Eggplant & peanut stew with pink onions

January 16, 2023

 

   

We scored a handful of bonus eggplants from a pal and immediately went trawling through the Anna Jones book for ideas. This eggplant and peanut stew immediately appealed, especially because she recommended eating it with flat bread and we had a freezer full of roti raring to go. I'm not sure we entirely nailed it - I couldn't find properly raw red-skinned peanuts at Barkly Square, so we used blanched peanuts instead, and my knife work left our pickled pick onion a bit thick and crunchy on top. Things still worked out pretty well - the stew is rich and peanutty, with a bit of warmth from the chilli and some smokiness from the charred eggplant and paprika. It can be put together on a school night if you're organised, and you'll get lunches for the next few work days. It's definitely another excellent stew for our rotation.

Eggplant & peanut stew with pink onions

(based on a recipe in Anna Jones' One Pot, Pan, Planet)

250g blanched peanuts (get raw, red-skinned ones if you can!)

4 medium eggplants, chopped

4 tablespoons peanut oil

3 brown onions, peeled and thinly sliced

1.5 teaspoons ground coriander

1.5 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon chilli powder

3 bay leaves

small bunch of coriander, stems chopped, leaves left whole

8-10 tomatoes, roughly chopped

4 tablespoons tomato paste

1 red chilli, finely chopped

750ml veggie stock

4-5 tablespoons peanut butter

for the pink onions

1 red onion, sliced finely

1 tablespoon caster sugar

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Soak the peanuts in 750ml of boiling water and set aside.

Combine the pink onion ingredients in a bowl, with a few of the coriander leaves and stir together - leave them to pickle until dinner is ready. 

Put a large saucepan on very high heat and dry-fry the eggplant pieces, turning them regularly until they're really charred up on all sides. We did ours in a couple of batches and it took about 8 minutes per batch to get them really brown.

Pop all the fried eggplant into the saucepan and add the peanut oil, frying everything for 5 minutes or so. Throw in the sliced brown onions and lower the heat a bit, cooking for 10 minutes until they're nice and soft.

Add the spices, coriander stalks and bay leaves, along with the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste - fry for a few minutes stirring so that nothing sticks. 

Add the vegetable stock and the finely chopped chilli, then drain the peanuts and throw them in too. Simmer for 10-15 minutes while the sauce thickens up.

Stir through the peanut butter until it combines well. Add in the liquid from the pickling pink onions and then adjust with water and salt until you've got the texture and seasoning right. 

Serve on flat bread or rice, topped with pink onions and coriander leaves.

Dalgona candies

January 7, 2023

   

I have a long history of favouring desserts for my potluck contributions, and figuring out something for a Korean theme was a new line of investigation for me. I was seeking a sweet that I could plausibly make vegan, gluten-free and FODMAP-friendly. I decided, as I browsed, that I also didn't feel confident or excited about making anything with rice flour or red beans.

A fun remaining option was dalgona candies, a confection with close relatives all around the world - I know it best as honeycomb, which I've made once or twice before. Many blogs with Korean roots share stories of childhood nostalgia along with their recipes, and I was most drawn to the version on Maangchi. She includes a video of the process, makes quite free-form candies, and adds nuts to them for a little extra interest. Many other blogs show flatter, nut-free candies with lollypop sticks, which are typcially made with specialised tools and known more specifically as ppopgi.

Something they all have in common is that they're cooked one serving at a time in a ladle against an open flame! Expecting about 10 guests at the potluck, I did not have the patience for that, and made a larger quantity of the mixture in a saucepan. The downside to my approach is that I managed to spoon out 3-4 smooth-looking candies before the bubbles took over, and the remainder had a more jagged appearance. (The smooth pretties are in the top photo and, in the interests of transparency, their rougher-looking counterparts are pictured below.) Regardless of their appearance, they're fun, very sweet, loudly crunchy and a touch messy to eat.

