Strawberry And Star Anise Sorbet (raw/vegan)

I'm so far behind with my posts of late, it's rather embarrassing... Till this evening, anytime I sit down to write up a post, my work phone rings. I've still had time to cook, just not anything complex. Thankfully this evening has been a little quieter and I hope I will now be able to start catching up with a few quick, short posts.

Earlier in the week I made a batch of strawberry sorbet. The flavours of star anise and strawberry go together really well and I just love the smell of star anise so jump at any opportunity to use it. I've also found myself making more raw food of late, so rather than make a sorbet with a boiled sugar syrup to infuse the star anise quickly, I left the star anise to sit in lime juice for a few hours to infuse the flavour.

Star anise - it smells awesome and looks cool too

Strawberry and Star Anise sorbet:
This made about half a litre of sorbet.
Ingredients

• 3 punnets of strawberries (750grams)
• 2 limes
• 3 star anise
• 1/3 cup of agave (double this if you prefer a sweeter sorbet, I prefer mine a little tart)

Method

1. Zest and juice the limes, setting the zest aside for later.
2. Crush the star anise a little bit and add to the lime juice. Leave this to sit covered for a few hours to infuse. I left mine for 4 hours. If you do not want to wait, gently heat the juice a little to reduce the infusing time.
3. Remove the star anise from the lime juice. 
4. Place strawberries, lime juice, zest and agave into a blender and puree. 

If you have an icecream maker, follow the makers instructions to churn your sorbet.
If like me you don't have one, you can get great textured sorbet by doing the following:

• Pour the mix into a baking tray and place it in the freezer.
• When mix is nearly frozen, scrape it back into the blender and blend till smooth. Pour the mix back into the tray and return it to the freezer. 
• Repeat this process 2-3 times then scape the mix into a storage container and return to the freezer for a couple of hours before eating.

Yum!

Jasmine Inn, Vegan Friendly Thai Restaurant - Yarraville

After a few bad experiences ending in allergic reactions, I've become rather sceptical of thai restaurants claiming that their dishes are or can be made vegetarian. I've been places where I have explained my allergies and ordered dishes based on the kitchen staffs assurances that a dish is vegan and shellfish free, only to have an allergic reaction a couple of bites in because there is a shellfish paste in the sauce or tiny bits of dried fishy things sprinkled on top as a garnish. Sadly after a couple of bad experiences, I was convinced I couldn't eat at a thai restaurant.

When I was invited to meet friends for dinner at one of the thai restaurants in Yarraville, I was very wary but agreed to go along, resigning myself to ordering rice. My friend had chosen Jasmine Inn which they advised me was the best of the thai places in Yarraville, for the restaurants atmosphere, the service quality and for the food itself.

When the wait staff came to hand out menus, I explained my allergy and asked if they could point out any vegan dishes. I was pleasantly surprised when they handed me a special A4 sheet sized menu, listing all vegan entrees, mains and sides. Turning the menu over, it had a list of all gluten free dishes too. They were both decent sized lists for a non veg, non GF restaurant. That they had enough awareness to create a specific menu for vegan customers had me starting to feel reassured that I could order safely.

We skipped entrees and went straight to mains. Unfortunately I only got 1 photo of food on the night, which was of the Salt and Pepper tofu main I ordered. I know, salt and pepper tofu is probably the safest thing I could have ordered with no sauce to hide fishy bits in, but it was what I felt like at the time and I was not disappointed. This dish was more tofu than I could manage to eat so my friends helped me out by trying some. The flavour was great, up there as one of the best salt and pepper tofu dishes I have had. The batter was perfectly crisp with the silky tofu inside. 

Crispy fried salt and pepper tofu

As none of our meals really came with much in the way of vegetables, we also ordered a plate of stir fried mixed vegetables to share which was very nice, along with roti and coconut rice as sides.

I have to say I am loving the increasing awareness of vegetarian, vegan and gluten free dining I am seeing in Yarraville and Seddon area recently.

Jasmine Inn

03 9689 8899

16 Anderson Street
Yarraville.

Urban Spoon Rocks

Raspberry Blackout Cake from Vegan with a Vengance

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Our Swedish family have taken the long flight home to sub zero temperatures (-28C on some days. Eep!!!).

Before we did the sad farewells at the airport, we managed to squeeze in one final dinner at our home with the whole family present. For after dinner I wanted to make a really special chocolate cake. Mum had a wonderful moist chocolate cake recipe she used to always make for birthdays and special occasions. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced the furry book I wrote down all of mums best recipes in before I moved out of home so had to find another recipe to use.

After scouring through all my cookbooks, I settled on the Raspberry Blackout cake from Vegan with a Vengeance. This recipe just jumped out at me as something I really wanted to try, and Isa's recipes have never let me down yet. I've noticed that this recipe has already been published on a number of blogs (not all of which give her credit as the source) so it seemed to be a rather popular recipe too.

Raspberry Blackout Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups plain rice or soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil (I used almond as I had no canola)
10 oz jar of raspberry jam with 1/2 cup reserved for the batter (I didn't have enough raspberry so I made up the difference with sour cherry in the batter)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sugar
Fresh raspberries for decorating and yumminess

1. Preheat oven to 175C or 350F. Spray two 20cm/8 inch round springform cake pans with cooking spray. If you don't have springform pans, line the bottom of ordinary round pans to prevent sticking.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Combine the milk, oil, 1/2 cup of the jam, the vanilla, and the sugar in a large bowl and mix with a hand mixer or strong fork. The jam should be mostly dissolved with the rest of the ingredients; some small clumps are okay.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in batches and mix until everything is incorporated.
5. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven and let cool in pans.
7. When the cakes have cooled fully, spread one layer of cake with a think layer of the remaining raspberry jam (give the jam a quick mix to get a spreadable consistency); spread a layer of chocolate icing on top of the preserves.
8. Place the other layer of cake on top and spread its top with preserves.
9. Carefully spread the chocolate icing over the top, then ice the sides.

