February 24, 2009: Gertrude Street Grub - Grumpy's Green

Update 15/06/2023: Grumpy's is now closed.

The stretch of Smith Street between Johnston and Victoria must be the one of the most veg-friendly strips in the world. You've got Friends of the Earth and Soul Food at the northern end, Trippy Taco and Las Vegan at the southern end (not to mention Vegan Wares). And now, somewhere in the middle, Melbourne's newest veg*n establishment: Grumpy's Green (we're not the first to check it out: Toby and Kristy, Nimal and Karen and Veganik have all been there before us, and reader Erika recommended it to us, too). It's more pub than cafe, with a wide range of local beer on tap and in the fridge and a selection of Victorian wines. The whole venture is shooting for sustainability - locally sourced ingredients, water tanks, recycled paper and their own mini earth hours three times a week. Impressive.

The inside area is moodily lit and atmospheric but on a glorious February day, life was much better in the sunny beer garden. Added bonus: the owners have a gorgeous puppy that patrols the outside areas, gnawing on chairs and staring plaintively at anyone with food (I'll confess that he begged a few chips out of me - could you say no to that face?).

There are just four mains to choose from: an eggplant parma, a pizza, a vegie burger and a pumpkin and asparagus risotto. There are heaps of snacks and starters as well, but with the $10 Tuesday special on offer, I couldn't go past a burger. The vegie pattie uses a chickpea base, and is thick and tasty. It comes with roast capsicum, lettuce, tomato, cheese and a special mustard mayo. Throw in a side of crispy fries and a green salad and you've got yourself a pretty impressive $10 lunch. I really enjoyed the burger, particularly the mayo and cheese (vegans might find it a tad dull - the mayo really brought the flavour).

Still, if Tuesday wasn't my netball night, I can imagine regularly spending my post-work Tuesdays with a Mountain Goat or Holgate in hand and a burger in front of me. Paying full price for the mains ($15) is a bit less appealing (in much the same way as the EBC rocks it at $10, but is less attractive at $20), but a few drinks and some of the delicious sounding snacks (marinated tofu skewers, chickpea battered vegetables!) would be a fine way to spend an evening.

Address: 125 Smith Street, Fitzroy
Phone: 9416 1944
Price: Mains $15 ($10 on Tuesdays), Snacks $7 - $10.50
Licensed
Website: http://www.grumpysgreen.com/fitzroy/

February 21-22, 2009: Semlor

When Michael ate a semla on his recent trip to Sweden, I was reminded of the similar bun that a student visiting from Sweden baked for a few of us classmates back when we were undergrads. Then Hayley, in her comment on Michael's post, planted the devilish idea in my mind that I could, nay should, try baking these for myself. And so I did, picking the weekend closest to Shrove Tuesday; apparently they're most closely associated with this day, which is tellingly called Fat Tuesday in that part of the world. Much like hot cross buns they're actually available for purchase from just after Christmas, right through until Easter. I shared the buns on a Tropfest picnic, where we were happily and unexpectedly accompanied by a Norwegian (as well as our friend Marty), and she told me more about authentic semlor.

Semlor begin with a yeast bun, lightly spiced with cardamom. Traditional recipes seem to use fresh yeast, which I was reluctant to buy, so I hunted down one that involved dry yeast. It included baking powder as well, which our Norwegian companion and I agreed was weird. The buns didn't turn out quite as they were supposed to - NC astutely observed that they were more like scones than yeast buns. (The one pictured above is a little overcooked, too - my second and third trayfuls were a more appropriate pastel shade.)

The next key ingredient is almond paste. After poking around further on the internet, I deduced that ready-made almond paste is expensive and difficult to find, while it's not too difficult to make yourself. I think it's traditionally made mostly of blanched sweet almonds and sugar, with a small number of bitter almonds added to the mix; instead I made a small quantity of this recipe, simply throwing some blanched almonds and sugar into a food processor, adding a touch of almond essence, and pouring in just enough egg white to pull the mixture together into a firm ball. Though I'm no a marzipan lover, I definitely took a shine to this softer, sweeter version. NC seemed quite taken with it, too, and was quite tickled that I made it easily in a food processor - apparently her mother uses a much more laborious and traditional hand grinder.

This sturdy block of almond paste doesn't go in quite as is - instead you hollow out the semlor, mix the crumbs with grated almond paste, and add just enough milk to achieve a porridge-like consistency. It probably doesn't sound especially appetising but once spooned back into the hollow, the semla becomes softer and sweeter - this is the step that makes it special, in my opinion.

