alfredo & Cupcakes

Today was quite busy in a good Sunday kind of way. I got up early & went for a walk, then went to Tom Phat for a delicious breakfast of scrambled tofu & then spent the afternoon at my mum's place. So by the time I got home I was looking for something quick to cook or dinner that would give me leftovers for lunch on Monday so decided to make this recipe from Vegan Yum Yum & added in some baby spinach. This is delicious! I have made it twice & don't know why I don't make it more often because it is crazy fast & easy & tasty. I have also used leftover sauce in a potato bake which is also a very good thing.


The best thing about visiting my mum is that I always get sent home with food. Today I got christmassy cupcakes which she made or me to take to work. I can't guarantee that they will all get to work though because they are really good!

Vegan Brunch English Muffins

After reading this post on Easy as Vegan Pie I decided that I wanted home made english muffins for breakfast the next day. I have made crumpets before which are really delicious, but had never thought about making muffins. And it ended up being a rainy Sunday morning so it was perect muffin making & eating weather.

The recipe from Vegan Brunch is really, really easy but I had issues getting the cornmeal to stick to the muffins so I tried doing it for the first batch & ended up bypassing that step in the following batches. Also, the recipe makes heaps!! I cut them with egg rings & I made over 20 so I now have lots of muffiny goodness in my freezer. I ate mine warm out of the oven with nuttelex & blackberry jam - yum!

The excitement of fantastic vegan food when you least expect it

I think most vegans who attend events that are catered for often expect the worst. I organise & attend meetings in hotel conference rooms quite frequently. When organising the catering they always ask for dietary requirements & I always ask for a vegan meal. Sometimes my meals are fantastic (The Prince in St Kilda gave me incredible food) & sometimes I get nothing but fruit salad (I hate Hilton on the Park in East Melbourne) & sometimes my food isn't separated or labelled so others eat it or I don't even know what is suitable & there is no one around to ask (MCEC).

So, this week I am attending an Events Management course & they said that they cater morning tea, lunch & afternoon tea, they didn't ask for dietary requirements but I emailed them to let them know I was vegan, expected the worst & packed my bag with lots of snacks.

Yesterday was my first day & at morning tea I was a little bit excited to see soy milk with the tea & coffee & was happy that there were apricots available to eat in a bowl alongside the omni cake. I was eating some apricots when the caterer sought me out & said that he had prepared a special lunch for me & that he also had dried fruit & almonds available for me for morning tea if I wanted so I was pretty happy that they had gone to an effort. Then lunchtime came. At the food table there was a box, labelled vegan - filled with food for me!! There was heaps of food! I got delicious rice paper rolls filled with marinated asparagus, a big salad with kidney beans as well as apricots, strawberries, a muesli bar & a bag of biscuits labelled "afternoon tea". There was way too much food to eat but I was so excited that I took most of it home. So when lunch rolled around today I wondered if I would get the same again, but no & it was even better! Today I got a cup of salad of freekeh, pomegranate, tomato, baby spinach & almonds (aka the best salad I have ever eaten) as well as 2 big rice paper rolls, a small bread roll filled with tapenade & roasted vegies, a muesli bar & nectarines & strawberries.

It is such a small thing to make a little bit of effort but it makes such a difference. I am so used to feeling like I am a nuisance & getting boring salads with no imagination that to come across a caterer who is not only lovely but makes great food is a welcome change!

East Coast Coffee Cake

This cake is goddamn delicious! I used the recipe from Vegan Brunch (man, I love this book) & added in fresh blueberries because I bought lots of punnets super cheap. I had massive issues with the cake batter though, it was incredibly runny - to the point that it was like pancake batter. I added in another half a cup of flour because I thought that the crumb mix would just sink straight in, it was still really runny but it worked out in the end. I think I slightly undercooked it but the cake was so good that we still quite happily ate it.

Vegan Brunch Sausages

I have been doing a lot of cooking lately from Vegan Brunch & after reading all the hype about the sausages I decided to make the cherry & sage ones, but subbed dried cranberries for dried cherries. I liked these but I didn't love them but this may be based on two things.

1, The first time I made them there was a kids party across the road & lots of little girls all of about 8 years old singing that awful song "Sexy Bitch" starting throwing things at my car (fruit & dolls heads!) So being the cranky neighbour I am I went over to complain while the sausages were frying & I burnt them, so they were not so great.

2, I then froze the rest & I just don't think they froze well & were really rubbery. I did like them & thought they had good flavour but I think I am put off making them again, but I do want to try the chorizo sausages.

The second time I had them I served them with a lemony smashed potato & salad. I actually think the smashed potato was my favourite part of the meal, I used nicola potatos & they were delicious!

