collard greens

Rarely do I suffer from buyers remorse. But two weeks ago I was struck with the regret that comes from forgoing a purchase.

I looked at the collard greens in all their splendour and hesitated. With a head of savoy cabbage begging to be eaten in the fridge at home, as well as the small acreage of silverbeet in the garden, I really didn’t need more greens.

At home, collard greens-less I suffered remorse. What would those fleshy leaves taste like? How would I cook them? Were there any recipes for collard greens that didn’t feature pig in some form?

But all was not lost. Seven days later, a fresh bunch stood ready and waiting at my favourite organic stall and this time I didn’t hesitate.

How do they taste?

Cabbage-y, a definite brassica.

The leaves were more tender than they looked and didn’t need to cook as long as expected.

The perfect dish for collard greens?

The winner, hands down, has to be colcannon. The slow cooked greens work well against the softness of mashed potatoes spiked with onions, garlic and anchovies.

Have you cooked with collard greens? What do you make with them?

Is there an American peasant food revolution going on here in Australia that I don't know about? What next, Poke salad Annie?

From Russia with food lust: vegan eggplant and walnut rolls

I drooled over these eggplant rolls stuffed with a tasty walnut filling when we were in St Petersburg and vowed to make them on my return home. And I did, a couple of times already.

Like all my recipes this is taste-as-you-go as far as quantities are concerned. Some garlic and chilli is stronger than others, you might prefer the more authentic addition of vinegar instead of lemon juice (I’m a citrus fiend and it’s my go-to acid flavour) and if you want to go the whole hog find some dried, ground marigold leaves to add for colour.

Great finger food for Christmas and summer drinks.

Tip: the cheats version using pre-grilled eggplant slices makes this a very quick dish to prepare. Eat your heart out Jamie Oliver and your 15 minute meals.

Badrijani nigvzit (eggplant with walnut dip)

2 eggplants (aubergines) or buy pre-grilled eggplant slices
1 cup walnuts
1 tab chopped coriander
1/2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1/4 tsp ground fenugreek seeds (optional)
3 cloves garlic
Juice 1 lemon (or 1 tab of vinegar)
1/2 - 3/4 tsp chili powder or cayenne pepper (check for heat)
1 tab chopped parsley
salt
water

If cooking eggplant, cut into 1 centimetre sliced lengthwise. Freshly picked eggplants don’t need salting but if older need to be sprinkled with salt to draw out the bitter juices. Leave for 10 minutes then pat off the juice. Brush eggplants with olive oil and place under a hot grill or even better, a barbecue. They’ll only need a couple of minutes, turn when becoming golden. Alternatively you can buy pre-cooked eggplant slices from some delis and supermarkets. Pat off the excess oil before using.

For the walnut dip, blend (or smash in a mortar and pestle) all the other ingredients. Lastly add the water a tablespoon at a time until you have a smooth paste. You want a dip-like texture but not too runny. Salt to taste. The predominant flavour is garlicky walnuts with a bit of a chili kick at the end. I use Korean red pepper powder left over from kimchi making and it works well. As herbs strengths vary, always taste and adjust the flavour as needed.

Take the grilled eggplant slices and place a heaped teaspoon of walnut dip at one end and roll.

Traditionally the eggplant/walnut rolls are garnished with pomegranate seeds and served as finger foods with drinks.

This recipe is a tasty cross-post. First published on my website.


The full Russian eating experience here (it was easier than I thought).

Update January 2013: These rolls graced the vegan/omni Christmas table in December. There were a couple of alterations and have adjusted the recipe above accordingly.

Firstly, we used a large mortar and pestle to combine the ingredients, the change in texture is subtle. Don't sweat it if you don't have the equipment, mechanical or by hand - both methods do the job.

Secondly, I overcame my fenugreek aversion and  added a few seeds (as many of the recipes suggest), toasting them with coriander seeds and then pounding to a powder. Once again, the change was subtle but worth it.

Thirdly, in cooking another kitchen and someone else's spice shelf. The old packet of chili powder looked innocuous so didn't taste first. Oops, the mix was way hotter. Forgot the cardinal rule of all things chili - add a little and taste before going the whole hog. But in the end, once rolled in the eggplant the heat wasn't overwhelming.

