December 19-20, 2009: Christmas Tofurkey

by north by bloggers. Then Michael constitute by Bronwyn's tofurkey recipe in addition to nosotros made a pact to laissez passer on this faux-bird a become together earlier parting ways for Christmas. On Sat morning time nosotros stocked upwards on ingredients - ane in addition to a one-half kilos of tofu, herbs, cranberries in addition to chestnuts. Chestnuts! If exclusively I'd realised this tofurkey was in addition to then similar to by the pecan-stuffed ane inwards the Age, I powerfulness non accept splashed out on that bafflingly expensive tin laissez passer on the axe of chestnuts.

Not that I was likewise regretful - we'd railroad train all of Sat aside to follow this recipe to the letter. Michael had fifty-fifty bought cheesecloth!

by zippy warm murphy salad.

by YISBLOG.

October 16, 2009: Leftover Makeover - Sweet'n'starchy Snacks

annual lab culinary contest was the biggest sweetness white patato I convey e'er seen. Some of it was transformed into sweet white patato in addition to adobo pies, in addition to enough to a greater extent than was merely diced in addition to roasted amongst olive oil, tabular array salt in addition to pepper. I set the terminal half-kilo to run amongst another leftovers - smoked tofu, silken tofu, mint, gow gee wrappers in addition to puff pastry - to brand some gently sweet, sweetness white patato snacks.

silverbeet in addition to celery gratin I late devised, in addition to it's the starting indicate here. You involve to slowly, gently develop the onions until they're golden in addition to caramelised, meanwhile baking the sweetness white patato chunks until they convey a similarly caramel crust. Cinnamon in addition to nutmeg heighten the sweetness, smoked tofu extends the flavour, spell the silken materials acts equally a creamy binder. Inspired past times those pumpkin ravioli, I added mint for a fleck of lift.

lemon agave sauce.

Sweet'n'starchy snack filling

500g sweetness potato, peeled in addition to finely diced
olive oil
salt in addition to pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
120g silken tofu, mashed
120g smoked tofu, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
2 tablespoons chopped mint

Preheat an oven to 180°C, thence larn busy amongst all the chopping. Put the diced sweetness white patato on a baking tray, drizzle it lightly amongst olive crude oil in addition to flavor amongst tabular array salt in addition to pepper. Bake the sweetness potatoes, tossing them occasionally, until they're soft in addition to precisely get-go to caramelise, close xxx minutes.

While the sweetness white patato is baking, gently saute the onion inward a frypan, amongst a piddling to a greater extent than crude oil in addition to salt. Stir the onion around regularly until it's caramelised but non burned, close xv minutes.

In medium-sized bowl, squelch the silken tofu amongst a fork. Add the sweetness white patato in addition to lightly squelch it too, making certain it keeps some of its texture. Stir inward the onion, smoked tofu, cinnamon, nutmeg in addition to mint.

Use the mixture to fill upward pastries, dumplings, ravioli, cannelloni or anything else you lot tin recollect of.

December 19-20, 2009: Ginger-Lime Cheesecake Icecream

tofurkey repast alongside my mum too her sis Carol, too I followed it upward alongside this icecream. The root of my inspiration was a cheesecake icecream recipe from crunchy biscuits likewise fare good inwards icecream. To jibe the ginger I sentiment I'd swap the cheesecake's lemon juice for lime.

While the sentiment of ginger-lime cheesecake icecream seems a piddling convoluted, the upshot is straight-up delicious. The gingersnaps bring a gentler texture but nevertheless concord their ain against the tangy icecream. It's sweetness too creamy without beingness devastatingly rich. For a exceptional occasion, I'd dearest to press a gingersnap crust into my springform tin post away too pour the lime-spiked icecream over the top, every bit a frozen but fully formed ginger-lime iced cheesecake.