A naked raspberry blackout cake patiently awaiting icing

In the book, the cake is topped with a 'ganache-y frosting' I didn't have choc chips, so made a chocolate butter cream icing.

Chocolate butter cream icing
1 cup of vegan margarine
500 grams of icing sugar (I used billingtons golden icing sugar which has a lovely flavour)
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp dutch cocoa powder

1. Place all margarine in a mixing bowl and slowly blend in half the icing sugar.
2. Blend in the milk and cocoa.
3. Add the remaining icing sugar and mix well.
4. Chill till ready to use.

Getting there, but it needs something more...

As just an iced cake I thought it looked a little boring, so I cut some flower shapes out of rolled white fondant and left these to dry for 30 minutes. I then used these along with some fresh raspberries.

Decorated cake, not over the top at all...

The cake had a great flavour and the jam made for a really moist, fudgy, rich chocolate cake that everyone loved. This is a cake recipe that I think I will be using often and I think would be perfect as a base for some more fancy cake decorating or shaped cakes as it held it's shape really well and did not crumble or crack.

So so yummy!

Yum!

Braised cinnamon tofu

With all the dining out we have been doing with our family the last few weeks, on top of Christmas, we have been eating a lot of crappy food lately. Don't get me wrong, the food has been tasty and really enjoyable such as the drop in visits to Lord of the Fries, pancake breakfasts, and the night we went out for dessert pizzas (totally awesome concept that I will soon experiment with at home). 

Delicious ooey gooey dessert pizza wrongness

But it has all been packed with stuff that leaves me feeling pretty dodgy the next day. Kev has also been indulging in things he as a diabetic usually wouldn't touch with a 10 foot clown pole. So I wanted to make something for dinner that would be healthy. I have been reading quite a bit about the health benefits of cinnamon lately, mainly about it's benefits on blood sugar, but it is also being looked at for potential cancer fighting properties, arthritis relief, memory and cognitive function, and aiding as a food preservative.

Previously I have really only used cinnamon in making sweet baked goods, desserts or for making cinnamon and apple tea drink. On a whim I googled 'cinnamon tofu' and search results presented me with this gem - Braised Cinnamon Tofu. They have it listed as a recipe to benefit the liver.

I made a couple of adjustments to the recipe, adding in some vegetables and it worked out rather well. I also prefer more chilli in dishes so increased the amount used. If you don't like your food that spicy, reduce the amount of chilli back to the 1 tsp from the original recipe.

Braised Cinnamon Tofu

Ingredients

• 5 spring onions, trimmed
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed and thinly sliced
• 4 small thin slices fresh ginger.
• 3 tsp hot chilli paste
• 2 whole cinnamon sticks
• 1 star anise pod
• ½ cup reduced salt soy sauce
• 4 cups water
• 500 grams of cubed tofu
• 200 grams of sliced mushrooms
• 1 bunch of broccolini, chopped
• 3 baby pak choy, chopped

Method

1. Place the ginger pieces, cinnamon sticks and star anise in the centre of a square of muslin or cheese cloth. Bring the corners together and tie up to form a little spice pouch.
2. In a saucepan, combine the spring onions soy sauce and water. Add in the spice pouch and bring to the boil. 
3. Add in the cubed tofu and allow to return to boiling. Once the liquid is boiling again, turn the heat down to simmer. 
4. Leave the pot to simmer for about an hour, then remove the spice pouch. 
5. Add in the chopped vegetables, and bring back to boiling. Boil till vegetables are cooked to your liking, then serve. 

Braised cinnamon tofu and vegetables

I cooked my vegetables a little more than I intended as I got distracted by a phone call, so they were not still a little crisp as I like them. Why does the phone always ring when you are making dinner... 

The flavour was very nice, with a good mix of ginger and cinnamon soaked into the tofu during the hour of simmering.

Gasometer II

It's been a busy week with Christmas preparations getting all the food ready for Christmas, two days of Christmas celebrations (Swedish tradition is to celebrate Christmas eve) and spending time with the family doing touristy things around the city. 

On Monday though the family all went to visit old friends and we were left looking for ways to fill our day. After spending most of the day doing loads of washing and cleaning (it's amazing how many towels and sheets get used up with all the extra people around) Kev decided we needed to go out for dinner, so took me to Gasometer. It must have been the place to be last night because soon after we sat down, K and Toby from In the Mood for Noodles came in too. Small world :-)

Our intention when we ordered food was to have just entrees then mains, no dessert. Unfortunately despite ordering entrees and mains as separate courses all the dishes came out at the same time.

We ordered the Spanish Style Mushrooms, which I thought were really tasty. Kev didn't like these much though, he couldn't pin point what is was exactly but there was something in the flavour of the sauce that he didn't like. That just meant I got to keep this entree to myself :-)

The second entree we ordered was the smoked tofu strips. These were great just like last time we ordered them, though I don't think they were as spicy as I remember. Next time I'm ordering these brutal instead of just spicy.

For mains I really wanted to get the Vegan Chorizo Burger that Kev ordered last time, but there was a main on the menu that I hadn't tried yet so I ordered the Cuban Beans with Rice, vegan. Bad choice. Really bad choice. The beans were super dry, there was waaay too much rice, and not a lot of flavour in the dish at all, except for something resembling soap. Even after I tried to improve the flavour by pouring the sauce left from the mushrooms over the beans, I still couldn't eat it. Kev didn't like it either, he took one fork full and that was all he was prepared to eat. I wish I had ordered the burger instead and just left this one untried.

Kev was a lot happier with his main than I was with mine. He ordered the black bean burrito, with dairy cheese. He was really pleased with the flavour and really enjoyed it. His only criticisms were that pot that looked like it was meant to be tomato salsa seemed to be just mashed tomato with a little water and no flavour, and that he would have preferred more beans and less rice, but since he doesn't like rice much that is to be expected.

Since I didn't eat my main, I ended up having room for dessert. Every cloud has a silver lining :-) I ordered the vegan pumpkin pie with gingerbread ice-cream. This was really, really, really good. The gingerbread ice-cream was good just on it's own, but was amazing with the lightly spiced pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is now my second favourite way to serve pumpkin, behind pumpkin curry.

