September 6, 2010: Cauliflower couscous

The last vegetable standing from our previous delivery was a half-head of cauliflower and I knew just what I wanted to make of it - cauliflower couscous.  This was an intriguing technique I'd seen on Cook Almost Anything this year.  All it involves is pulsing cauliflower chunks in a food processor until they resemble couscous, then gently pan-frying them with some spices until tender.  Both Haalo and I used butter for frying, but I think that vegetable oil would be just as effective (and thus I'm appending the vegan-friendly tag).  A bit of curry powder and some roughly chopped roasted almonds add extra texture and flavour; they're also ripe for substitution with other spices and couscous goodies you favour.  It's a flexible and easy-to-prep side dish that I'd definitely make again.

We paired the 'couscous' with these battered tempeh cakes, which we bought frozen from an Asian grocery.  They were slabs of salty-savoury wonderful and, in my opinion, had a faux-chicken quality to them (especially when I ate a leftover one cold for lunch the following day).  The tempeh is sliced quite thinly and, what with the batter and extra flavours, this product could be a good introduction to the fermented soybean cake for sceptics (I was once like you!).  I heated these by frying them in a smidge of oil but they came out a little greasy, so I'll try baking them in future.

A dab of relish on the tempeh cake completed the meal.  This was the last of Jane's really-rather-incredible vintage 2007 tomato relish, which I won in last year's lab culinary competition.  I was sorry to see the end of it.

September 6, 2010: Chan House

27/10/2014: The owners of Chan House have opened a new business in Doncaster East, see comment below.

18/09/2013: Chan House appears to have changed hands, see this update on Vegan Bullsh*t.

The Melbourne veg grapevine works fast - within a few days of Chan House opening, word had spread across twitter and facebook that Melbourne had another vegetarian venue. So when Cindy and I found ourselves with a Monday off and looking for lunch on our way to the Tim Burton exhibition at ACMI, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to check it out.

It's a little shop-front in a small food court off Little Collins Street, with a handful of tables shared between four or five places. The daily options are pretty limited - aside from some steam buns and a noodle soup, Cindy and I managed to sample the whole menu between us.

I got in first and ordered the two most delicious dishes: tofu in black bean sauce and curry vegetables. Both were tasty - the curry had a mild kick, but could have used some vegies other than the dominating cabbagey bits. The tofu black bean was probably the pick - sweet and rich with some mild chilli and ginger notes.

Cindy got stuck with the mixed vegie dish, which was pretty standard fare. On the upside, she also snagged the faux ribs: crispy fried chunks of faux meat with crunchy noodles and heaps of red chilli. These were pretty great, but a little on the dry side (which we rectified by dunking it in the leftover sauce on my plate).

The food is cheap - 2 hot dishes and rice for $6.80, and the hot-box offerings change daily. For city workers looking for a cheap and tasty lunch, Chan House will hit the spot, but there's nothing here that you'd travel out of your way to sample.

Address: Shop 10, 422 Little Collins Street
Ph: 0402 798748
Price: $5.80 - $8.50
Website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118206988218176

September 5, 2010: Home fried brunch

Once our first flurry of enthusiasm passed, Cindy and I have been pretty remiss at breaking out Vegan Brunch for weekend feasts (the lure of the inner-north's billion excellent cafes probably has something to do with it). So with a lazy Sunday stretching in front of us, I decided it was time to dive back in.

As has been widely reported, the vegan omelettes are really quite brilliant, so we started with them as our base. We opted for a potato-based side again, forgoing the hash browns in favour of diner-style home fries and capping the whole thing off with a slathering of guacamole.

First things first: this all takes a fair bit of time and energy, so get the coffee going first. If you wake up hungry, you might need something to tide you over because you won't be eating for an hour or two (depending on how efficient you are). On the upside: it's totally worth it. Everything about this meal hit the Sunday morning (actually it was probably afternoon by the time we ate!) spot. The crispy spuds, amazingly eggy tofu omelettes and glorious guacamole were satisfying enough to keep us well stuffed until dinner time. The recipes we've made from Vegan Brunch have been pretty consistently great - we just need to remember that we're allowed to cook our own breakfast sometimes.

The basic omelette recipe is here.