Ginger-lime cheesecake icecream
(inspired past times the cheesecake icecream at Mitch's Ice Cream Sunday)

125g cream cheese
200g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
200mL milk
300mL cream
zest too juice of ii limes
100g gingersnaps, broken into pieces

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, eggs too vanilla. In a medium-sized saucepan, gently oestrus the milk, too then trounce it into the cream cheese mixture. Transfer it all dorsum into the saucepan, heating too stirring until it has thickened slightly. Whisk inwards the cream too lime juice too zest. Chill the mixture thoroughly.

Once the mixture is real cold, strain it too churn it inwards the icecream maker. During the concluding 5-10 minutes of churning, gradually add together the gingersnap pieces. Freeze the icecream for at to the lowest degree four hours earlier scooping too serving.

October 17, 2009: Tinh Tam Chay

30/10/2013: Tinh Tam Chay has unopen down.

One of the things Cindy together with I dearest most nigh blogging is the input nosotros larn from our readers - we've discovered some bully places together with bully recipes cheers to suggestions from diverse enthusiastic contributors. So nosotros were both rattling excited when an unsolicited e-mail turned upward letting us know nigh Tinh Tam Chay, a novel 'vietgetarian' house inwards St Albans. We speedily rounded upward a posse of interested veg-folk together with arranged a road-trip into the wilds of the western suburbs.

It's a foreign footling house - tucked inwards alongside a fairly nondescript shopping strip, seemingly co-sharing its premises with a churros place. It was all a flake odd. Once you're within though, you're inwards capable hands - the guy running it was incredibly welcoming, adding to our excitement nigh the repast ahead.

It's a mock-meat heavy menu, with classic Vietnamese dishes served upward with faux-pork together with chicken. We started things off with rice-paper together with leap rolls. The rice-paper rolls were filled with a combination of tofu together with fresh vegies together with were a build clean together with crisp maiden of all to the meal. The leap rolls were less salubrious together with thence slightly to a greater extent than delicious, although their filling lacked the multifariousness of the rice-paper wraps.

I steered away from mock-meat, ordering a tofu-based dish: Dau Hu Chien Xa O't (fried tofu with lemongrass, served with steamed rice - $8.50, encounter moving-picture demonstrate at top). It was an first-class alternative - crispy skinned tofu with a hint of chilli together with a brilliant lemongrass flavour. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 smear of chilli glue together with a splash of soy sauce together with I was inwards heaven.

The balance of the tabular array spread their orders or together with so nicely, important nosotros all got to sample a hit of what was on offer. The star of the demonstrate was fancier mock-meat places inwards Melbourne.

Cindy's giant Bun Bi Supon Chay (rice vermicelli with vegetarian shredded grilled pork, $8.50) was a success every bit well, with a crispy 'pork' bits, generous serves of vegetables together with nuts together with a tasty sauce to pour over the whole thing.

Craig together with Toby were adventurous plenty to lodge the Banh Tam Bi (Vietnamese spaghetti with shredded grilled pork, $8.50), which came with an intriguing coconutty sauce together with lots of crispy fried bits together with pieces.

Steph together with looked bully (it looks fifty-fifty amend inwards Steph's photo).


The dessert bill of fare is basically 2 smoothies ($3 each) - avocado...

... together with jackfruit.

These got mixed reviews - I retrieve the thought of a sweetness avocado potable set a few people off, but Cindy was pretty happy with the results, piece the jackfruit smoothie lacked the avocado's creaminess but provided a to a greater extent than tropical flavour.

So our nighttime inwards St Albans was a bully success - Tinh Tam Chay does wonderfully tasty nutrient for fantastically inexpensive prices together with with friendly together with helpful service. The alone downside: the constant flow of fauna cruelty images existence shown on the idiot box close the counter - I don't retrieve images of slaughterhouses are actually the best appetiser. It may survive a piece earlier nosotros tin muster the loose energy to trek out to St Albans again, but I'm certain we'll survive dorsum - brand the effort, it's good worth it together with likely a pace inwards a higher house its competition.


Update 10/5/10: According to the VNV, Tinh Tam Chay has stopped focussing on vegetarian nutrient together with is chock total of meat these days. Booo.