Aside from the mix up with all our food coming out at once, and the disappointment with one of our mains, we had a really good night out.

Christmas cake - traditional and vegan versions.

Usually at Christmas time my mum goes into a baking frenzy, pumping fruit cake after fruit cake out of her kitchen as her traditional Christmas gift to her friends and one for the family to eat on Christmas day. This year however she has not baked a single thing because she doesn't have a kitchen. She started renovations back in July after the stumps on one side of the house went, and she had to replace them. She also decided to renovate 2 bathrooms, replace all her carpets and tiles, repaint and rip the entire kitchen out to replace with a new one. All of this was meant to be finished in October. 2 months later and she still doesn't have a kitchen...

So making the cake for Christmas day fell to me this year and I made 2 versions. A traditional one that pretty closely follows my mums recipe (I didn't have time to soak the dried fruit in brandy for 2 days, and bake the cake 2 weeks ahead and keep pouring more brandy over it like she does...) and a second cake that I tweaked to be a vegan version. 

Baking times are based on a deep cake pan. If you use a shallow pan or a loaf pan, take 30 minutes off the baking time. Both cakes will keep well for at least a week if stored in an airtight container. Longer if you pour a little brandy over them to keep them moist.

Shortcut version of Mum's fruit cake recipe

• 500g sultanas
• 300g currants
• 150g mixed peel
• 100g raisins
• 100g chopped dried figs
• 100g chopped dried or glace cherries
• 3/4 cup of marmalade
• 1 cup of brandy, rum or sherry (I have also used mead before when it was all we had in the house)
• 250g soft butter
• 2  1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 tsp powdered nutmeg
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 5 large eggs, free range
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 50g whole almonds to decorate (optional)

To make:

1. Combine the dried fruit, marmalade, spices and brandy in a large mixing bowl. Mix this really well to combine and leave to sit overnight (or a couple of hours at least). Most of the brandy should soak into the fruit.
2. Set the oven to 150C. Prepare your cake tin. Ideally this should be a deep 20cm square or 24cm round tin. To prepare the tins, grease the pans, then line with baking paper. Cut a piece of paper to fit the bottom of the pan, then strips to fit the sides. Try to have a bit of a paper collar sticking up above the edges of the pan.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar till the sugar is dissolved in.
4. In another bowl, beat the eggs together. Slowly add this to the butter mix about half an egg at a time and blend in each time. If you add too much egg at once, the mix will curdle (if it does curdle it is not the end of the world, it is just better not to have it happen).
5. Gently fold the flour into the butter and egg mix. Fold till combined.
6. Add in the dried fruit mix and any brandy that hasn't soaked in. Fold till the fruit is evenly distributed.
7. Pour the mix into your cake pan and flatten with the back of a spoon.
8. If you want to decorate your cake, press the almonds gently onto the top of the batter to make a pattern.
9. Bake the cake on the top shelf for 2 1/2 hours. Insert a skewer or thin knife into the cake. If it comes out clean the cake is cooked. If not keep checking the cake every 10 minutes till it is done.
10. Cool the cake in the pan.
11. Store the cake in an airtight container till you are ready to use it. You can sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of brandy over the cake each day if you want to keep the cake a little more moist.



Egg based fruit cake.



A bit drier and lighter in colour than I would like, but still tastes fine.


Vegan version of Mum's fruit cake recipe (note for this version I used gluten free flour. You may need to reduce the liquid and baking soda if using wheat flour)

• 500g sultanas
• 300g currants
• 150g mixed peel
• 100g raisins
• 100g chopped dried figs
• 100g chopped dried or glace cherries
• 3/4 cup of marmalade
• 1 cup of brandy, rum or sherry
• 250g nuttalex
• 2 cups of gluten free all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of rice flour
• 1/2 cup of corn flour
• 1 tsp powdered nutmeg
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 1 1/4 cups of soy milk
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 50g whole almonds to decorate (optional)

To make:

1. Combine the dried fruit, marmalade, spices and brandy in a large mixing bowl. Mix this really well to combine and leave to sit overnight (or a couple of hours at least). Most of the brandy should soak into the fruit.
2. Set the oven to 150C. Prepare your cake tin. Ideally this should be a deep 20cm square or 24cm round tin, but 2 loaf pans will do. To prepare the tins, grease the pans, then line with baking paper. Cut a piece of paper to fit the bottom of the pan, then strips to fit the sides. Try to have a bit of a paper collar sticking up above the edges of the pan.
3. Cream together the nuttalex and sugar till the sugar is dissolved in.
4. In another bowl combine the soy milk with the vinegar and leave to sit a couple of minutes to curdle.
5. Add the baking soda to the soy milk mix. This will foam so make sure the bowl is large enough for the mix to double or even triple in size.
6. Slowly add this to the nuttalex mix and combine thoroughly.
7. Gently fold the flour into the nuttalex and milk mix. Fold till combined.
8. Add in the dried fruit mix and any brandy that hasn't soaked in. Fold till the fruit is evenly distributed.
9. Pour the mix into your cake pan and flatten with the back of a spoon.
10. If you want to decorate your cake, press the almonds gently onto the top of the batter to make a pattern.
11. Bake the cake on the top shelf for 2 1/2 hours. Insert a skewer or thin knife into the cake. If it comes out clean the cake is cooked. If not keep checking the cake every 10 minutes till it is done.
12. Cool the cake in the pan.
13. Store the cake in an airtight container till you are ready to use it. You can sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of brandy over the cake each day if you want to keep the cake a little more moist.

Vegan gluten free fruit cake

Looks pretty damn good for a gluten free flour cake!

I cut a bit off the end of each cake to see how they went in side. Agneta helped me do a taste test and said that the vegan version was better and more moist than the non vegan version! You can see from the photos that it looks better too.

Next time round I think I would use a dark muscovado sugar to get a bit more colour in the cake and will stick with the vegan version from now on. It worked out much better.

We will be eating this on Christmas eve and Christmas day with brandy butter.

