Kale dumplings with brothy butter beans

May 25, 2025

   

We're still working our way through the delights of Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart, and Melbourne's grim winter had us digging this perfect warming stew. It went so well that we made it for a second time about a week later for friends, and it's immediately slotted into my favourites list. It's kind of a nice one to have two people at work here - both times I took charge of the stew and Cindy managed dumplings - but nothing here is actually super complicated or time-consuming. The first time we did it we followed Hetty's instructions and steam-cooked the dumplings on top of the stew (covered, in the saucepan), but we had enough spare to do an oven baked batch as well and that ended up as our go-to method. Either way is utterly delicious though - you wind up with this hearty, aromatic stew topped with rich, cheesy dumplings. It really is an aboslute killer.

Kale dumplings with brothy butter beans

(a recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

olive oil

1 leek, white and pale green parts, finely sliced

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes

400g can crushed tomatoes

500ml veggie stock

2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained

1 teaspoon white sugar

50g kale leaves (about half a small bunch), destemmed and finely chopped

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

half a bunch of basil leaves, roughly chopped

salt and pepper

dumplings

1 cup plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons butter

50g kale leaves (the other half a bunch), destemmed and finely chopped

3/4 cup grated cheddar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

half a bunch of basil leaves, chopped

salt and pepper

In a large saucepan heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and, when it's hot, add in the leek and stir-fry for 2 or 3 minutes until it softens. Throw in the garlic, tomato paste, paprika and chilli flakes and stir for anothe minute or so.

Add the tomatoes, stock, beans and sugar and season well with salt and pepper. Bring the mix to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, get to work on your dumplings. Combine the flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mix with your fingers and then stir in the kale, cheese and basil and mix well. Beat the egg into the milk and then fold this into the mix until everything is just combined.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Go back to your stew and stir the kale leaves and red wine vinegar in, tasting the mix and seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.

Transfer the stew to a casserole dish or ceramic baking tray and scoop out golf ball sized dumpling balls and layer them across the stew - you need to leave a little space between them because they'll expand a bit while you bake. 

Give them about 15 minutes in the oven - you want the dumplings to go a little bit golden on top and be cooked through (a skewer should come out clean). 

Serve, topped with the remaining basil leaves and a few drizzles of olive oil. 

Farmer's Daughters

May 11, 2025

   

We booked in a bunch of events at the Melbourne Writers Festival and found ourselves with a four-hour break on Sunday afternoon. That's long enough to go home for a bit, but instead we elected to splash out on a fancy lunch. Farmer's Daughters, which I didn't know much about, had availability on their (covered) rooftop for the late timeslot we were after. We were probably the only table there not celebrating Mothers' Day.

   

The Farmer's Daughters menu is focused on fresh produce from Gippsland. Dietary features aren't marked on the menu, but we trusted there'd be some great vegetables and that the staff would know what's what. Happily, they also offer a few mocktails ($12 each) and an in-menu option that the bartender can whip you up something customised if they're not what you're after. The Phillip Island Mule, with native lemongrass, suited me straight up.

   

Bread excepted, we sampled everything vegetarian across the entrees and mains. Zucchini pieces were grilled, sauced with romesco, piled with shiso, topped with a ball of creamy burrata and liberally sprinkled with dukkah ($25). In a similar pattern, roasted beetroot was teamed with green leaves, topped with feta and seasoned with hazelnuts and pepperberry ($24).  

   

Neat little potato rösti squares ($10 each) were piped with cheese mousse, topped with a fresh fig flourish and a sprig of French sorrel. I wasn't sure about fig and potato together, but the cream cheese was the natural bridge between the two.

   

The roast potato and leek pie ($35) was tremendously burnished and flaky, topped with confit red onion and surrounded by a rich brown butter sauce. It was a bit late in the season for tomatoes, so the salad of heirloom tomatoes, strawberry, mozzarella and basil ($21) worked slightly better in theory than in practice.