World Vegan Day

I went to my 2nd World Vegan Day on Sunday. I met some great people Steph, Danni, Tahn, Kristy & Toby & ate ice cream so all in all it was a pretty good day! I completely forgot to take photos on the day but completely agree with Phillipa's post here about the lack of lunch options. The lines were crazy long & Greg & I were turned away from Funky Pies because they had no hot pies so we ended up eating rice paper rolls & lots of deep fried food from enlightened cuisine.

But, my food highlight of the day was cake!

This is cheesecake & chocolate torte from Naked Treaties (I hate that name) by Jemma who was on Big Brother years ago. We bought 2 slices to take home & these were a bit expensive, I think $5.50 per slice but well worth it. On my plate is 1/2 a slice of each & oh my goodness they were delicious!! Especially the chocolate torte which was super rich & chocolately. Apparently they do catering so at the moment these are frontrunner for dessert at our wedding.

Greg just mentioned that his food highlight of the day was Veganpet cat food. We got a sample for our cats & Greg tried it & loved it - weirdo.

Last day of mofo!! And I bought a mushroom farm!

That's right - a mushroom farm! I was in Aldi & saw them & thought that I would like to grow my own mushrooms. We got it all set up & put it in a cupboard, misting it with water most days & what do you know - we grew a mushroom!




Since then we have another 4 big mushrooms happily growing. I felt like doing something a bit special with the first mushroom but couldn't work out what to do, so it ended up going on pizza. I was inspired to make pizza after I read an easy pizza dough recipe on Yeah, that vegan shit. This recipe is insanely easy & really delicious.

The Easiest Pizza Dough in the World

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 packet of yeast


• 1 c. warm water


• 2-1/2 c. flour


• 1 t. agave nectar (or 2 t. sugar; I recommend the agave though cuz MAN does it make the crust taste lovely) - I used maple syrup & that was good!
  

• 1 t. salt


• 2 T. olive oil


• 2 T. fresh rosemary, chopped (optional) - I didn't use because I didn't have any
  


• cornmeal

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 200. In a large bowl, add in the yeast and warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Add the flour, salt, agave (or sugar), rosemary (if using), and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon vigorously until combined. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

Either sprinkle cornmeal onto a walled baking sheet and press dough into it until thin
-OR-
Sprinkle flour on your counter and roll out the pizza dough. Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza stone and toss the dough on top. Spread olive oil over top (optional), and add all your toppings.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until pizza crust is golden and toppings are heated through.


I topped my pizza with roasted pumpkin, sliced mushrooms, caramelised onions & garlic & herb cheezly. Served with a tasty salad - this is a delicious mid week meal!

Quick & easy pasta

This is a super quick & easy pasta that I make sometimes when I really can't be bothered but have to prepare a meal.

• Roast some pumpkin
  
• While that is roasting, cook up some pasta
• While the pasta is cooking, fry some oyster mushrooms is a little bit of olive oil & plenty of garlic
• When it is all ready, add the pasta & pumpkin to the frypan with the mushrooms, add some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, halved cherry tomatoes & baby spinach
  
• Toss it all together & serve

La Panella Apricot Bun

I had never tried the big fruit buns at La Panella because I thought they looked boring. Then one day I sent Greg off to get 2 pies & he came home with a bag FULL of La Panella goodies - I think he almost bought one of all the vegan foods, including & an apricot bun. The apricot bun is surprisingly good! The bread is kind of like brioche & it is really light & tasty. It is a good thing to
eat with a cup of tea.

World Vegan Day meet up

A few of us commented on Niki's post about World Vegan Day & the possibility of a meet up. Not sure if anything has been organised but I am definitely up for meeting fellow bloggers (& eating lots of food). So if nothing has been organised & you are interested maybe comment with suggestions of a time & place :)

Half Moon Cafe

My Saturdays at the moment are horrible. We are trying to buy a house so my Saturdays are spent driving around the Northern suburbs going to open for inspections of shit houses that we still can't afford - fun! So there is usually the need to grab lunch on the run & this Saturday I stopped into Half Moon Cafe on my way home.

Half Moon Cafe have hands down the best felafels in town. I got the Half Moon Felafel without yoghurt, it has pickles, hommous, tahini, tabouli & olives - yum.

Trippy Taco

I have had the BIGGEST craving for Trippy Taco since I saw this post on Easy as (Vegan) Pie. I work in West Melbourne & usually drive in on Fridays so thought it would be the perfect chance to do a Trippy Taco lunch run. One of my colleagues has recently become vegan & I have been telling her about all the amazing vegan food on offer in Melbourne so I got lunch for her too. I got the tofu asada tacos today & got my colleague the tofu asada burrito (which she really liked). The tacos were delish, I was starving & when the guy handed me my food I thought the tacos didn't look like much but they are really filling.