Diner home fries

1 kg kipfler potatoes, peeled and sliced into little chip-sized pieces (see above)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced (the recipe calls for a green pepper here and we inexplicably forgot the US naming conventions, but the chilli worked well anyway)
1 onion, cut into chunky pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Put the spuds in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil, drop the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. You want them cooked but not falling apart. Drain.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan. Add the cooked spuds and stir them about to get them coated in oil. Leave them to cook over medium-high heat for five minutes or so to brown them up a bit. Flip them over and cook for another 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. You're basically trying to get them as crispy as you can, which will depend on the size of your pan and how hot you've got the burner going.

Add in the chilli, onion, salt and pepper and the last tablespoon of oil. Stir everything together thoroughly and cook for another five minutes or so, until the onion has softened.

If you're particularly skilled, you'll time this so that it's ready just as the omelettes are - otherwise the spuds benefit from being refried a bit right before serving to bring back their crispiness.

Guacamole
2 ripe avocados
1 small tomato, finely chopped
2 tablespoons coriander, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste.

Mush all the ingredients together in a bowl (those are some pretty complicated instructions!)

September 4, 2010: Penguini celebration cake

K and I baked this cake on a Saturday afternoon to celebrate the engagement of our penguin-loving friends Bec and Craig.  K has a proud record of decorative cakes but I'm a little less inclined that way - just piping cheese into zucchini flowers has previously sent me over the edge and I've been a messy icing slatherer ever since. (And though K's done this before, her accounts of the process have revealed much stress along the way.)  We were both thrilled to discover that it's a much more enjoyable and less fraught process when we embark on it together!

The chocolate cake recipe we used wasn't the tastiest around so I won't transcribe it here.  It did have the asset, though, of a sturdy texture that supported our icing experiments well.  K showed me that the best way to get a line drawing onto a cake is to draw or trace it onto baking paper, then use a toothpick to punch holes through the baking paper onto the cake.  Joining the dots with a black icing writing tube takes a steady hand but is a heck of a lot easier than free-stylin'!

K whipped together a vegan buttercream in the meantime (just using icing sugar, Nuttelex and a smidge of vanilla) and we started on the icing-between-the-lines challenge.  There was a little fussing and scraping and repeating here but we eventually fell into an agreeable pattern using a flat piping head and a teaspoon to flatten it out further.  We used melted dark chocolate and teaspoons for the dark penguin sections; if you take it gently enough the black icing stops it from running out everywhere.  We whipped pomegranate molasses and red food colouring into the remaining icing to fill out the background - it had a nifty sweet-sour flavour to contrast with the darker cake.

We were not the most efficient decorators in the world (we chopped and changed techniques and equipment and even had a couple last-minute trips to the shops) and we're a long way from mastering the decorative arts.  But K and I were both proud of what we'd made - Bec & Craig loved it! - and the upsets we avoided by working on it together.

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You can read K's account of this cake over at In The Mood For Noodles.

August 30, 2010: Fox Hotel II

It didn't take us too long to return the Fox Hotel with our pub club chums.  On this Monday night it was less full but there was still a pleasant buzz to the room.  We were sharing the space with fellow diners more than dedicated drinkers.

Of course Michael and I were both keen to explore the veg-friendly menu further.  Michael returned to the dish they couldn't serve him last time - an open tofu and potato red curry pie topped with a Thai salad of coriander, peanuts, cucumber and sprouts ($17).  The piled-up approach makes for striking presentation but somewhat inconvenient eating; once Michael had messed that all up he was a happy camper.

I decided I'd sample a couple of items from the snack menu.  The garlic bread ($4) was as fluffy and buttery as hoped and I liked that they added some rocket to the plate as a crunchy-bitter contrast.

The mushroom and tofu gyozas ($10) also arrived with some welcome greens.  I thought the mayonnaise drenching was a bit unnecessary but it didn't spoil my dumpling experience - I was too taken with the filling's wonderful deep mushroom flavour.  I didn't expect such a thing in a pub environment!

We're very happy to confirm that our first fine meal at the Fox wasn't a complete fluke.  It looks like they are consistently rocking veg pub cuisine.

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Read about our first encounter with the Fox Hotel here.