If you're interested in making your own Dalgona candies, I'd highly recommend that you research them beyond this post, to see the variety of serving styles, tools and techniques involved.

   

Dalgona candies

(scaled up from this Maangchi recipe)

~1/2 cup mixed nuts (I used salted peanuts, raw cashews, roasted almonds)

1 cup caster sugar

1.5 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Line two baking trays with paper. Arrange clusters of nuts across the baking sheet for each individual serving - I made ten.

Place the sugar in a saucepan and set it over medium heat. Allow the sugar to cook until it's all melted and golden. This is likely to take a while - you may wish to tinker with the heat, and it will be difficult to resist prodding the sugar along the way. 

When the sugar is completely melted and smooth, take it off the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda. As you stir, the mixture will froth up to triple the volume. Drop big spoonfuls of the mixture onto each cluster of nuts - if you can work fast and drop each serving from a single spoon, you're more likely to achieve smooth surfaces on your candies. Allow the candies to set for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Store dalgona candies in an airtight container and keep them away from moisture.

Kkanpoong Tofu

January 7, 2023

   

A couple of our friends organised a vegan Korean potluck to ring in the new year, and Cindy and I enjoyed delving into a couple of new recipes for it. The dinner crew also included coeliac and low-FODMAP people, so we did our best to make gluten-free, garlic-free, etc dishes. Strange then that I chose something called spicy and crunchy garlic tofu. Even without garlic this had a lot of flavours going on, so I was confident it would still be fine - we upped the spring onion quantities to cover the garlic and regular onion absence and basically worked from there. Cindy tracked down gochagaru (Korean chilli powder) at KFL in Coburg and we were good to go.

The time consuming part of this dish is frying the little battered tofu cubes - the potato starched cubes do stick together in the frypan, so you either have to be very painstaking and patient in how you fry them or just deal with a few big clumps and lose some of the crispiness you'd get from a more careful approach. I'll definitely cut bigger cubes next time. As it was it took me 4 batches in our cast iron frying pan to get these guys crisped up and I was very imprecise by the end. 

Once the cubes are done everything else is easy. We kept the sauce separate until dinner time to try to maintain as much crispiness in the tofu as possible, but I suspect this would be best served immediately. Still, it was pretty great - spicy without being brutal and with a hint of sweetness from the gochagaru. An excellent accompaniment to an incredible feast. 

Spicy and crunchy garlic tofu (Kkanpoong tofu)

(adapted from this recipe on The Korean Vegan)

500g tofu, cubed (make your cubes a bit bigger than those pictured above I reckon)

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon potato starch

2 green chillies, sliced finely

5 green onions, green parts chopped finely (this was out of an abundance of caution in terms of dietary restrictions - follow the original recipe if everyone you're feeding is okay with garlic etc)

1.5 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon gochagaru

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/2 tablespoon mirin

5 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Combine the salt, the 2 tablespoons of potato starch and tofu cubes in a bowl with a lid and shake gently but thoroughly to coat the cubes.

Add vegetable oil to your best or biggest frying pan and crank the heat up pretty high. Fry your battered tofu cubes on each side, until they're browned and a bit crispy - 5-7 minutes per side roughly. Ideally turn them carefully one at a time to avoid them sticking together. This took four batches in our little frying pan - not ideal, but the cubes came out very well. Take the tofu out of the pan and set it aside.

Stir together the soy sauce, gochagaru, white wine vinegar, syrup, teaspoon of potato starch and mirin until combined. 

Add some more oil to the tofu pan and fry your green onions for a couple of minutes. Pour in the sauce and reduce the heat to medium - stir it regularly until it has reduced a bit and thickened up. 

To serve, stir the tofu through the sauce and top with sesame oil and sesame seeds. 

Kale Mary II

Note: Kale Mary has now closed.

