August 19-22, 2009: More of West End, Brisbane

Perhaps you've noticed the declining frequency of blog posts appearing here these last six weeks. (Hopefully you haven't noticed a decline in enthusiasm within those few posts; we still love doin' what we do here.) There was that holiday, and then we accommodated friends for a few weeks while they searched for a more permanent Melbourne home - their contrasting eating habits altered our own. Michael disappeared to Queensland for almost a week and I worked long hours, subsisting on soft tofu tacos and brightly wrapped items that could just barely be described as food. I was working towards my own trip to Queensland, where I wanted to pack as much family, friends and food as I could around a conference.

And I did. I saw old family friends, new babies, people I've known since we were children ourselves, and I was utterly spoiled with their home cooking. Chocolate date cake, sesame-crumbed felafel, cheesecakes and gnocchi, afternoon teas and punnets and punnets of new-season strawberries. All the while the sun shone, unseasonably hot.

Have you attended many conference dinners? I've been to a couple of crackers, but many more disappointments. (It must be difficult to arrange an accessible venue, entertainment, and simultaneously serve pleasing meals to several hundred delegates.) This time a few colleagues and I decided instead to spend what we could have on that conference dinner, on a smaller but special dinner elsewhere.

It started at the Lychee Lounge. This bar was open on Boundary St for all the years that I lived in West End, yet I never stopped in for a drink. Its hip cocktail lounge style, common in Melbourne, wasn't my scene - I was a frugal full-time student, more casually dressed than the stilettoed girls visible out front (still am) and the Pavilion across the street offered cocktails at half the price on Sunday evenings.

I can now confirm that it's a lovely spot to settle in with friends, drinks and even a few snacks. The cocktail menu is extensive and not unreasonably priced - I sampled their signature drink, the Lychee Lounge Martini, with lychee-infused vodka, lychee juice, triple sec, a squeeze of lime and a frozen lychee garnish ($13). The snacks are deliciously pretentious - I couldn't get enough of the honey and shichimi crushed potato chips, served with tomato jam and lemon mayo ($7).

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The main event, though, was dinner at Mondo Organics. Having enjoyed a few brunches and one terrific cooking class at Mondo when I was a local, I was looking forward to this meal. I always remembered their efforts to cater for vegans and coeliacs and with their devotion to local produce, it seemed a good choice to share with some interstate vistors too. The Mondo folks got us started with an amuse bouche of blended beetroot and goat cheese with a acidic kick and slender spelt bread side.

One of the evening's specials was truffled and scrambled duck eggs served with puff pastry - a deliciously rich dish.

Another memorable entree was the spelt ravioli filled with Stilton and quince, walnut oil and opal basil ($18) - the nutty crispness on the outside perfectly offset the oozing cheesy filling.

The featured vegetarian main of the season was sweet potato gnocchi with tallegio, peas, enoki mushrooms and oloroso sherry ($28). I was immediately impressed with the depth of flavour in the stock-like sauce - it's a bit of a rarity when there's no meat involved. The gnocchi were smooth and silky, and the peas and mushrooms worked well. I surprised myself by setting aside much of the cheese; it was just too intense up against that sherry-soaked sauce.

Across the table we tried two of the desserts. First up, orange blossom dumplings with poached orange, whipped vanilla tofu and pistachio ($14.50). Though they looked like little doughnuts the dumplings had a course heaviness that reminded me of a flourless orange cake; everyone loved the pistachio-flavoured fairy floss garnish.

More impressive still was the amaretti-crumbed goat's curd cream cheesecake, served with fig compote and vincotto coulis ($14.50) - a stunning, slightly sweeter alternative to finishing up with a cheese platter.

Our meals at Mondo were unrelentingly rich. There were a couple of minor disappointments amongst the dishes and some overindulged stomachs by the end of the night, but these were eclipsed by wonderful entrees and really creative desserts.

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(Update 11/07/2022: Three Monkeys is now closed.)

A cheaper way to treat yourself in West End is to head to Three Monkeys Coffee and Tea House. The rambling rooms offer plenty of nooks to share secrets and enormous slabs of cake with a friend. Further out back is a leafy courtyard, where you can sip tea and play backgammon.

