loka cafe, perth

Loka is a fair trade and organic cafe attached to Fair Go Trading, on Brisbane Street opposite the Hotel Northbridge. D and I wandered down there for lunch this afternoon, having just found out about it earlier this week.

There weren't many items left the in glass display case, but there was a vegan quiche made from tofu and a vegan pizzette. Special of the day was a Mexican mix plate of refried beans, salsa, guacamole and quesadilla. We had it with nachos, as the quesadilla contained cheese of some description. The people at Loka were really great about swapping it, and the refried beans were really tasty. The pizzette was fantastic, soft delicious bread and olives, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, mushrooms, sun-dried tomato, and pumpkin.

There is allegedly usually some vegan cake, but this time, alas, there was none to be had. They also do gluten-free.

D says: A++ would nom again.

Loka Cafe
199 Brisbane St
Perth
Tues-Saturday, 0700-1600

leda choculence

I miss timtams something ridiculous. That chocolatey goodness, using them like a straw to drink up my milo drink, these were the things I used to love. Leda Choculence aren't as good as timtams, but they make a tasty substitute.

You can find them in the healthfood section at Coles/Woolies/IGA etc.

aloo masala pies

Aloo Masala is often the filling in a dosa. Using it as the filling for a puff pastry pie was tasty, though nothing like eating dosa. But now that I'm happy with my aloo masala, the next step is of course to attempt making my own dosa.



Aloo Masala Pies

ingredients
4 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
2 green chillis, deseeded and sliced width-ways
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon tumeric
some coriander
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon red chilli flakes
1 tomato, diced
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
1 large sheet of puff pastry

method
Boil the potato until half cooked, then drain. Fry the green chilli, onion and garlic, until the onion is golden and soft. Add cumin, tumeric, coriander, mustard seeds and chilli flakes, then tomato. Allow to simmer for a few minutes, then add potato, and mix through until covered. Leave to simmer until potato is cooked through and all liquid has rendered down, stirring occasionally. Stir in the coconut.

Spoon mixture into four ramekins, and cover with one quarter of the puff pastry. Brush with buttery thing, and bake at 190C for 15 – 20 minutes.

the juicy beetroot, fremantle

We ignored Melbourne Cup day last Tuesday by adventuring down to Fremantle to visit the Juicy Beetroot for lunch. Happy Cow tells me that Juicy Beetroot is ‘vegetarian-friendly, not 100% vegetarian’ but I’ve never seen anything available there that isn’t vegetarian. They do gluten-free cakes and allegedly vegan cakes, though I’ve never seen any of the latter.

D and I shared a tofu burger and a large bowl of mixed curries. The large really is very large, and the burger was massive. I enjoyed both the beetroot-ness of the burger and the fact that it was a giant chunk of tofu, something of which I am not usually a big fan. The curries included an aloo muttar-y thing, a dahl and some mixed veggies. They were very tasty curries. We also had a couple of mixed juices, I had an orange and ginger, as I often do, and D had the house juice without the celery, which was pretty tasty. All up it cost us about $30ish dollars, which was cool for a big, tasty, vegan meal.



The Juicy Beetroot
Tum Tum Tree Lane
132 High Street
Fremantle

carrot and pistachio muffins

Last night I decided to bake some muffins to take as snack sustenance over this weekend of archery + lots of dancing, so I thought I'd better give the carrot and pistachio muffin recipe a go!

Carla posted the recipe (for me!) here. Originally I had wanted to bake this recipe without any substitutions, a task which is a challenge for me at the best of times, to see exactly what Carla had created. But soy creamer is allegedly difficult to procure in Australia, so thanks to Mandee I thickened some soy milk with cornflour. I did manage to find plain pastry flour (not wholewheat). It also turned out that I didn't have any apple juice, so I used a tiny bit of orange juice, a little bit of apple sauce, and some water. Also used golden syrup instead of maple syrup, because I live in Australia, not Canada. ;oP

Anyway, the muffins are very tasty. The muffins are carrotlicious. This being the first time I've tried pistachios, I'm not sure I'll use them again, but I will use this recipe again so next time I might substitute walnuts instead.

Thanks so much, Carla!

pistachio and carrot muffins, a recipe for me

I have not eaten a lot of carrot treats in my life. The above was the first carrot attempt in years, and it was tasty but not especially carroty.

Excitingly, Carla at Year of the Vegan has developed a carrot muffin recipe for me to try! They are carrot and pistachio muffins! I am very keen to try them, though now I have to try and find pastry flour, which I've never seen in Australia, HMMMM. Also soy creamer. Okay, this may be harder than I thought, but my challenge is to not substitute anything! We will see how this goes. Do any Perth vegans know what soy creamer is, and where I can buy it?