However, that's not almond paste you see holding up the semla lid in the top picture - these buns become the ultimate indulgence when freshly whipped cream is piped over the almond filling. What with the picnic and my hatred of piping, this wasn't a practical approach and I resorted to something I'm not proud of...

Supermarket-purchased aerosol-propelled cream. Shudder. This one was unsweetened, at least, and offered that frilled border I couldn't otherwise create. Most important of all, it was easily transported on our picnic. It deflates faster than a souffle, however, so it really does need to be applied at the last minute. (What on earth am I going to do with the leftovers - any ideas?)

Semlor should be finished off with a dusting of icing sugar, but again this wasn't realistic for a picnic. The recipe below outlines the steps I took in creating these but since they were far from the quintessence of Swedish semlor, you'd do well to read around before baking your own. This blog post, written by a resident of Helsinki, is a great starting point.

Semlor
(based on semla and almond paste recipes submitted to allrecipes.com)

150g butter
1 1/2 cups milk, plus up to 1/2 cup more for the filling
2 eggs
7g sachet dry yeast
5 cups plain flour, plus 1 more cup for later
1/2 cup castor sugar, plus 1/3 cup more for almond paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cup blanched almonds
1/3 cup icing sugar, plus more for dusting
a couple drops of almond essence
1/2 an egg white
4 teaspoons baking powder
one can aerosol-whipped cream

Gently melt the butter in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat and stir through the first measure of milk. When the mixture is not too hot, whisk in the eggs. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. When it's lukewarm, sprinkle over the yeast and allow it to develop for 5 minutes.

In a separate bowl, sift together the first measures of flour and castor sugar, the salt and cardamom. When the yeasted mixture is ready, stir through these dry ingredients to form a soft dough. Cover the bowl with a damp teatowel and leave it to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.

This is a good time to make the almond paste. Place the blanched almonds, the second measure of castor sugar and the first measure of icing sugar into a food processor. Whizz them up until the almonds are ground to a coarse powder. Add a few drops of almond essence (to your preference, it can be overwhelming stuff!) and just a little egg white. Process again, adding just enough egg white so that the almond mixture begins to stick together. Turn the almond paste onto a bench or into a large bowl, and use your hands to press it together into a firm ball. Wrap the ball in plastic (or pop it in an airtight container) and store it in the refrigerator.

Return to the bun dough! Start by sifting together the second measure of flour and the baking powder. Pour it over the risen dough and stir it through - this is difficult work. Turn the lot onto a bench and knead it until the dough is smooth. Divide the dough into 24 pieces of equal size, form them into balls, and place them on greased baking trays, leaving some space between the balls. Cover them with damp teatowels and let them rise for another 35 to 40 minutes. During this time, preheat the oven to 190°C.

When the oven is ready, bake the buns for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are cooked through and just starting to colour. (Note that the bun pictured up top is over-cooked!) Transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool.

Slice a thin lid off the top of each bun and hollow out the bun centres with a small knife, spoon, and/or your fingers. Crumble up the bun middles in a bowl, and grate over the almond paste. Stir them together, then add just enough milk to achieve a porridge-like consistency. Spoon the almond filling back into the buns.

When you're ready to serve the buns, pipe whipped cream over the almond filling and replace the bun lids; shower them with icing sugar through a sieve and serve.

February 20, 2009: Cafe Vue, Friday Cocktail Night II

Update 27/1/2019: Cafe Vue has closed down.

Some months back Cindy, Jo, Mike and I sampled the delights of Cafe Vue's friday night cocktail extravaganza, rescuing Cindy's mood in the process. We decided it was time to revisit, and February's Roaring Twenties theme seemed like it was bound to hit the spot. So, with no particular stresses or disasters to counter we returned to see how much we enjoyed it without the drama of flight delays to ramp up the tension.

Once again, we faced five courses and five cocktails, with the vego side of the table were treated to a mix of dishes from Vue de Monde proper and variations on the meaty options from the Cafe's set menu. First up, an unphotographed course (we weren't even five cocktails deep yet!) that involved a ravioli type construction, made of ricotta wrapped in a mozarella skin, with tomato confit, baby basil shoots, parmesan with dehydrated olives and an olive reduction and bits of crostini poking out like spears. The mozzarella skin was a slightly strange texture as a wrapping, but the flavours were excellently combined.