Finally, unless you've got a stash of fresh eggplant in the garden and want to toss the slices on the grill, buying precooked eggplant from the deli was a worthy timesaver on Christmas day. The filling was made the day before and it only took minutes to assemble and serve on the day.

stasis: are food blogs over?

The Amateur Gourmet recently asked if food blogs are over? He concluded:

Food blogs aren’t over, but they’ve fallen into a kind of stasis.

Ahem. Yup. Case in point.

Life, inertia and many other things are greater than my desire to cook/eat/blog right now.

So why blog?

I love having all my recipes archived. In fact, the cook’s journal is my motivation to blog The biggest reason I’ve not migrated the blog to a swisher platform is purely because I can’t face loosing and recreating my drop down search index (on the right side). I use it if not daily, then weekly, to remember how I made that great curry or even the dipping sauce for gyoza.

But until the next shift in my psyche, this site is in siesta mode. Not closed for business, just on sabbatical.

In the meantime, no doubt silly thoughts and sights like this will likely end up on twitter or fester in iphotos.

Brunswick Street, Fitzroy: I love it that MFK Fisher is the hottest!

Or worse…not get recorded at all.

we know where the flavour comes from

Lee Street School fair. Is it any wonder kids can't spell these days?

home

Finally, I know I'm home. A Saturday trip to the market, fresh organic fruit and vegetables in the house at last.

Lunch, yet another variation on this Asian salad: rice noodles, grated carrot, cucumber, hot smoked salmon and lashings of fresh herbs - coriander, chives, mint and the new super-hot home grown chillies. Dressed with fish sauce, lime juice and sugar.

Happy now!

vegan summer: hits and misses

Petty grumbles about summer at the vegan coal face.

Vegan cookbooks

With barely 1% of Australians claiming to be vegan (according to a 2010 Newspoll survey) the market for local vegan cookbooks is slim to say the least. The bulk of recipe books available are American and that leads to the perennial problem of measurements. I love PPK and would likely buy Veganomicon if it did a metric edition. Despite being more than competent at maths, adjusting for English versus US cups and pounds for grams is exhausting after a while. The SE is a stickler for following a recipe and in the end the conversions really got to him.

I did however make PPK orange ginger baked tofu, because there was a heck of a lot of tofu consumed over summer and I’d never baked it before. In the end the quantities were a total guestimate, not only because of the imperial to metric conversion (it gets so tiring checking every single ingredient) but because I was using a smaller block of tofu so resizing each one was another issue. Fortunately it wasn’t a cake and I can read a recipe and get the general gist of where it’s going. I also had no wine open and as the SE is also currently a non-drinker, so I modified it further by using about a tablespoon of dry sherry instead. The alcohol gives the flavour of the sauce a bit of depth but I think mirin could do a similar thing for those with a grog-free kitchen. Despite all that the dish was a hit.

As an aside I tracked down the title of an Australian vegan cookbook and was excited to discover that it was being reprinted and that the authors were publishing their second cookbook. This is only available from a few outlets in and around Sydney as it’s self-published. But despite having a website, they don’t seem keen to distribute online. I contacted them with the location problem, mentioned Fishpond being useful (they have a number of vanity titles in their catalogue) but they responded by reposting the interstate options. It’s really hard to support an initiative that wants to shoot itself in the foot.

Agave

The website for the aforementioned book showed promise. The one sweet recipe they shared had something going for it. That being it didn’t use agave syrup. Oh boy, don’t get me started on this stuff. Oops too late! Rant alert.

Agave syrup continues to feature like a vegan star both in recipes and every vegan-friendly eatery. I have no idea why so many health oriented eateries keep pushing the stuff. It’s been known for years that agave nectar/syrup has a similar molecular structure to the dreaded high fructose corn syrup and is metabolised by the liver in a similar, potentially hepato-toxic way. By my reckoning it’s just an overpriced, and potentially harmful, fad. On top of this it seems to appear in many sweet raw foods recipes. It’s not raw. The substance that becomes what we know as agave nectar or syrup begins life in the cactus as a starch, which is boiled to be transformed into the syrup. This process alters the molecular structure, producing a high fructose liquid. The original indigenous “nectar” was also either fermented or boiled. It’s not a case of tapping a ready to use liquid straight from the plant.

