kering tempe

My housemates think I'm levelling up in tempeh, but what's actually happening is that I'm getting more South East Asian in my tempeh prep and cooking. It's so great! Let me tell you how.

Tempe kering (or kering tempe) is just tempeh that has been shallow fried and deliciously flavoured. The important elements are to slice the tempeh thin, to fry it in heaps of oil at a high temperature, and to add a delicious flavour with it.

One of my favourite comfort foods is pictured here to the left, a more traditional kering tempe served as part of comfort food maggi mee. To cook this I started frying the tempe in a whole lot of sunflower oil (which is my favourite vegetable oil at the moment). After I'd done both sides once, I added a paste mixture comprising of grated palm sugar, kecap manis, ginger, garlic, coriander seeds, cumin and chilli. Sometimes I use fresh stuff and pound it together, and sometimes I just use a whole lot of already ground ingredients. I usually guess proportions based on my mood, but about a teaspoon of each and a whole lot of kecap manis to go with about half a pack of tempeh.

To be totally traditional, this should be fried with peanuts, but I usually don't have peanuts in the house so sad for me. It's still good without!

To the right is a modification I'm really happy with. I roasted half a butternut pumpkin, skin on. This pumpkin was coated in sunflower oil and maple syrup, before going into the oven for about 35 minutes, turning halfway.

When the pumpkin was cooked I drained off the marinade and poured it straight into a fry pan, where I proceeded to add some extra oil and then fry the tempeh until it was in crispy sizzle town. I then poured the pumpkin in, fried it all around, and served it as a side dish. It's amazing!

Fried tempeh is a gift to us all.

It's important not to use olive oil when you're making kering tempe, because you need very high temperatures to get a beautiful, crispy tempeh. Use a canola, sunflower or peanut oil instead.

vegie mum, doncaster

When I first went vego Lotus, the Chinese-Malaysian restaurant in Northbridge, was my life saver, giving me all the delicious comfort foods that I required without schlepping out to my parental house or cooking it myself. The biggest problem with Malaysian food is all the secretly animal stuff, the cockles in your laksa and the lard in your CKT, which requires intense questioning deng deng boring lah, so I usually just have to make it myself.

So I've always wanted to go to Vegie Mum in Doncaster, because I'd heard it was Chinese-Malaysian vego but whenever I tried to go I was prevented by things like Chinese New Year and failing to book, or the lack of PT out there and my lack of car ownership (no regrets).

Anyway now I have been twice in the last three months, and it is all Fiona's fault as she lives in the dreaded Eastern Suburbs and can't travel very far because baby. We even went there this week, which Fi has already blogged! Plus added park.

Because we are not heathens Chinese-Malaysian food is, like regular Chinese food, a sharing kind of thing, except when you are selfish like me and insist that it's very important you get char siu noodle soup because it's one of your favourite things to eat ever and you never get to eat it because you're not gonna make your own vegan char siu.

I did this, and then Fi ordered the laksa because she had never had it before quite recently and now like all good people loves it, and then I tasted her soup and I have never before experienced such regrets. Next time I am gonna eat that laksa for sure. Look at that mock prawn! The only downside of the laksa is that it contains eggplant, which is a crime against laksa. There is no downside to the char siu noodles, except a) it's not laksa and b) you have to remember to specify not wonton noodles, because wonton noodles contain secret egg.

I have previously eaten their CKT (which is excellent); their kari kapitan and roti (good); and their spring rolls (nothing special).

Vegie Mum is pretty standard suburban Chinese except for its vegetarianness; the tables are plastic and so are the chairs, it's all bright white tiles and a little dingy. There's a small step in to the restaurant, can order and pay at the table; CC is taken. There are always people in there, and the menu is in Chinese and English. The Chinese Malaysian owner doesn't seem to believe that I'm Malaysian, so one day I'm gonna take my mother in there and really pointedly talk in Hokkien or Manglish or something.

Vegie Mum
27 Village Ave
Doncaster
Not open Mondays

laksa king [flemington]

One of the hardest things about being a vegan from Penang living in a not very Malaysian Australian city (Melbourne why, all I do is love you and this is how you treat me) is how hard it is to find good (vegan) laksa. Perth, no problem! Penang, obviously no problem. Melbourne, why.

