middle-eastern noms

I am not very good at making hommus or felafal. I am yet to successfully do so - usually I just get Gen (at FoE) to make it for me. But it turns out what I really should be doing is getting Jo to make it for me!



Even though it has been really cold, we somehow decided on one particularly chilly evening that we'd have what is effectively summer food. Jo made some hommus and some felafal and a mushroom and capsicum salad, and Danni spent an age chopping parsley for a taboulli. Which, in interesting news, I should note that I don't usually like taboulli, it usually makes me feel sick, but this one I had no problems with! So that was exciting (and delicious).



It's funny how rarely we engage in Middle-Eastern noms, given where we live (...an area very heavily populated by Middle-Eastern restaurants and grocers...50m from my front door I can buy hummous in a can. HOMMUS IN A CAN). Eating this meal, and Danni's recent visit to Tiba's, reminded me how delicious and easy this food can be. And also I bet it is really great picnic food.



Mmmm hommus. Maybe this post will get updated with a recipe. Or maybe not. Maybe you will all just have to ask Jo over to make this hommus for you.

roasted noms

Now that it's super cold, I'm really appreciating meals that have the oven on for ages! And so it was with great delight on Saturday night that we decided to roast some more things!



On the way home from my FOE shift, Danni, Jo and I swung by the Radical Grocery, where we picked up treats (ie, chocolate) and a veggie roast. We elected to try the Redwood Cheatin' Turkey Roast with cranberry and wild rice stuffing, as we had already tried the beef roast and the turkey roast (no stuffing) the previous weekend at a friend's birthday party.

This was an excellent choice, though it was quite heavy - we had one between the three of us, but it would probably work better between four or five people. This cooks best if it is wrapped in alfoil and roasted for ages (the same length of time as the potatoes, in fact), then left to cool for five minutes before carving.

This we served with roasted pumpkin, field mushrooms, and potatoes, as well as steamed corn. Some of us (not Danni) elected to eat some peas as well.

I love roast pumpkin. And roast potato. And roast mushroom. I like to put the mushrooms in the same tray as the pumpkin (much later than the pumpkin, of course), where they can slide about in the pumpkin juices. It is the best!

This amount of food maxed out the capacity of our oven, and kept us in leftover roast vegies for several days.

Dessert is not pictured: it was a pear + apple crumble, manufactured almost entirely by Jo, with chopping of vegiesfruits by Danni.

scones + jam

Danni and I are both a little bit obsessed with scones at the moment, so in the last couple of weeks we have both turned our hands to baking scones, using the same basic scone recipe. Above is a photo of my scones, which were the first attempt. Happily for me, it turns out that Danni's scone baking skills are far superior to mine - happily because it means whenever we want scones it is Danni who has to exert the effort. Hooray for laziness!

The scones pictured here were served with nuttelex, jam, and soyatoo cream. Oh yeah.

nacho style baked potato

A few weeks ago we made baked potatoes for the first time in a while, and it was pretty exciting! We flustered around the kitchen, and made some mistakes, and ended up with some delicious potatoes for dinner!

Recently, I went to class and left Danni (and Jo) in charge of dinner, and a decision was made to do it again, but with a twist - nacho toppings! It was BRILLIANT.



For inside the potatoes, Danni fried some cumin, paprika, and chili flakes (lots) with some tomato sauce, then added some refried beans and about a third of a can of diced tomato. This simmered on the stove for about fifteen minutes.

The potatoes were then topped with grated cheezley. This concoction was then wrapped in alfoil and baked for about fifteen minutes at 180C.

In the meantime, Danni made our usual red bean and rice mix. This was served on the side of the potatoes, with a little guacamole.

It was SUPER DELICIOUS.

baked potatoes

Danni had this genius idea that we should try baking potatoes. (ETA Danni disclaims genius, this idea was actually Jo's). This is something we hadn't done in an absolute age, so long, in fact, that we weren't really sure what we were doing, and there was some flustering around the kitchen in confusion.



Things we learnt about baked potatoes:

• put the avocado on after you bake them, not before
• careful when you're pre-cooking the potatoes in the microwave - things might get messy
• drizzle some oil

Other than these learn-on-the-go things, it was actually pretty easy! It went like this:

Precook your potatoes in the microwave - stab them first a few times with a fork. When they are pretty much cooked through, remove from the microwave and cut into the tops to create a well or a wedge. Fill this space with nuttelex, mushrooms, beans, cherry tomatoes, chives, and whatever else brings you delight, chopped in to little pieces. Drizzle with olive oil, cover with grated cheese (we used smoked cheddar sheeze), and wrap in alfoil. Bake at 180C for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the potato is cooked through.