Eating out

Before the vegan summer I’d been excited to attend a special vegan dinner at Embrasse. While it was a lovely night, with elegant food and great company, it left me wanting. The minimalist style of the cuisine had not taken into account the degree of hunger the diner is left with when the morsels of animal protein are left out of the degustation. Imagine a multi-course dinner where you get only to eat the garnishes? Knowing the SE’s devotion to filling his gut, I figured that the vegan options at many glamorous omni restaurants would end up being a waste of money, so when not cooking at home the local veg*n haunts were visited on high rotation.

Despite some delectable meals, by the end of six weeks I was over the grunge factor. Are there not elegant vegans, who enjoy a bit of linen, a decent wine list and to be skillfully waited on once in a while? Having suffered a lack of choice in fine dining, even with fish and eggs on my regular diet, I just couldn’t face forking out big dollars for a potential disappointment, or to gorge on something fishy and fabulous but watch the SE miss out. Accordingly we opted to support the eateries that make an effort to cater for those who don’t eat meat. This meant Yong Green, The Veggie Bar and Munsterhaus in high rotation (plus a couple of our local omni Asian joints where we chomped our way through a lot of vegetarian fried rice and stir fries with tofu and vegetables).

The SE had been lukewarm about Yong Green when it first opened but all that changed once he became vegan. This was his new spiritual home and he’d rip through three courses without blinking, loving every bite. We also became reacquainted with the Dragon Bowl (the first thing we’d eaten there a couple of years ago) and the combo of kimchi/rice/tofu and salads became a home cooked summer staple.

My relationship with the Veggie Bar goes back a long way, to a date in 1988 in fact. It’d just opened in the small corner site, there was no liquor licence but the rather gorgeous owner at the time gave us teacups to surreptitiously sip our illicit BYO wine from. In the early days I fell in love with the tofu burgers and was introduced to tempeh bolognaise, something I really must make at home again. But a bit like the date, while we hung around together for a while and shared the odd episode of deliciousness, it was never going to be a long-term infatuation.

Going back to the Veggie Bar after so many years was a bit like catching up with an old boyfriend. There was the rush of reconnection and reminiscence but after a couple of meetings you tend to realise why you broke up in the first place. On a warm summer’s afternoon we stopped in for a quiet juice and the best hommos (raw! sprouted!) I’ve ever eaten. How I marvelled about the gluten-free seedy crackers and craved more! The next visit at 6.30 on a Monday night found us in a noisy, chaotic and rather annoying restaurant, eating food that we really could have made at home.

Munsterhaus has been a weekday lunch favourite ever since it opened. I’m just a little addicted to the glass noodle salad and tofu a hundred different ways. But alas, it’s not a night dining option and the hard seats never make you want to linger.

After six weeks I was well fed but a little miserable. A restaurant with not just one but a number of enticing vegan options on their standard menu, is a rare find. Spontaneous eating out became a bit of a chore.

The SE is back in Sydney and I have to admit my standby proteins, eggs and tuna, have snuck back into my weekly eating in his absence. I can see a day when I ditch tuna, if not all seafood, but I still love the handy egg hit. It's so bloody easy and satisfying. Although my vegetable intake has always been higher than the national average, I'm still consuming even more than before the summer of vegan cooking. I've got into the habit of upping my intake with fresh vegetable juices and amazed that the second hand juicer I snagged nearly 23 years ago is still up to the job.

On the downside, and here I'm not claiming that 6 weeks of mainly vegan eating is the biggest culprit, I discovered that I'm quite severely anaemic. It first began as a child when I'd have meat at least twice a day. Since animal flesh was dropped from my diet in 1984 the deficiency has come and gone. I have no desire to ever eat meat but perhaps the fish and eggs have helped kept the problem at bay, a little.

What are your vegan loves and peeves around Melbourne?

raw fruit pie

The vegan summer* continues. As it’s been an unusual month, throwing my blogging mojo way off centre, excuse me starting in the middle rather than the beginning of the journey.

As a student for four years in my 20’s, most of what I cooked was vegan by default. All the shared houses were nominally vegetarian (what we ate outside of home varied somewhat). There was the odd egg but the sparse kitty could rarely stretch to seafood.

Recently I unearthed my hand written recipe collection from that time and revisited what I used to eat. Beans, lentils, curries, pies, risotto, tofu balls and soups appeared to be on high rotation. But desserts, bar the odd cake, didn’t get a look in.