Brandy Butter
This can be spread as a hard sauce on cold fruit cake, or served to slowly melt over hot Christmas pudding. 

• 100g Nuttalex
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 6 tbsp Brandy

1. Blend together nuttalex and 1 cup of the icing sugar till smooth.
2. Alternate adding 2 tbsp Brandy and 1 cup of icing sugar till all is blended in and the mix is pale and creamy.
3. Set in the fridge till you are ready to use it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with good food and great company!

Home made vegan chocolates

Part 2 of my posts on home made christmas presents will be a little longer than the first. This was a lot more time consuming than the white christmas and had to be done in stages. Like with the white christmas, I made everything gluten free and vegan as I was also giving some of the chocolates to K and Toby from In the Mood for Noodles.

I got started making chocolates when I was really young. Mum found it was cheaper (and more fun) each easter to buy chocolate melts and make her own eggs each easter rather than buy the stupidly over priced foil wrapped store eggs. She would colour white chocolate in a variety of pastel colours with powdered food dye and paint her hand rolled hollow easter eggs them with beautiful designs. 

She soon expanded into making her own chocolates and has a little book she has put together over the years of her signature fillings. She was so good at it that she ended up turning it into a source of revenue and also went to the local primary school each year to help the little prep grade students make their very own painted coloured chocolate easter egg to take home. The kids at school thought I had the coolest mother ever and they were of course right :-)

To start making shaped chocolates at home, you will need to get a couple of things first.

• Chocolate moulds - You can get some great chocolate moulds from a cake supply shop in port phillip arcade in the city, called Cake Deco. This is just across the road from Flinders street station and the have HEAPS of food crafting supplies. Spotlight and Matchbox also have a good range. If you have never made chocolates before try to get clear plastic chocolate moulds rather than silicon as it is easier to judge whether the chocolate is thick enough.
• Food paint brushes - If you are planning on painting different coloured chocolates into the mould or onto the chocolates as decoration it is much easier to use a fine food grade paint brush. These can be purchased at the same place as the moulds.
• A candy thermometer. If you want to make caramel fillings you will need this to check when the caramel gets to soft ball or soft crack stage.

You will also need to decide what to fill your chocolates with. You can make solid moulded chocolates of course, but filled chocolates are so much more interesting and impressive.

I made 3 simple fillings this time - Peanut butter, Agave Caramel and Strawberry Cream Cheez.

 

Peanut butter filling:

This filling is really really simple. It also works with any other nut butter like macadamia or ABC spread, etc. If you are making gluten free chocolates, best to go buy a fresh jar of peanut butter. You don't want to use peanut butter that someone has wheat contaminated when they have double dipped the knife when spreading their toast...

• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 1/4 cup of pure icing sugar

1. Mix the peanut butter and icing sugar together to form a paste.
2. Store in the fridge till you are ready to use.

Strawberry Cream Cheez filling:
Like with the peanut butter, buy a fresh tofutti tub that no one has contaminated with bread...

• 20g freeze dried strawberries
• 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
• 1/4 of a cup of hot water
• 100g tofutti cream cheese

1. Chop the strawberries into small pieces.
2. Dissolve the sugar into the hot water in a bowl. Add the strawberries and leave to soak for 30 minutes. 
3. Spoon the strawberry pieces and 2 tbsp of the liquid into the tofutti and blend thoroughly.
4. Store the mix in an airtight container in the fridge till you are ready to use this. The mix should be used within a week and any chocolates made with it kept in the fridge.

Agave caramel
There are 2 methods I use with this caramel depending how thick I want it. Using agave syrup will give a honey flavoured caramel. Again, I started with a fresh tub of nuttalex.

• 3 tbsp nuttalex
• 3/4 cup of caster sugar
• 1/4 plus 1/4 cup of agave syrup
• 1/4 plus 1/4 cup of water
• 1 tspn vanilla essence

For a thicker slightly chewy caramel

1. In a heavy saucepan combine the nuttalex, sugar, all the agave syrup, all the water, and vanilla essence. Stir this over the heat till combined.
2. Using a candy thermometer, boil the mix till it reaches soft ball stage (115C). The thermometer should have a marker on it to show how much of it needs to be immersed in the caramel for an accurate reading. You can also tell if it has reached soft ball stage by dropping a little of the caramel into a glass of ice cold water. If the caramel forms a soft flexible little ball.
3. Once the sauce hits soft ball, remove it from the heat immediately. Transfer to a heat proof storage container or bowl.
4. Store in an air tight container in the fridge till ready for use.

For a runnier caramel

1. In a heavy saucepan combine the nuttalex, sugar, 1/4 cup of the agave syrup, 1/4 cup of the water, and vanilla essence. Stir this over the heat till combined.
2. Using a candy thermometer, boil the mix till it reaches soft ball stage (115C). The thermometer should have a marker on it to show how much of it needs to be immersed in the caramel for an accurate reading. You can also tell if it has reached soft ball stage by dropping a little of the caramel into a glass of ice cold water. If the caramel forms a soft flexible little ball.
3. Once the sauce hits soft ball, remove it from the heat immediately. Allow the caramel to cool a little bit and stir in the remaining agave and water. (If you stir this in when the caramel is still at 115C then the water may react violently and you may get burnt by caramel splash and that really hurts)
4. Transfer to a heat proof storage container or bowl.
5. Store in an air tight container in the fridge till ready for use.

I made the fillings a day ahead of making the chocolate and stored the fillings in the fridge. The fillings should be cold when you put them into the chocolate shells so as not to melt the chocolate.

With the fillings made it is now time to start making the chocolates. There a couple of things to note about melting chocolate.

