the bear cafe, fitzroy

Because what Fitzroy needs is more reasons for me to lament that I live a whole 1.5km away from it, yesterday Danni and I visited The Bear Cafe, on Brunswick Street.

The Bear Cafe is an all vegan cafe, aside from the dairy option they offer in their coffees and hot drinks. Their menu is classic cafe, with scrambled tofu, vegemite and cheese toasties, and a soup of the day, but who cares about those things when I can order a Big Breakfast?!

The Big Breakfast comes with scrambled tofu, mushrooms, spinach, chilli guacamole and beans on your choice of sourdough. The beans were out for the day (to be fair, we were having lunch at 1430), so I got extra fuscram, on a pumpkin sourdough. This was delicious and exactly what I wanted, but I wish there was a little more of the promised chilli - I couldn't taste it at all, though I could see it. Some of us are Malaysian and need our chilli every day!

Danni went with the Double Down, which is essentially the same as the Big Breakfast but encased in three slices of olive bread, and in her case also included the melty vegusto cheese, which she declared delicious. Despite its size Danni hoovered this straight down.

The Bear Cafe has a coffee delivery service within 1km, which is what first attracted us to the cafe; the coffee was indeed, as promised on their facebook page, pretty good (their sign says 'best coffee in the universe' but I take my signage with a grain of salt). Service is laid back and lovely and friendly. They also sell Neo Tokyo items, bamboo toothbrushes (panda friendly), and fresh fruit and vegies. Their photos lead me to believe sometimes there are puppies, but I didn't spot any on this visit.

We think it used to be a dry cleaners; agree?

The Bear Cafe
439 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy

Get there on the 112 (the stop is directly outside). Toilet wasn't working so no assessment. CC available. GF options (including GF bread) available.

bush tomato marinade

Bush tomato is not really tomato, it is more closely related to eggplants but it looks a bit tomato-y in its fruit form and colonialism and English, ugh, yo. They're found in various species and forms across Australia and are super delicious but also occasionally poisonous! Which is a great punchline for a joke about Australia, I guess. Because it's so widely spread it has a lot of indigenous names, commonly akudjura (when crushed or powdered) or kutjera.

Anyway in my quest to use more indigenous spices that have been pushed aside by racism and the euro-centricity of Australian cooking, I am currently playing with bush tomato, and at the recent vegmel 4th birthday picnic I made a bush tomato salad where I marinated basically everything in bush tomato. This is the GREATEST MARINADE ever. If I ate meat I would put it on all of them, but I don't so TOFU and maybe I have yet to try tempeh with it but I'm sure it'll work.

Bush tomato tastes smokey and kind of like amazingness.

BUSH TOMATO MARINADE

2 tbl ground bush tomato (I get mine from Gewurzhaus on Lygon Street where they love me)
2 tbl sunflower or macadamia oil
2 tbl olive oil
1 tblish of minced garlic

Mix it all together, slather it on some tofu and leave it to sit. This amount goes across about 400g of tofu (firm! as always with marinading).

I served it with shaved carrot and zucchini and some cherry tomatoes, in a bush tomato-based dressing.

BTW if anyone in the Melbournes knows where I can buy not-ground bush tomato, please let me know, I want to try turning these into scones.

revolutionary tofu

At my workplace we have some very traditional food coming out of the kitchen, traditional in the sense of since the Cultural Revolution. A lot of the dishes we eat at work became common during the CR because they're fast, simple and nutritious, making use of the ingredients to hand and the conditions available. I plan to make a whole blog post about the food that gets dished up in the work cafeteria, which has been integral to introducing me to a whole lot of Northern Chinese food that I'm just completely unfamiliar with (being familially from a Southern province; and worse, being more immediately South-East Asian).

I've become a bit obsessed with this tofu dish, which made an appearance on my first trip to the cafeteria. I eagerly look forward to each reappearance, and finally I gave it a go recently. It's so simple it doesn't need a recipe, though I found a reference to it in The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, a cookbook I would seriously consider buying except it's still got a whole lot of meat in it.



sesame tofu with spring onion
recipe helped by the cultural revolution cookbook

This makes a great side dish or salad to a flavoursome meal. I've been eating it in winter but look forward to serving it as a summer salad. I know it sounds plain and boring (and the picture doesn't help) but the sesame oil does something magical to the tofu that makes it very moreish. You may want to adjust the amount of sesame oil you use depending on your tastes, and you could also sprinkle some sesame seeds on the top.

ingredients
1 x 300g block of firm tofu
1 or 2 stems of spring onion
2 teaspoons sesame oil
salt

method: In the microwave, heat the tofu whole (and drained and rinsed) until it's pleasantly warm to the touch; should need no longer than a minute. Alternatively, soak the tofu in hot water for a minute or two. In the meantime, slice the spring onion small and on an angle, along the bias. Use the green and the white parts! Combine the sesame oil, spring onions and salt. Dice the tofu into chunks about half an inch across, and mix the oil through a little roughly - the tofu can break apart somewhat. Serve warm.

the bookworm [sanlitun, beijing]

The Bookworm is an English-language lending library, bookstore, cafe and bar. I went there recently for Green Drinks after work, and I also dropped by for their booksale last weekend. Before perusing the books, however, I stopped for a mid morning meal.