Anyway, all that is to say, I have been wanting to visit Laksa King in Flemington for a while now, having heard many good things about it, and when the opportunity arose Fi and I moseyed on over there and both ordered the vegetarian laksa, made vegan. While ordering the vegetarian laksa, with vegan option (this emphasis may be annoying but I promise it makes sense soon), we also ordered the fresh-made tofu with mushrooms and wolfberries (you may know them as goji berries), and I ordered a soya bean milk because I'm Malaysian and can't drink a Milo Ais or a teh tarik, which is the only way I could have been more Malaysian at that moment. 

Sadly, they brought out my nemesis, Vamino soy milk, the only azn soy milk around that contains cow milk, and also incidentally tastes gross. Why a Malaysian place wouldn't serve Yeo's, basically the most SEAZN brand there is, I don't know. 

Then came the tofu fresh made on premises, and I knew. Oh, I knew. I stuck my chopsticks into that tofu and broke off a piece, and I knew. That fresh made tofu was egg tofu. Which was a shame, as we'd made such a point of ordering the vegan laksa that I didn't even think to check that the fresh tofu wasn't egg tofu. Saddest. 

The laksa was fine. There was my least favourite tofu (least favourite other than egg tofu, obviously), but lots of noodles and greens, and as is traditional I took most of Fi's noodles because she can't eat all the joyous carbs and she stole some of my soup, which was much less coconutty than hers. And I slurped my way through my noodles, piling them into my spoon and getting laksa everywhere, and laksa is like a little balm on my soul no matter its quality. But they were super coconutty laksas with no spice at all, though nicely oily, and in the end it was okay but nothing spectacular, and maybe if I was in the area again I'd try one of the other Malaysian places nearby, or default to Chillipadi across the street.

Ugh will no one make me an assam laksa?

Other reviews: Fi (on our visit); Cindy and Michael; Pip. Non-veggie meh agreement: the cooking capers.

Laksa King
6-12 Pin Oak Crescent
Flemington
Get there on the Craigieburn train or the 57 tram. Ramp to get in, didn't check out the bathrooms. Mid-to-high price for a lunch ($9 something for the laksa, but $17 something for the tofu).

kind of like a kapitan curry thing

For ages I had planned to make this curry. A friend modified her step-mother's fish curry so that it was vegan, especially for me, and it was simple and tasty and filled with familiar delicious flavours. So this recipe sat in my inbox for months and months, and finally last week I went to make it...and every where I went I could only find mock fish with whey in it. Even brands that were previously vegan contained whey.

Too lazy to look up any other recipes for new curries, I amalgamated this instead with what I had in the house and in my head (which is like an ode to curries).




kind of like a kapitan only not really

200gm mock chicken pieces
1cm knob ginger, minced
1 clove minced ginger
half of a brown onion, sliced finely
a whole lot of curry powder* (I didn't measure, but about 1 and a bit tablespoons)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon tumeric
half a teaspoon garamasala
a dash or three of ground coriander
1 large tomato, diced
small handful of snake beans, ends off and halved
some curry leaves
a couple of lime kaffir leaves
400mlish coconut milk
a cup or two of water


*so here is the thing about curry powder: sometimes people refer to it as 'inauthentic.' This is a smokescreen! Curry powder comes from the curry leaf. You should never use it as the only spice in a curry, but it is a perfectly cromulent addition to your curry along with many other ingredients! Unless you would like to tell my mother that she is inauthentically Malaysian Chinese. That would be amazing.


method:
In some oil, fry the onions over a medium heat until they are soft and translucent (about ten minutes), then add the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Then throw in the curry powder, cumin, tumeric, and garamasala, mix it all together, then throw in a little bit of the water. Let it simmer for a few minutes so it all mixes through and renders down, then throw in the mock chicken pieces. Let these fry in the spices until well coated, then add the tomatoes and the rest of the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer covered for fifteen to twenty minutes. Or even longer, if you like. After this, add in the snake beans, curry leaves and lime kaffir leaves, and leave to simmer for another ten. Then add the coconut milk, simmer another five, and it is ready to go!

Old Town Kopitiam Mamak, QV Building

So I met up with E and C to go and see Humourists Read Humourists at the Wheeler Centre as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In fact it was my first one for the season! (I have since been to see more) As the show was at 19:30, we thought we'd eat dinner first. E had been recommended some Japanese place in the QV Building by a friend, but she said the friend was omni and so there was no way for us to know if I could actually eat there until we got there.