Air-conditioned indoors and well-shaded out back, it's one of the coolest, calmest places to be in the height of this city's summer. And in spite of the heat, I couldn't have felt cooler or calmer after my fortnight catching up with Brisbane.

February 11, 2008: Bollywood banquet

We decided to make the final round of our SBS inspired Bollywood meals a bit special, and invited a gang of people around to enjoy Dhoom, an unintentionally hilarious 'fast paced motorcycle-robbery drama'. The movie was a hit (particularly the boat chase) and fortunately the food we'd prepared measured up.

As we were entertaining a few people, we needed to make sure we picked recipes that easily scaled up to feed 8 rather than 2 and were guaranteed to be delicious. Luckily, we have just the recipes: palak paneer and spiced chickpeas, both from our Mondo Organics Indian cooking class. We've made these trusty recipes many times, and they never disappoint. Cindy capped things off with a reprise of her Indian mango rice pudding, which cooled everyone down as Dhoom hotted up.

Now we've just got to figure out what to cook when we hire out Dhoom 2.

July 29, 2007: An indoor picnic

Our community of Queensland migrants welcomed two new members, Kerrie and Daniel, this weekend. To celebrate their arrival I wanted to cook everyone a meal but with our posse stretching to about 13 members there was no chance of a sit-down dinner party. Instead I devised an indoor picnic, where we could enjoy lounging about on cushions and spill lunch on checkered blankets with the comfort of oven-baked food and protection from Melbourne's wayward weather.

I was in no doubt as to what would emerge from the oven: trays of golden brown pastry. Vegan pastry, no less! Borg's frozen puff pastry (it's at Safeway) is as tasty as any buttery supermarket pastry I've tried. I used it to make (non-vegan) "meat" pies and party-sized non-sausage rolls and had a jar of Chinese-style barbeque sauce at the ready (for the record, the pies are easily veganised and there's been some discussion of tweaking the sausage rolls with silken tofu).

The pastries were really the main event of this meal, and they drew the appreciative comments, but I knew I had to feed my guests some veges too. Pictured above isn't a couple of pear quarters, but actually some rosemary braised fennel. This recipe comes from Clotilde Dusoulier's first book Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen. I've just borrowed the book from the library and it's a cute as the blog (and as Clotilde herself, of course!). This dish had the advantages of complementing the faint whiff of rosemary in the pie filling and of being served at room temperature, allowing me to prepare it early.

The second side was composed of potatoes, leeks and artichokes - another dish that can simmer away in a pot long before guests arrive and then be reheated just before serving. The recipe comes from the lovely ladies at Mondo Organics and is my favourite side dish for these pies. Leftovers can be wrapped up in pastry themselves as another winter meal.

While these sides are each excellent pastry partners, they ended up being rather similar in colour and texture. I probably would have done a bit better to choose just one of them and then rely on a crisp green salad for a bit of lift. Live and learn, right? Luckily Jo-Lyn stepped in with some crisp, fresh produce - cucumbers, mint and fruit for Pimms all round (pictured at the top)! This summery gesture was supported by a generous serving of sunlight through our north-facing windows.

You know that any meal managed by me would have to include dessert, but you'll have to wait until my next post for that one. For now, you just get a couple of new vege recipes.

Rosemary braised fennel
(from Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier)

4 small fennel bulbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup stock
1 tablespoon lime juice

Cut the stalks off the fennel, quarter them and then cut some of the core off - make sure the 'leaves' are still connected together.

In a large pan, heat most of the oil over medium-high heat. Add about half of the fennel so that they're not crowded up, and then brown them on each side. Leave 'em for a few minutes and don't be too impatient! When the first batch is done, transfer them to a plate and repeat with the remaining oil and fennel.

Return all of the fennel to the pan, then sprinkle it with the salt and rosemary. Add the wine, stock and lime juice, bring it to a simmer and cover. Turn the heat down and cook the fennel until tender, about 20-25 minutes. Remove the lid and cook down the liquid until it's syrupy. Clotilde reckons this will only take about 5 minutes, but my fennel juice took at least 15 minutes.

Serve warm or at room temperature.