The menu is not very vegan friendly, and they don't carry soy milk so no coffee for me. I was assured that this would be suitable - it's one of three items that can be modified or should be okay for vegans. My dining companions all loved their meals (brunches) -they were massive and filled with things they found exciting. This salad was okay. It was nothing exciting, and I dislike cold tofu puffs, which is personal preference. It was actually nice to have some lettuce, I haven't had any since I arrived in China.

I'm not 100% sure about the veganinity of the dressing.

Service is okay, there's usually someone who speaks English and the menu is in Chinese with English subtitles.




the bookworm
Courtyard 4, Gongti Beilu / Nansanlitun Road
Chaoyang District

get there on line 10 (gongtibeilu) or line 2 (dongsishitiao) and walk down Gong Ti Beilu. The Bookworm is not accessible for people with mobility issues, it is up a very steep flight of stairs with no elevator access. There are also internal stairs. Brightly lit during the day, poorly lit in the evening. Confusing double door for entry which is difficult to get the hang of.

朝阳区工体北路4号院

stir-fried noodles + marinated tofu

An old standard, stir-frying some noodles with some vegetables and tofu. I've been eating a lot of this, and mostly cooking it Malaysian mee goreng style, because I get home quite late of an evening from work and it's so easy and fast to prepare, just whatever I have in the fridge. I made a special trip to the supermarket though, for five spice and firm tofu, and pan fried this (as I'm spending a year with no oven, alas). A combination of five spice, mushroom dark soy sauce, smidge of light soy and some fresh garlic, spooned over some thickly sliced tofu, which I left to marinate as I skyped to E for an hour.

Then I dirtied a lot of dishes: pot for the noodles; fry pan for the tofu; wok to bring it all together. You know the drill. I haven't marinated tofu since I left Australia and it was so good. I'm definitely going to try to do that more often.

eggy tomato / 炒鸡蛋西红柿

It never even occurred to me to veganise this very common Chinese dish until my housemate V started attempting to cook it just the way her mum does. Fried egg and tomatoes is common and cheap and fast, and is comprised almost entirely of tomato and eggs, but I decided it was possible and after a couple of attempts I have it all sorted. Since then I've made it several times. It's not exciting but it's easy and it contains some good things, and it's quick comfort food when I'm home late from work.

Don't talk to me about the photo below, I'm so used to the exceptional photographic conditions in my kitchen in Brunswick that I think I'm going to have to make some modifications to get my food photography anywhere up to where I need it to be for the eleven more months that I'm here.



vegan eggy tomato
comfort food

chop two large ripe tomatoes into thin wedges. in a fry pan, heat a large dollop of oil, throw in a tiny bit of minced garlic and then throw in the tomatoes. add a dash of water, and leave to fry for four or five minutes, until the tomatoes are seriously starting to wilt (but not fall apart). mash in 300g of silken tofu, and mix in a dash or three of light soy (or gf tamari for gf) and a tablespoon of nutritional yeast. leave it to simmer on high heat for two or three minutes. garnish with a little pepper or fresh spring onions if that takes your fancy. Makes a nice second or third dish in a meal, or you can eat it on its own with a spoon.

pumpkin + tofu risotto

For the first time in three months, could this be...A RECIPE?! I'm not even sure I remember how to do this.



pumpkin and tofu risotto

ingredients
300g firm tofu
2 cups arborio rice
half a cup of cashew nuts
some sundried tomatoes
a handful of baby spinach
500g(ish) pumpkin (i used jap but butternut is also okay)
1 brown onion
however much dried oregano, basil rosemary and marjoram takes your fancy
a whole lot of vegan chicken stock (massels you're my hero)
a little paprika
a bottle of red wine (you will be drinking some of this red wine, not pouring it all into the pot)

method
dice the tofu into cubes of about 1.5cm. put these cubes into a bowl, and throw in some of the red wine with a dash or three of paprika and rosemary, and stir to combine. put the tofu aside to soak it all in.

