Home-made mayonnaise tastes a million times better than supermarket stuff (trust me, I'm a mathematician and I've done the tests). It's also richer so I use smaller portions. I had a couple of spare eggs at home (after the sausage rolls and eggplant parmigiana) so I decided to go home-made rather than buying fancy dressing. Some recipes use lemon juice, others have mustard: I prefer the ones with lemon juice. It’s a teensy bit messy but very easy if you have a food processor. I saw Jamie Oliver make a basil mayonnaise on TV using only a mortar and pestle but I don't think my puny arms could cope with that.
Mayonnaise
(I think I originally got the recipe from a website like this one)
Blend up two egg yolks until creamy. (Don't be lazy and stop too soon at this step, otherwise your mayonnaise will stay liquidy.) Add two tablespoons of lemon juice, a bit of salt and pepper, and blend it up a bit more. While the processor is still running, slowly dribble in a cup of olive oil in a thin stream. Soon it should look like thick, creamy condiment! Adjust the salt and pepper to your liking.
Keep it in the fridge and try to use it up within a week. I'm sure you could experiment with all sorts of herbs and spices, but if you're using fresh basil or similar then the flavour will probably start to decline within a day or so.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
August 31, 2006: Roast vege salad
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
August 29, 2006: Eggplant parmigiana
Our original inspiration for going veg was sharing a home with newlyweds Todd and Madhura in Ithaca, NY during 2004. Madhura was a PhD student in the same department as me. After their wedding Todd moved to Ithaca and, since he hadn’t found a job yet, proceeded to fix up the house and cook outstanding vegetarian dinners. It was really his creativity that convinced us that we would never get sick of eating meatless meals. After many years of eggplant-suspicion following a bad Home Ec experience, Todd’s rendition of eggplant parmigiana persuaded me to give this vegetable another go. This is a really flexible recipe in that you can choose to use pre-packaged or made-from-scratch ingredients as you wish.
1. Slice up an eggplant into circles 1-1.5 cm thick.
2. If I’ve learnt one thing from Ready Steady Cook, it’s this: Peter Everett is as camp as a row of tents. The second thing I’ve learnt is that fresh eggplant doesn’t need to be cooked to leech out the bitterness, but old ones do. You can tell an aging eggplant by its dark seeds. You shouldn’t be able to see the pale seeds in a fresh eggplant. Nevertheless, I like my eggplant to be falling apart with mushiness, so I usually boil the slices for 5-10 minutes at this stage.
3. Break an egg into a small bowl and beat it with a generous splash of milk. Spread out some breadcrumbs in a thick layer on a dinner plate. I usually just use pre-packaged breadcrumbs for this recipe, the herb and garlic ones are pretty yum. On the downside, pre-packaged breadcrumbs are often really salty so make your own if you’re keen.
4. Once the eggplant’s cool enough to handle, throw a slice into the egg mixture, flip it over to make sure the outside’s all coated and plop it onto the breadcrumb plate. Get your hands messy, just make sure the eggplant’s well crumbed all over. Keep crumbing the rest of the eggplant.
5. Now you need some tomato-y sauce. Usually I just use a bottle of pasta sauce, but this time we had lots of leftover arrabbiatta sauce after making sausage rolls so I used that instead. If you like lots of sauce, spread a bit on your baking dish first. Next lay out the eggplant slices in rows, overlapping a bit but not too much. Pour a thick line of tomato sauce along each row and top with grated cheese. I usually use parmesan but this time I used up some leftover mozzarella too.
6. Bake it in the oven at 180 deg for about 20 minutes. If you didn’t pre-boil the eggplant you need to make sure it’s cooked through. Sometimes I put the tray under the grill for that last few minutes to get the cheese golden brown.
7. Serve with potatoes, bread or rice and lots of greens! We had leftover turnips and silverbeet from the night that we cooked sausage rolls.
I recently read that the traditional Italian way to do this is to fry the crumbed eggplant slices (definitely skip the pre-boiling) and then go straight to the grill instead of oven-baking them.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
August 27, 2006: Soulmama
Even at 3 o’clock, the lunch crowd was considerable with tables full of trendy young families. Given the location and well-healed clientele, I was surprised to discover that the food was a self-serve Krishna-style affair. We ordered medium bowls, giving us four options each from the bain-marie down the front. Thankfully, given the prices ($21 for a medium-bowl plus dessert), the food was a little more sophisticated than the usual hotbox fare.
I opted for satay tofu, Malay-style tempeh, Mexican bean stew and spiced lentils with jasmine rice. The tofu was chewier than I expected, and I would probably have been satisfied with just one piece rather than the two big chunks I ended up with. The remaining three dishes didn’t disappoint though: the Mexican bean stew was chock full of beans and vegetables (zucchini, capsicum and carrot) in a creamy and slightly peppery tomato sauce, while the lentil mix and the tempeh were both deliciously spicy. By the time I’d gotten through my bowl I was starting to regret the decision to include dessert in our order. Thankfully, I had time to recuperate while Cindy polished off her meal.