January 5 & 7, 2023

   

In my review of 2022, I noted my diminishing enthusiasm for brunches. The notable exception to this was Kale Mary, and sadly it just closed last weekend! I unintentionally made the most of their last two weeks in operation, visiting three times. 

   

Kale Mary have regularly mixed up their all-vegan menu, and the final version was split into breakfast, all day and lunch sections. There has consistently been original, delicious versions of avocado toast on the menu ($19): Michael's last one included charred corn, cashew ricotta, mint oil and almond pesto.

   

On the same visit, I browsed the toastie options and picked a filling from the list of specials (~$15): cauliflower cheese with optional pickled kale. This was original, fun and compact. I also took advantage of their drinks special, a lavender butterfly pea iced tea ($5) that was cold, clear and very floral, just barely sweet at all.

   

I insisted that we return soon for breakfast, so that I could try the pancakes ($18). They look little on this plate, but the modest stack was just right for me. Kale Mary somehow intuited my ideal pancake topping preferences - something creamy (coconut yoghurt) and varied fruits (including a saucy compote and dehydrated kiwi shard). The fruits were tangy enough that the maple syrup base was welcome. No icecream, fairy floss or lollies. It's a yes from me.

   

Meanwhile, Michael's breakfast yardstick is scrambled tofu, known as Mary's Eggs ($18) here. He like that they seasoned it with black salt for the eggiest vegan experience, but missed having a second piece of toast. Kale, charred corn and pesto all made repeat appearances in this dish too.

Kale Mary's staff were always warm and helpful and, as you can see above, the food was terrific. I found their menu to be truly distinct from what many veg*n cafes currently offer, and I'm going to miss them very much.

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You can read about our first visit to Kale Mary here.

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Kale Mary 

207 Albert St, Brunswick 

0493 572 466 

breakfast, all day/lunch, drinks 

https://www.kalemary.com.au/ 

Accessibility: Entry was flat and and two doors wide. Furniture was well spaced throughout the café, mostly regular-height tables and chairs with backs, although a couple of high tables with backless stools and low lounge chairs were present. The toilet was an ungendered spacious cubicle with handrails and menstrual products available.

Master Lanzhou Noodle Bar

January 4, 2023

   

Possibly our most favourite cheap eat of the past 5 years has been the vegan-friendly youpo noodle bowl. Our preferred venue was Lanzhou Beef Noodle Bar in Carlton, which later changed its name to Master Lanzhou Noodle Bar. We didn't even dare try to replicate this meal during the lockdowns of the past few years and it was often one of the first things I'd venture out to eat when restrictions eased.

During that period, the Carlton outlet seemed to cease operation so we shifted our loyalties to a sibling store on Elizabeth St in the city. I've since learned that Master Lanzhou has set up an Express venue at University of Melbourne campus just around the corner from their previous Carlton one, and it opens only for weekday lunches. Meanwhile, there's an extra new Master Lanzhou in Chinatown!

   

How reassuring it is to have ready access to a youpo noodle bowl ($13.90) once again. At Elizabeth St it's possible to order from a touch-screen to the left of the entry, and then help yourself to any cold dishes or drinks you're after - whenever possible, I pick up a honey grapefruit tea ($4.80) to counteract the spice.

The meal is simple but special. Noodles are stretched on the spot to order, and take only minutes to cook. They're wide, elastic when manipulated with chopsticks, delightfully springy when bitten into, and so very filling. The noodles are seasoned liberally with oil, smoky ground chilli flakes, minced garlic, spring onions, and topped with blanched bok choy. Everything needs a big mix-up before you dig in. It is a supreme comfort food but, we've learned, pretty caustic if you need to wear a mask afterwards. So plan your youpo noodle bowls accordingly.