   

Dessert was study in classics done well. Cheesecake ($20) was sweet, tangy, nutty and creamy in perfect proportions, with a little berry compote on the side. The 75% Cuvée chocolate tart ($21) was smooth, firm and bittersweet, accompanied by a delectable salted hazelnut praline sauce and spoonful of crème diplomate. We carefully halved both desserts as fairly as we could.

The service at Farmer's Daughters was bright and professional and we enjoyed our meal very much. The vegetarian options leaned heavily on Gippsland's great dairy products, so it's hard to predict how well they'd cater to vegans. We're glad we had this unusual excuse to splurge on a meal there, and I'd do it again if the same rare circumstances recurred.

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You can also read a positive review from Sweet & Sour Fork.

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Farmer's Daughters

95 Exhibition St, Melbourne CBD

9116 8682

a la carte, chef's selection

https://www.farmersdaughters.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a lift to the rooftop. It's densely packed with regular height tables, backed chairs and some padded benches. We ordered and paid at our table. There's a handful of individual cubicles on the same level, some gendered and some unisex ambulant.

Cherry tomato & berry crumble

May 3, 2025

   

When making these two tomato desserts, it was important to me that the tomato wouldn't be hidden away - I wanted it to be a prominent, complementary flavour. I recalled having two inspiring back-to-back meals in New Zealand in 2013 that combined tomatoes with red berries - so bright and juicy, sweet and sour! It had me thinking that I could try bringing tomatoes and berries together in a warm fruit crumble for autumn.

My formula was pretty simple: equal weights of cherry tomatoes and frozen mixed berries, giving the tomatoes extra baking time to ensure they were properly soft. Then a crumble based on the proportions I relied on as far back as 2007 (apologies for the diet talk in that post - yeesh). I used gluten-free flour and wheat-free rolled oats to accommodate our favourite coeliac.

Those test proportions were just what I was after! The fruit layer was lush with a clear tomato flavour, subtly savoury amongst the berries, and an even texture across all the fruit pieces. The crumble was nutty and biscuity, not quite as golden as I reckon a wheat-flour version would be. I scooped Billy Van Creamy vegan peach and coconut icecream on the side, and everyone dug in with curiosity and compliments.

Cherry tomato & berry crumble

(based on this general crumble formula)

 

fruit layer

560g cherry tomatoes

560g frozen mixed berries

1/3 cup caster sugar

crumble

100g gluten-free flour

100g wheat-free rolled oats

100g caster sugar

100g margarine

50g flaked almonds

Preheat an oven to 160°C.

Halve the cherry tomatoes, place them in a casserole dish, and bake for 30 minutes, until they're soft and concentrated. 

While the tomatoes are baking, prepare the crumble. Place the flour, oats and sugar in a food processor and pulse briefly. Add the margarine and pulse further. Add the almonds and pulse a final time.

When the tomatoes are ready, retrieve them from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 190°C. Add the berries and sugar to the tomatoes and stir them all together. Dot the crumble haphazardly over the top. Bake until the fruit is bubbling and the crumble is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Allow the crumble to cool a little before serving, with a dollop of something creamy.

Bush tomato shortbread

May 2-3, 2025

   

Some of our best Melbourne friendships were forged through veg*n blogging and potlucking more than 15 years ago. We remain in contact but life changes - any combination of moving to more distant neighbourhoods, raising kids, health issues, and busier careers mean that few of us have maintained the same time, energy and enthusiasm for elaborate cooking. 

Yet there's been a happy little resurgence this year - over a birthday banquet out, the idea was hatched to hold a tomato-themed vegan potluck. Ever the sweet tooth, I resolved to make dessert and make it good. Here's my first of two contributions: bush tomato shortbread.

I loved using the Mabu Mabu bush tomato spice mix in damper, but at some point they stopped stocking it. I looked around online on and off for months, perhaps years, and it seemed pretty scarce. With this renewed motive, I found unadulterated dried bush tomato through Native Oz Bushfoods and mail-ordered a couple of pouches.

From there I kept it simple, using a vegan shortbread base (sourced from vegan blogging mate Steph!) that I'd usually flavour with lemon myrtle and macadamias. It's easy to make in one bowl and can be mixed by hand. I thought about adding a little cinnamon to assert this as a sweet spice mix but I'm glad that I didn't. The bush tomato shone through, tangy and fruity, dessert without a doubt. Thank goodness I'm stocked with enough spice to make more.

