Where's The Beef Week - Day 2 - Felafels & ZIppy Warm Potato Salad

I have tried to make felafels in the past with a very poor result so wasn't expecting to really like these that much, but I loved them!  This is the recipe that will stop me ever using the packet mix again.  I had them drizzled with sweet chilli sauce & made this potato salad to go with them which was also really nice.

Where's The Beef Week - Day 1 - Maple Marinated Tofu

I am the sort of person that plans everything & I am pretty organised so now that I am on maternity leave & can't use that at work I have to channel that elsewhere.  At the moment it is mostly going into wedding planning, gym training & meal planning.  For my meal planning, every weekend I sit down & work out all our meals for the week, lunches & dinners, and write up a shopping list & then hit Vic Market, the supermarket & any specialty shops like the Asian supermarket or Radical Grocery.
This week I noticed that I had a couple of recipes bookmarked from Where's The Beef so decided to make all my dinners this week from that blog.  When I went through their recipes working out what to make I had trouble narrowing it down to just a week's worth, there was so much I wanted to make!

So, day 1.  I had some tofu that needed using so I decided to make this marinade recipe to make maple marinated tofu.  This marinade is so, so delicious! I am definitely making it again.   It was a super quick, easy & tasty way to cook tofu & I just had it with some steamed vegies - yum.

Vegie Hut

We had a family dinner on a Monday night recently. The original plan had been to go to Enlightened Cuisine but they aren't open on Monday nights, so in the end it was decided to go to Vegie Hut as it is pretty much in the middle of the 3 locations that the 6 of us were coming from. 

There were a couple of issues - first of all, there was a big table with way too many people around it right behind us which made those of us on the side of the table next to them really squished in although there were quite a few empty tables. Secondly, the service was pretty much non existent, we had to flag down waitresses to order, to clear the table & to get the bill & no one was ever offered drinks. Thirdly, and maybe this is just because I love the Enlightened Cuisine banquet, but for the most part I found the food very meh. I am guessing that my family felt the same way because there were heaps of left overs & no one took any.

So, the food. We got a banquet which was pretty reasonable at $139 for 6 people with far more than we could eat.  Apologies for the awful photos.

Oriental Entrees Platter - in the middle were pickled vegetables which were really good, definitely the highlight of the platter

Shark Fin Soup - it was very gelatinous, but the flavour was gingery & quite nice

I think these were chilli prawns although they were not at all spicy - they were good though, deep fried prawniness

Lamb hot pot - quite nice with big pieces of mushrooms in it

This was some sort of fish, I wasn't a big fan of this at all

Black Pepper Steak - This was really good

Bamboo string on Chinese veggies - I don't even remember what this tasted like, but there was a lot left over

Dessert - this was delicious, my highlight of the meal!  It was like a lychee juice with jelly, sultanas, goji berries & lychees in it - I could have eaten a lot of this.  Note a crashed out Holly in the background getting cuddles from her Aunty

I think the meal would have been better of we chose our own food, I just think the banquet might have been a bad move.  I am still a huge fan of their Sunday yum cha.

Other Melb veg bloggers who have been to Vegie Hut are: Where's the Beef, Lisa & Vegan About Town.

Vegie Hut

984 Whitehorse Road

Box Hill

03 9898 2287

Baked Chili with Cornbread Biscuit Topping

This is a recipe which I adapted from La Dolce Vegan, I don't have the book but found the recipe online & thought it looked good.  When I was making the Cornbread I thought it seemed like there was a lot of sugar in it & I did find that it was really sweet.  The topping was still really tasty but if I was too make it again I would at least halve the amount of sugar.  I also found that the chili itself wasn't that great, it seemed to be missing something, but there was supposed to be pickled green chillies added so maybe that might have made a difference.  I think I would make the topping again but change up the chili quite a bit.

INGREDIENTS FOR CHILI

• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 1/2 large red capsicum, diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 cup tvp
• 400mls passata
• 1/2 tin kidney beans
• corn kernels from 1 cob of corn
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cocoa
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1 clove crushed garlic

INGREDIENTS FOR TOPPING

• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon soy milk
• 1 tablespoon soymilk or 1 tablespoon almond milk
• 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup polenta
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon canola oil

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Lightly oil or spray with oil 4 ramekins
2. In a large saucepan saute the onion, capsicum & garlic in the olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add remaining chili ingredients and simmer 5-10 minutes.
3. While chili is cooking mix soy milk and vinegar. In a separate bowl mix the flour, polenta, sugar, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the oil and the milk mixture, stirring until just mixed.
5. Transfer chili to ramekins and spoon the cornmeal batter on to the top.
6. Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes.

 

Breakfast after dark

I am a big fan of what my friend Anthony calls "breakfast after dark" which is breakfasty foods eaten for dinner.  This version of breakfast after dark featured scrambled tofu, roasted tomato, mushrooms & an awesome hash brown.  The hash brown was by far the highlight of the meal & was based on a recipe I found on food.com.  These hash browns are really good & there is a possibility that I ate 3 of them.

Hash Browns
INGREDIENTS

• 1/2cup water (approximately)
• 1/4 cup raw cashews
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1 tsp massel chicken stock powder
• 1/2 small onion, finely diced (I whizzed mine up in the food processor so it was really fine)
• 2 large potatoes peeled

METHOD

1.  Boil potatoes until just cooked through & set aside until cool enough to handle
2. Blend cashews and water with garlic, stock powder & onion powder until smooth - I started with about 1/4 cup water & just added more until it was really smooth
3. Grate the potatoes into a bowl & add the onion to it
4. Pour the cashew mixture into the potato & onion & mix together well, add salt & pepper if you like
5. Shape the potato mix into 4 flattish balls & place on a greased or lined tray
6. Turn the oven on to 200degrees & bake the hash browns for about 30 minutes or until well browned

Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches

Johanna made a version of these for a potluck ages ago & I didn't try them but bookmarked the recipe intending on making them one day.  Well, fast forward 8ish months & that day finally came.  I really liked these.  I followed the recipe from FatFreeVegan Kitchen but used corn instead of mushrooms.  Like Johanna, I also found them very moist but I was possibly impatient & didn't cook them for long enough, but they still tasted good!  I had them both hot & cold & both were good.

Gluten Free Zucchini Pancakes

I found this recipe while searching for yet more ways to use chickpeas & stumbled across these which contain chickpea flour.  I made these last week, they are really easy & they are pretty good.  I didn't use the herbs or the zucchini flowers because I didn't have them but they were still tasty.  I had them with chutney & some vegies.  The recipe says that it serves 2 but I made 4 smaller pancakes & 1 pancake each was plenty.  They were also good reheated for lunch the next day.

Chickpea & mushroom sausages

Last time I went to Costco I bought a slab of tins of chickpeas and lamented how much my life has changed because it doesn't seem like that long ago that I used to buy slabs of beer.  Anyway, now that I have a cupboard full of chickpeas I am always on the look out for chickpea recipes so when I came across this mushroom & sausage recipe on Food.com (which used to be recipezaar).  I am completely aware that this is not the most attractive looking meal, but it was really good.  I had these with mashed potatoes, steamed vegies & made the world's easiest miso gravy to go with it, it is literally just miso paste & water & tastes really good.