So we turned up, and I could not eat there. Not a thing. Fortunately, there was Old Town Kopitiam Mamak just over the other side of the escalator; and if there's one thing I can do, it's make Malaysians cook me vegan food.

The food was fine, this is not really a review, I ended up with nasi goreng with the usual substitutions. This is however a PSA: the 'vegetarian curry laksa' is not, in fact, vegetarian.



In other news, the couch at the Wheeler Centre is great, and someone left me a question on my formspring letting me know that they thought they'd spotted me at the Rosie Burgess Gig at the Bendigo in Collingwood yesterday! You can totally come say hi if you like, I am usually quite friendly and cheerful and I very much enjoy meeting other Melbourne vegos! (and non vegos who like folk-thrash-rock)

Old Town Kopitiam Mamak
level 2/shop 11 QV square QV Building
Melbourne

in house easy malaysian cookery

Danni was recently away for a bit. I didn't really cook very much, because in the middle of it I went to Perth, but when Danni's away I almost always just spend the whole time eating Malaysian food, cooking experimental dishes, and/or eating corn not-on-the-cob, the latter of which Danni doesn't like.

I started with a char kuay teow, because it had been a while and I love ckt.



I've cooked this and blogged ckt approximately fifty bazillion times, but if you're looking for a recipe I've got one here.

The night before I went away, I spent a while emptying the bins, using up leftovers, and psyching myself up to head across town for a late-night gig at onesixone (my friend Alwyn is in a Perth band, Boys Boys Boys!, and the band was in town for one night only!).

I had some rice, a tomato, and some mushrooms, so it seemed like a good time to make tomato fried rice.



Here is an important thing to remember: tomatoes are not really in season in Melbourne at the moment. As a result, this rice was not that good. SADFACE.

For your interest, if you've never made tomato fried rice before, it's pretty simple: slice your tomato in to wedges, and throw in first with whatever else goes first (carrots, if you have them, and a little garlic maybe). When the tomato goes soft, throw in the rice, as well as some tomato sauce (translation: ketchup, not soup or paste or anything), pepper, and a tiny smidge of ketjap manis, fry it around until it's all the same colour, then you're done.

nyonya noms lotus sri melaka vegetarian restaurant, northbridge

I got off the plane, collected my luggage and my mother, and the first thing we did after leaving Perth Domestic Airport was head in to Northbridge and be Very Chinese.

We went to visit the aunties* at the Chinese grocers along William Street, where I had to say hello and 你好吗** and yes Melbourne is good and 四日***. I eyed off the Mister Potato Crisps and the mooncakes, but decided I could wait until I got back to Melbourne. I also wandered up and down the aisles whilst my mother did some shopping, lamenting the loss (to me) of my favourite Chinese-Malaysian grocer. As I have well documented, I have yet to find every Malaysian thing that I require from Melbourne.

We then moved on to be more Chinese-Malaysian, with lunch at Lotus.

Oh Lotus. I have loved you frequently and loved you long, as the only provider of vegan Nyonya noms in Perth (aside from my mum). I remain so sad that there is no equivalent to you in Melbourne. I used to visit you several times a month, to eat the comfort food I love; your 'beef' rendang and your laksa and your kapitan and your char kuay teow and your deliciousness. Oh yeah.

Danni's mum joined us, and we had a bit of a noodle extravaganza.

My mother went for the Penang Laksa (please forgive the overexposed shot).



This was very rich, as always, and filled with lots of beans, tofu, and mock char siu, and my mum had it with beehoon (rice) noodles. It was good, but not super spicy, and she didn't finish it all.



Danni's mum went for the Hokkien Mee. Hokkien mee is one of my favourite things to cook, it is quick and easy and delicious, and so must this one have been because she ate it all up (and did a stellar job with her chopsticks). This was filled with lots of vegies, which is just the way it is best.

What is with all this single dishes? perhaps you are asking. Well, it is my fault, because I knew exactly what I wanted, and what I wanted was the wonton mee. Whilst I had a perfectly reasonable wonton noodles at Tinh Tam Chay in St Albans, it was not perfect, and what I really wanted, above all else, was the wonton mee soup at Lotus. It's not on the menu, but you can ask for it and oh yeah. Oh yeah.



LOOK AT THAT OIL. I drank that all up. Delicious. I picked this over all my other favourite dishes at Lotus, and it was totally worth it.