Address: 13 Alfrieda Street, St Albans
Ph: 9366 3952
Price: Mains $8.50, entrees $6
Unlicensed

December 21-22, 2009: Macadamia-Date Balls As Well As Vanilla-Vegan Bubble Slice

This twelvemonth my Christmas baking wasn't baking at all - I went the melt-mix-chill route. It has much to recommend it: it's quick too elementary too it doesn't larn y'all also hot too flustered amidst the warm atmospheric condition too full general Christmas chaos.

My kickoff priority was a gift for my step-grandfather, Max. He's been having around wellness problems inwards the final few months thence I wanted to plough over him something tasty too treat-like that wouldn't locomote overly bloating or calorific. The date macadamia balls that Jo posted on one-day foray into raw food proved the ability of dates' sweetness caramel flavour, too the creamy richness of solid pose down macadamias. The fleck of cocoa inwards this recipe solely enhanced the care for factor. If I made these in i lawsuit again merely for myself, I'd sacrifice the sweetness too upward the cocoa fifty-fifty further.

The 2d care for loitering fuzzily inwards the background is our quondam solid unit of measurement favourite, bubble slice. It's appeared hither in various guises before, too I'll dub this version the 'vanilla-vegan' one. Actually it doesn't comprise vanilla at all, but rather is the plainest, bare-bones version of the spell without whatsoever added nuts, dried fruit or chocolate. The master copy recipe uses dearest too butter, but I made the vegan- too pantry-friendly pick of substituting golden syrup too Nuttelex. In spite of these alterations the odour of the peanut-butter caramel mixture bubbling on the stove took me immediately dorsum to my mum's kitchen. It remains a crowd-pleaser, going downward as good amongst my country-living, meat-eating blood brother too the inner-city vegan friends who dropped past times for tofurkey sandwiches.

Macadamia-date balls
(based on this recipe from It Ain't Meat, Babe)

1 1/2 cups macadamias
1 loving cup fresh dates
two (or more) teaspoons cocoa
1 loving cup shredded coconut

Blend the macadamias to a pulverization inwards a nutrient processor. Add the dates too cocoa too function along to blend until the mixture forms a smoothen dough.

Form tablespoons of the dough into balls too curlicue them inwards coconut. Store them inwards the refrigerator until y'all desire to scoff them.

Vegan-vanilla bubble slice

v cups rice bubbles
1/2 loving cup dessicated coconut
125g Nuttelex/margarine
iv tablespoons golden syrup
iv tablespoons peanut butter
1/2 loving cup brownish sugar

In a large bowl, stir together the rice bubbles too coconut.

In a small-medium saucepan, melt the Nuttelex, golden syrup, peanut butter too sugar. Bring them to the boil, thence simmer for v minutes. Pour the caramel mixture over the dry out ingredients too combine thoroughly. Press the mixture into a minor baking tray, using the dorsum of a spoon to smoothen over the surface. Refrigerate until set, thence cutting into squares.

October 18, 2009: The Couscous Experiment - Stage Iii

For the tertiary too concluding stage of the couscous experiment, I chose too adapted i of the recipes that was supplied alongside our promotional bundle of pearl couscous. Originally a "medley of mushroom too spinach alongside gourmet pearl couscous too bacon", I replaced the bacon alongside a vegetarian imitation, too the spinach alongside silverbeet.

In this recipe, the onions too mushrooms larn sauteed earlier the couscous too stock are added. Once the stock has been absorbed, inwards goes the spinach/silverbeet too unopen to grated parmesan, too on goes unopen to grilled (faux) bacon. Based on our previous trials, it was pretty clear to me that production #3, the moghrabieh, was non going to come upwardly out of this well. Given the risotto-like nature of the recipe I decided to supervene upon it alongside production #3a, arborio rice. Costing $2.49 for a 500g packet ($4.98/kg) at our local supermarket, it's at the cheaper too to a greater extent than accessible goal of the products.

Let's boot off alongside the recipe, should you lot want to endeavour it at home.

____________

Experimental couscous risotto
(based on first too second installments of the couscous experiment.