• It does not like water. Get water in your chocolate and it will seize (go thick, solid and gluggy). Make sure your moulds are completely dry before you use them. Any water and your chocolates will look dull and furry anywhere there was water.
• It does not like direct heat. If you melt chocolate in a saucepan over direct heat it will likely seize and probably burn.
• If you do have an accident and some of the chocolate does start to seize you can save it by mixing in a little bit of copha. The copha will help the chocolate go back to a liquid and you can still use it, but it will not taste quite the same.
• You can also add a very small amount (just a couple of small shavings) of copha to any chocolate you are trying to use to decorate with if you are finding it is too thick or gluggy to paint into fine details on your mould. The copha will thin it out a little and make it easier to paint with.
• You can re-melt chocolate if it sets while you are working with it, by putting it back over a pan of boiled water.

To make the chocolates you will need:

• 1/2 a block of white chocolate to decorate (I used sweet william)
• Milk or dark chocolate. How much will depend on the number of chocolates you want to make and the size of the moulds in the tray. I find it usually takes 100g of chocolate per tray. For the volume of chocolates I made this year, I used 600g of sweet william milk chocolate, plus 170g Noble choice dark chocolate.

1. Boil a small saucepan of water. Turn the heat off after the water has reached boiling point.
2. Chop the white chocolate and place it a heat proof bowl. Place the bowl over the pan of boiled water and leave the chocolate to melt. Once most of the chocolate has melted, stir gently till the last little pieces melt away.
3. For moulds with detail - Using a food paint brush, paint white chocolate into the design on your mould in the areas you want some detail. Once all the moulds in the tray are painted with the design you want, put the trays in the fridge to set.
4. For shaped moulds where you want a marble effect - Roughly paint some white chocolate into the bottom of the mould. Once all the moulds in the tray are painted, put the tray in the fridge to set.
5. In a new heat proof bowl, melt the milk or dark chocolate using the same method as used to melt the white chocolate.
6. When the chocolate is melted, use a teaspoon to put a little chocolate into each mould in the tray. As a rule of thumb a mould will need to be about 1/3 filled with chocolate to have enough to give a good coating.
7. Using a food paint brush, paint the chocolate up the sides of the mould, making sure there is a good coating all over the whole of the shape. This is where having clear moulds is easier - if you hold the tray up to the light, you can see where the chocolate is not thick enough because light will show through. Anywhere the chocolate is too thin, paint a little more chocolate in.
8. If you are making chocolates with a marble design, gently swirl the chocolate around in the bottom of the mould. This should melt the white chocolate and start to marble the white and dark together.
9. If you have too much chocolate in the moulds don't worry. Just turn the tray upside down and pour any excess chocolate back into the bowl.
10. Put the tray in the fridge to set.
11. Once set, check each shape to make sure there are no thin spots where you can see the mould through the chocolate, or can see light coming through. Corners or any design edges will be the most likely place. Paint some more chocolate into any thin spots and return to the fridge to set.
12. Once you are happy the chocolate shells in your moulds are thick enough it is time to put your filling in. Use a small spoon to transfer a little filling into each mould. How much you will need will depend on the size of the mould you have chosen. My moulds needed about half a teaspoon. Press the filling in and get it as flat as possible. Leave a millimeter or 2 of space in the mould for a seal of chocolate to go in on top.
13. To seal the chocolate, spoon a little chocolate into the space left in each mould in the tray. For really soft fillings, start from the edges - if you pour from the middle of the chocolate your filling will ooze over the edge. Return the tray to the fridge to set for at least 30 minutes.
14. Once set, remove the tray from the fridge and gently turn the tray upside down over a plate. For plastic trays gently press on each chocolate till they fall out of their mould. For silicon trays, pull the sides of the mould around each chocolate till they fall out.
15. You're done! Try to resist the temptation to eat all your chocolate handy work at once.

Below are some pictures of the chocolates I made with samples of cut chocolates so you can see what they look like inside.



Little peanut butter men. I call them Meesa's Pieces



Runny agave caramels with marble design

Strawberry cream cheez hearts and roses. White detail on hearts was painted on after un-moulding the chocolates

I had some chocolate left over so I decided to attempt to use the brain mould tray again. This time I made the chocolate shell much thicker so they would not break when popping them out of their mould like they did last time. This mould is actually an ice cube tray and the chocolate needs to be pretty thick so as not to break when the mould is being peeled off. I filled them again with caramel and some dandies vegan marshmallows. They are sickly sweet with 2 teaspoons of caramel and 3 marshmallows in side each brains thick chocolate shell, but they worked this time!

Caramel marshmallow brains to give your brain a sugar overload!

And there you have it. With the right equipment and a little patience, anyone can make filled chocolates at home and they make great home made gifts for christmas time.

Damn that was a long post... I hope it all made sense.

White Christmas - Vegan

Since this is the first year in a long time that I have actually had some time off work at Christmas (with the exception of last year when I was in Sweden for Christmas) I have actually had the time to make some Christmas gifts this year. Not a lot of time to blog about them, but time to cook at least.

The first I will post about was the simplest. This White Christmas only took me 10 minutes to make, then only a couple of hours to set. The White Christmas I remember my Nan making when I was little was always super sickly sweet, made with copha, heaps of icing sugar, milk powder and those nasty red green and yellow fake cherry things. I figured it would taste way better using white chocolate instead of the sugar and milk, and with dried sour cherries instead to counter the sweetness in the white chocolate. A more adult version of a white christmas perhaps.

I made this using all vegan and gluten free ingredients so I could give this to my friends at In the Mood for Noodles in the christmas gift box I put together.

Ingredients:


500g Vegan White Chocolate (I used 3 blocks of Sweet William and 2 block of Bonvita rice milk white chocolate) If that seems like too much chocolate, you can substitute 200 grams of the chocolate for 200g Copha (solid coconut oil) instead.

1  1/2 cups rice bubbles 

100 grams dried sour cherries
100 grams dried apricots, chopped

100g sultanas
50 grams of dried citrus peel chopped

2 cups desiccated coconut

• Line a small slice tin with baking paper. 
• Sit a heat proof mixing bowl over a pan of boiled water. Melt the chocolate in this bowl.
• Mix in fruits, coconut and rice bubbles. Stir well to combine and ensure all dry ingredients get a good coating and the coconut is evenly distributed.
• Pour the mix into the lined pan, and press it down with the back of a spoon.
• Refrigerate till set, then cut into squares. 