I'm going to give this a go next week, after the big weekend of swing dancing. Thanks so much, Carla! I can't wait to try cooking them!

strawberries from the swan valley

A present from my mum - less than ten dollars for the lot! <3

I believe these came from the Midland Farmer's Market, which has always been my favourite.

soul tree cafe, glen forrest

D and I decided to take a couple of days off work this week, mostly so we can avoid the extravaganza and hoopla that is the first Tuesday in November (ie, Melbourne Cup Day). This morning we went for a jaunt up the hill through my old stomping grounds, past Bilgomen Pool and down Hardey Road to the Soul Tree Cafe. Soul Tree is an organic store and cafe, with lots of great vegan and vegetarian things on the menu. They do an all day breakfast that I'd like to try out one day, with tofu, tempeh, and seasonal vegies. But today we went up there specifically to try out the burgers.



I ordered a chickpea burger, and D ordered the vegan burger with a salad. The burgers were great, though I wish the menu had mentioned that the chickpea burger came with beetroot, so I could have asked for it without. The vegan burger is really juicy and tasty. The salad was a bit odd, it had a flavour that I found quite displeasing, so I didn't steal too much of D's salad.

D says the tropical juice (freshly squeezed) was perfect, containing pineapple, coconut and orange. I ordered a chocolate smoothie, which was a bit watery - I thought there would be icecream in it, though D argues icecream is not a given in smoothies, an argument I protest, surely milkshakes are no icecream and smoothies are icecream or yoghurt...



Took a piece of chocolate and beetroot cake home for later nomming. The cake was not too rich, and it was tasty. They also do gluten-free cakes.

All up came to $45, a little pricy for a Monday lunch (the small juice was $4.00!) but about expected for an organic eatery. Overall it was a good lunch! My Perth friends can expect an invitation to a day trip up the hill for lunch, followed by Junction Icecream, in the near (though warmer) future.


Soul Tree Cafe
Shop 6/3-5 Railway Parade
Glen Forrest

world vegan day post - store-bought snacks

Today is World Vegan Day! I am not doing anything especially vegan today, aside from continuing to be one. I even have an offer for a birthday party for a vegan, which I am very naughtily not attending! (Sorry, Nevryn) But this post of store-bought snacks is in celebration of being a vegan. Sometimes it's nice to have a quick, trashy snack.




Yao chao guai (or you cha kueh) is a breakfast or dim sum food, but I like to eat it as an afternoon snack, I used to always eat it after school, and I'm glad I can still eat it now. Yao chao guai is made of wheat flour and looks like it's been fried. I bake it in the oven for ten minutes until it's crispy, then eat it straight away, often burning my hands in the process. A good yao chao guai has to be crispy, or it's no good. It's sometimes served with char siu sauce or chilli-in-soy sauce. It's available from the fridge section of your local Chinese grocer, but only when the lady who makes it isn't on holidays. There's usually a delivery once a week or so.




Mixed gram is a tasty combination of gram flour, rice flour, rice flakes, nuts, and spices (so it might possibly be gluten free?). Mixed gram can be quite hit or miss, depending on the provider, very spicy, not so spicy, and so on. My favourite at the moment is provided to me magically by S, apparently it is made by an Indian lady somewhere South of the River (where I dare not go, being from North of the River). It is available from your local Indian grocer (though I have previously picked up some mediocre mixed gram from my local Chinese grocer).




Coles makes an Anzac biscuit that is slightly soft and a little bit chewy, rather than tough and crunchy. It leaves a hint of a buttery aftertaste, and doesn't contain as much in the oats department as I would like. They make it all year around (not just in April), and it's a nice take on the old Anzac. Available from the Coles bakery.




In Australia, the plain Oreos are vegan-friendly. I recommend checking the packet, though, as people have been caught out by it before. Also I don't think the wafers are suitable for vegans. It's nice though to have a cheap cream biscuit that I can just pick up from the local shops. I've never been a huge fan of the oreo, but I'm beginning to appreciate its chocolate biscuit-bits and its white cream filling. Available in the biscuit aisle of most supermarkets.




Smiths potato chips. I used to love the Gobble-Gok Monster, with its cry of CHIPPPIEEEEE. It's really annoying that all of the flavoured chips contain milk solids (UGH). Note that these chips are crinkle-cut, this is because thin/original cut is not as awesome. I am sure that you agree. Available from the chip aisle of supermarkets.




Dried fruit is a great alternative to jelly lollies, they're just as sugary and just as jelly-like and chewy, but they're just fruit, not gelatine! Yay! These dried mango spears are from Kakulas Brothers in Northbridge, they're sold by weight and you pull out of canvas bags, surrounded by dried strawberries and paw-paw and banana. Kakulas also sells nuts, coffee, grains, rice, beans, all sorts of dried things, by the weight. I love Kakulas! Last week I was scooping out dried chilli flakes, that was awesome.




