A pineapple & sage mocktail

November 25, 2021

   

We recently joined some friends in their home for a fun and slightly haphazard night - there was an online wine tasting class for two booked, and those of us who weren't drinking wine shared some mocktails. Low/no alcohol beers, wines and spirits have absolutely exploded in Melbourne this past year, and I used this as an excuse to buy some Brunswick Aces 0% alcohol gin. (It's made right in our suburb, and they've got a nice-looking bar that I'm keen to visit.)

The gin smells like citrus and cinnamon to me, and it's very astringent on its own. We all thought it was terrific and summery with tonic water and a slice of frozen grapefruit. I had also prepared in advance the components of this pineapple and sage mocktail, which we'd enjoyed once before with our Ottolenghi Club.

The original cocktail recipe would have us infuse the gin with cardamom pods and sage, but I wanted to keep the gin unsullied for other tastings and future mocktails. Instead, I added the cardamom pods and sage into the clove infusion of the sugar syrup. I wasn't much impressed with the aroma of the syrup on its own (the sage made it weirdly... seaweedy?) but it tastes very sweet and pleasantly herbal.

   

The other big commitment here is the pineapple. It's roasted in foil on high heat for three hours. By then the flesh has mellowed and darkened a lot. It's easier to peel and slice, and the core is highly visible. I would love to try doing this again for a dessert.

The gin, syrup, pineapple and some lemon juice mix together into a complex, fruity mocktail that's fun to share and ideal at this time of year. The recipe below has very uneven quantities: pineapple for maybe a dozen glasses, syrup for two dozen, and lemon juice for no more than four...! So I'll be mixing and matching my leftovers in the coming weeks.

   

A pineapple & sage mocktail

(slightly adapted from a recipe on Ottolenghi's website)

1 large pineapple, skin on but leaves trimmed (1.4 kg)

250 g caster sugar

4 whole cloves

4 cardamom pods, roughly crushed

22 sage leaves

gin (we used Brunswick Aces 0% alcohol Hearts Sapiir)

juice of 1 lemon

Preheat an oven to 200°C. Wrap the pineapple in foil, place it in a baking tray, and roast it for 3 hours. Allow the pineapple to cool. Cut away and discard the pineapple's skin and core. Puree the pineapple flesh in a food processor, then set it aside (potentially in the fridge).

Place the sugar in a small-medium saucepan with 250 mL water. Bring the mixture to the boil, then turn the heat down to low. Add the cloves, crushed cardamom pods, and 20 of the sage leaves. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring regularly, and then set the syrup aside to cool. Strain out the cloves, pods and leaves.

When you're ready to drink mocktails, shake together 100 mL of the gin, 50 mL of the pineapple puree, 25 mL lemon juice, and 20 mL of the sugar syrup with ice. Split the mocktail between two glasses and garnish with a sage leaf to serve.

113 Eatery

Update 04/01/2023: 113 Eatery is now permanently closed, but you can enjoy a similar menu at Shop 225.

November 21, 2021

   

We are very fond of the pizzas at Shop 225, so I took note when the team announced their new restaurant 113 Eatery opening in Northcote. We had time for an unhurried Sunday lunch there last weekend.

The menu is very similar to what we've come to expect from the older sibling - a dozen pizzas and a short pasta menu, with a couple of salads and a smattering of starters. It's omnivorous and exceptionally inclusive - everything bar two of the pastas has a vegan option and everything has a gluten-free option. We decided to try the vegan versions of everything we ordered to put them through their paces.

   

Arancini ($16, pictured top) were a fun way to start - they have strong, savoury mushroom and truffle flavours, including a large mushroom slice at their centre, and a garnishing dab of fondue. For his main meal Michael chose the Deliziosa pizza ($28, pictured above), another truffle-scented dish. 113 Eatery have gathered impressive vegan substitutes for fior de latte, nduja, and speck and teamed them with a thin, lightly charred base, thick porcini mushrooms and a scattering of ground pistachios - I really liked the variety and complementarity of flavours.

   

I tried their gnocchi al gorgonzola ($27), which is served in a light, silky beetroot sauce with walnuts. While I enjoyed its more subtle flavours, the vegan formulation lacked the pungency of gorgonzola and even the beetroot didn't have much of its characteristic earthiness.

   

The vegan desserts are a triumph. The tiramisu ($13) that we shared had an almondy gluten-free seams in place of the traditional ladyfingers, dense creamy layers that we think might be coconut-based, and enough coffee and cocoa to seal the deal (a classic version without substitutes is also available). Wonderful cannoli and sweet calzone are also on the menu.