Finally, we ordered a kapitan + three roti to share.



The kapitan ('chicken' curry) was super spicy. My nose started running and my tongue was burning, but OH WOW. DELCIOUSNESS. Totally perfect, oh how I have missed it.

Oh Lotus. If only you were open on Mondays, I would have had lunch at you again yesterday. And I would have eaten the satay. And the fried wontons. And the Assam fish. And the char kuay teow. And and and.





Lotus Sri Melaka Vegetarian Restaurant
Unit 1, 220 James St
Northbridge

not open Mondays
GF dubiously available (need advance notice and have to order off menu)


*'auntie' here means, 'older Chinese lady who scolds but is not related to me.'
** sup?
*** 4 days

sayur lodeh

Casting about for ideas, I wanted some curry inspiration. Em, stuck ("stuck") in Singapore suggested that she would be cooking sayur lodeh for dinner, and maybe I too would like to give it a go. And indeed, I felt that I would.

Sayur lodeh is a delicious, spicy coconutty vegetable curry, thick with gravy, from Malaysia. It is a traditional Malay dish, very tasty, and has an odd flavour that you can only think of as Malaysian. This, as it turns out, is the flavour of the blacan. Blacan, incidentally, is not usually suitable for veg*ns, being made from shrimp, but due to a heads up from Chris at Eurasian Sensation, I went on an expedition to Box Hill and discovered some vegan blacan there. It's made from soyabeans. What a surprise.



sayur lodeh

This should be served with lontong, but I was too lazy to make it. Also lontong is an overnight affair. Maybe next time!

ingredients
2 cups shredded chinese cabbage (wombok)
1 carrot (diced)
1 potato (diced)
1 cup snake beans (halved or thirded)
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups water
2 bay leaves
300g tofu (diced)
a little bit of shredded coconut

for the curry paste
1 tbl vegan blacan
2 tablespoon chilli flakes, soaked in a tiny amount of hot water
2 shallots, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass
2cm ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp tumeric
1 fresh chilli

method
For the paste, pound together all the paste ingredients. You can use a blender, but I find pounding more fun!

For the sayur lodeh, heat some oil (peanut or vegetable) in a pot, then add the curry paste until it is fragrant. Add the water and coconut milk, bring to a boil, and add the bay leaves (and, if you are so inclined, some more fresh chillies). Reduce the heat, throw in the vegies except the cabbage, and leave to simmer for ten minutes. Then add the cabbage and the tofu, and leave until the vegies are tender but not falling apart.

THAT'S IT. Garnish with shredded coconut. Serve with lontong, roti, or fresh steamed rice.

I love sayur lodeh.

penang coffee house, hawthorn

I plugged toy camera (an IXUS 55) in to download some photos, only to discover there's photos on there from a month ago! Early in May we adventured over to Hawthorn not, as we usually would, for Plush Pizza, but to try out the noms at the Penang Coffee House on Burwood Road.

I had been really looking forward to this. I'd heard it was cheap, and that there was vegan laksa available, and I am still on my quest for a good restaurant laksa suitable for vegans here in Melbourne. If you have any recs, please share them with me!

Anyway, Penang noms. Oh Penang, love of my heart, with your hawker foods and your strong Hokkien influence and your delicious fun times.

At Penang Coffee House, I found and located the laksa, and refused to share.



It was not that great. I mean, it was a perfectly serviceable noodle soup, but it was a bit bland, and not at all spicy. The noodles, curry and tofu that Danni and Jo shared were much better. The sayor loday had a rich flavour, and the stuffed tofus were fresh and delicious, and the noodles (I think a mee goreng) were tasty but a bit lacking in wok hei.



Despite my laksa disappointment, I would give Penang Coffee House another go; in fact, I plan to order takeaway tomorrow.

ETA: well, I am eating my lunch now, and I just remembered another thing I didn't like about Penang Coffee House: THERE IS PINEAPPLE IN MY NOODLES. I'm out.

Penang Coffee House
549 Burwood Rd
Hawthorn

nudel bar ii, melbourne cbd

Nudel Bar is a regular haunt for me at the moment, because it's one of the places A and I can go together, that does both gluten-free meals and vegan meals in the CBD and isn't LotF. If anyone has a recommendation, please feel free to offer it! The food doesn't have to be vegan AND gluten-free, there just have to be vegan stuff and gluten-free stuff.

