Bloodroot stew and Polish pierogi

I like the way one recipe leads to another. I make one meal and the clue to my next is buried within it. It is like that favourite line of TS Eliot – ‘in my beginning is my end’. There are many connections between meals – both with ingredients I have leftover from previous meals and reminders of past meals that inspire the present.

My continuum ingredient today was sauerkraut. I baked some chocolate cupcakes earlier in the week with sauerkraut and used only a fraction of what was contained in the tin. This is not an ingredient I use often. In fact, a comment from Lucy reminded me that it seems more the stuff of history – being used by none other than Captain James Cook in the eighteenth century to prevent his sailors getting scurvy because it is high in vitamin C. So how to use it? Lucy kindly suggested serving it on rye bread with sauerkraut and avocado, which I might try with my nubbly bread of last night. But that would take weeks of sandwiches. So what else?

I consulted my cookbook collection. There are many cookbooks on my shelves, and they reflect various times in my life. I have one called the Perennial Political Palate: the 3rd Vegetarian Cookbook by the Bloodroot Collective which I think I was given soon after its publication date of 1993. I have never cooked from it before but could not get rid of it because I felt I had to have at least one Feminist Vegetarian Cookbook in my collection. Many of my cookbooks did not even mention sauerkraut in the index but the Bloodroot had a few recipes. Finally its time had come.

I chose a recipe with the wonderful name Szekely Gulyas with Potato Dumplings. The book suggested serving them with Cabbage Strudel and Cucumber Salad. I went to the supermarket yesterday to buy all the ingredients I needed. Then at the last moment I realised I’d forgotten the filo pastry for the strudel. No problem. I decided I could make some sort of pastry.

Another sauerkraut recipe I had considered was the Pierogi that my ex-housemate, Will, used to make every now and again as a treat. He got it from his ex-girlfriend’s family and he could only do it when he had lots of time to spend in the kitchen. It was always time well spent as they were delicious. I have a copy of the recipe but had never made it. One recipe with sauerkraut seemed enough but I thought that maybe I could use the yeasted dough which was baked in the oven with a tart filling and produced plump little pillows of pleasure. I have never seen the exact recipe elsewhere. When I discovered a little café in my travels in Krakow, Poland, that sold pierogi I was quite excited but they were boiled not baked, and were just not the same. I think ‘pierogi’ might be polish for dumpling. I have had my eye on a recipe for Red Cabbage, Walnut and Blue Cheese Empanadas, and thought the filling might replace Will’s pierogi filling nicely, even though I had savoy cabbage rather than red.

Now I can only do such extravagant cooking on a long weekend when I have plenty of time. I knew the pierogi dough would take forever but I thought I could bash out the filling and the stew fairly easily. If I had read the recipes I would have known otherwise. The directions for the red cabbage filling said to simmer for an hour, and the stew was to take almost as long. I decided the pierogi were like dumplings and cut out the potato dumplings. The cucumber salad became just cucumber and broccoli with lemon juice squeezed over it.

Nevertheless dinner was late again. But it worked ok, despite my heavy handed ways with smoked paprika (wow, that is strong stuff!), the stew threatening to burn to the bottom of the saucepan, the pierogi not sticking together properly (have to ask Will about that) and the blue cheese melting into the pierogi filling. Despite these problems it tasted lovely. The stew was quite strong (almost bitter) tasting with the smoked paprika and soy but it was nicely complimented by the sweet sourness of the pierogi filling – the blue cheese cut across the sweetness but it was hard to taste the walnuts. I think a vinegary cucumber salad might have also gone down well. Maybe I will try that with leftovers tomorrow.

Szekely Gulyas
(adapted from the Perennial Political Palate)
Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
½ red onion, chopped
1 green capsicum, diced
1 medium potato, diced
2 tsp smoked paprika (or less – they used 3 ½ tsp sweet Hungarian paprika and ½ tsp hot paprika)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp flour
100g tempeh, diced
1 tomato, diced
8 button mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp soy sauce
¼ cup water (or dry white wine)
Fresh ground pepper
1 cup sauerkraut
¾ cup sour cream

Heat oil in large saucepan. Fry up onion, capsicum, potato and paprika for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and flour and stir another minute. Add tempeh, tomato and mushrooms. Simmer about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Add water, pepper, sauerkraut and simmer another 15 minutes. Stir in sour cream just before serving.