Glace cherries look more traditional than the sour cherries I used, but if you want to use glace cherries just be careful of the red colouring they use. A couple of the brands I saw in the supermarket used colour 120 :(
The dried fruit you use doesn't really matter, you could use pineapple, figs, apple, what ever you like really. 
As long as it has white chocolate, coconut and rice bubbles it still looks like the White Christmas we all remember from child hood. It just tastes 387% better!

Nigella's 'Slut red raspberries in chardonnay jelly'. Veganised.

Slut red raspberries in chardonnay jelly. Just the name of the dessert was enough for me to want to make it. I've also never made a Nigella Lawson recipe before. And it seemed a good way to use up the cheap bottles of $4 wine I seem to get given every year at around this time.

Nigella's original recipe can be found here. The recipe in the link is Nigella's take on a recipe she was sent. This is a vegetarian version of Nigella's version. Given the agar makes the jelly a little cloudier than Nigella describes in her recipe, the raspberries don't take on the same 'stained glass lucent red', but it does still make a pretty, but I suppose slightly less slutty looking dessert. So here is the recipe:

Slightly promiscuous red raspberries in chardonnay agar jelly.

1 x 750 ml bottle of chardonnay. Other white wine would probably work too. Red wine would just be weird...
5 grams of agar powder.
150 grams of caster sugar (sorry Nigella, 250 grams just sounds too sweet to me...)
1 vanilla pod, split open length ways
2 punnets of raspberries.

(Note - if you want to reduce the alcohol content of your jelly, boil the wine and let it cool again before adding the agar)

• Decant the wine into a large bowl and soak the raspberries in the wine for 30 minutes.
• Strain the wine into a saucepan and add the agar powder and vanilla pod. Stir the powder in and leave to soak for 15 minutes.
• Heat the wine slowly, stirring constantly to ensure the agar mixes in and no lumpy bits form.
• Add the sugar and dissolve into the warm wine. Divide the raspberries between 6 serving bowls. Make sure your serving bowls will be ok with heat.
• Strain the wine mix to remove any vanilla pod chunks, and pour over the top of the serving bowls while it is still warm.
• Chill in the fridge to set. My jelly set in under an hour

This is an awesome adult version of jelly, and was really good served with some coconut ice cream we had left in the freezer.

Needs more raspberries :(

This photo doesn't really do the jelly justice, it had a wonderful golden colour and the raspberries were a beautiful glowing red.

The jelly had just enough agar to set. This was actually my third attempt at making this, before I got the amount of agar right. The first couple of attempts had too much agar and were just way too solid, as you can see in the example below.

Waaaaaay too much agar!!!!

The above example was what happened when I followed the agar to liquid guide on the back of the agar pack. I found it was just too much and had to cut back. Lucky for me I had several bottles of cheap wine to play with so it wasn't a total waste and I did get it right eventually. I also made a version of the jelly for our designated driver guests and under 18s, substituting apple juice for the wine.

The jelly tasted wonderful. It would be even better with a better bottle of wine. I probably should have boiled the alcohol out of the jelly in my initial test versions... after lots of taste tests of failed jelly I'm feeling a little woozy...

Chan House - Healthy Vegetarian Option. CBD

I've been working in the city for about 18 months now. I now have a huge temptation to go shopping on my lunch breaks to buy crap I don't need... It's dangerous having so many book shops near my office. The best thing about working in the city is the access it gives me to catch up with friends for lunch.

So today I caught up with my bestest bud (whom we shall call Moshi J)  for lunch and went to Chan House. (Friend them on facebook to get updates on menu specials). It's a bit of a walk from my office but totally worth it.

Chan house is in a little food court off little Collins street, located between Queen and William streets. The service is very friendly and fast. There is shared food court style seating available for eat in.

They work from a revolving menu list, where they will have a few dishes that are always available (steamed or fried rice, noodles and mixed vegetables), then 3 daily special items from their menu. They also have dim sims, spring rolls, vegie or BBQ pork buns and prawn crackers. They offer 2 sizes of plate/takeaway, both with steamed rice and 2 dishes. The small is $5.80, large is $6.80. Fried rice or noodles is $1 extra.

I have been there for lunch a number of times before but have always gotten take away. Today Moshi and I decided to sit down and enjoy our lunch properly.

The specials today were szechuan tofu, a curry and ribs with a vinegar soy sauce. I ordered the szechuan tofu and ribs with fried rice. As you can see the serving size for the large is very generous. The tofu was beautiful, the sauce was very tasty. The ribs were great too though I didn't have much sauce. Vinegar and I have a strange relationship - I like the taste in foods (I used to love salt and vinegar chips) but I always end up taking a breath of air in as I eat anything with vinegar on and end up in a coughing fit. This sauce didn't do that though, there was just enough vinegar for the flavour.

I also ordered a BBQ pork bun which was delicious. If it were not for the fact I know all that bun bread would make me super sleepy, I could eat a full meal of just these!

Moshi ordered the fried rice with mixed vegetables and the ribs, and was kind enough to let me take a photo before he nommed his lunch. He also ordered a spring roll but I did not get a picture of that.

I'm really glad Chan House opened up in the city because we need more vegetarian options in the city. Check out some other great blog posts for Chan House here and here.

Dukkah crusted tofu with corn fritters and tomato salad

Tonights meal could probably really have been 2 separate dinners, however I had the ingredients and more importantly I had free time tonight to actually cook something a bit more creative for dinner. Haven't had that for a while!

A few days ago I had cut up a block of and marinaded it. When it became apparent I wasn't going to have time to use it right away I chucked it into the freezer for another day. Freezing it turned out well since it had a better texture when I used it tonight. After walking past Seddon Deadly Sins cafe and seeing their special that day was poached eggs rolled in dukkah, I thought this would be an awesome thing to do with tofu.

The corn fritters I made using a recipe from the book Vegan Yum Yum. I've been meaning to use this recipe for a while because corn is awesome. There are a lot of recipes in this book that I want to try actually.