   

113 Eatery retains everything we love about the Shop 225 menu. The setting feels a little fancier, with an elaborate bar rather than a hot pizza oven dominating the interior, and the staff are just as friendly. Located only a few doors down from the Westgarth Cinema and the Merri Creek Tavern, it's an excellent option for dinner before or after a show.

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113 Eatery has already received positive reviews on Melbourne Lifestyle and Gastrology.

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113 Eatery

113 High St, Northcote

9429 0457

meals, drinks, specials of the day & desserts, drinks of the day

https://www.113eatery.com.au/

Accessibility: The entry is flat and narrow, and tables are moderately spaced; chairs have backs and there is a small amount of padded bench seating. We ordered at our table and paid at a high bar. Access to the toilets is flat; they're gendered and narrow.

El Mirage II

November 18, 2021 

   

Something I learned during the most recent lockdowns is that I am actually pretty crap at making pancakes and French toast, which are my favourite fancy breakfasts. I've been keen to treat myself as eat-in dining has reopened, and recently saw a couple people on twitter recommending the sweet options at El Mirage. It's 14 years since we first visited and blogged this cafe (!), and though we've visited and not blogged about it a handful of times since then, it's certainly been a while.

   

We visited on Thursday morning, the only warm day of the week, and took a table outside. The menu is varied and marks gluten-free options, but doesn't pay as much mind to vegans as we've come to expect in Brunswick - the one breakfast dish that notes a vegan option is the 'avocado hummus', which serves these toppings on gluten-free Turkish bread and garnishes them with shave fennel, apple, sumac, pickled chilli, shallots, roasted almonds, goji berries and pomegranate.

   

That said, I got exactly what I was looking for! The Brioche French toast ($21.50) arrived as one thick slice, dusted lightly with sugar, topped with two mascarpone scoops and abundant fruits: a poached pear, half a passionfruit, and fresh raspberries and blueberries. I appreciated that the maple syrup was served on the side, because I only wanted a little of it. I also really enjoyed my chai latte ($4.50), which was properly spiced and not too sweet or over-brewed.

   

Michael ate the chilli scrambled eggs ($19.50). He was a bit frustrated that the two toast slices were stacked, but the portion was generous and he enjoyed the flavours once he'd reconfigured them - the eggs were spicy enough, and garnished with a pickled daikon, carrot, spring onion and herb salad, fried shallots, and sriracha chilli mayonnaise.

   

It's great to see El Mirage still in business after all these years, especially when neighbouring cafes like Small Block and East Elevation weren't able to weather the pandemic. The staff were great, it's rare that I enjoy a chai this much, and I'm keen to try their pancakes - I reckon I'll be back for more sneaky weekday breakfasts.

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You can read about our first visit to El Mirage (14 years ago!) here. Since then, it's received positive blog posts on off the spork, fresh bread, DO YOU WANT TO STAY FOR BREAKFAST?, A Chronicle of Gastronomy (freebie), and Skinny Glutton. There's a mixed account on Melbourne Gastronome.

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El Mirage

349 Lygon St, Brunswick East

9388 0966

main menu, specials

facebook page

Accessibility: There is a gentle ramp up from the street to the standard-width door. Furniture is fairly dense, with padded booth seating and austere metal and wood seats indoors and low unbacked stools outdoors (see photos). We ordered at our table and paid side-by-side with a staff member indoors. We didn't visit the toilets. 

Raspberry & halva crumble slice

November 7, 2021

   

Restrictions have eased a lot, but I'm emerging slowly - seeing friends occasionally, in small groups, and most often outside. I'm still spending plenty of time at home and allocating some of it to baking. The halva I needed for this recipe was a nice excuse to walk to a more distant supermarket and browse their novel groceries early in the morning when the aisles were still quiet, then potter around the kitchen in the afternoon.

I made a couple of easy substitutions to render this vegan and gluten-free: margarine instead of butter, and a gluten-free flour blend instead of wheat-based plain flour. I feared this might make for a crumble slice so crumbly it couldn't hold together, but it held up fine. Eaten warm from the oven, I reckon this slice was indistinguishable from a buttery, gluteny version. Eaten cool a day later, it was a slightly less convincing shortcrust but still a very good snack.