Usually at the Nudel Bar I'll order their CKT, because it's good and I'm too Malaysian for words, but this week I felt like a change. So I took a chance and ordered the potato curry with rice noodles.



It was good. A mildly spicy curry, it went well with the roti the waitperson insisted I also order (though did make the meal a tad too large for me, leaving me sated until dinner time). The potatoes were cooked just right, which I love, and the coconut was really subtle, it was just mostly curry flavour. Ohhh yeeaaaah.

And then we went and had our photos taken.



I really like Nudel Bar.

Nudel Bar
76 Bourke St
Melbourne

gluten-free available

tofu + tempeh kapitan and lots of ginger

First Danni picked up a cold, then she passed it on to several people. So we were sitting around the house, and en-colded vegans were feeling a bit gross, so I did what I always do in this situation: I made a curry.

I had a little bit of tempeh and a little bit of tofu floating around in the fridge, so I thought I'd use this to make a kapitan. I also had two bulbs of bok choi wilting in the bottom of the fridge, and so it seemed like a good time to make ginger bok choi.

I usually use mock chicken for this, as kari kapitan is a chicken recipe, so I wasn't sure how this was going to go. Overall it went okay - the tofu was good, but even though I fried the tempeh for ages, it was still kind of bland. If I was going to try this again, I would probably try and marinate the tempeh in some chilli or something for a little while before hand, and then cook it exactly the same way. It might make for some spicy bites, though, which are all good.



tofu and tempeh kapitan

I would recommend marinating the diced tempeh first in some chilli flakes, mixed in a little water to form a thick paste that you can rub into the tempeh.

ingredients
1 shallot
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 heaped teaspoon garamasala
3 curry leaves
3 lime kaffir leaves
3 medium to large potatoes, peeled and diced (some small cubes, some larger)
half a cup of firm tofu, cubed
half a cup of tempeh, cubed small
a large handful snake beans (cut in thirds)
1 tomato, diced tiny
1 large can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable stock

method
Using a thin-bottom pot, fry the shallot (sliced) in some peanut oil with the garlic, until it starts to discolour. Mix together the chilli and garamasala with a little water until a thick paste is formed, and add this paste, as well as the tempeh, to the pot. Braise the tempeh, and coat well in the paste. Keep frying, and adding more oil, as necessary, until it is well cooked. About halfway through, add the tofu. The tofu doesn't need to be well cooked, but some firming and frying is good.

Add the potato, tomato, lime kaffir leaves and curry leaves, as well as the stock. Add extra water so that the ingredients are almost but not totally covered. Simmer on low heat with the lid on for about thirty minutes, then add the snake beans. Add extra water if necessary, and replace the lid. Simmer or another twenty minutes, then add the coconut milk. Leave to simmer with the lid off for ten minutes. Smother rice in the gravy and serve (maybe with some roti).

bok choi and ginger

ingredients
2 bulbs bok choi, stalks and leaves separated from each other
2 cm of fresh ginger, julienned
1 or 2 fresh chillis, sliced
a dash or two of dark soy
1 dash vegan oyster sauce
half a carrot, julienned

method
In a little peanut oil in a hot wok, fry the chillis with the ginger, then add the carrots and a dash of water, and put the lid on. Leave to steam for a minute or three, until the carrot softens slightly. Add the bok choy stalks and a dash more water if necessary, and repeat with the steaming. Then throw in the leaves and the sauce to wilt, and serve.

around and about online

Earlier in the week I guest supplemented/posted at Eurasian Sensation on being vegan in Malaysia, as part of Chris' Eating Vegetarian in Malaysia post.

Writing my piece for this was a bit of a challenge - I just spent a lot of time thinking about how I love the food when I go up there, and not so much the practical aspects of being vegan. It's nothing exciting, really - I spend a lot of time in temples and associated restaurants, I get recommendations from family members, I speak a few useful languages and dialects - and these are not necessarily useful pieces of advice to give to people looking to tourist. But oh, how I love the food I eat when I am up there. The endless plates of noodles and the old favourites that I have always loved. My parents are heading up there next week (as part of a cruise - they sleep at night as the ship cruises around SEAsia, and in the morning they wander off the boat and visit whichever friends or family are in the area. I am jealous!), and all I can think about is the things they eat.



