September 3, 2007: Curried tempeh rolls

Here's another treat we bought from Organic Wholefoods: Blue Lotus brand curried tempeh rolls. These are dairy free and appear to be completely vegan, meaning that the pastry isn't very buttery and only moderately flaky. However it still comes up well after 10 minutes in the oven! My general experience with tempeh is of a firm, fleshy and somewhat dry meat substitute but that's not what we encountered here. The filling was actually more reminiscent of mashed potato with a whiff of spice. An enjoyable and quick weeknight meal, but my loyalties still lie with my more time-intensive recipe for non-sausage rolls.

September 1, 2007: Fennel, pumpkin and eggplant tagine

Friday, a week after my wisdom tooth removal, gave the first signs that I should pursue a more toothsome diet. I slowly and carefully ate dinner at the Fitz Curry Cafe, concentrating on the rice and sauce and trying not to look too longingly at the pappadums and naan. Soulfood's French toast was enjoyed with more gusto on Saturday, though I set the stinging acidic pineapple to the side of my plate and happily tolerated a bit of jaw soreness afterwards. For dinner I was keen to get back into the kitchen and create something a bit gentler, but also something with substance.

So I pulled out this recipe for a Middle Eastern tagine, taken from a 2006 copy of the Weekend Australian magazine and written by Nadine Abensur. We made it once before, in Brisbane, to try out our friend Camielle's exotic new tagine. In the absence of a tagine, this recipe is just a easily created with a large saucepan or casserole dish but the result isn't nearly as pretty as the magazine photograph. There, discernible chunks of caramelised eggplant and pumpkin nestle alongside each other, decorated by a fresh sprinkle of parsley. Ours is more of a homogeneous mush, but I think I know why - I skimped on the oil. The veges certainly didn't caramelise in the recommended time and when I gave them longer in the oven, they just released a lot of water and turned to the aforementioned mush. Tasty mush, sure, but nothing like that aspirational picture next to the recipe. A corollary to that incident was that I didn't need nearly as much stock as suggested, but the leftovers proved an ideal liquid for hydrating some couscous. So I suppose I'm suggesting that you try the full amount of oil and the original baking time, but that's a lot of oil, people. We still had issues with oil separating from the rest of the vege sauce in the saucepan.

Despite these deviations from the planned meal, the pulpy result was perfect for my own purposes. My dessert, however, proved far more deviant! I pulled out another once-successful recipe, for mandarine and maple syrup pudding, and adventurously tucked it into 6 little ramekins instead of the recommended (and previously successful) large pudding basin. I lowered my little darlings into their water bath, and only then noticed that we were out of foil. Ah, well, who needs foil anyway? These babies were going in hatless. The result was batter overflow into the water, cooked and too-brown tops, and completely uncooked underlayers. I guess that's why real cooks have been using tedious methods such as water baths and foil tops all these years! A lesson in baking humility for me.

Fennel, pumpkin and eggplant tagine
(by Nadine Abensur and published in the Weekend Australian Magazine of January 28-29, 2006)

1.2 kg pumpkin, cut into bite-size chunks
3 small fennel bulbs, cut into eighths
2 medium eggplants, cut into bite-size chunks
160 mL olive oil
a dash of Tabasco sauce
8 shallots, sliced into 5cm pieces
8 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon saffron, diluted in
700 mL hot vegetable stock
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1/2 long red chilli, finely chopped
salt and pepper
small handfuls of parsley and coriander

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Put the pumpkin, fennel and eggplant in a roasting dish and coat them in some of the olive oil. Season with the Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper and roast for about 20 minutes until well caramelised. (As I explained above, I baked mine for more like 40-50 minutes - the veges were too mushy and not caramelised properly. More oil might help!)

Heat the rest of the oil in a large saucepan and brown the shallots, cooking and stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and a bit of stock to prevent them from burning. Keep stirring, adding the spices and chilli and forming a paste. Add the stock a bit at a time to create a thick sauce (I used only about 300 mL of it here).

If you have a tagine, transfer the sauce into it at this time; otherwise you can make do with your largest saucepan. With the sauce on low heat, gently transfer in the fennel, pumpkin and eggplant then add another cup of stock. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes, adding more stock if the mixture becomes too dry. Season to taste and sprinkle over the parsley and coriander just before serving.