slice the onion, and skin and dice the pumpkin, and throw it all into a pot with some oil. let this fry for a bit, then add some herbs and maybe some more paprika and the cashews, then the rice, a cup of wine, and some stock. let it simmer and stir it, in the way of all risottos. at this point, fire up a fry pan and bring some oil up to heat, then throw in the tofu. stir this occasionally, until it starts to brown on most sides; then add it to the risotto, and keep adding that stock. add some more wine if you like. now is a good time to add the sundried tomatoes, too, chopped into little pieces. keep adding stock until it reaches that lovely risotto consistency, then throw in the spinach, let it wilt in, and you're done! serve with something delicious. the risotto seen here was served with an avocado and apple salad, and some rosemary bread from coles.

china iii: vegetarian lifestyle, shanghai

I swear, there are more than just half a dozen vego restaurants in Shanghai. In fact, Happy Cow lists 26! (Ignore the fact it say 31, it doubles up on some of them) Despite this, not only did we end up dining twice at Godly and Song Yue Lou, we ended up dining twice at Vegetarian Lifestyle in Luwan. Again, we totally had good reasons for this.

Using the directions provided by Happy Cow was excellent for the first visit. Happy Cow notes that it's down a little alley that says 'Las Vegas KTV Club,' off to one side of Songshan Lv. We were lucky to get the last free table on a busy night, and we were quickly seated and my bag was bike chained to my chair. I know that makes it sound like a dodgy restaurant but it's really not.

We started with some genma cha, and then began ordering things. First was the veggies wrapped in beancurd skin (definitely one of my favourite things). We also ordered a 'Thai style' noodle soup, as well as a mushroom dish with nuts that looked like it might be similar to Utopia's houtou mushrooms, some dumplings, and a dish intriguingly listed in english as 'chao amaranth veggies' (this is not what it said in Chinese on the menu).



Aside from the beancurd skin dish, everything else was kind of bland. The amaranth veggies grew on me but was not especially flavoursome; the mushroom dish was okay but nothing exciting; and the dumplings were bland and chewy. The beancurd skin though was very excellent.

The presentation was good and the service was fine, though, and we saw the potential there so we gave it a second try.



We tried a different sort of tofu wrapped veggies; some cha noodles, a soy fish dish, and some crab meat, because C had been so taken by the crab at Godly and we wanted to compare.



The fish came out last and I regretted it, because it was the best. The mock-fishy-flesh was tender and delicious and I lamented that I was too full to fit it all into my belly, though I tried my best. Look at that little fishy shape! Full points for presentation and deliciousness.



The tofu skin was good, as were the noodles. The noodles had that graininess that indicates it's been dry fried with some curry powder, which is my favourite. (who am I kidding - all noodles are my favourites, but especially the ones that remind me of home) We tried to compare and contrast the crab meat with Godly's, but to be honest it was hard. This one was definitely more gingery than the Godly's one, and I think I liked it a little better, but I'd have to sit down with them both and compare them side by side, a hardship I hope to put myself through one day.



I ordered some xiao long bao, but inexplicably this came to us as a takeaway at the end of the meal. Sadly here is where my Mandarin failed me, as apparently I don't understand the word for takeaway? I was too full to try to eat it in the restaurant anyway, so I took it away with me, then completely failed to eat it later. Xiao long bao doesn't heat up very well even if you try to steam it with the hotel kettle, who knew? So I cannot tell you how their xiao long bao is. Damn it.

Some of the waitstaff speak a little English, and most of the menu items are in English and Chinese (and there are some pictures in the menu). But take a Chinese speaker with you if you want to do more than point at the menu items. (One who understands '带走' when they hear it? I don't even know who I am.) Little step up to get into the restaurant, widely spaced tables for Shanghai. Accepts credit card, does not accept tips.

Vegetarian Lifestyle - Luwan
77 Songshan Road
Luwan

Get there on line one on the Metro, South Huangpi Road Station [黄陂南路]

上海
卢湾区
嵩山路77号1楼

tom phat ii, brunswick

There wasn't much on the menu that was automatically vegan but the waitstaff said I could have any of the egg dishes turned vegan, so on that note I selected the sricha scramble with roti.



This dish was totally serviceable, but a little bit bland. I ended up stealing some of Danni's sauce to add a little flavour. It could have done with more chilli and more of the cherry tomatoes, but I liked the roti accompaniment.

previously at tom phat.

danni's review (of the same day); Carla's break up with tom phat.