I've also got a post up at Vegaroo, on our visit on Sunday to Edgar's Mission for Edgar's 7th birthday. Sadly, after I wrote the post yesterday morning, I discovered that Edgar passed away yesterday.

Visiting the Mission made me think quite a lot about our industrial farming complex, and the pressures we place on so many systems. Not like I don't already think about these things a lot! I met some sheep, and some goats, and some cows, and a horse, and some ducks and chickens and pigs. The cows were huge! And so were the pigs! Growing up in the suburbs, I'd never before met many farm animals, so that was exciting. But it's sad to hear how they got there, the dog who was going to be shot because she wasn't efficient enough, the goat who was going to be killed because he was too friendly (and it was becoming dangerous) - but this goat was too friendly because his owners had encouraged it when he was tiny, so we can think of it, really, as a result of human intervention, and not his own fault, that he behaved that way. And we (we as a human whole) should be taking responsibility for that, they way this stuff is, effectively, our fault. My personal refusal to interact with the industrial animal agricultural complex aside, I still think we have a responsibility to them, to treat animals well and not carelessly cast them aside.

RAMBLOR.



Anyway, that's where I'm appearing this week!

mee goreng/rambles about things

So Johanna at Green Gourmet Giraffe blogged about cooking some mee goreng, and I thought longingly of mee goreng, which is my favourite instant food. So fast, so easy, and can be as ridiculous or as fresh and healthy as you want it to be. And then I was writing my vegan contribution to Being Vegetarian in Malaysia at Eurasian Sensation (more on this later), and then I was going out to see a band and needed something quick to eat, and of course it was obvious what I was going to be eating.



Maggi mee, which I've blogged about previously, is a stir-fried noodle made using Maggi noodles, and the flavouring packet. This is not Maggi mee - it is sort of an odd amalgam of Maggi mee and mee goreng. I don't buy Maggi anymore, because it's owned by Nestle.

It occurs to me writing this how many of my favourite foods from Malaysia are Nestle-inspired. Milo Ais and Milo Dinosaur are both made using Milo, which is also a Nestle product. Sadface!* (also not vegan, just an FYI for connoisseurs of Malaysian drinks).

Anyway: mee goreng. It's delicious! It's pretty flexible, as you can see from my attempts to write out a recipe. There are different regional variations, and I just use what I feel like and make the variation I feel like. (I vary rarely make the Penang-Malay variation because it has potato, and I am a bit lazy!)

super fast mee goreng

ingredients
1 serving of yellow mee (I use two cakes of yellow noodles, but you may prefer to use just one)
1 tomato (in thin wedges)
1 fresh red chilli
half a carrot (julienned)
some snow peas or cabbage or bok choy
some dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, and some tomato sauce
some kecap manis, or some sugar
crushed garlic (approx one clove)

method
Soak the noodles in hot water until soft, then drain and set aside.

In a wok, heat up and add some oil (I use peanut oil for this). Throw in the chillis (sliced, seeded or deseeded as your preference), and the carrot. Fry for a minute, then add a little water and put the lid on, and leave to steam for a few minutes. After it softens, throw in the tomato, , and any other longer cooking vegetables such as snow peas, cabbage, or stems of bok choy. A little extra water, then lid on again to steam. Finally, throw in the noodles, sauces, and any last-minute vegetables. Fry again for a little bit longer, and hooray!

I can get this done and served in about fifteen minutes, if I dawdle. Delicious good times!



Vegies I don't recommend you add to this (that you might be tempted to add), because it changes the texture and/or taste: snake beans, english cabbage, eggplant, spinach. Not that I'm prescriptivist or anything! (this is a lie, I totally am.)



* I don't use Nestle products, a luxury I am grateful to have. Here is a link to the Wiki article for some brief info if you have no idea what the Nestle Boycott is about. and the list (includes links to info about the boycott).

adventures in kaya

One of my favourite things to eat is kaya. It's a coconut jam that is super common in Malaysia and Singapore (and under different names in other parts of SEA). It's really great in breakfast bao, and spread on toast. It's really easy to find in shops, and it's cheap, which is good because it's time consuming to make.

It's also chock full of eggs!

So it has been my ambition for some time now to perfect a vegan kaya. And I will admit, I am not quite there! But I have been having some adventures along the way.



I finally defrosted my pandan leaf. Asula claims someone in Melbourne sells them fresh, but doesn't know who or where. Does anyone know of any fresh pandan leaf for sale in the Melbourne metro area?