Top it with avocado and some sour creamy sorts of things. We didn't top it with anything sour creamy - the only thing available was tofutti sour cream, and it's not very nice. If anyone has any recipe suggestions for sour cream, please share them!

We also baked the wedge cut outs at the same time, to have some delicious potato wedges.

tofu, mushroom and spinach pot pie

Earlier this week, Danni was inspired to cook some pot pies. Neither of us have a huge amount of pot pie experience, but this was gooooood. The gravy that developed was so thick and mushroomy and super delicious. OH YEAH. And it was a lot easier than I expected it to be! Not that I contributed at all to this, except to the eatering, and the checking of it in the oven.



tofu, mushroom and spinach pot pie

ingredients
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbl olive oil
some dried basil, oregano, marjoram and paprika, about half a teaspoon of each
1 tomato (diced)
300 grams firm tofu (diced)
1 dash light soy sauce
1 tbl tomato sauce
half a teaspoon of vegie stock powder
1 bunch spinach
half a dozen button mushrooms, sliced
150g golden boy mushrooms, halved
some squares of puff pastry

method
In the olive oil, fry the garlic, basil, oregano, marjoram, and paprika for a minute or two, then add the tomato and the tofu, and push it around a little bit before leaving it to simmer in the pot with the vegie stock powder, soy sauce and tomato sauce. After about six or seven minutes, add the mushrooms, stir it around some more, put the lid back on and simmer for a while, about fifteen or so minutes. You want the mushrooms to start releasing liquid.

Prep spinach (wash and chop roughly), then chuck it in, let it wilt through. Simmer with the lid off for another ten minutes.

Scoop the mixture into ramekins, put puff pastry on top (I trim to size), brush with soy milk and poppy seeds.

Bake 15 minutes at 190C.

dahl pies

On Saturday, we ended up with a lot of extra lentils at FoE. A LOT of extra lentils. So I brought some home, and Danni (with assistance from Jo) made some pie. The lentils were a bit runny, so Jo thickened them up, and then there was some potato cooking to coat the lentils in sweet potatoes and garlic and nutritional yeast. And then the pies went in the oven.

And then they were DELICIOUS.

This is just one thing that we sometimes do with leftovers (also I put the rest of these leftovers in a very tasty lasagna, but more on that later).

orange and chocolate cupcakes

My parents and my sister came across from Perth for Chinese New Year (it's like Christmas, but longer, you know). I took the day off from FoE in order to go to pick them up from the airport, so with my morning free Danni and I first went to Ceres for brunch with Jo and Em, where we all had the vegan big breakfast (oh yeah). Following this, Danni and Jo decided to bake some cupcakes.



Upon collecting them from the airport, we returned to find these delicious cupcakes waiting! They were chocolate and orange, and were very delicious! Tangy and chocolatey, and the icing was perfect! With thanks to Em for her assistance in grating the chocolate.

tofu cashew ricotta triangles

I managed to make it along to the El Joyero Market a few weeks ago, where Pip had a stall. I bought a few things, including some of her delicious roast pumpkin, cashew ricotta, and silverbeet puff pastry triangles. Inspired by deliciousness, a few weeks later we decided to give these a go.



It was mostly guesswork, we found a few recipes for cashew ricotta (in the end, Danni used the recipe in Veganomicon, with varying proportions), then Danni spooned them into some puff pastry squares, folded and baked! So I came home from class, and there were some delicious puff triangles for consumption.

She reports that it was pretty easy, and I report that it was pretty delicious!

tomato and roasted eggplant stewed with chickpeas from veganomicon

On Wednesday I spent all day out and about at meetings, then went straight from meetings to class, so I knew that by the time class let out I would be quite hungry. With this in mind, I told Danni that she would be in charge of making sure there was dinner for me to eat upon my arrival home.

With assistance rendered by Jo, Danni picked the tomato and roasted eggplant stewed with chickpeas, found on page 179 of Veganomicon. They elected to serve this with the poppyseed polenta, located on page 115.



I really enjoyed the flavour of the roasted eggplant, it added something quite excellent to the stew. Jo and Danni would like me to point out that this recipe is quite fool-proof. The recipe called for a cup of wine, which they added, and then proceeded to drink the rest of the bottle between them, so by the time I got home they were both extremely soused, and they had followed the recipe all out of order. And yet it was still quite delicious, and very enjoyable.