The recipe promises lots of contrasting flavours from raspberries, tahini and halva, sumac and rosewater. The raspberries definitely dominate, and the halva has a moment here and there, but the sumac and rosewater got a bit lost in the bake. They might have had a better chance if I'd included the optional unheated raspberry drizzle, but it just seemed messy and unnecessary at the time. These are both flavours I've enjoyed in other pink, fruity desserts so I'd like to see them shine here too!

Happily, I was able to share this slice with friends - we had one spontaneously pop in for a coffee while this was in the oven, and I packed some for a walk with another on Sunday.

   

Raspberry & halva crumble slice

(a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi published in The Guardian)

225g plain flour (I had good results with a gluten-free blend)

105g caster sugar

50g brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

175g butter or margarine, melted

40g tahini

1 teaspoon vanilla

300g raspberries, fresh or defrosted from frozen

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 1/4 teaspoons sumac

1 teaspoon rosewater

200g halva

Preheat an oven to 170°C. Line a 22cm square cake tin with baking paper.

In a medium-large bowl, stir together the flour, 70g of the caster sugar, the brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the melted butter/margarine, tahini and vanilla until everything is well mixed. Measure out 300g of the dough and place it in the lined cake tin, using the back of a spoon and/or your clean hands to spread it out into an even layer. Bake the biscuit base for 20 minutes, and refrigerate the leftover dough.

While the base is baking, get out a medium bowl use it to stir together the raspberries, remaining 35g caster sugar, cornflour, sumac and rosewater.

When the biscuit base is baked, retrieve it from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 180°C. Crumble the halva evenly across the biscuit base, then spoon the raspberry mixture over the halva. Retrieve the remaining biscuit dough from the fridge and scatter it in pieces over the raspberries. Bake the slice for 45-50 minutes, until the crumble is golden and the raspberries are bubbling. Allow the slice to cool a bit before slicing and serving.

Staple

Update 12/06/2023: Staple is now closed, but the team are now involved with Croixssant.

November 1, 2021

 

   

Last Monday, we took the day off work and visited Point Cook Coastal Park with our mate Lisa. Afterwards, we stopped by Staple in Altona North for lunch. The Staple team have done their best to create a welcoming set-up in an otherwise stark industrial area, with cheerful signage and a new outdoor eating space with picnic tables and stripy umbrellas occupying a couple of parking spaces.

The Staple cafe and neighbouring grocery are extensions of the Take And Eat tempeh business, so we were eager to focus on their tempeh dishes for lunch. More broadly, the menu is default vegan with exceptions marked (a couple of dishes have vegan egg/chicken's egg versions, there's regular dairy-containing Nutella, and perhaps dairy milk available for drinks). The menu is full of bagels, burgers and toasties with recommended combinations and a build-your-own option with an overwhelming array of mock meats, spreads, salad items and condiments. There don't seem to be gluten-free markings, and the menu is clearly gluten-heavy, so coeliacs will mostly be taking a chance on what's on rotation in the cafe display case.

   

Michael's fiery tempeh bagel ($17, pictured top of post) arrived first and I was instantly envious! It's a bagel built up with cream cheese, lettuce, crumbed tempeh schnitzel, napoli, ham and fiery mayonnaise. It was a delightful mess to eat, and spicy enough to keep Michael entertained.

I ambitiously took on the mac n cheesy parma ($17.50, pictured directly above). It's a stack of mixed greens, creamy mac n cheese, thickly crumbed tempeh schnitzel, napoli sauce, melted cheese and nooch sprinklings, and a strip of bacon. While I'd prefer that my salad wasn't smothered in hot food, I couldn't fault the food itself, and with much joy and determination I cleared my plate.

   

A big part of Staple's social media posting is their array of pastries, so we felt compelled to grab a couple of donuts on our way out. The flavours are fun, and I'm impressed by the vegan custards and creams that some of them are stuffed with, but I find them quite bready and think that I probably prefer cakier donuts.

We had a lovely time at Staple filling up on gluten-heavy vegan treats, and relaxing in their outdoor area. The staff were really friendly, adhered carefully to COVID safety procedures, and didn't rush us through at any stage. While a meal in Altona is a rarity for us, it's easy to see why Staple would draw loyal veg*n customers from all across the west.

   

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Staple has already won fans on Mamma Knows West.

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Staple

37 Cabot Drive, Altona North

0493 102 414

bagels; specialties, burgers & toasties; DIY bagels/burgers/toasties; drinks

https://staplefood.co/

Accessibility: Staple has a narrow door and flat entry. At the moment, much of the indoor furniture is pushed to the side and there is a lot of flat floor space. We ordered and paid at a low counter, and received our food at our outside table (solid picnic tables, bench seats without backs, and large umbrellas casting shade). Michael used a unisex toilet that was reasonably spacious (but didn't include handrails or other features) and was located upstairs.