For our first drink we were served up a Twentieth Century (wikipedia suggests that Cafe Vue didn't do their research - this cocktail first appeared in the late 1930s - roaring twenties indeed). It includes lemon juice, gin, some sweet white wine and a bit of creme de cacao. It's named after a famous art-deco style locomotive, and the sleek flavours of the creme de cacao and sweet wine provided the style while the gin supplied the engine. Yum.

Next up food-wise was something that looked suspiciously like another cocktail. After being assured that the waitstaff weren't trying to fool us into more booze, we were given the complete run-down: the bottom of the glass was a tomato consomme, while the decoration on top included tomato fondue, confit tomato, cherry tomato, dehydrated olive and some basil shoots. My well-known tomato issues meant this wasn't really to my taste, but I was impressed by the idea and presentation. Cindy, however, was liked it a lot - it was her favourite savoury of the night.

Our second drink the more thematically appropriate mint julep, with Cafe Vue's own twist: they took the standard mint, bourban and soda, but cut down on the amount of soda and mixed in cloudy apple juice rather than sugar. I liked the sweetness of the apple juice rubbing up against the smokey bourbon and minty mint, but Cindy was less enamoured.

While the other two were dealing with a dish disgustingly titled 'pork and bacon floater', Cindy and I were served up the same mushroom risotto as we'd sampled last time - right down to the tarragon emulsion. This dish is all about the strong mushroom flavours and, while we were a little disappointed to get a repeat offering, it's an excellent example of a fairly common vego dish.

The first few drinks had kicked in by now, and conversation was spiralling out of control, leaving Cindy distractedly slurping down half of her cocktail before remembering to pull out the camera.

This delicious concoction was a Bohemian (that has a mysterious provenance - google at least provides little enlightenment): aniseed bitters, bourbon, lemon juice and maple syrup foam. It had a tremendous bittersweet flavour, with the foam a particularly successful inclusion.

Our fourth course took us a step towards dessert with a cheese plate: fancy cheddar, fancier pickles and some sort of fancy rye bread. In short: it was pretty fancy. Everyone knows how well cheese and pickles work together, so just imagine a top quality combination of the two.

To wash down the cheese: a six-penny crank, traditionally gin, lemon juice, sugar and beer. Cafe Vue went with a much different recipe - whisky, French red wine, Italian bitters and some sort of elderflower liqueur.

This was a punchy cocktail - probably the booziest of the night. I didn't get a strong taste of elderflower, it may have been overwhelmed by the bitters. Still, I have vaguely pleasant memories of this drink (full disclosure: I had some post-work drinks pre-cocktails, so I may not have been carefully savouring things by this stage).

Onto dessert! Another cocktail-shaped course: orange segments, chocolate biscuit pieces, chocolate and vanilla foam in the bottom of a tall glass with a chocolate disc on top decorated with a few sprigs of basil. The waitress places the glass on the table and then carefully pours a warm orange-infused olive oil on top so that it melts its way through the disc and into the cup. Amazing.

To go along with it, the best cocktail of the night: a Ramos gin fizz: gin, lemon juice, orange blossom water, eggwhite, cream and soda water all smashed together in a food processor. This had an amazing creamy texture, and was full of citrussy goodness - so good we tried (and failed) to replicate it over the weekend.

There was nothing wrong with Cafe Vue's performance this time, but I think the added drama of Cindy's late arrival and general stress levels made the first time a little more thrilling. Even so, five fantastic cocktails and five inventive and delicious little courses is incredible value, though the price seems to have crept up to $77 per person. The theme changes each month so we'll probably go back to try another variant in the future. Be warned: you'll need to book, and book early.

(Read about our previous visit to the Cafe Vue cocktail evening here.)

February 19, 2009: Heaven-sent haloumi and the eat-anywhere quinoa salad

I'm not quite sure why, every Sunday without fail, I pick up and flick through The Age's Life magazine. Newspapers' glossy, coloured Sunday lift-outs are invariably trashy and superficial, I know, but there's something about this choice of title that really riles me. If vacuous interviews, pop statistics devoid of analysis, fashion spreads full of analysis and expensive techno-gadgets are truly the Stuff Of Life then kill me now. Maybe I persist in looking because it gets the blood pumping, and raging self-righteousness passion is actually the stuff of (my) life. Or it could just be the off-chance that Karen Martini has contributed an enticing vegetarian recipe.