One exception being a raw fruit pie introduced to me by a flatmate who’d grown up in the 70s with an older, hippy sister who went on a raw food diet (somewhere between rebirthing and following some guru or another). It’s more than 20 years since I made the “pie” and the recipe is a tad vague but strangely legible. I remember there being oats in the base, yet they’re only mentioned as an after thought and I don’t recall ever cooking with fresh coconut. The size of pie dish, consistency of filling and other details remain absent.

I tweaked the original recipe a bit but stayed true to the memory of the dish. It must have been good because we had seconds, barely leaving any for breakfast.

The original recipe is at the end of this post, for what it’s worth.

Raw fruit pie

Base

3/4 c rolled oats, ground

1/2 c raw pistachios, ground

1/2 c raw almonds, ground

(other nuts or seeds can be substituted)

1/2 c dates, pitted and chopped

(other dried fruit can be substituted)

3/4 c desiccated coconut

1 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/4 cup coconut milk

Water, if needed

1/4 c honey

Soak oats and dried fruit in coconut milk and a little water, for about half an hour until softened. Combine with remaining ingredients and blend in a food processor.

Grease a pie dish (I used a 25 cm flan dish) with coconut oil. Push the rather sticky base into the bottom of the pan. It seems too little but will make it to the outer reaches with gentle coaxing. Rest it in freezer for 15 minutes.

Filling

3 medium sized apples, grated

2 tabs lemon juice

3 bananas, mashed

1 tsp coconut cream (the solids in the canned coconut milk)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

Blend ingredients in food processor and spoon onto the base. Refrigerate til ready to serve.

Before serving decorate with fresh fruit. I used slices of kiwi and banana but any fruit will do such as fresh berries or orange segments.

A quick outdoor shot at 7.30 pm, excuse the dullness of the photo

The original recipe (somewhere between rebirthing and guru worship)

Base

1/2 c dates

1/2 c sultanas

1 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 c almonds’

1/4c fresh coconut (its not clear if this was the juice or flesh)

1/4 c desiccated coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup honey

Soak fruit 1 hour. Grind nuts and seeds. Combine ingredients til smooth in food processor. Press into pie dish to form a crust. Put in freezer ~ 15 minutes.

*Oats ok with fruit and substitute to substitute (note the ingredients list has no asterisks to indicate what can be substituted)

Filling

2 grated apples

2 tab lemon juice

1/4 cup fresh coconut

2 mashed bananas

Blend

Stir in 2 sliced bananas and add to crust.

Decorate with 1 kiwi fruit, sliced and 1 – 2 mandarins

* The Significant Eater (SE) is currently vegan. This summer all home cooking has been animal product-free.

tacos with a little leftover love

”Never underestimate how much assistance, how much satisfaction, how much comfort, how much soul and transcendence there might be in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer.”

Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Tacos, cheap as chips and so simple even a child can throw one together, seem to be the new “it” girl in town. From the stupidly cheap, to tad underwhelming and coolest of the cool, I’m predicting a Mexican summer in Melbourne.

Unlike spending your night queuing on the stairs of last year’s hippest restaurant, it’s more fun and easy to make tacos at home.

With a little homemade salsa anything tastes good. Leftovers can be transformed with the addition of salsa, lettuce and avocado into a Mexican inspired feast.

Sure, there have been times when I’ve sourced the best taco shells, cooked refried beans from scratch, lovingly made kick-ass guacamole and forked out for horrendously expensive/only just edible dairy-free “cheese”. But take it from me; a little leftover chili beans and a few minutes spent chopping while the supermarket-bought shells heat in the oven works just as well. Add sunshine or a warm spring evening to dine outside and you can’t fail.

You can even throw together a quick after work bit of leftover love for tasty and easy solo dining.

Simple leftover-magic tacos for one

(multiplies easily for more)

Simple tomato salsa

A couple of ripe tomatoes, diced

1 tablespoon of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

1 chili to taste, finely chopped

A decent squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice

A pinch of salt

Mix together in a small bowl.

Sides

Protein – take your pick leftover beans (or refried from scratch), a can of fish, some smoked tofu cut into strips or for the carnivores leftover roast chicken or turkey (hey Christmas is coming!)

Shredded lettuce – use something crunchy like cos or the humble iceberg.

Avocado – halve, remove from the shell and stone and simply slice. Squeeze some lemon or lime juice over the cut fruit to stop discolouring.