I've only been getting into the soy curls for the last week or two, but they're pretty tasty! These plain ones are from Kakulas, they also have flavoured ones but no ingredients list. Based on experience at other shops, I'm willing to assume that the plain ones are okay, but not going to risk it re: the flavoured ones. Which is a shame, because my favourite soy curl flavour so far is the chilli and lime one - it sounds odd but it's really great! You can also buy these in packets from supermarkets, or from health food stores.




Fruit is tasty. This is some early season watermelon, it was not fantastic which is unsurprising as the season in the Swan Valley doesn't actually start for another six weeks. When it starts, though, it's about eight weeks of the most amazing watermelon and grapes you can imagine. I will post about this more indepth as the season proper approaches, but if you live in the WA metro area it is well worth your time to trek out to the vineyards and growers along the Great Northern Highway to buy the grapes and melons directly off the growers, so cheap and so incredibly tasty.

sushi

I went to a sushi party once in first year uni, but I hated vinegar so my friends made the rice with no vinegar. The sushi was pretty average, and I didn’t bother trying sushi again. About a year after I had been vegetarian (and shortly before I went vegan), I was at an event and thought I’d give the sushi a go. It was amazing, and I have been obsessed with it since. It makes a fantastic “I have no leftovers! What shall I take to work?” sort of lunch, and makes a pretty good change from sandwiches (which can also be pretty awesome).



sushi

Aside from obvious things, you will need a bamboo sushi mat. You can buy this in your local Asian supermarket (or even in most Woolies/Coles). Metal spoons can apparently change the flavour of the rice, I can’t verify this as I use wooden spoons but I have heard the metal reacts with the vinegar or the mirin. So that’s your myth to consider, if you so wish.

ingredients
two or three nori sheets
one cup of sushi rice
two tablespoons rice wine vinegar
one tablespoon mirin
1½ cups of water
some combination of three of the following:
quarter capsicum
half a large carrot
half a dozen snow peas
large handful of bean sprouts
half an avocado
ten cm length of cucumber
alfalfa

method
Bring the rice and water to a boil, stirring, then reduce to really low, and simmer for ten or twelve minutes with the lid on. Prepare the veggies: julienne carrots, snow peas, capsicum, and cucumber. I like to slice the avocado width-ways, and take the tails off the bean sprouts.

When the rice is soft and cooked, remove from heat. Stir the vinegar and mirin through, and cool. I like to do this with a paper fan whilst stirring, but if you’re feeling lazy you can just leave it to cool in the air.

Place a nori sheet on the bamboo mat with the slats running horizontally. Make sure you have it on the right side, or you won’t be able to roll. This should be the side closest to you. Keeping the nori right up against the edge of the bamboo mat, spread about a third of the rice in a thin layer across about one half to one third of the nori on the side closest to you. Then lay out the filling across no more than the bottom half of the rice (ie, closest to you).

Moisten your hands (I usually have a small bowl with a little water in it handy) and firmly roll the bamboo mat. The nori will roll within the sheet. This is much easier than rolling without. There shouldn’t be any seaweed swirl going on, if the proportions are right it should just roll together without a swirl. As you can see from these photos, I misjudged the ratio of rice to filling just slightly, so resulting the opposite problem to swirl, which is filling nestled next to the nori.

This amount will usually make about two or three rolls, depending on how fat with rice you like your sushi. Of course it is not necessary to strictly stick to these fillers and proportions, I have just provided them to give some idea of amounts.

I want to try the five spice tempeh as a filler, I think it will be excellent with some avocado and bean sprouts.

pasta salad with five-spice tempeh

Last week I made five-spice tempeh twice in a couple of days. The first time I served it more traditionally, with rice and gailan and things, but the next day the weather was quite warm and I’m trying to get more into salads this summer, so thought I’d try my hand at a pasta salad.

five-spice tempeh pasta salad



ingredients
five spice tempeh
½ avocado (diced)
¾ pack pasta spirals (I use the 500g packs)
half a dozen sundried tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1 cup beanprouts (washed and tails off)
handful of snow peas (chopped into four or five pieces, ends removed)
half a dozen mushrooms (sliced)
a large handful of spinach
peanut oil

2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 clove garlic (minced)
1ish tablespoon chili flakes
half cup vege stock
one shake apple cider vinegar
shake or three sesame oil


method
Prepare the pasta spirals.

Prepare the tempeh (link). Don’t clean the wok after frying the tempeh; instead, add a little more peanut oil and fry the mushrooms. Due to the method used for the tempeh, there should be crispy spiced bits floating about in the oil. This will give the mushrooms a slightly spicy, wok-hei sort of flavour.