Leek & mushroom quiche

October 30, 2021

   

Last week while planning the grocery shopping, I decided I felt like a quiche. I wanted crumbly pastry, savoury mushrooms and a creamy filling. I didn't have a particular recipe in mind so I googled "mushroom quiche smitten kitchen". While I don't cook her recipes regularly, Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman has a thorough approach I admire, and she seems to tend mostly towards dairy- and egg-laden, European-style recipes. Sure enough, she had several options for me to choose from and I picked out a Julia Child/Martha Stewart splice from 2007.

I made a head start in the morning, getting a pastry ball into the fridge and cooking the leeks and the mushrooms. The approach was unusual to me - both the leeks and the mushrooms are cooked lid-on with some excess liquid before it's evaporated off. (It's supposed to be port in the case of the mushrooms, but I made do with white wine vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar.) The leeks in particular really mellowed through this process, though I don't think I cooked off quite enough liquid (more about that in a minute).

It was a struggle to stretch the pastry across the full expanse of my pie dish, so in the measurements below I've added notes for increasing its quantity by 20%. Meanwhile, I couldn't pour all of the eggy milk mixture in so I've decreased the milk by 33%! I'm not going to decrease the egg quantity because this quiche needs all the setting help it can get. My first three quiche slices were actually served with a dessert spoon, completely collapsed. I may have brought this upon myself, leaving the leeks too liquid as I mentioned above, and lazily layering them with the mushrooms and then pouring over the eggy milk at the end. If I make this again, I'll properly stir together the leeks, mushrooms and eggy milk as originally instructed, and I've worded the recipe below accordingly. 

As you can see from the cross-sectional photo below, this quiche is more leek than mushroom, and I might tinker with the proportions. That's just about personal preference, though - the flavour of this quiche was already excellent, and I achieved the crumbly/creamy/savoury experience I was hankering for. We've been teaming it with this this spring salad.

   

Leek & mushroom quiche

(slightly adapted from a recipe on Smitten Kitchen, 

where credit is extended to Julia Child and Martha Stewart)

pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour (would try increasing to 1 1/2 cups next time)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon sugar

113g butter (would try increasing to 135g next time)

1-3 tablespoons ice water

filling

3-4 leeks, white part only, sliced into rounds

1/2 cup water

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons butter

5-6 large white mushrooms, sliced

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk (would reduce to 1 cup next time)

1/4-1/2 cup grated tasty cheese

Make the pastry in a food processor. Start by mixing together the flour, salt and sugar. Dice the butter and add it to the flour, processing until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the water, processing between each tablespoon, until a dough forms (I used only about 1 1/2 tablespoons this time). Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, form it into a thick disc, then wrap it in the plastic and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

When the dough is ready, preheat an oven to 200°C. Roll the dough out between two pieces of plastic wrap, until it is large enough to fit your pie dish. Remove one side of plastic and gently ease the dough into the pie dish. Remove the second layer of plastic wrap and tidy up the pastry edges. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork. Line the pastry with baking paper and pie weights (I have some old dried chickpeas for this task!), and bake the pastry for 8-9 minutes. Remove the weights and baking paper and bake the pastry for 2-3 minutes more, until it is just starting to turn golden. Set the pastry aside to cool a little while you prepare the fillings.

In a medium-large saucepan, place the leeks, water, a bit of salt and 2 tablespoons butter. Set the saucepan over medium-high heat with the lid on, boiling the leeks for about 10 minutes, until all the leeks are very soft. Turn down the heat and remove the lid, continuing to cook and regularly stir the mixture until most of the liquid has evaporated - this could take up to 30 minutes. Set the leeks aside in a large bowl.

Return the same saucepan to medium-high heat, this time placing the remaining tablespoon of butter, mushrooms, vinegar, some salt and the sugar into it. Cover the saucepan with a lid and cook for 8 minutes, then remove the lid and cook off most of the liquid. Turn off the heat, and add the mushrooms to the bowl of leeks.

Preheat an oven to 190°C. Whisk together the eggs and milk with some salt and pepper, then pour them over the leeks and mushrooms, stirring them all together. (I actually layered leeks > mushrooms > eggy milk in the pastry and it wasn't ideal.) Gently pour it all into the pastry and level it out. Sprinkle over the grated cheese. Bake the quiche for 25-30 minutes, until puffed and browned.