If you must – get some super-hot Mexican sauce to add a few more drops of spice but I tend to make my fresh salsa hot enough to not need it. For those with children or who dine with the heat averse, the sauce isn’t a bad idea but watch out, the hot one really will burn your mouth!

Warm the taco shells in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes or as directed on the packet. Put in twice as many as you think you’ll eat. Believe me, there are never enough once you get started.

Assemble at your leisure, it’s a messy job but sometimes the best food is the kind that gets your hands dirty.

attention Melbourne foodbloggers: eat.drink.picnic

The weather forecast for Saturday is 30c, perfect for a picnic.

This is an open invite to all Melbourne Food bloggers who aren't heading north to eat.drink.blog #2 in Sydney, to come and picnic with other bloggers in sunny Nth Fitzroy, this Saturday.

This has been publicized through the Melbourne Food Bloggers group on Facebook but as not everyone has joined as yet, thought it'd be good to give a heads up here.

When?
5th November @12.30.

Why?
An opportunity to share homemade food, chat about eating, drinking and blogging and hopefully soak up some summer sun. Celebrate spring and include a fresh veggie dish to share. (To clarrify - this isn't a vego only event, just hoping that omnis can be inclusive and include a veg-friendly dish in their basket).

Where
North Fitzroy, comment/email me for exact location.

Don't forget a rug and sunblock, loved ones/families welcome.




Perfect for a picnic (and price of caulis willing) I'll be whipping up some of this. Over five years since I first made it, I'm utterly addicted to this dip and make it at least twice a month.

hold the sprouts

I have a thing with sprouts. It’s not that I don’t like them. It’s just some unknown health guru put it into my head years ago that over three days old, sprouts encourage the wrong kind of oestrogen production in the body. Now this could be total hogwash. Yes it probably is. But the idea that they go from “good”, wonderfully beneficial food, to “bad” still lurks in the recesses of my brain.

But then I saw Ottolenghi’s sprout salad and it was a case of either sprout my own (um, maybe, I last sprouted radish seeds in the ‘80’s) or adapt.

Instead I simplified the salad into something else. But just like my “thing” with sprouts, I’m equally obsessed with the evolution of recipes.



Just picked


Carrot and daikon salad

1 daikon, peeled and finely sliced in rounds
2 large carrots, peeled or scrubbed and finely sliced in rounds
A large handful leafy greens (watercress works well if you can find it)

Dressing

3 tabs walnut or olive oil
1 tab sherry vinegar
1 tsp grain mustard
Pinch of sea salt
(It doesn’t need pepper because daikon is spicy enough)

Whisk dressing ingredients together and toss through salad. Serve immediately.

Toasted pumpkin seeds or crispy tempeh would go nicely in this, and if you must, add a handful or two of your favourite sprouts.

finding inspiration

The secret to my sanity is a working week with hours nestled somewhere between part and full time. Having run my own business for twenty years I’m proud to say I’ve navigated two decades of self-employment with body, mind and soul more or less intact. The latest addition to my work schedule is a weekly business meeting with myself. It's comprised of a leisurely brunch somewhere different each time, with tasty food, my trusty notebook and no expectations. So far, so good. Amazing what plans can hatch with the right fuel.


breakfast special, Dench, Nth Fitzroy

Just as I’m looking at work from a different angle, my kitchen mojo has returned (no doubt helped by the recent cook-along). Two inspired experiments this week, requiring a digital note to self for future reference.

Number one needs no real recipe - just a simple risotto with new season asparagus, garlic and shallots. Towards the end of cooking I added a little lemon zest and sorrel. For the dairy tolerant some marinated soft goats cheese tossed through before serving would be perfect.


Chard and flathead pastries

Thaw some good quality puff pastry.
Set the oven to 180c.

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil til soft
Gather your favourite leafy greens (with a garden full of rainbow chard, cavolo nero and sorrel at the moment it’s a necessity), rinse well and chop roughly.
Add to the onions and cook for til wilted. Season with sea salt and pepper.
Squeeze a little lemon juice, add some zest too if desired.

Take the mixture off the heat and allow to cool.

Chop some flathead tails. If making small parcels, you only need 3 or 4 small chunks per pastry.

Cut pastry into squares (or circles if you want cute, semi-circular pastries). Fold on the diagonal to make a triangle, open out and use the fold line to mark half of the pastry to add the filling. Leave a centimetre around the edge. Add a spoonful of the vegetable mixture and dot with chunks of fish. Fold the pastry, add a little water around the edges to help them stick and crimp together. Puncture the top of a pastry with a fork.