Winter potatoes with artichokes, leeks and mint
(from a Mondo Organics newsletter)

1 x 400g can artichoke hearts
500g potatoes, peeled
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons dill
3/4 cup olive oil (I'd suggest reducing this to 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup "chicken" stock
300g leeks, chopped
2 tablespoons mint
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Place the first 7 ingredients in a large saucepan or casserole dish and simmer on low heat, covered, for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the mint and lemon juice just before serving.

January 21, 2007: Greenie pie

Even though I'm now located two states away, I still receive the Mondo Organics email newsletter each month. Amongst other news there's always at least one recipe included, and this month it was for mushroom, silverbeet and cashew tart with oaty pastry. I had two incentives to give this a go: first, I have a stash of raw cashews left over from my vegan ice cream; and second, I bought an oven thermometer on the weekend! Ellie tipped me off on Cake Deco, a fabulously crowded and slightly ramshackle shop of all things baking, located in an arcade off Flinders St. I picked up the thermometer for about $10 and enjoyed browsing through the cake pans, biscuit cutters and other decorative kick knacks.

Anyway, the ladies at Mondo have always been mindful of vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free eaters and their recipe caters for all of them.* (That's one of the reasons I've dubbed it greenie pie!) I substituted the soy milk for dairy, since it's what we always have on hand but the recipe remains both vegetarian and gluten-free. I think it's intended to be a quiche-like dish and the cashew-spinach mix does have a soft, light texture. I initially found its colour a bit alarming - it looks like the "I don't know" goop from You Can't Do That On Television! The pastry had a pleasant taste but was a bit tough and crunchy: I think I overcooked it, and adding a bit more oil might also improve the consistency. Even so, I suspect that spelt flour pastry isn't ever going to quite achieve the elasticity of dough made with wheat flour. The tart made for an enjoyable dinner, but it was quite time-consuming and I'd probably be more inclined to repeat Michael's asparagus and mushroom tart before this. However I would consider giving it another go if vegan or gluten-free-eating guests ever turn up!

On the side are fresh sliced roma tomatoes (Will's recommendation from the Queen Vic Markets) and finely diced cauliflower and potato, baked in a little olive oil and then tossed in a teaspoon of za'atar. I liked these so much I made them again for the next night's dinner.

*Edit 02/02/07: Since writing this post, a bit more internet research has shown me that spelt is not actually gluten-free, although it can be eaten by some people who are intolerant of wheat flour. If you think you have health problems related to gluten or wheat flour, please take dietary advice from someone more in the know than me!

Greenie Pie
(adapted from the Mondo Organics January 2007 e-newsletter)

Pastry:
250g spelt flour
100g oats
25g ground almonds
25g sesame seeds
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil (next time I might increase this to 4 tblsp)
cold water

Mix together the flour, oats, ground almonds and sesame seeds in a bowl. Make sure your hands are clean, and mix in the soy sauce and olive oil with 'em. Gradually mix in cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until the pastry holds together but isn't too wet. I used about 6-8 tablespoons of water, but next time I'd increase the oil and hopefully much less water would be necessary. I suspect my dough was a bit wetter than it should have been, anyway. Let the pastry stand for 10 minutes.

The recipe says, "roll the pastry out until it becomes difficult to roll". Frankly, this was immediately. It took a bit of effort to gently roll and then smoosh together the cracking bits, but eventually I had a slab of pastry roughly 4mm thick and circular. Grease a pie dish and gently fit the pastry inside: this took Michael, me, and some gentle slow-mo work. Poke some small air holes in the pastry with a fork and bake it at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Allow the pastry to cool before filling.

My thermometer tells me that our oven heats to the required temperature much faster than it lets on, and then overheats some time after that. It probably could have done with a bit less than 10 minutes!

Filling

8 mushrooms sliced
1 onion, finely sliced (I'd reduce it to half an onion next time)
200ml olive oil (I used at most 150mL, and you could try reducing it further)
200g raw cashews
250g silver beet, washed (I used English spinach, 'cause the shop was out of silverbeet)
340mL milk
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground mustard seeds (I used 1/2 tsp whole black mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp hot mustard powder)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons cider vinegar
paprika to dust

Saute the onions and mushrooms in a little of the olive oil until softened. The recipe instructs you to spread these over the pastry case, but next time I would wait and stir them through the green mix instead.