Even allowing for inebriation, Danni suggests the 'one hour and ten minutes' given for the recipe is a lie, though the forty minutes roasting is correct.

the most delicious pasta ever

This is a big claim, the most delicious pasta ever! Not my claim mind you, but Danni's. This is also her recipe, made up a few weeks ago after yet another (for me) very late end to the working day. It features kidney beans, olives and tofetta in a tomato sauce.



the most delicious pasta ever

This renders down quite a lot, and makes two or three portions.

ingredients
four or five tomatoes (diced)
clove of garlic (minced)
small amount of olive oil and nuttelex
dried basil, oregano, marjoram (about a tablespoon of each)
quarter cup of sliced olives
one can of kidney beans
some tofetta
cooked pasta (preferably spirals or penne) for two people

method
In a little bit of olive oil and nuttelex, fry the dried basil, oregano and marjoram for a minute or two. Don't burn! Add the tomatoes, stir a little, then reduce heat and simmer with the lid on for about thirty minutes. The tomatoes should have rendered down quite excellently. Add the kidney beans (drained), and the olives, and return to simmering for another fifteen or so minutes. Stir through the small cubes of tofetta, allowing it to melt just slightly, then serve atop pasta.

Serve while warm.

fruit bread

One morning D came running into the kitchen, declaring a sudden urge to bake fruit bread. This was a first attempt, a modification off one of our usual bread recipes, and it was exciting to bake! I love fruit bread.



fruit bread

ingredients
two cups of plain flour
1 tsp yeast
half a cup of warm (not hot) water
1 tsp sugar
half a cup of sultanas
half a tsp each of ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg

method
Activate the yeast in the water, then add the sugar. Leave to do its work for ten minutes, then combine together with all of the ingredients. Knead well for ten minutes, then coat thinly in vegie oil, and leave to rise for an hour or two, covered, in a warmish spot.

After it has risen, knead another five or ten minutes, then move the dough into your bread-shaped baking tray. Leave the dough to rise again in the bread tin (about forty-five minutes). Bake for 40 minutes at 180C.

rice and red bean buritto

D made dinner tonight, and we were both feeling lazy and tired and, inspired by several recent posts (maybe by Carla and Wanting Kneading?), D whipped up this amazing rice and beans burrito.

It was so delicious, I only paused in eating it to exclaim "this is delicious!" several times. I'm a little disappointed that tomorrow's lunch is put aside for a work Christmas function, so I can't eat the left overs - that will be D's delight!



This was delicious, and so fast and simple, I will be making this again very soon. This is only GF dependent on your wrap, so make sure to check.

beans and rice burritos

ingredients
two (small) cups of brown rice
veggie beef stock
1 clove garlic
small branch of fresh basil
a heavy shake each of Mexican chilli, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika, and dried oregano
4 roma tomatoes (diced)
add red kidney beans (one 400g can)
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce*
just over two cups of water
various delicious toppings (we used shredded lettuce, grated carrot, some salsa, and some really delicious freshly made guacamole)
tortillas

method
Cook the brown rice in two cups of water with half a veggie beef stock cube or equivalent.

In a little oil, fry garlic, fresh basil, chilli, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika and oregano for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and kidney beans. Stir well, and leave to simmer for ten minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally. After ten minutes, check to make sure the mixture has reduced well, then add the tomato sauce, rice, and no more than a quarter of a cup of water. Simmer for another five minutes. Serve warm on an tortilla, with various toppings. Wrap and eat, messily or otherwise.



*I've been getting a lot of 'what is that?' questions lately in regards to various things that I know people have in the US, they just don't know the name we use for it! In this instance, I mean ketchup.

mini buns by d

D and I went down south for the weekend with some friends, and there will be a post of awesome noms to follow, but I wanted to quickly blog about these great buns D made last weekend. D used our usual pizza base recipe, leaving the bread to its first rise, then kneading, dividing into seven little rounds of bread, and leaving to rise a second time, before transferring to the oven for baking. Yum!

pumpkin and sweet potato filo parcels

Back in March, we attended a wedding dinner at the Hilton and had a very delicious sweet potato filo parcel, which we long thought about replicating.

I put it off and put it off, and I got home from class one night and there were these delicious parcels, waiting for me!



pumpkin and sweet potato filo parcels

ingredients
five long sheets of filo pastry
1 sweet potato
half a small butternut pumpkin
a few shakes each of ground cumin, dried rosemary, and dried basil

method
Peel and dice the pumpkin and sweet potato, removing the pumpkin seeds. Boil, with the rosemary and basil, until soft, and then mash, mixing in the cumin.
Cut the length of filo in half, across the long edge, and brush (with milk or oil) and layer into two piles of pastry. Divide the sweet potato/pumpkin mixture evenly between the piles, and wrap. Brush each parcel with oil or milk, and bake in the oven at 180C for about 30 minutes, or until golden.

Goes great with a salad or something.

tea + laksa

I tend to do all of the Malaysian cooking in our kitchen, so last night D gave a first attempt at making laksa, and it was awesome.