   

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Master Lanzhou Noodle Bar

379 Elizabeth St, Melbourne CBD

9326 4404

youpo noodle bowl $13.90

https://www.masterlanzhou.com.au/

Accessibility: There are two steps up on entry. Furniture is densely arranged and it's common to share a table with others. Tables are mostly high and accompanied by backless stools. There are three lower height tables explicitly reserved for those who physically need them. We ordered and paid standing at a touch screen, grabbed our own drinks, and food was served to our table. We didn't visit the toilets. Photos of the Chinatown outlet hint that it might be a bit more comfortable.

Banana blossom tacos

January 3, 2023

   

Last week I pulled a can of banana blossom out of the pantry and resolved to use it. I no doubt bought it on a whim, perhaps during one of Melbourne's lockdowns, after eating the banana blossom 'fish' and chips at Brother Bon. 

As I browsed the internet for recipes, I got more interested in using this ingredient in Baja-style fish tacos and switched to researching actual fish-based recipes rather than the vegan adaptations. The fish is typically beer-battered and deep-fried, but for home cooking I prefer a light flour-coating and shallow fry. I seasoned my flour and dredged my banana blossom pieces through it a few at a time, but in future I would reduce the flour and throw everything into a lidded bowl for a shake as we often do to tofu, so that's how I've written out the method below.

I chose the simplest combination of accompaniments that I observed online, and spent even less time than usual assembling and photographing my plate (...so I understand if the photo above doesn't look particularly appetising to you!). These were a fun summer meal; not something we'll make often, but likely to spur me on to buy the odd can of banana blossom again.

Banana blossom tacos

(adapted from an NPR recipe for Baja-style fish tacos)

1 x 510g can banana blossom

1/2 cup plain flour

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon oregano (Mexican is preferable)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

sunflower oil

tortillas (corn preferable, although I could only access flour-based)

finely shredded cabbage

diced avocado

vegan mayonnaise, aioli or sour cream

hot sauce

lime wedges

Drain and rinse the banana blossom, but allow it to remain damp. Slice it into large, taco-friendly chunks, e.g. 5cm lengths. Place the banana blossom into a container that has a secure lid, but don't use the lid yet. Scatter over the flour, garlic powder, cayenne, mustard powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Secure the lid and shake the container until the banana blossom is well coated in the seasoned flour mix.

Heat a generous layer of sunflower oil in a frypan. Shallow-fry the banana blossom pieces in batches, until they're golden and a bit crisp on the outside, resting them on absorbent paper until all the banana blossom is done. Dry-fry the tortillas briefly to heat them up.

Fill the tortillas with cabbage, avocado, mayonnaise, the fried banana blossom, and then add hot sauce and squeeze over lime juice, to taste. 

where's the best in 2022?

   

All you can eat at Maalu Maalu

 

While we're not nearly as prolific as we once were, where's the beef? has made it through another year and it's time to update our where's the best? page. At the conclusion of 2021 I was pleasantly surprised at how few of our favourite eateries had closed; this year it seems that the stresses of running a business in a pandemic have only compounded, and I've regretfully made more than a dozen deletions. Many of these are brunch spots. Breakfast was probably our favourite meal out pre-pandemic but we've lost our knack for it - please tell us your current favourite spots for scrambled tofu, pancakes without icecream, and hash browns!

Other businesses have moved or changed their format: Admiral Cheng-Ho has rebranded as Kaede, Beatrix has shut its storefront and shifted to whole-cake pick-ups, Beku Gelato has moved from the Brunswick to the Carlton end of Lygon St, the once-brunchy Merri Clan is now an evenings-only Merri Bar, Smith & Daughters & Deli have coalesced at a new address with a new look, Moroccan Soup Bar has switched from Fitzroy dine-in to North Melbourne pick-up and delivery, and Warung Agus endured fire damage and is farewelling a core staff member. We'll aim to revisit many of these venues and report on their revised offerings in 2023.