Grind the cashews in a food processor, then add the silverbeet/spinach, milk and spices. I had to add the greens in a couple of batches to fit it all into my small processor. With the motor running slowly, add the remaining oil (most of it, I hope!) and the vinegar. If you haven't already spread them over the pastry, stir in the mushrooms and onions then pour the mixture into the pastry case. (I had a lot of green goop left over.) Sprinkle the tart with paprika and bake in the centre of a 180 degree oven for about 25 minutes, or until the top is firm to touch. I ended up baking mine for much longer, because a knife in the centre came out gooey, but it turns out that's OK! This is not going to set all the way through like eggs would. You'll have to be a bit gentle, but it will still be possible to cut fairly clean slices.

Serve hot or cold: my room-temperature leftovers were just fine!

January 11, 2007: Spiced chickpeas with stir-fried sweetcorn

Having slacked off for the best part of a week, I made Thursday night's dinner my responsibility. Having spent a few days eating nothing but pizza, I decided to put together an Indian feast. This was particularly appropriate given Emma and Simon were among a tiny minority of our friends who hadn't sampled my favourite Indian recipe: spiced chickpeas. The recipe is from a cooking course Cindy and I did at Mondo Organics. I think I must have been respecting recipe copyright when that earlier post went up, something I will rectify later in the post. As much as I love the spiced chickpeas, it's become something of a rule in our house that dinner requires at least one vegetable (and tomato paste isn't quite good enough). Thus, we tend to dig up a fairly simple veg-heavy Indian dish to accompany the chickpeas and make us feel vaguely healthy. This time, it was stir-fried sweetcorn with peppers and spring onions from Mridula Baljekar's 'Low Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook'.

As well as providing us with our nightly vegies, the corn stir-fry added vibrant colour to a meal that is otherwise pretty monochrome. Even better, it tasted good. The chilli powder added a nice kick to the fresh corn and capsicum and the coriander and lemon-juice gave it a gentle tang that complemented the chickpeas perfectly. The chickpeas were, as usual, the star of the show - the $130 that Cindy spent on the Mondo cooking course for the two of us has been paid back with interest for this recipe alone. Delicious fresh from the saucepan on warm chapatti, at room-temperature the next day for lunch, or rolled up in pastry and cooked as makeshift samosas.

Spiced Chickpeas
3 tablespoons ghee
3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons chopped coriander
1 teaspoon asafetida powder
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon garam masala
2-3 tablespoons lila masala (see below)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the ghee in a medium sized saucepan. Once it's hot, add the mustard seeds and stir them about a bit until they start popping. Sprinkle in the asafetida powder and add in the lila masala. Cook for about three minutes, stirring constantly. Add in the tomato paste and cook for another few minutes, before adding in the rest of the ingredients. If the mixture is a bit dry, stir through a half-cup of water. The chickpea mix can sit happily over low heat while you make any accompaniments.

Lila Masala
1 bulb garlic cloves (peeled)
4 green chillies
1 bunch mint
1 tsp salt
1 stem of ginger
2 bunches coriander
Juice of one lemon

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and whizz until everything is combined. Add a little olive oil and whizz it some more.

This makes around 1 1/2 cups of the spice mix, which is more than you need for the chickpeas. We've frozen the leftovers for later use and noticed no ill effects.

Stir-fried sweetcorn with peppers and spring onions
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 bunch spring onions, chopped (I used shallots, which I don't think are the same thing. Close enough I suppose.)
1 large red capsicum, diced
1 large green capsicum, diced
2 cups corn kernels (it's a pain, but I recommend using fresh corn rather than frozen)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon chapatti flour (atta)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
1/2 cup warm water
salt to taste

Fry the cumin seeds in the oil until they start to pop. Add in the spring onions and cook for about five minutes. Add in the capsicum and stir-fry for another few minutes, before adding in the corn, chilli powder and turmeric. Add the salt and then pour in the warm water. Sprinkle the chapatti flour over the vegetables and stir through, thickening the water and spices up into a saucy consistency. Cook for another minute or two and, just before you're ready to serve it up, stir through the lemon juice and coriander.