September 1, 2007: Organic Wholefoods

Next to Soulfood Cafe is Organic Wholefoods, the kind of supermarket that causes me to impulse buy $50 worth of food I didn't know I needed. Ahem. I was particularly excited to find a few vegan items that I haven't encountered before, mayonnaise and savoury yeast flakes. For the uninitiated, savoury yeast flakes (or nutritional yeast) are used in vegan cooking to impart a cheesy flavour. I'd been warned that they can be an acquired taste but an small nibble confirmed that I'd enjoy experimenting with these (watch this space for a fantastic vegan recipe in the next few days!). Also in the shopping bag were a jar of cashew butter (for this recipe), a cute bottle of Elgaar Farm cream, some organic maple syrup, seitan, free-range eggs and organic butter.

Organic Wholefoods had lots of grains and natural remedies in bulk as well as these tempting groceries. I'll return for more novel and inspiring ingredients, and no doubt find time for a treat at Soulfood while I'm in the area.

September 1, 2007: Soulfood Cafe

02/01/2013: Recently Soulfood has changed hands. While the menu's still largely vegetarian, they have introduced meat dishes. This post probably doesn't reflect the current incarnation. 

Saturday dawned sunny and (relatively) warm, so Cindy and I decided to go for a wander through Fitzroy and Collingwood. Sure there were 'good' reasons - grocery shopping to do, haircuts to get, wedding presents to buy - but the real reason was to track down some sort of delicious lunch. We had a few ideas - Las Vegan bakery (which we still haven't visited) and Roundhouse Roti, but by the time we got to Smith Street we were both starving and unable to walk past the impressive menu on display at Soulfood Cafe. There's been something of a redesign since we were last there - the display case full of food has disappeared and the menu seems to have been expanded.

Cindy and I both opted for a breakfast-styled lunch. Cindy went for something appropriate for her still slightly tender teeth - French toast with berries, pineapple and maple syrup (which was slightly different to the berries, banana, stewed apple and maple syrup the menu promised - but I didn't hear too many complaints). The toast was super-thick and slathered with delicious berries and syrup - for all Cindy's wisdom teeth difficulties, she mowed down most of her large plateful in quick time.

I went for savoury, with the scrambled tofu. It came with shallots or something similarly oniony in it and a couple of slices of well-toasted sourdough. It was all flavoured with soy sauce and something else a little spicy. I could probably have done with some butter on the toast, but I guess they made the fair assumption that people ordering scrambled tofu were most probably vegan. It was a little on the small side, but given I'd already eaten breakfast, it was a pretty suitable lunch.

I was most impressed with the array of choices on the menu - there were a couple of girls eating pizzas which looked amazing - it certainly left me inspired me to return again. I really need to make the effort for lunch one day.

You can read about our previous visit to Soulfood here, and visit their new website here.

Bellissimo Gelateria

Update, 31/12/2014: Bellissimo Gelateria is no longer trading, but there are still loads of similar offerings on Lygon St (Casa Del Gelato is our favourite!)

Icecream has been a great remedy for my tender gums and under-stimulated palate and when my chocolate litre ran out on day five, it was time for an important mission. After days moping around the house, I would dress with some modicum of self-respect, venture out of the house and procure some gelato from one of the Lygon St vendors. I didn't care which one and entered Bellissimo, the first open gelateria I encountered, not hesitating for a second before ordering an extravagant $18.50 1-litre pack to take away. Enthusiasm got the better of my still-numb and muddled mouth and I had to self-consciously repeat my order to the girl at the counter: one third watermelon & orange, one third lime, and one third hazelnut.

This investment yielded returns even higher than my previous fix from Sara Lee. Gelato has a unique texture - smooth and silky, more elastic and less flabby than ice-cream, with a hint of sherbet on the tongue when it's fruity. In every way that it's different from ice-cream, it's that little bit more enjoyable for the post-op mouth. Even better, these flavours were incredible: the watermelon was very intense, with only a hint of orange to sharpen it; the lime was mouth-pursingly acidic; the hazelnut more real than a spoonful of nutella. It was slightly confusing to taste such vivid flavours without experiencing the textures of the source ingredients!

Such a concentrated treat can be enjoyed in smallish servings, so my $20 actually stretched to about 8 cups. I haven't sampled much of the competition so I can't guarantee that Bellissimo is the best of the Lygon St bunch, but it made this invalid's week.