Cindy writes: For lunch I had picked out pizza, vege korma, a lentil roll and some potato salad. The pizza slice had a great base - crispy on the bottom, soft and bready on top – and it’d be great if they’d make larger ones to share as a meal. The korma wasn’t quite as fatty and creamy as my favourite versions but it was probably a lot better for me. It had a nice cardamom flavour and was very good anyway, especially when mixed into the fluffy rice. The lentil roll had a smooth texture and more curry flavour, and the potato salad was fantastic: it included bites of cauliflower, carrot and roast pumpkin, baby spinach leaves, and a creamy dressing with wholegrain mustard. (I’ll definitely be trying to reproduce that one at home.) While the food was all very well prepared, I prefer not to pile my plate with mismatched samples. I’d probably rather a more conventional menu, or even a smorgasbord where I can return for small plates at my own pace.
The dessert menu was more creative than most, and we took quite some time deciding what to order. We each had to make sure that the other person was ordering something that we wanted to try, but not something that we’d like more than our own order. Michael had a chocolate espresso pot, which was as smooth and decadent as you’d expect. I ordered a roast hazel and macadamia chocolate meringue torte, which thankfully wasn’t as over-the-top in size as it is in name. I love textural variety in my food and this clash of crunchy/chewy/smooth made every mouthful new and interesting. It was very sweet, but the roasted nuts were also a dominant flavour. The torte was a bit dry and it would have been perfectly balanced by a small scoop of ice cream. Instead of ice cream, I had ordered honey pistachio yoghurt at the recommendation of a waiter. It would make a great mini-dessert or perhaps a pairing for an Indian-style dessert. 
Updated 11/7/2011: Soulmama has closed down. It had its detractors, but it's hard to imaginea vegetarian restaurant with a better view.
Updated 1/1/2012: Soulmama has reoponed! It's just up the road on Fitzroy Street now and has lost its view. Black Bunny Carousel has the details.
Address: 10 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda
Ph: 9525 3338
Licensed
Price: mains $14.50-$16.50
Website: www.soulmama.com.au
Saturday, September 02, 2006
August 26, 2006: Non-sausage rolls
I’d been using this recipe for meatless sausage rolls for a few years even before I went veg. It gives me whatever it is I love about sausage rolls without the threat of snouts and entrails (gross!). On this night we trialled sauce and side veg recipes from our Moosewood cookbook: the arrabbiatta sauce contains lots of tomatoes, capsicum, onions, garlic, basil and black pepper. On the side are baked turnip chips with onion, and garlic silverbeet. These proved to be perfect accompaniments to the non-sausage rolls, but next time I’ll reduce the amount of oil that the turnips are cooked in.I’ve got leftover sausage mix, sauce and pastry in the freezer so we’ll be enjoying this a few more times before the weather warms up.
Liz O’Brien’s Non-Sausage Sausage Rolls
(This recipe was given to me by Anna Stewart, Michael’s boss from Griffith Uni. I have no idea who Liz is, but her recipe should be shared with the world.)
Combine:
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup pecans, chopped finely
- 1 medium to large onion, finely chopped
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 250g cottage cheese
- 1 cup oats
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
It’ll look a bit like this:
Thaw out some ready-rolled puff pastry and cut it in half, into two rectangles. Spoon a line of the non-sausage mix down the centre third of each rectangle and gently roll up. Slice the rolls into halves, thirds or quarters and cut some diagonal slits along the top. You can repeat and assemble the lot now, or just do as many as you want to eat and freeze the remaining mix for later.
Glaze the sausage rolls with milk or a beaten egg, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. (I’m often too lazy to mess around with the sesame seeds.) Bake at 200 deg for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown.
Friday, September 01, 2006
August 25, 2006: Gurkha’s Kitchen
After weeknights of fine cooking from Michael, I gave my temporary domestic slave a night off… and ate out. We walked to North Fitzroy in the hope of getting a table at the Moroccan Soup Bar, a casual vegetarian restaurant with a huge reputation. Unsurprisingly it was packed, and we were offered an hour-long wait for a table. Instead we backtracked a few steps and visited Gurkha’s Kitchen, one of a chain of Nepalese restaurants around Melbourne.
Gurkha’s had a wonderful atmosphere. High ceilings, warm with wood fires and subtle lighting, half full of diners chatting at a comfortable volume. As we looked at the menus, we were presented with water, pappadums and a spiced sauce. There were about a dozen vegetarian mains to choose from, and a few tempting starters that I eventually convinced myself I didn’t need. In the end we chose Chana Ra Aloo (chickpeas and potato), Pharsiko (pumpkin), Ghurka Roti-Baber (flaky wholemeal bread) and small serve of steamed rice. We drank mahi (a fruit yoghurt drink). Michael’s mango mahi was very much like the thick mango lassi drinks I often order at Indian restaurants. My strawberry mahi tasted more of strawberry syrup than fresh fruit, unfortunately.
The chickpea curry was a bit dry, but the couple of potato pieces under the pile of legumes were soft and steeped in flavour. The roti bread was great, neither greasy nor leathery. The firm pumpkin chips were the highlight, smothered in a sweet tomato sauce.An inspection of the printed paper napkin revealed that there’s actually another Gurkha’s on Lygon St, close to our home. There’s a very high probability that it’ll become a favourite lazy takeaway in the coming months.
Address: 167 St George Road, North Fitzroy
Ph: 9497 8101
Licensed, BYO wine only
Price: $9.50-$11.90 for veg mains, add more for rice or bread
Website: http://www.gurkhas.com.au/restaurants.html