I made some pandan juice, and was hit with the smell of freshly mown grass, which was a little off-putting!



I whisked together a sort of eggy concoction, which is my trial and error section. I think I've got everything else down pat, it's just the working out what is a good egg replacement that is a problem! Then into the pot, eggy concoction, sugar, coconut milk, and pandan leaves!



There was lots and lots of stirring, first over water and then, when I got bored, very carefully over direct heat. And then there was kaya!



And then it SOLIDIFIED IN THE FRIDGE. Which, given it's a jam, means it didn't really work the way it should. Tasted good in the cupcakes I made later in the week, though! But not really spreadable.

Further kaya updates as they occur, so stay tuned!

vegan kuih in melbourne

DEAR VEGAN MELBOURNE (AND PREFERABLY ANY MALAYSIANS PRESENT),



Terrible news! I have been trying to locate vegan kuih kapit/love letters in Melbourne, but to no avail! They all contain egg! Miss T, who conveniently is currently in Perth, attempted to purchase them for me from my mother's Chinese grocer (in Perth), because my sister swore to me that they are selling vegan love letters, but alas! Fail!

My parents are coming to visit in just over a week, and obligingly they will bring me some, but I want them for CNYE! Does anybody know where I could find them? I've tried many grocers on Victoria Street in Richmond, Minh Phat, and the vegetarian grocery in Box Hill. I will probably adventure out to Footscray as soon as I get an opportunity. I am willing to travel! Mostly because I am not willing to make them.

Here are some other examples: folded (usually not vegan); rolled (sometimes vegan except apparently not for meeeee).

Any assistance that anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated. Why is this city not more Malaysian? It pains me.

Regards
Stephanie

PS ALSO my macbook failed, and took all my unpublished recipes with it! So the pineapple tarts have returned to 'experimental' status.

tofu rendang

We had a bit of a drama-rama Wednesday night, and Danni woke up feeling moderately under the weather, and had a bit of a sick day. In my family, the answer to 'feeling cold and flu-ey' is always curry, so I suggested we have a bit of a Malaysian day. 'When don't we?' Danni asked, and I suppose this is true, so we followed our delicious Malaysian treats with some delicious Malaysian curry.



I haven't made rendang in ages, and was hoping to try something new, so I modified this recipe at the star online (which to my shame, ahaha, is often my first stop when looking for Malaysian recipes).



Tofu Rendang

Rendang renders all the way down, so don't expect too much liquid from this dish.

ingredients
300ish grams of firm tofu
1 stalk lemon grass
5 fresh lime kaffir leaves
300 ml light coconut milk
2 tbl lime juice
quarter cup of stock (a vegie beef, or vegie)

for the paste
4 shallots
5 or 6 large red chillis
1 clove garlic
2 tbl dried chilli flakes
20g galangal
one small knob ginger
8 cashews
half teaspoon ground tumeric

method
Pound together the paste ingredients until a chunky paste is formed. You can make it a smooth paste, but I like it to still have some bits in it.

Squish out the water in the tofu. In a thin-bottomed pot over medium heat, add a little peanut oil with the lemon grass and the tofu. Fry the tofu for about five minutes, until it starts to colour, then add the paste. Keep frying for another three or four minutes, stirring constantly so that it doesn't stick too much. Add a tiny bit more oil if necessary. Add the coconut milk, and bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat and simmer for about twenty five minutes, lid off. Stir occasionally, and about halfway through add the stock.

Add the shredded lime kaffir leaves and the lime juice, and simmer for another five minutes, or until the entire mixture has well reduced.

I served this with some bok choy and bean shoots in a little garlic-soy sauce.

pineapple tarts part one: the jamening

There's a bit of a reputation for Chinese people to not like sweet things. The evidence for this, I suppose, is in our savoury desserts and in our lack of chocolate (...valid points). This fits, I suppose, with the Nyonya kuih, sweets that are not sweet (and are, in fact, savouries), biscuits that are not really sugary. And they are delicious, my very favourite biscuits ever. More favourite than tim tams, before I went vegan!

I don't know how to describe my love of kuih, but I will try, in this way: I just found this clip on the SBS website, and it is a minute and a half of wordless kuih-making, and I spent the entire time filled with longing and delight and want (TO EAT IT ALL).