Tom Phat
184 Sydney Rd
Brunswick


accessibility: just near a tram stop (the 19), little step up. some easy to access tables at the front, all ordering done as table service. might be hard to head down to the toilets.

yet another scrambled tofu

I must scramble tofu at least once a week - in fact, I have some tofu in the fridge which needs using up, and maybe there'll be scrambled tofu in my near future. I've blogged about scrambled tofu before, and given the weekly occurrance of tofu in my kitchen I don't usually blog about it, but I loved this one because of the colours.



There was some purple cabbage and some coriander amongst the half used veggies rolling around the bottom of the fridge, and they turned out beautifully. I chopped the cabbage in to fine slithers and started by sauteing that before adding the other ingredients (to give it some extra time to wilt), and threw some coriander in at the last second, before using a little extra as some garnish. Beautiful colours, and a great flavour!

cheese and spinach rolls

I had been thinking about these cheese and spinach rolls about which Carla posted. So I made them! They were super easy, and super delicious, though next time I think I might reduce the spinach just a tad. For reference, I used about 300g of tofu, which is about half a pack.

Also I skipped the food processor - I found it easier to mix by hand.

I made these as a mixture of triangles and rolls.

smoked tofu pizza revelation

Danni and I have become quite blase about our home made pizzas. As spectacular as some shop pizzas are, we think we've got our technique, style and flavours down pretty well; we know what we like and how to make it, and we've been pretty happy with that.

Recently, due to a dearth of ingredients, we made a couple of new combinations, and one, in particular, was so tasty we were sad they weren't all that pizza.

smoked tofu pizza

OH YEAH



We didn't even have pizza bases for this - our pizza dough failed to proof, confirming some suspicions we've had for a while now, that our yeast has gone bad (it says best before August 09). Fortunately, we had some pita bread floating around from Danni's lunch, so we decided, reluctantly, to utilise those instead.

This meant that we reduced the baking time and temperature (down to 150C for 15 minutes), and the bread was still crisp where it had no toppings. BUT OH THE TOPPINGS.

On the pizza base, we added tomato paste, crushed garlic, and dried oregano and basil. On top of this we placed thinly sliced roma tomato and button mushrooms, and then some chunks of smoked tofu. On the top we grated some Cheezly Mozzarella, thinly layered.

IT WAS AMAZING. A smoked tofu pizza revelation, if I may.

scrambled tofus

Danni and I are somewhat new to the world of scrambled tofu. Although we'd tried it one or two times in Perth, and although I come from a tofu family,* scrambled tofu didn't feature very high on our rspective radars, and it wasn't until we came to Melbourne that we really mastered the art of scrambled tofu.



Scrambled tofu is an easy way to use up leftover tofu, and I take advantage of this to make scrambled tofu (or fuscram) about once a week. Also, it's delicious.

It's important to use firm tofu for fuscram, though I have on occasion used a soft tofu, just because that's all I've got in the fridge. Carla has a brief tofu post here if you're unfamiliar with the different types of tofu.



Although scrambled tofu is a sort of instead-of-scrambled-eggs thing, you can't just scramble the tofu on its own. Tofu is really versatile, but it doesn't have much flavour on its own - you have to add things to it. I like to use up whatever veggies are in my fridge, my favourites are tomatoes (preferably cherry tomatoes), spinach, grated carrot, red onion sliced skinny, and golden boy mushrooms. Not necessarily all at the same time.

The combination of herbs and sauces that I use also varies. My favourite combination is dark soy sauce, cumin, tumeric, nutritional yeast/savoury yeast flakes, and kala namak/black salt (which is pink!). I also don't mind a nice pesto combination, when I've got some good looking spinach or basil leaves in my garden from which to make some pesto.

I do try to match flavours - a recent scrambled tofu contained bok choy and golden boy mushrooms with lots of soy sauce; this morning's was cherry tomatoes, shallots, and a tiny drop of dark soy with nooch and kala namak. Sometimes there's chillis involved.



I've also been known to add marinated things - I marinate and cook tempeh first, then put it aside to cook the fuscram, and throw it in at the end. This is a good way to use up some leftover tempeh, or to add some extra flavours and textures and nutritional elements to breakfast.

This is my generic how to scramble tofu: start with the vegetables, in a general cooking order, as well as the condiments. You want them to be mostly to totally cooked before you add the tofu.

Drain the tofu! Some people also pat the tofu dry, or at least a bit drier. Add the tofu to the pan, and thoroughly break it up/scramble it. Big chunks of tofu in your fuscram will be largely bland and unflavoured, and that's no fun when you're looking for a flavoursome fuscram. Make sure it's totally mixed in with your condiments and veggies - you may want to add more, depending on your tastes. This is totally a what is your preference sort of thing.