While I was waiting for the food I dropped into Las Vegan & picked up a muffin for Greg, I think it is chocolate, orange & hazlenut. I ate a little bit off the side while I was driving back to work - it was good!

Eggplant Parma

I usually buy my fruit & vegies from Vic Market before work on Friday mornings so at this time of the week I am trying to use up what I have left. I had an eggplant in the fridge & was trying to work out what to do with it & decided to do eggplant parma - I have never made it before & I loved it!

I sliced the eggplant, dipped it into soymilk mixed with egg replacer & then coated it in panko. I then cooked it in the frypan on a medium heat with a little bit of olive oil. Normally when I make parma type things I top them with pasta sauce but I didn't have any & was feeling lazy so I mixed together tomato paste, tomato sauce & fruit chutney - it did the job but was a bit too sweet. I then topped each piece of eggplant with half a piece of a tofutti cheese slice.

I served these with garlicky broccoli (steamed broccoli tossed in massel chicken stock & garlic) & lemony smashed potatoes.

Melindas White Choc Custard Biscuits

These biscuits are delicious. I know that I can make similar biscuits from scratch but when you arefeeling super lazy, they are really easy & really fast. I had some passionfruits in my fruit bowl so added the pulp of 3 passionfruits to the icing which sandwiches them together which makes them all the yummier.

Finally some salad weather!

It was a gorgeous sunny day in Melbourne today & was perfect salad weather. So I made a salad for dinner with all of my favourite things:

• rocket
• roasted red capsicum
• cherry tomatoes
• roasted sweet potato
• avocado
• olives
• balsamic glaze
  

I wanted to add some tofu & couldn't work out what to do with it, so I flicked through the Vegan Yum Yum book & came across this recipe for smoky miso tofu. I decided to give it a go because I had all the ingredients, it looked easy & I am won over by anything with miso, I could quite happily eat straight miso paste I love it so much. This tofu rocks - it has heaps of flavour & roasting it gives it a really nice texture.

Cauliflower Dal & Parathas

When I saw this recipe on Fatfree Vegan Kitchen for Cauliflower Dal I immediately went out & bought panch phoran with the intention of making it but forgot about it until I was walking through the Vic Market last week & saw whole cauliflowers for $1.20. So this ended up being a super cheap meal & it made heaps - 6 huge serves. Besides being cheap it was really tasty & really easy so a winner all round!

I served it with basmati rice & parathas. The parathas are from this recipe on Vegan Yum Yum. I have made the aloo parathas before & I really like them but I couldn't really be bothered tonight so I just made plain parathas & they were also delicious!

This was a great meal!

Sushi

Sushi for dinner tonight. I used this recipe for the rice & filled the sushi with tofu (which I marinated in okonomiyaki sauce, crumbed in panko & fried in a tiny but of peanut oil), cucumber & avocado. I served it with the same salad from last night.


Plus a picture of Sawyer when he was on his way to the cattery for a holiday :)

Okonomiyaki

I have lost my mofo mojo a bit this week. Work has been busy, I have been working long hours & it has actually been kind of hard - I have found myself having to think a lot & do a lot of problem solving. So I have really just been coming home & crashing & trying not to do anything involving thinking!

Anyway, I got to leave work an hour early today so thought I would actually make a decent meal for dinner tonight. I saw this recipe today & started reminiscing about okonomiyaki from my pregan days so thought I would give it a go.

This was seriously one of the best meals I have made for ages & it was ridiculously quick & easy, it was ready in about 30 minutes. I halved the recipe & it still made quite a lot for the 2 of us.

This is the recipe with my changes :

• 2 cups plain flour
• 4 eggs lightly beaten (I used 2 tsps egg replacer)
  
• 300ml water or milk
• 1/2 cup green shallots, sliced (I didn't use because I didn't have any)
  
• 1 1/2 cups Cabbage, torn into smallish pieces (I used wonga bok)
  
• 1/3 cup thin carrot batons
• 1/2 cup chicken sliced or prawns or bacon or whatever you have (I had some mock chicken so used that but I didn't even notice it so would leave it out next time)
  
• Oil for frying
• Mayonnaise (I used the praise vegan mayo)
• Okonomiyaki sauce
  

I just mixed everything up, put into a heated frypan which I had put a little bit of peanut oil in & cooked on a low heat. The recipe says to cover the frypan, but my frypan didn't have a lid so I just covered it with some foil & cooked until the bottom was brown & then flipped over. Once it was cooked I covered it in okonomiyaki sauce & some mayo - yum!

I seem to buy enormous wonga boks for one thing & then have to find heaps of different ways to use them so I served this with a salad of wonga bok, carrot, red capsicum & sesame seeds which was tossed in a sesame vinegarette.