Bake til golden, about 20 minutes.

calling Time Team: vegetables from the Iron Age

Spied at Vic Market last week.



I know beans are out of season at the moment but this trader's managed to source some from the Iron Age. Hate to imagine the food miles for that.

writing in the margins: vandalism or interactivity?

I come from a family that has a certain reverence for the written word. My father begins his day worshipping the newspaper. It’s now delivered at 5 am and I swear the early drop off is the cause of his insomnia. He can’t bear to think of all that paper and ink sitting out on the drive in the cold.

Books are even more holy. In our house you’ll find no dog-eared pages and never, ever has a book taken to be read in the toilet!

But contrary to the unwritten lores of my family, in recent years my father has begun defacing books. I can only imagine the inner struggle that must go on between the Virgoan twin desires of neatness and utter righteousness. One day I noticed one of the many tombs on his beloved national park had been sullied with his unmistakable handwriting. He’d taken a pen and annotated every single mistake the author made, neatly in the margin.

Coming across a defaced book in the house was a revelation. I didn’t know you were allowed to write in the margins. It was as if the world had tilted slightly. My father had become so incensed with the authors inaccuracies, that correcting them was the only option. He did not, as far as I know, actually send the notes back to the publisher. Instead the book just continues to sit innocently amongst others on the subject.

Though last month that changed. During my trip home my father handed me two foolscap pages of corrections for a different book. This one was written about the town he grew up in. Instead of sullying the edition he’d decided to send them directly to body that had commissioned the work. Each mistake was noted by quotation, page number and the correction supplied, often with references from his archive – including old copies of his high school’s own journal. From the 1940s. Page numbers included.

So this morning, lying in bed (an indescribably wonton act on a Monday morning while the rest of the world toils), I glanced at a new “healthy” cookbook I’d picked up from the local library. I was surprised to read that the author was Australian and alumni of my own profession, as I’d never heard of her.

I was only a couple of pages in and a photo showed seedling of “coz” lettuce. Not a good start. The following page spruiked the wonders of agave syrup. I checked the publishing date, 2010. No excuses because by then this highly promoted wonder food had since been relegated to the “almost as bad as high fructose corn syrup” department by most of the authors peers. And spriulina? Surely that’s not still doing the rounds in the 21st century?

Like father, like daughter - I was already itching to pick up men pen and write a few references in the margin. But it’s the fourth recipe that did me in. It’s one for rhubarb and guess what doesn’t feature in the ingredients list? Aha, rhubarb. With 4/5 of the book yet to explore, should I just take a chill pill and take it back unsullied to the library.

So here’s the deal. Do I throw the baby out with the bath water? There are some good recipes and health information amongst the inaccuracies. Should they go through to the keeper? It’s one thing to annotate in the margin if your own cookbooks. Because as far as recipes are concerned, the notes of your own experiences, the temperature and timing of your own oven, varying the amounts for your own palate – to me adds to the value of a cookbook.



Illegible teenage scrawl in my Moosewood cookbook. Indeed the sour cream cheesecake is pretty damn good subbed with tofu. Must make it again soon.

But should you deface a library book? In pen? In pencil? Is this bringing the interactivity of new media to an old format? Or is it just vandalism.

I’m leaning towards sticky notes. What do you reckon?

simple

The past month has been about:

Stir fries…tofu, tempeh or egg as protein plus finely sliced, julienned or half mooned vegetables. Rice noodles always a favourite. Tamari, kecap manis and fish sauce on rotation as flavouring.

Soups…easy red lentil served with fish sauce, chilli and a squeeze of lime juice.

Fish fillets cooked the way I was taught at primary school…fresh gurnard in a foil parcel with slices of lemon, salt, pepper and nothing else. Cooked at 175c for 11 minutes. I’d forgotten how good it tastes.

Autumn fruits…feijoas, tamarillos and persimmons.

Out…not often but well chosen..an intimate dinner at The Commoner (the most amazing mushroom coated version of a scotch egg, not on the menu but offered as a vegetarian option)…two vegan burgers to choose from at the Tramways plus the best hand cut chips.

Purchased…a beautiful, large ceramic bowl from a local potter. Big enough to fit a swag of fruit.