December 3, 2006: Parippu dhal and green bean salad

On Sunday we had a pub lunch with Michael's mixed netball team lined up, so we wanted to be prepared with a not-too-oily dinner in the evening. We pulled out a dhal recipe that we received during an Indian cooking course at Mondo Organics last year, and then looked for an Indian-style salad to munch on the side. Along with a bit of home-made flat bread from the depths of the freezer, this was a thoroughly satisfying meal. The common ingredients of black mustard seeds, green chilli and coconut meant that the dhal and salad weren't fighting for flavour domination, and the crisp cool texture of the salad was a great contrast to the thick soft lentil soup. This is a low-fuss combination worth repeating!

Green bean salad
(from The Low-Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 cup green beans, trimmed and chopped into bite-size pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
2/3 cup boiling water
A bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
1 green chilli pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped

Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, then the beans and salt. Give it a stir, reduce the heat, cover the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes.

While the beans are cooking, soak the coconut in the water for 5 minutes, drain, and add to the beans. Mix well, remove from the heat and cool.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and let the flavours develop for half an hour or more.

Parippu dhal
(from Dominique Rizzo of Mondo Organics)

250g red lentils
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, roughly chopped
1 can coconut milk
2 green chillies, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
10 curry leaves

Put the lentils into a saucepan with 2 cups of water, on medium heat. Add the onion, tomato, coconut milk, chillies, turmeric, ground cumin and ground coriander and bring the lot to the boil. Allow the mixture to simmer until the lentils are cooked to mushiness, adding a bit more water if it gets too dry.

Heat the oil in a separate pan, add the cumin seeds and mustard seeds, cover the pan and watch 'em pop! Add the curry leaves, and after a minute or two pour them into the dhal. Season with salt and continue to cook until the mixture completely disintegrates: you'll know when it's there.

Categories:

• Savoury
• Cooking
• Recipes

October 7, 2006: Palak Paneer

Inspired by our spoils from Sydney Road, I volunteered to cook up some palak paneer. We had a recipe from our Indian cooking class at Mondo Organics to use as a starting point, and some delicious roti as an accompaniment.

Palak Paneer

1 packet paneer
2 bunches of spinach (3 would probably be better)
1 onion
3 tablespoons lila masala
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon chilli powder

Steam the spinach until it's thoroughly wilted. If you've got a steamer, go ahead and use it. If not, a colander on top of a saucepan works pretty well.

Once it's all nicely steamed, pop it in a food processor and blend it up to mush. Fry the onions and lila masala in a large saucepan for a few minutes, then throw in the tomatoes and spices and stir them all together. Cook for a few more minutes and then scoop the spinach mush out of the food processor into the saucepan. It should look something like this:

Stir it all together - don't add in any extra water if it looks too dry, the spinach will leach out a fair bit of liquid as it heats up. When it's all stirred together, fry up a couple of rotis and serve!

This is pretty light on as far as spiciness goes, so if you happen to have some lime and chilli pickle handy, a couple of teaspoons on top are a nice touch.

Categories

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Savoury

August 18, 2006: Spiced chickpeas with mixed vegetables in karhi sauce

Having settled in properly to our flat, it was time to really test out the kitchen with a more elaborate menu. I opted for an old standard: spiced chickpeas and a yoghurt-based vege curry. The first stage of making the spiced chickpeas (picked up during our Indian cooking course at Mondo Organics) is making lila masala spice paste, which basically involves turning this:

Into this:

This paste (along with a glob of tomato paste and a few extra spices) is combined with cooked chickpeas to make a big, tasty feast. However, the chickpeas are a bit samey and, given my vast amount of leisure time at the moment, I opted to make a mixed vege curry to provide a bit of contrast. This curry is basically a pile of steamed vegetables thrown into a paste made of yoghurt, chickpea flour and a pile of spices.

Usually, the combination of these two dishes is quite delicious – the spicy, tangy chickpeas moderated by the blander, cooling yoghurt based curry. However, things were somehow reversed: the chilli powder I used in the yoghurt curry was a little more powerful than I anticipated, while the ginger in the chickpea dish wasn’t as potent as usual. The vege curry was a bit overpowering for Cindy unfortunately, but I still enjoyed it all (both for dinner and, repeatedly, as leftover lunches).

Categories

• Cooking
• Savoury