Dukkah crusted Tofu
1 block of firm tofu (I used a 375gram block)
Marinade (I went really basic using braggs, 1/2 a cup veg stock, some garlic and some pepper)
Cornflour
Oil
Dukkah (I used a whole pack of premade pistacio dukkah)

Press the tofu between 2 plates for 20-30 minutes to get some of the water out.
Cut the tofu into desired size slices.
Place tofu into the marinade. It is better to leave it overnight if you can, but if you don't have time marinade it for at least 30 minutes. If you plan far enough ahead you can freeze the tofu for a more chewy texture.
Pour some cornflour into a bowl. Pour some oil into a second bowl, and put the dukkah in the third bowl.
Take the prepared tofu slices and dunk into the first bowl, making sure they are coated in cornflour.
Next take the flour coated tofu and spread some of the oil onto the tofu with a pastry brush making sure to thinly coat the tofu all over. The flour and oil coating should help the dukkah to stick and stay stuck through cooking.
Now dunk the tofu into the dukkah to give a nice crust.
Fry the tofu on both sides till the dukkah slightly browns. Mine just needed a couple of minutes each side.

Dukkah crusted tofu ready for frying

Corn Fritters
1/2 cup of flour (I used wholemeal)
1/2 cup of polenta
Pinch of salt (the recipe called for 3/4 tspn but I'm not all that big on salt)
1/2 tspn of baking powder (I added a little extra because I was using wholemeal flour)
1/2 tspn old bay seasoning (I didn't have this and don't know what it is so just put in mixed herbs)
1/4 tspn cumin
1/4 tspn paprika (I used 1/2 tspn since I have no idea where my cumin went...)
1/2 cup of soy milk
1/4 cup of water
2 cups of fresh corn kernels

Blend the dry ingredients together.
Add the soy milk and water and combine to a thickish batter.
Fold through the corn.
Heat some oil in a fry pan and place large spoonfuls of batter into the pan, flattening these to fritters with the back of the spoon. You will probably need to do this in a couple of batches to use all the batter.
Cook a few minutes till golden brown on one side, then flip to brown on the other side.

Mmmmm... Fritter batter.

I served the tofu and fritters with a very basic salad made simply of diced tomato, avocado and basil. It all worked together to become a very awesome dinner that made my tofu hating fiance say 'Hey, this tofu is actually really good!'. The corn fritters got great reviews too :)

Great food that didn't get the photo quality it deserved :(

Golden syrup dumplings - sugarless, vegan

Hmmm... I was going kind of well there for a while, with new blog entries on a regular basis. With the weekend we just had I haven't really had time. For blogging or for cooking. With family coming from Sweden very soon, and Christmas coming up I'm probably about to have even less time.

Tonight I had enough spare time to make something sweet to follow a dinner of leftovers. There is nothing quite like golden syrup dumplings. They're like a pudding that take absolutely no effort and are the kind of comfort food my nan used to make. Probably more of a winter thing than summer, but hey, it's been raining lately.

Kev is diabetic, so I thought I'd have a go at making golden syrup dumplings without sugar... Since golden syrup is just runny sugar, so I didn't actually use any, I guess these really can't be called golden syrup dumplings. Sugarless maple flavoured syrup dumplings sweetened with stevia just isn't as catchy.

I took the basic recipe my mum used to always use and made some substitutions. Below is the original recipe followed by the ammended version.

Original recipe - (non vegan)

Dumplings
1 cup self raising flour
30 grams butter
1 egg
2 tbsp milk

Syrup
30g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup
1/2 cup of water
1 tspn lemon juice

For the dumplings:
Rub the butter into the flour to form even crumbs.
Blend in the egg and milk to bring together into a soft dough.
Form into small balls.

For the syrup:
Melt remaining butter in a pan.
Add the syrup, sugar and lemon juice and stir till all sugar is dissolved.

Bring the syrup to the boil and add in dumplings.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Serve with cream or ice cream.


Doctored (improved) version - (vegan dumplings, replacement sugar syrup)

Dumplings
1 cup self raising flour (or in the pictured example I used 3/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup almond meal)
30 grams butter
*Egg replacer for 1 egg
2 tbsp soy milk

Syrup
30g butter
1 tspn arrowroot or corn flour (with no sugar the syrup will not thicken on it's own.)
1 1/2 tspn Stevia powder
1/2 cup sugar free maple flavoured syrup
1/2 cup water
1 tspn lemon juice

For the dumplings:
Rub the nuttalex into the flour to form even crumbs.
Blend in the egg replacer and soy to bring together into a soft dough.
Form into small balls.

For the syrup:
Melt remaining nuttalex in a pan.
Blend in the arrowroot ensuring there are no lumps.
Blend stevia powder into this mix, making sure no lumps form.
Add the maple, water and lemon juice and blend together well.

Bring the syrup to the boil and add in dumplings.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Serve with cream or ice cream. (Ice cream in the example below is Nushies Vanilla)
*Well, I would have used it if I had any. Probably don't really need it, my dumplings worked ok without it.
.

Needs more syrup!

These tasted better than they look in that pic. Poor light did not do them any favours... The flecks are from the almond meal. I really should have served them with some more of the syrup that was left in the bottom of the pan too. It looks better with more sauce.

Monk Bodhi Dharma

It's kind of hard to justify driving for 20-30 minutes just to get breakfast so Monk Bodhi Dharma has been one of those places I just hear other people raving about (see the reviews that had me drooling here and here and here).

When we were heading out to Berwick this last weekend however, it was the perfect opportunity to drop in on the way through to try the food and coffee I have heard so much about.

We got there relatively early, around 9am. They were already busy by then and we snaffled the last available table. People started queueing soon after we got there, so I imagine it would be a long wait for a table if you arrived for a late breakfast. Next time I would probably try to get there even a little earlier and try for a better table, since the table we got was the one right inside the door, with one seat below the newspaper rack. Every couple of minutes someone was coming over to put a paper in or take one out and Kev got elbowed in the head each time. Depressing how few people know how to say sorry :(

There was a bit of a wait on breakfast, but our coffees came out really quickly. We just ordered standard blend coffees. I thought my soy latte was pretty good, Kev said his long black was strong but too bitter.