   

Sandwiches from Nico's

I've been getting into fancy sandwiches this past year. While Smith & Deli set a gold standard long ago, I've enjoyed new items at Good Measure, Rusty's Sandwich Parlour and Nico's. Here Fishy Fishy is another favourite picnic dinner. Sable is absolutely smashing out the mock meat, while Kale Mary serves great veg*n food without it. We've had memorable banquets at the new, casual Maalu Maalu and the higher-end decades-old David's.

   

Florentines

At home, 2021's leek & mushroom quiche and pineapple upside-down cake earned on-repeat status in 2022. Confit chickpeas entered the dinner rotation, and we've baked spring rolls at least three times. My grandmother's bienenstich was a special new bake, and these vegan Florentines are so versatile that we've made them four or five times between us - for home, for friends, for sports games and for long rides. We had some stellar new recipes from In Praise of Veg late in the year: we were so impressed by the haloumi with roasted rhubarb & tomatoes and roasted butternut pumpkin with sage & macadamias that we made them for family on Christmas day. My one shot at coconut rum truffles for new year's eve was a success too. 

Some of these themes will doubtless spill over into 2023 - I've got my eye out for more deli sandwiches, and am fond of picnics in general; we'll be back at Maalu Maalu before this week's done. I might also ramp up my pastry-making: I just picked up a charming new pie dish from a Dandenong op shop that's begging for a bake.

   

Coconut rum truffles

December 31, 2022

   

We saw the new year in with a casual potluck hosted by some friends nearby. We contributed a couple of vegan, gluten-free dishes. Michael revisited the butterbean hummus with red pepper and walnut paste, and teamed it with plain corn chips. I brought along coconut rum truffles, a new-to-me recipe that I made in stages while we watched Glass Onion with family in the afternoon.

This is a case where it's worth returning to the source material at Lazy Cat Kitchen. Ania's post includes a detailed method, and thorough background and potential substitutions for ingredients. This gave me a little more confidence to use golden syrup, almond meal and coconut oil instead of maple syrup, coconut flour and coconut butter. My coconut mixture ended up a touch too runny, most likely due to my mindless swap of Aussie for British tablespoons, but I think my use of coconut oil helped set up the coconut centres in the fridge before it was time to drop them into the melted chocolate. I worked quickly and unfussily - you can see that my truffles aren't perfectly shaped, and some of the later makes had desiccated coconut caught in the chocolate, but their bobbles and their coconut flake garnish signalled that everyone was in for a true home-made treat.

I have previously elected to double-coat other comparable chocolates, but I loved the flavour balance of a single, thin layer of dark chocolate here. It's smooth and less sweet than the textured coconut centre, and the inclusion of dark rum matches the depth of the chocolate. On a hot summer night, one or two each was enough to go round. The last couple truffles seemed to hold their shape on the plate, but they collapsed into melty puddles when picked up an hour later, a clear signal that they're best stored in the fridge.

   

Coconut rum truffles

(a recipe from Lazy Cat Kitchen)

1/4 cup maple or golden syrup

2 tablespoons coconut butter or oil

1/4 cup coconut milk 

   OR 2 tablespoons coconut milk and 2 tablespoons dark rum

1 cup dessicated coconut

2 tablespoons coconut or almond flour

generous pinch of salt

100g dark chocolate

coconut flakes, to garnish

Place the sweet syrup in a small saucepan over low to medium heat, and bring it to a gentle simmer. Whisk in the coconut butter/oil and allow it to bubble for a further minute. Turn off the heat. Whisk in the coconut milk and rum, if using. Stir in the dessicated coconut, flour and salt until well mixed. Refrigerate the mixture for an hour to cool it down.

Roll scant tablespoons of the coconut mixture into balls and place them on a tray. Return them to the fridge for another hour.

Melt the chocolate using your preferred method. Use a fork and a spoon to drop each coconut ball into the chocolate, roll it around until coated, and return it to the tray. Drop a couple of coconut flakes onto the top of each truffle, then return them to the fridge to set.

Continue to store the truffles in the fridge until you're ready to serve them.