Kale scones and ANZAC Day

Perhaps kale scones for dinner were fitting on ANZAC Day, given that after the Dawn Service, I went to my family's ANZAC Day breakfast and ate vegie fritters and tofu bacon while they had egg and bacon.  I am no traditionalist in the strict sense of the word.  Yet traditions still beckon me with their comforts and windows into our culture.

I went to stay with my parents on Friday so I could go to the Torquay ANZAC Day Dawn Service with my family the next morning.  My niece Quin was also there.  She made dumplings with my mum.  I was so impressed with her pleating of the wrappers.  We ate the dumplings hot out of the pan before our dinner.  I had vegie fritters and butterscotch self-saucing pudding.

The next morning the hardy ones in the family rose at 4am so we could drive down to Torquay before dawn.  This was the 100th anniversary of the day the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) embarked on their first major military campaign in World War II at Gallipoli, Turkey.  (See more at this post on ANZAC Day.)  The service was much busier than other years.  I could barely see the podium where the speeches were and had to content myself with the above photo of the No Standing sign.  It amused me because we all did a lot of standing around while we waited for dawn, listening to stories, singing anthems, watching bi-planes fly overhead and finally the Last Post.

There were also many earnest and emotional speeches.  A senior soldier reminded us that the military commemorates, not celebrates, war.  I did wonder if we were really managing that when the message from our Prime Minister spoke of Gallipoli as a "magnificent defeat".   Indeed this reflects my mixed emotions about the way our nation remembers war.  Yet when we had a minute's silence I thought of my mother's uncle who died in World War II and how many family gatherings have taken place without him since that moment.

We then joined the many cars driving back to Geelong where my mum had stayed behind and cooked up a huge breakfast.  We had pancakes, sourdough bread, raisin bread, hash browns, juice and coffee.  I took along tofu bacon and my mum specially made vegetable fritters for me.  Everyone else enjoyed bacon and eggs as well.
 

After breakfast Sylvia played with her little cousins and my mum and I headed out to the Newtown Farmers Market.  I bought a bunch of kale.  We had a light lunch (and a home made ANZAC biscuit) back at my mum's and then I drove back to Melbourne.  I was so tired from my early morning that I got confused taking my 3 year old niece home and almost arrived at my 18 year old niece's home before realising my mistake.  Then I had to contend with horrid rainy roads on the drive home.

I had little energy for dinner when I arrived home. I had fancied making ANZAC scones but wanted something savoury.  I wanted scones.  I had kale.  It made sense to marry them.  (It was like marrying traditional Australia with modern international cuisine.)  I blended up the kale to make a green milk mixture.  I fiddled with the seasonings in a savoury scone recipe.  My scones were lovely but not perfect.  More milk and a little less seasoning were needed.

Yet there was something cheering about having green scones with my leftover sweet potato and lentil soup.  I also had them for breakfast the next morning.  These are the sort of hippy food that is very good with hummus and mung bean sprouts (top photo).  Or you can just enjoy naturally green scones because you love the colour!

I am sending these scones to Elizabeth's Kitchen's Shop Local challenge because I used the kale from the farmers market.

More savoury scones on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Beetroot, apple and walnut scones (v)
Cheeseymite scones 
Sour Skon
Spinach and feta scones
Sweet potato and cheeze scones (v)
Walnut, brie and apple scones 

More savoury scones from elsewhere online:
Asparagus and stilton scones (gf) - Gluten Free Alchemist
Bloody Mary scones - The KitchenMaid
Carrot scones - Allotment to Kitchen
Potato scones - The Daily Spud
Tomato rosemary scones - Danielle Omar

Savoury kale scones
Adapted from Where's the Beef?
Makes about 16 - 20 scones

1 cup soy milk*
50g kale leaves (no stems)
2 1/2 cups plain flour*
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes*
5 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp smoked paprika*
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
pinch of salt
50g cold margarine
1 tablespoon fresh chives, finely chopped*

Preheat oven to 230 C.  Grease two medium oven trays.

Blend kale and soy milk until smooth.  (A high speed blender is best but if you are happy for specks in your scones, a regular blender would do.)

Place flour, nutritional yeast flakes, baking powder, mustard powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and salt.  Rub margarine into dry ingredients.  Mix in chives (if you have them).  Add kale and milk mixture to mix into a dough.

Knead briefly on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  Pat out to about 1.5 cm and cut into round or whatever shape you fancy.  Place on greased tray about 1 cm apart.  If there is a little extra green milk that has pooled at the bottom of the blender, use it to brush on the scones (or use a little extra milk).

Bake for 15 minutes or until slightly browned on top.  Remove from over and wrap in a clean tea towel until ready to eat.  Best eaten on day of baking but still edible the next day.

NOTES: I would use perhaps another 1/4 cup of soy milk to make the dough softer.  If it was sticky I would knead with a little flour if required.  I used a mixture of white and wholemeal flour.  I used 1/2 tsp of onion salt instead of 1/2 tsp onion powder and pinch of salt.  I also substituted smoked paprika for some of the mustard powder.  The scones were a bit too savoury.  I have adjusted the onion powder in the recipe but would possibly reduce the amounts of nutritional yeast and smoked paprika.  I didn't use the chives but would use them if I had them as well.  A little lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to sour the milk might also lift the flavour.

On the Stereo:
Golden Apples of the Sun: Judy Collins