If I'm making toast, on which to put my fuscram, I'll start toasting about now, because I have to do four slices. By the time the four slices are done (in two lots, about seven minutes), the tofu is ready to nom!

I ♥ scrambled tofu (and have previously and more specifically blogged it here).




*ie, a Chinese family

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.

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.

breakfasting, including scrambled tofu

I really enjoy making breakfast! I like eating curry + roti canai, or making some mai fun, or scrambled tofu on toasts. We often have pancakes. We have even been known to have mushrooms and avocado.

We recently invited our friends Nix and dB over for breakfast and a spot of tea, as they had been away in England for a few weeks. I was worried that serving them something a bit English-breakfasty would be tiring and same-same for them, but I was reassured that breakfast in England only comes in one colour (grey), so anything I served would be very welcome.

Hooray!



I love a good scrambled tofu, so I knew I'd be making that. I'd once previously made the cheater's baked beans from Vegan with a Vengeance, and remembered it as tasty, so straight into the oven went those. I remembered Cindy blogging about the hash browns from Vegan Brunch, so I thought I'd give that a go well. Combined with toast, it seemed a well-rounded breakfast!

The baked beans, as I had hoped, worked a treat. I kept them in a little long, so they ended up slightly burnt, but they were still very tasty, and I spied several breakfasters eating directly from the baking tray long after they had declared themselves full. The scrambled tofu was as it always was, ie, delicious (recipe at the end of this post - yes, after many weeks, finally, a recipe!). The hash browns left a bit to be desired. It wasn't that they were bad, they just weren't spectacular. It's also the first time I've tried making hash browns, so I'm still on the search for a good recipe!



scrambled tofu

ingredients
600 grams of firm tofu, drained and slightly pressed (pressing is optional!)
half a red onion (diced, or sliced into thin rings)
half a punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved
half a carrot, grated
half a cup (ish) nutritional yeast/savoury yeast flakes
five or six dashes of dark soy
1 or 2 fresh chillis, sliced
cumin and tumeric to taste (I use about half to one teaspoon of each)
some pepper

method
In a little bit of olive oil, fry the onion and the chillis on medium to high heat. As it starts to soften, add the cherry tomatoes and carrots, and keep frying until the tomatoes start to wilt. Add the tofu, and break it up to your preference (I prefer it to be completely broken up, but some people prefer to keep it in chunks). Add in the remaining ingredients, and leave to simmer for five to ten minutes. You may want to add more soy sauce (I often do).

Hooray! That's it! Serve and nom.

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!

scrambled tofu

I tried scrambled tofu for the first time just over a year ago, during a visit to Naked Espresso in NSW.

That was quite exciting for me, but I didn't eat it too often between then and the end of 2009. I tried the scramble at Tom Phat, and tried cooking it once or twice.

What really pushed me to cooking it at home, though, was receiving Vegan Brunch for Christmas. I tried the scrambled tofu with pesto, and that was pretty amazing, and since then I've been combining all sorts of similar things to get delicious tofu scrambles.

The pictured scramble features tomato pieces, pesto, and wilted spinach. Other current favourites include caramelised red onion with grated carrot, nutritional yeast flakes and turmeric; and caramelised brown onion with soy sauce.

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.

things with tofu from vegan brunch

Well, internets, I am back at work today.

This meant an early start to my day, a few pieces of toast and out the door. But whilst I was still off work, we tried for some big breakfasts, and I trawled through Vegan Brunch for some tasty looking things. Earlier in the week we tried the gingerbread waffles, which made enough batter for two days worth of breakfasts (four penguins for each of us each day, sixteen penguins in total).

A few days later, Danni was watering our plants and noted the huge amount of basil growing cheerfully away, so I took the opportunity to try the scrambled tofu with pesto.



This didn't seem to be so much scramble as cubes. I really liked this dish - frying the tofu for so long as the tomatoes smushed down (my favourite way of eating them) added this really great flavour, and I loved the addition of pesto. Will definitely do this one again - maybe with smaller cubes.

The next day we tried the omlettes, which Cindy had blogged about as delicious.



Don't get me wrong, these were great (and delicious), but I had two problems. They took an incredibly long time to cook - D had already finished her omlette well before I was ready to eat mine; and my pan is old, so it was less flipping and more failing and looking a bit scrambled. Not so much a problem but more an inconvenience, it was a Sunday morning and I couldn't be bothered traipsing around to find black salt, so I went without.

Still, these were really delicious and, though they require many dishes, I will probably try this one again as well.

We have a lot of left over cheeseish sauce, I'm thinking of using it in a pasta bake this evening. Mmm pasta bake.