And if you don't think that haloumi pictured up there looks enticing, then I'm not sure what I can do for you. (Just trying clicking that "next blog" button up top and put us both out of our misery.) You barely even need a recipe to make it, you just need some bright spark to put two already-awesome ingredients into one sentence for you. Haloumi, and pomegranate syrup. Kaboom! Sweet, sour, salty and fried. How could dinner get any better? Well, Karen also thought to sprinkle over chilli flakes, za'atar and thyme and they're certainly worth the effort, but it's the pomegranate syrup that still has me shaking my head in wonder.

Haloumi and pomegranate syrup could well be the Stuff Of Life, but they're probably not the Stuff Of A Well-Rounded Dinner. So I made this salad. It's based on a Middle Eastern couscous salad that Michael and I used to make all the time, back before we had a food blog or a life in Melbourne. From Kurma Dasa's Vegetarian World Food, it's filled with fresh herbs and vegetables, dried fruit and nuts, and has a dreamy tahini-lemon dressing. (It's also why this post, in spite of the featured slabs of cheese, earns a vegan-friendly tag.) It lasts for days in the fridge, tastes lovely at room temperature and is great for transporting to a picnic to share, or just for an ordinary workday lunch.

It's also pretty forgiving of alterations, and I made a lot of them:

• quinoa is the new couscous, at least in this house.
• I don't buy this whole "1/4 cup finely chopped red capsicum, 1/4 cup finely chopped green capsicum, 1/2 cup finely chopped tomato" guff. I'm chopping one WHOLE red capsicum and an entire tomato, 'cause we can't abide leftover veges, and as many beans as Michael brought home.
• almonds > peanuts, even if the peanuts are roasted.
• currants are always, always > sultanas.

But, you know, do what you want. It'll probably still taste good and travel well.



Heaven-sent haloumi
(Based on Karen Martini's pan-fried haloumi with chilli, za'atar and pomegranate molasses, from the Age's Sunday Life magazine)

olive oil, for frying
300g haloumi, cut into 1cm thick pieces
3 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
2 tablespoons za'atar
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

Drizzle some olive oil into a frypan and bring to high heat. Fry the haloumi slices until golden brown on each side, then transfer them to absorbent paper.

Arrange the haloumi on the serving plate(s); sprinkle over the thyme, chilli and za'atar. Drizzle over the pomegranate molasses and serve immediately.

Eat-anywhere quinoa salad
(inspired by Kurma Dasa's couscous salad, published in his book Vegetarian World Food)

1 cup quinoa
2 1/2 cups water
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons tahini
4 tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 tomato, diced finely
1 red capsicum, diced finely
a handful of green beans, cut into small lengths
1 x 400g can chickpeas
1 small Lebanese cucumber, diced finely
1/2 cup currants
1/4 cup green olives, chopped (I bought chilli-garlic marinated ones)
1/4 cup almonds, chopped roughly

Stir together the quinoa and water in a saucepan; bring them to the boil, then turn down the heat and cook them through on medium-low heat until the water is absorbed (about 15 minutes). While it's cooking, do all the vegetable chopping listed above.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, tahini, mint, salt, pepper and parsley.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked quinoa and the remaining ingredients. Stir through the tahini dressing and serve at your leisure.

February 17, 2009: Leftover makeover: rice-malt icecream

The parmesan herb risotto cake left us with a few ingredients that we rarely use. Miraculously, the ricotta and cream reminded me of my old kulfi recipe and I set about making a batch of icecream to complement the cardamom-heavy pepparkakor. Since sweetened condensed milk (another kulfi ingredient) isn't sold in tins as small as I wanted, I bought evaporated milk instead and tried sweetening the mixture with rice malt syrup. The rice malt syrup, I recently impulse-bought from Allergy Block without any particular plans for it. Its sweetness has a dark, caramel tone and slightly bitter aftertaste. For my final trick, I added some malted milk powder to boost the maltiness promised by the syrup.

The end result didn't quite match the moose as I'd hoped, but it's still an interesting and adult alternative to vanilla icecream.

Rice-malt icecream
(Measurements are approximate.)

185mL evaporated milk
150mL 'lite' thickened cream
150g light ricotta
1/3 cup rice malt syrup
2 tablespoons malted milk powder

Whisk together all of the ingredients in a bowl, and refrigerate the mixture until it's very cold.

Strain the icecream mixture and pour it into an icecream maker, churning it according to the manufacturer's instructions.