Nothing fancy. Just keeping calm and carrying on.

lunch - one that got away

Last time I ate at Ume I arrived too late for my favourite scattered sushi and reverted to my previous lunch order of vegetable tempura.

As the previous post mentioned I find this way too much food to get through but skipping the rice makes it a little easier. Just found on old iphone shot of aforementioned meal.



The vegetable tempura bento: Miso soup, 5 pieces of freshly fried vegetable tempura, 2 cubes tofu, carrot/mayo based salad, 1 vegetarian nori roll, rice and dipping sauce. The photo doesn't do it justice, it's way bigger than it looks.

Still on the look out for CBD lunchtime haunts that are pescatarian/vego friendly, filling enough to get me through to a late finish at work and not sandwich based.

Recipe: Fish cutlets in vine ripened tomato sauce

2011 has been about practicing mindfulness thus far for me. To date it has kept me in the moment when dealing with a new landlord (oh don’t get me started on that, it could waste a perfectly delightful moment as I sit at my desk on a sunny day writing) and stopped me from feeling too sorry for myself while succumbing to an annoying bug.

This being in the moment lark is not always easy. I remember Stephanie Dowrick writing years ago in the Saturday Age about the mindfulness of washing dishes but to be honest I’d prefer to be anywhere else than in the moment when undertaking that menial chore.

I see shopping for seasonal food as a central tenet of my practice. Going to the market with no fixed ideas of what to cook means some surprises in my basket. I recently ate a lot of daikon – stretching my cooking repertoire to using the green leaves in soup, the root raw in salads as a replacement for radish and a foray into stir fries for the crunch texture. Last week it was a wander through the fish hall for the freshest looking produce at the most reasonable price.

I returned home with modestly sized but thick, snapper cutlets with not a clue about how I’d cook them. I’ve ranted before about the Australasian phobia for fish on the bone but like most flesh, this makes it taste sweeter. The snapper is blessed with a medium sized spine with thickish ribs, making them an ideal fish to eat whole. The cutlets are also encased in omega rich skin so the whole piece is like a tidy package that stays together well when cooking. This is the ideal cut for those who can’t get through an entire fish or are working their way up to dealing emotionally with the beast. Being headless there are no eyes to distract the squeamish fish lover.

Fish cutlets are great to poach and stew as they keep their shape. With the garden bearing a host of love apples, tomatoes feature in much of what I'm cooking at the moment. I’m not sure the genesis of this recipe, finding none that fitted the bill, it came together from fragments of memory and imagination. Flying by the seat of my pants, in the moment, it turned out perfectly.


Fish in tomato and olive sauce
(serves 2)

2 tabs olive oil
2 large fish cutlets (or 4 small)
1 cup fish stock (vegetable or chicken stock would do)
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
A pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 2 tabs hot water
1 onion, chopped
A touch of chili, for subtle warmth (optional)
2-4 cloves of garlic (the more the better)
3-4 large, ripe tomatoes (or a cup or two of canned crushed tomatoes)
A decent handful, green beans, top and tailed
10 black olives (I like Kalamata)
Salt and pepper to season

Soak your saffron threads in a little hot water or stock.

Heat a heavy bottomed fry pan to medium to high, add half the olive oil and fry the fish for a minute or two both sides. This is to seal and colour the fish rather than to cook through. Put aside once seared.

Add the rest of the oil to the pan and sauté chopped onion. Because I was going to blitz the fresh tomatoes in the food processor I did the onions and garlic in it first, a great shortcut for a tired cook. Stir frequently ‘til translucent, then add the garlic and chili. After a minute or two pour in the crushed/blitzed tomatoes (mine were grand lisse still warm from the garden and perfectly ripe) wine and stock. If using warm stock, add the saffron to it for 10 minutes first, otherwise soak the saffron in warm water and add with the stock. This recipe works fine with just stock and no wine, though the alcohol adds depth of flavour. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer. After 5 minutes or so add the olives, green beans and fish. Depending on the thickness of the cutlets poach in the tomato sauce for 4-5 minutes each side ‘til cooked through.

Taste and season as required. Serve on rice or with crusty bread.

In the moment, my thoughts were on eating not photography. But feast your eyes on part of this morning's Tommy Toe haul.