D used my usual laksa recipe, which I have blogged about previously. I assisted by de-tailing the bean shoots, a suitable assistant task, and by later making choc chip and banana cookies.

The noodles used were a combination of yellow mee and rice vermicelli, and D also included some tofu puffs sliced into quarters. Om nom nom!



We made an order to Tea Party late last Thursday, and they arrived this morning! I am so jealous that D is at home, sipping delicious new tea, and I am stuck at work with only mango sencha and some oolong (kuan yin type) for company! Both are delicious, and Kuan Yin oolong is my favourite, but I would love to try some of that Daintree Sunset.

Yay tea time!

pumpkin soup from soup for all seasons

On our recent trip to Melbourne I picked up Aduki's Soup for All Seasons, written by the mob from Las Vegan. I was fueled by the soup obsession ignited by the leek and potato soup at R+K's wedding.

D whipped this up whilst I was at my German class, and it was (soooup-er) easy and delicious. It is the second soup we have tried from this book, and so far we are definitely two-for-two delicious. Only notes for it are that we mashed in the pot instead of blending/processing, leaving it still a bit chunky.

mushroom stroganoff

This was great, with a rich mushroom flavour and huge chunks of mushroom. Cooked by D, based on this recipe from yeah that vegan shit.




mushroom stroganoff
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons nuttelex (or vegan margarine)
3 cloves garlic, minced
shake or two of salt, a shake of pepper
dash of dried parsley, dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chives
2 big field mushrooms, cut in to eighths (like a pizza)
3 or 4 largeish whatever mushrooms are there, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup soy milk
half a cup of white wine


about 400gm of fettucine

method
Heat a little olive oil, and add in the flour, stirring on a medium heat for a few minutes. Melt in nuttelex, add garlic, onion, salt and pepper, and keep stirring for a few more minutes. Add everything else (except the fettucine), bring to a boil, and reduce heat to simmer with the lid on for about twenty minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the fettucine. Serve hot!

scrambled tofu from vegan with a vengeance

I got home late on Thursday night, not finishing up at work until after 2100. The work was interesting, we're running a series of community education workshops, and it's great that we've got all these people interested in sustainable living and whatnot, but after a pretty busy week it was slightly vexing to be at work early and not on the train home until late. The train home was pretty exciting though, lots of people and interesting conversations to overhear and I was reading a really odd book (Londonstani by Gautam Malkani).



By the time I got home, though it wasn't that far on the train, I was tired and didn't feel like cooking, just eating. Fortunately, D was in the kitchen, poised to try cooking scrambled tofu, inspired by our awesome tofu experiences in Sydney last week.

D used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. We still haven't found any nutritional yeast, so we had to omit that from the recipe. I felt like the recipe could do with some more spicy, and also perhaps we should have added a little more water. Overall it was tasty, though, and I look forward to more experiments in scrambled tofu, now I've overcome my aversion.

sweet potato burritos

I don’t have a great story for this one, I was feeling unwell yesterday afternoon, so instead of going to my German class I went straight home from work and curled up in bed, so instead of whatever was lying around the house (the original plan), D felt obliged to cook a full dinner before rushing off to band practice. D thought of this on the walk down from West Perth to Woolies in town, and gets full points for awesomeness. It was so tasty, I want to eat it again very soon!

Mexican food is not so ubiquitous in Australia, so I don't really have a lot of experience with it. There is usually only one brand of tortilla in supermarkets! I apologise if you make it and go, "doesn't taste like any burrito I've ever eaten." It is still very tasty. Also I apologise if this isn't actually a burrito, and is infact an enchillada! I took some time deliberating over which it was this morning, but I think the wheat tortilla makes it a burrito. Feel free to educate me in the comments if need be.



sweet potato burritos

ingredients:
four tomatoes (diced)
1 can kidney beans
1 can refried beans
1 sweet potato
shake or three of cumin, cayenne and paprika
dried chilli
small handful of pumpkin seeds
1 quarter red onion (diced)
6 wheat tortillas

method:
In some olive oil, fry the cumin, cayenne, paprika and chilli. As it becomes fragrant, add the tomatoes, red onion, and kidney beans, as well as some of the liquid from the kidney beans. Leave to simmer on medium-low, with the lid on, for about twenty minutes, adding water about halfway through if necessary. In the meantime, mash the sweet potato. After twenty minutes, the mixture on the stove should have reduced beautifully. Add the refried beans at this point, and leave to simmer another five minutes. Reserve about a half a cup of the mixture (preferably with minimal kidney beans), and mix the rest with the sweet potato. Divide the mixture evenly into the tortillas, roll and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with the reserved liquid, and bake on 170C for about ten minutes.

Because I used full-sized el paso tortillas, I found that one and a half were plenty for me, so this serves about four people.

Serve with guacamole.