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

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.

pineapple tarts part three: the servening

In the end, these are the pineapple tarts I settled on for CNY. They are gluten-free, suitable for our gluten-free buddies. I think further tweaking is required - I want to try adding custard powder, and I'd love to try something using rice flour. But still, these turned out okay, and I love making and eating these kuih.

Some other people's (non-vegan) recipes: A Table for Two; Nyonya Food; The Little Teochew.



gluten-free pineapple tarts

The GF flour means that these kuih go stale very quickly, so I have to make the pastry for these on the day I plan to serve them.

ingredients
half a dozen cloves
500g pineapple chunks (I used a 430g can)
200g (ish) sugar
1 aniseed star
1 tablespoon gf flour (or something starchy)

2 heaped cups gluten-free flour
4 teaspoons icing sugar
3 teaspoons soy flour
1 tablespoon cornflour (make sure this is gf! some are, some are not)
2 shakes of salt
220g nuttelex/margarine (cold)
2 chinese soup spoons of applesauce

5g applesauce
1 tablespoon soy milk


method

For the jam: Press out as much liquid as possible from the pineapple, and then in a saucepan, simmer with sugar, cloves and star anise for between half an hour and fifty minutes, until the pineapple has reduced. Squish some of the pineapple pieces if necessary. Stir in the gf flour, and remove from heat. Leave this to cool for up to a few days (though it is ready to use after a few hours).

For the entartening: Beat together the margarine with the apple sauce. Make sure that you work the margarine from cold, don't melt it or anything. Slowly add the flours, icing sugar, and salt, until just combined. Put in fridge to rest whilst you prepare the jam.



Roll the jam out into little tubes, approx 1.5cm in length. It is easiest if you prepare the jam in this way, so you just pick it up and drop it in the pastry.

When I'm working with the pastry, if it's warm I like to keep an icepack under the mixing bowl, to keep it a bit cooler in my warm kitchen.

Tear off a small amount of the batter, this will vary depending on how moist it has ended up - it needs to be not too moist, but not too dry or it will fall apart and crack too much. Flatten the batter in the palm of your hand, until it is even and looks like it will wrap around a jam dollop. Drop that jam in, and roll the pastry around it. Make sure there are no gaps, or the jam will leak out when baking. Continue until all the batter or jam is used up.



Using a fork, carefully score the surface of the tarts. Combine the remaining apple sauce and milk, and brush on the top.

Bake for 18 minutes at 175C in a preheated oven.

pineapple tarts part two: de-glutening

Please see pineapple tarts part one: the jamening for previous adventures in pineapple tarts.

Last week's batch of pineapple tarts resulted in too much batter and insufficient jam quantities. Buoyed by my success of first time jam, I decided to go for a double batch of jam, using one large tin of crushed pineapple instead of one small tin of diced pineapple.



This was a mistake! The jam started simmering away happily, then took one million trillion years to reduce, and then started burning to the base! The end result was a very strong pineapple jam, in the wrong colour, and of copious quantities! It was perfectly serviceable for experimenting, but I would probably not serve it to anyone!

The purpose of part two was to see if I could make this batch free from gluten.



I would judge this as moderate success - the flavour of the pastry was a bit milder than I would ideally like it, and it didn't need as long in baking (the end result with the same baking time is a little stiff, clearly over cooked). The pastry goes stale after one day, but I was expecting that. Overall, however, I think I am foreseeing success in my gf pineapple tart future.

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.

nudel bar, melbourne

I met up with A for lunch today, and as she is gluten-free and I have no idea where to eat in the middle of Melbourne, I brought along the Melbourne Veg Guide for its first outing. On the tram I set my heart upon Nudel Bar, so we wandered up Bourke St. We were both happy with our meals. I didn't bring my camera so I wasn't going to bother blogging it, until we got to dessert and our (very delightful) waiter informed me that the nyonya pandan pancake was vegan.

I have to tell you, without delay or hesitation, internets, I love pandan. When I smell pandan, I cannot help but think of Penang. When I taste pandan, I think of Penang. And to be able to eat this amazing pandan nyonya treat, with slivers of coconut through the centre! It was amazing. I was so freaking excited.

Given lunch had been a very excellent char kueh teow, just the right amount of wok hei and not too many vegetables, well. It wasn't enough to make up for not being in Penang (as my mother has been this week), but it certainly helped.

This photo was provided by A's camera phone.



Nudel Bar
76 Bourke St
Melbourne