Melbourne CBD lunch quest continued

I’m loathed to write about my quest for lunch in the Melbourne CBD. Each time I post my top three lunch spots, one falls off the perch. First Sataybar closed its nearby store. Then last time my beloved dosas dropped off the radar. Both Nila City and Sydney Road are long gone. Though the De Graves Street spot is now occupied by the sister shop to the Lygon Street fish/burger/sushi chain that includes a small selection of brown rice nori rolls.

A year or two ago I added Ume Sushi House to my lunchtime treats. Little Bourke Street isn’t usually in my city circuit but it’s now become the eatery of choice on the days that I have enough time to stroll and eat at a more leisurely pace. Nori Rolls aside, the dishes at Ume are generous and appropriately priced in the $10-15 range. Not an everyday lunch choice for me but makes a nice treat.

Though I was taken by their vegetable tempura bento for awhile, it’s just too much food to get through for me as it includes not just a generous array of tempura but also miso soup, small salads, rice AND a vegetarian nori roll.

My current treat is their chirashi sushi. There are so many variations on this dish, often translated as “scattered” sushi, that each restaurant’s version is unique. Ume’s presentation is a delight and the bonito flecked condiment in the bottom right corner (can someone tell the me the name of it?) is a tasty addition.



What's on your lunchtime menu at the moment?



Ume Sushi House
383-385 Little Bourke Street,
Melbourne VIC 3000
Open 9-5 weekdays

wikileeks?

Right now I've got a bad case of end of year fatigue causing me to triage my social life severely. Sheesh it's tough being a grown up sometimes.

While there's a great recipe posts brewing (the best vegan curry ever!) all I'm up for right now is to pour a long, cool glass of mineral water, have a lie down and share some vego-political humour spied today at Garden Organics.

pass it on

Food waste is a crime and I am guilty as charged m’lud.

While lamenting my cooking mojo, contents of my fridge lie in risk of rotting. With a busy week ahead, featuring too many late nights’s home from work, I excavated the nether regions of my pantry to unearth some dried beans. While I was there I threw out the sad culprits who’d more than hit their use by date. In my defence the offending items were ones that I’d inherited when the Significant Eater first moved in many years ago.

Cooking beans is easy. Soak overnight. Drain, rinse and boil the next morning. It seemed to have upset people when I wrote previously that I could cook up a batch of beans before going to work. I do like a leisurely start to the day and am happy to sacrifice sleep for the pleasure of sipping a hot beverage while reading the digital news, wrangling the cat and organising my day.

It’s a Virgo thing.

The aforementioned planning involved making a batch of chilli beans – take a big dollop of homemade harissa, onion and assorted end of the week vegetables (pumpkin, parsnip and a lanky carrot, finely grated), simmer with tomato paste and vegetable stock. Throw on the heat diffuser mat and ignore for an hour or two.

But there was a problem. I’m home alone at the moment and not fond of leftovers. In fact I’ll do anything to avoid eating the same food two nights in a row (with the exception of the gingery tomato-y tofu dish, I think the sugary content makes it highly addictive). So night one was augmented with not-feta and night two, a handful of marinated olives.

There was no way there’d be a night three. A man-size serve remained. But throwing it out seemed criminal. In desperation, I texted my neighbour. Her adult son became vegan this year and lives a few blocks away, was he coming to dinner tonight? It turned out he wasn’t but her husband loves hot food (she doesn’t) and would be very happy for a chilli hit.

Problem solved.

One of the unexpected pleasures of passing it on is the boomerang effect. On my doorstep this morning was the plastic container with a note of thanks scribbled on some butchers paper, inside was nestled four of the cutest eggs.

Perhaps my cooking mojo just needs a little bit of neighbourhood recycling to kick it back to life?

Frittata anyone?

Starring

Summer Beans
Chilli Beans – soaked plus a twist of smoky paprika
Chili Beans – the breakfast leftover version

Co-starring
Tofu and
Eggplant in a Gingery Tomato Sauce

Crew – the Mighty Fridge Fixings

Stripped Back Harissa Paste
Marinated Olives

hiatus

I had a dream last night that I hadn't cooked for so long that I didn't realise the kitchen had been renovated in my absence.

In my waking life I am cooking frequently and there has been no secret remodeling of my kitchen while I sleep (I checked just in case the fairies had snuck in overnight) but perhaps it is my repertoire that needs a makeover?

While I contemplate my mojo, feast your eyes on one of the pretty fruit trees (species anyone?) in Lucy’s country garden, that I had the pleasure to visit on my day off.




Pretty, aint it.