There were so many good options on the menu, but every review of Monk Bodhi Dharma I have read has raved about the vegan french toast, so I had to try it. The french toast is usually served with ricotta, but when ordered vegan comes with sweetened vegan cream cheese instead. It looked so delicious in everyones photos. And it was! The bread did prove to be a bit of a challenge to cut because the crust was a little chewy, but this worked really well with the pear. The pear was nicely flavoured and sweet from what ever it was poached in. It was sweet enough that I skipped on the cream cheese, it was just too sweet for me at breakfast time.

Kev ordered the sweet corn and ricotta hotcakes served with basil pesto and cherry tomatoes. He's a big fan of savoury pancakes, corn and pesto so this was like a breakfast dream come true. I didn't try these myself, however Kev said that they were great, plenty of corn, good texture and great flavour. His only wish was that there was more of it.

They had a selection of vegan cakes available too, and I did think about getting one to take, but decided against it. I got all excited when I saw they had brownies, but was crushed to see they had walnuts in. Being allergic to walnuts sucks, most brownies and carrot cakes get walnuts stuck in them. Boooo. The cupcakes looked really good, red velvet I think. In hindsight I regret not getting one, but I was all pouty about not being able to get a brownie. The pic below is not great, but you can still kind of see how nice the cupcakes looked - I liked the icing, red and brown swirled together.

I'd definitely come back here again, maybe for one of their degustation breakfasts (next scheduled are on the 30th November and 1st December).

Why is everything awesome so far away from my house :(

Gasometer, Collingwood

I've been wanting to go to try Gasometer in Collingwood for a few weeks now after hearing a new veg friendly place had opened. I had thought we were going there a few weeks back, but my boyfriend had other ideas - on the way there he drove me to the place we first met, proposed and then took me to Shakahari where he had booked a table with some of our friends to celebrate.

Tonight being the last weeknight we are going to be able to go out together for dinner on a weeknight for a while, we decided to venture across the westgate and finally check out Gasometer. We had heard really good things about the place, and we were certainly not disappointed. I think the place has only been open for just over a month or so in what used to be an Irish pub. They've done a really nice job on the place. Something about the interior kind of reminded me of some of the old school train stations we saw in europe though I am really not sure why that is. This is one of the places that has gone on the list of places we want to take the family from Sweden when they come over for Christmas.

There were many vegetarian and vegan options on the menu, and Kev, being the awesome guy he is, ordered dishes that I could try too, even though he was tempted by the ricotta and goats cheese options. We got there right at peak dinner time so it was really quite busy and the food orders took a little while. This just meant we had time to enjoy a beer or two.

Their menu can be found here - Gasometer Menu. Along with the standard menu there was a sheet of specials for the day. We did consider ordering the street corn from the specials menu, it looked really interesting (I can't remember what the description was, only that it sounded like I wanted to eat it), but we opted to try 2 items from the regular entree menu - the fried olives stuffed with vegan roasted pepper cheese, and the smoked tofu strips (ordered as spicy not brutal because we are wusses).

Entree serve of olives

Inside the olives

Smoked tofu strips

The tofu strips were really tasty, and the ranch dipping sauce was great. I'm glad we only ordered spicy and not the brutal, the spicy was perfect. If we'd gone for the brutal I might not have any taste buds left. Kev and I both agreed that the fried olives were absolutely amazing! I think I will have to try making something like this myself at home with black olives. Olives are awesome.

For mains I ordered the areapas with red chilli seitan. The whole dish looked so appetizing when it came out, with a beautiful mix of colours, and I'm always partial to anything that comes with a lime wedge! I was expecting the seitan to be spicy but it wasn't. At least I don't think it was, my tongue could have still been recovering from the tofu strips... I really enjoyed this dish, particularly the corn areapas. Kev was a little less enthused than I was, but he doesn't really like the texture of seitan. Flavour wise he thought it was great.

Kev ordered the vegan chorizo burger, and loved it. He was kind enough to let me have a bite, and it has to be up there as one of the best veg burgers I have ever had! I will definitely be ordering this again. The chips were great too, again some of the best I have ever had. And it came with a slice of pickle!!!!! It's the little touches that make a great meal perfect.

There was a vegan dessert on the menu, pumpkin pie with ginger ice cream. Unfortunately neither Kev or I had any room left for dessert so had to give this a miss. We figured when we ordered the 2 entrees that this was probably going to happen, but the starter menu items just sounded too good to pass up. Next time we will skip the entrees and give the pumpkin pie a go.

Loving hut

Occasionally I get to work out of the Richmond office rather than in the CBD. Aside from giving me an excuse to drop into Ikea, it gives me a chance to try somewhere new for lunch.

Today I went to try Loving Hut (hopefully their website will update soon to include the Melbourne location).
I think this place has really only been open a couple of weeks, and they are still finalising their menu. When K and Toby from In the Mood for Noodles reviewed them, not all their menu items were available. Maybe it was because I went on a week day, early in the lunch period, but they were serving their full menu today.

Rather than order a main from their menu, I decided to try the options from the bain marie. $8 gets you your choice of 1 noodle or rice serve, with 2 choices of main. The serving size was really generous too. I opted noodles, with the beef in black bean and beef rendang dishes.

The dishes were really tasty. Unfortunately the food was nearly cold when it came to me. As much as I liked the taste of the dishes, I struggle to eat barely warm food. I really wished I had ordered a main off the menu, their menu options all sounded really tasty, but I was pressed for time so went the quick option of the ready made dishes.

I had ordered a serve of dumplings to try for a side. These were made to order, and were really tasty and completely worth the trip. The sauce was good, the filling was really tasty and fried nice and crispy.

While I was disappointed with the dishes from the bain marie not being hot, I think I might have gotten them on a bad day. The staff were really friendly, and they have only been open a short time. They are still settling in. I will be going back here, and next time getting a dish made to order from the menu.