Combine the lemon juice, garlic, chili flakes, (hot) vegetable stock, vinegar and sesame oil. Mix until well combined. Drain the pasta, rinse in cold water, and in a large serving dish combine with avocado, tomatoes, beansprouts, snow peas, mushrooms, and spinach. Pour in the dressing and mix well. Leave to soak in for a few minutes, top with tempeh and serve whilst the pasta is still slightly warm.


This time around I used baby spinach, but not-baby spinach will work fine.

yellow dahl

Wandered to Mirrabooka for a Diwali Mela on Sunday, came away smelling like masala dosa which is one of those things I’ve never been brave enough to try cooking on my own. My favourite masala dosa this year was the ones I ate at Wawasan Mutiara, crispy and served with with a dahl almost like a rasam.



Everyone has a different dahl recipe. My mum likes to add lots of chunky things, big chunks of potato and carrot. Some serve dahl cold, and some serve dahl hot. I’ve had dahl that’s thick and creamy, and dahl that’s, as I said, like rasam. Even my own recipe evolves, subtly changing flavours and texture as I learn new things. But this one is currently my favourite.

yellow dahl

ingredients
3 tomatoes, finely diced
1 potato, diced
2 or 3 cups stock
1 can coconut milk
1 ½ cups dry lentils

for pounding
1 shallot, sliced
2 green chillis, chopped and deseeded
1 clove garlic, minced
2cm ginger, chopped
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons tumeric

method
Overnight, or for about six hours, soak the lentils. I like to use a combination of brown, red and yellow lentils, though in this specific instance I used about half yellow, half red. After soaking, pick out the yuck lentils, rinse and drain.

Pound together the shallot, chilli, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin and tumeric, until a smushy, smoothish paste is formed. On high heat, dry fry the paste for a minute or two, until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and the lentils, allow to fry for a minute or two, then add the stock. Reduce to low, and simmer with the lid on for ten minutes, then add the potato. Continue to simmer on low, lid on, stirring occasionally and adding stock or water as needed. After about an hour, add the coconut milk and simmer with the lid off for another ten minutes.

Serve over rice or delicious roti.

ararat kebabs, nedlands

Yesterday we wandered down to Crawley for the Matilda Bay Craft Fair, which was held on the Oak Lawn at UWA. Having meandered the stalls, we bought some preserves for D’s grandfather and nicked off to Broadway Fair to visit Ararat. When we used to live down the street from UWA, Ararat Kebabs was a favourite, as it is open until late, and does a fantastic falafel. My standard order is falafel kebab with salad (no onion) and sweet chili sauce and hommus, perhaps with some chips on the side. Fantastic!

The bread is also pretty amazing, last time we had a party I rang M just before (M lives next door to Broadway Fair) so he could bring some turkish bread with him. The bread there is soft and when you pull it apart you can see the gluten thinly pulling apart.




Ararat Kebabs
Broadway Fair Shopping Centre
Broadway, Nedlands

(rasp)berry and chocolate cake from vegan indulgence (fail + success)

I've been pretty complacent about my gluten-free baking. I've just been substituting directly with Orgran's gluten-free flour. The cupcakes were just fine, and the cookies and biscuits were really great.

Then I tried to bake a cake:




Deciding that the gluten-free flour made it a bit too dry, for my second attempt I added about an extra eighth of a cup of soymilk. As I was using canned berries, not frozen, I also added about the same amount of berry liquid. This increased the cooking time by about eleven or twelve minutes, and resulted in a half size cake. After sulking around the house for a bit, I worked out I had about three quarters of a cup of choc chips hidden in the fridge, and just enough gluten-free flour for a third try. This third attempt rose slightly, so I decided to put the two together to form a very tall cake.

By this point I had been baking for about six hours, and the bottom half was well and truly cooled, so missing the 'spread with jam when still warm' part of the recipe. I decided to just put both halves in the fridge, and that I would deal with icing in the morning.

Worried that the cake had dried out a little bit overnight, and that it wouldn't absorb the jam very well since it wasn't warm, I drizzled a little bit of the reserved berry liquid on both halves. I then proceeded as usual, though I softened the icing up a little too much, hence the messiness of the icing. I really should learn how to make a great icing.




ETA: home from A's party, and the cake turned out fantastically. It was so heavy and chocolatey, it was just like a chocolate mudcake. Some people (not vegans) referred to it as being death by chocolate. I'm so incredibly happy with how it turned out!

spinach and mushroom pasta

Used this recipe from vegetarian times. I was intrigued because you bake the spaghetti in the oven before boiling it in a broth of harissa and vegie stock. The mushrooms, spinach and chickpeas are also included in this pot at the same time. Because the recipe calls for stirring constantly until the liquid has reduced, I assumed it would go the way of a risotto, ie, super tasty. Sadly, the end result was bland, though the mushrooms were tasty.

I used this opportunity to make my own harissa, which was kind of fun. I quite like grilling capsicum, even though our grill is a bit odd.