Often (but not always) made from glutinous rice flour, kuih range from cakes, to biscuits, to wafer thin pastries. And Chinese New Year is the jackpot, mountains of kuih, bright colours and biscuits that melt when you put them on your tongue. Kuih is often vegan, except sometimes you need to watch out for eggwash, or in some of the cakes actual eggs.

This CNY my kuih goal is pineapple tarts. Pineapple tarts come in three forms: closed, rolled open, and open. The first attempt at pineapple tarts began, oddly enough, not with picking a recipe (though that was part of it), but picking a style.



I baked all three, and have picked closed. Styled with patience and accuracy, they look like tiny pineapples, and the way the pastry crumbles through your whole mouth is awesome.

However before baking, I first made pineapple jam! You may remember my recent requests that people make jam and then give it to me, because I am not a jam maker. I spent some time searching the shops nearby for pineapple jam, and though I found quince, rosehip, fig, apricot, raspberry, tropical, strawberry and ginger marmalade jams, I was quite unable to locate pineapple jam. So I bought a can of pineapple instead, and made pineapple jam! It was great! Super easy, and it made for jam of perfect consistency to put inside the dough.

And so it was, two firsts in one day, labouriously playing with pineapples. The thing is, I don't even like pineapples - but I love pineapple kuih!

The recipe is not quite finalised, so more to come - I have high hopes that I can make this gluten free (pineapple tarts are one of the few kuih that are not made with rice flour). And expect more CNY posts as we get closer, and I try out more things.

kari kapitan and veaty chicken bites

One of the difficult things about moving across the country is finding substitutes or replacements for all the things you used to buy. Currently I am trying to find a good mock chicken pieces product. I used to use the same stuff that Lord of the Fries uses for their nuggets, it was amazing. Anyway, now here we are in Melbourne and I am looking but not quite there.

The most important thing my fake chicken pieces have to be able to do is perform adequately in a kapitan recipe.



I picked up something called 'veaty bites' from the grocer at Barkly Square. The chicken pieces had the right sort of texture, and are gluten free, so meaning I can still make this recipe gluten free, hooray! But the pieces were not quite right, and the packaging was extensive, so whilst these were an okay substitute, I continue my search.

a penang affair, fitzroy

Continuing in my hunt for an adequate CKT in this city, I was working in Fitzroy today and took the opportunity to try out the char kueh teow at Penang Affair.



It was great. Very vegetable-filled, which is not the usual thing (beanshoots and spring onions only). Lots of mushrooms, bean shoots, snow peas, and some broccoli, and some tofu puffs sliced thin. The wok hei was not as strong as I am used to, however.

Although the CKT was very filling, I allowed myself to be upsold by the Chinese-Malaysian uncle who owns the restaurant. Lunchtime special is $13.50 for an entree and a main, so, having finished my main, and not quite bao le, I ordered a serve of spring rolls.



These were pretty good also! But good spring rolls are easy to find; good char kueh teow less so.

I will definitely return for the char kueh teow at Penang Affair again, and I look forward to sampling the rest of the menu. Although the restaurant is not vegetarian, the manager there is strict vegetarian, and as a result there are a lot of things on the menu that are already suitable or easily modified for vegans. And I've just noticed on the menu that they have a vegetarian laksa, how did I not notice this before? Maybe it's better than every other laksa I've had in Melbourne (not hard).

Lots of Gluten Free options available. We are totally going here for my birthday (note it in your books).

Penang Affair
325 Brunswick St
Fitzroy

Closed Mondays

char kueh teow + char siu

One of the reasons why I haven't been blogging a lot of food cooked at home is because I've been cooking a lot of high rotation stuff, most of which I've blogged about previously.



If I blogged about char kueh teow every time I cooked it (or even every time I ate it), it would feature on this blog about once a fortnight. I cooked it again tonight - we were supposed to go out for dinner but everyone (bar me) fell asleep and couldn't be bothered leaving the house, so I nipped out to the shops and picked up some kueh teow noodles and whipped this up.

Thanks to a post by Tahn I found some mock cha siu at a shop in Preston (Big 8 亚洲食品). The cha siu is average (not terrible but not as awesome as the stuff I used to buy from Lotus), and the shop had a good range of other staples, so it's a good reason to head to Preston more often (as it's right near La Panella)!.

Anyway. Char kueh teow. It's awesome. You can find a previously blogged recipe for char kueh teow here.