Bush tomato shortbread

(adapted from this recipe, which is based on this one from Vegan About Town)

200g margarine

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tablespoons bush tomato powder

Preheat an oven to 190°C. Line a baking tray with paper.

In a medium bowl, use a fork to beat together the margarine and sugar. Add the flour and mix until combined. Add the bush tomato and mix again. Roll scant tablespoons of the dough into balls and place them on the baking tray. Bake for ~15 minutes, and allow to cool before serving.

Mushroom pâté & sesame toast

April 20-22, 2025

   

I've been a long-time reader of Anne Helen Petersen across multiple platforms and a few months ago she announced the start of a cooking club within her substack. The first cookbook we were all invited to cook from was Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart, an easy and welcome request in this household! I used this as motivation to try a couple of 'project' recipes over the Easter weekend.

The two recipes I signed up for form a clever pair within the Mushroom section. First, there's mushroom, leek & walnut pâté - I liked that it included dried porcinis for a flavour boost. There's soaking and sautéing and blending and refrigeration; nothing too complicated but best taken slowly. The process generates a lovely, savoury spread that I ate on fresh bread. I'd increase the quantity of five-spice and salt if I made this again.

Second, there's sesame mushroom toast - a home-made, vegan alternative to prawn toast. This transfers the mushroom pâté to the plainest white square bread, where it's layered with sesame seeds and shallow-fried. We love eating veg*n versions at restaurants, and I expected the home version to be messy and not quite right. How wrong I was! This sesame mushroom toast was easy to fry golden (and also successful with less oil than instructed) and tasted magnificent, especially with the sweet and sour sauce drizzle. I immediately posted photos to my veg*n groupchat with the caption I just made the mushroom sesame toast from Tenderheart and am now levitating. Then I wrote way too many effusive words in AHP's cookbook club thread. Now you get some, too!

   

Mushroom, leek & walnut pâté

(a recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

olive oil

1 leek, finely sliced

30g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes

3 cloves garlic, minced

500g mushrooms (any type), roughly chopped

1 teaspoon five-spice powder

1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes

salt and pepper

100g walnuts, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes

Set a frypan over medium heat and add a couple tablespoons of oil. Add the leek and cooked until softened, up to 10 minutes.

While the leek is cooking, drain the porcini mushrooms and lightly squeeze them out, keeping all the soaking liquid. Roughly chop the mushrooms. Strain the soaking liquid through a fine sieve.

To the frypan, add the fresh and soaked mushrooms and the garlic. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the five-spice, chilli flakes, and salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to cool to a temperature that's safe for a food processor.

Drain the walnuts and place them in a food processor. Add the cooled mushroom mixture. Pulse the mixture to your desired consistency. Stop and scrape down the sides occasionally for evenness, and add a little of the mushroom soaking liquid if you need more moisture (I didn't need much at all). Spread the pâté on fresh bread or toast, either straight away or after storing in the refrigerator.

Sesame mushroom toast

(slightly adapted from a recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

toast

6 thick slices square white bread

3/4 - 1 cup mushroom pâté (as above)

1/2 cup white sesame seeds

vegetable oil, for frying

sweet & sour sauce

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3 teaspoons tamari

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Make the sweet and sour sauce by whisking all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

Spread a generous amount of pâté on each piece of bread. Sprinkle over a lot of sesame seeds, aiming for full coverage, and lightly press them into the pâté. Quarter the slices into triangles.

Set a frypan over medium-high heat and pour in oil to a depth of 5mm. Set up a plate or tray with paper towel to drain the fried toasts. When the oil is very hot arrange some toast triangles in the oil, leaving decent gaps between them. The toasts should sizzle immediately. Fry them for about 2 minutes on each side, until golden and crisp, then transfer them to the paper towel as you fry the remaining toasts in batches.

Serve as soon as possible, with sweet & sour sauce drizzled over the top.