Pierogi filled with Cabbage, Walnuts and Blue Cheese
(serves approx 6 – I had some filling left over)

Pierogi dough
(from Will’s ex)

2 eggs
1½ melted butter
½ tsp salt
¾ tsp active yeast granules
⅛ cup warm water
½ cup sour cream (I used lite)
¾ tsp sugar
2 cups bread flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water and leave 10 minutes. Meanwhile beat eggs with melted butter in a large bowl. (The recipe says it should get thick and fluffy – I used a whisk, then I used electric beaters and it was still thin and watery so I gave up on that.)

Add yeast to egg mixture. Beat in sour cream and sugar. Stir in flour, 1 cup at a time. The dough should be firm but not stiff. Turn out onto floured surface and knead 3 minutes til it is smooth and soft. Place dough in greased bowl and cover with clingwrap. Place in a warm area and let rise til doubled – this should be 1½ - 2 hours.

The recipe said it would make about 16 so I cut the dough into sixteen pieces and rolled each out into a circle. The recipe directs to roll the dough out to ⅜ inch thickness and cut into 3 inch circles. Place a spoonful of the filling on each circle. Dampen the edges, fold dough over the mixture and seal. I find it hard to seal the dough and when it cooked it did not have seemed to have worked despite using water to dampen it and then pinching it together.

Place on a baking tray (I used baking paper to line it) and bake at 350ºF for 20 -35 minutes. Mine were golden brown after 20 minutes.

Cabbage, Blue Cheese and Walnut Filling
(adapted from South West Vegetarian by S Pyles and CN Potter)

½ head savoy cabbage (or red cabbage), finely chopped
½ red onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp prepared horseradish (optional – I didn’t use)
Pinch each of cinnamon and allspice
1 cup cider vinegar
½ cup sugar (or a little less)
½ tsp salt
100g blue cheese, crumbled
¼ cup chopped walnuts (they say toasted which might help the flavour come out)

Put all ingredients (except cheese and walnuts) in a large saucepan. Boil and bring to simmer. Simmer uncovered about an hour, or til cabbage is tender. Cool (if you have time) and drain. Add cheese and walnuts and stir through.

On the Stereo:
Must I Paint You a Picture: the Essential Billy Bragg: Billy Bragg

Thanks to the Queen of the Foodie BlogRoll

On the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in Melbourne it seems only right and proper that I have much to thank the Queen about. No, not the Queen of England. I mean the Leftover Queen, Jenn.

Blogger, my software, allows me to link to other blogs but adding them to my sidebar is slow work, especially at the moment when my wireless broadband connection is not working and I am idling away on dial-up. Jenn came up with the idea of the Foodie BlogRoll to gather many foodie blogs in one easy link. Yep, I only need one link to the blogroll and Jenn just keeps adding blog links.

Getting this one link is where I stumbled. It has taken many wrong turns, dead ends, and lack of know-how at my end to join. Jenn has been endlessly patient and finally I have found the missing piece of html. So I am on the Foodie BlogRoll and excited to be able to explore many wild and wonderful foodie blogs. I encourage you to check it out on my left hand sidebar. Many thanks go to Jenn for all her help and vision.

On the Stereo:
(Where the Power is): Magazine

Nubbly Bread and Hearty German Soup

Melbourne is well and truly into winter. Outside the air is crisp and the ground is damp. Inside the heater and lights burn warmly. It feels like the sort of weather in which I should have a bowl of bread dough rising and a large pot of stew simmering during the day. Life isn’t quite that idyllic but I did manage to produce bread and soup for dinner tonight.

I bought a large bag of bread flour for hot cross buns at easter, and I am determined to bake my way through it. I am quite enthused by the bread recipes in Nigella’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. There are lots that I want to try and today chose the Norwegian Mountain Loaf. Nigella describes it as ‘a nubbly Northern European bread’ which is ‘dense and virtuously substantial’. And, as if that isn’t recommendation enough, it is an unusual loaf that has yeast but has no kneading and no rising. Plus I had all the ingredients in my pantry.

I had meant to spend the day baking but one thing and another meant I didn’t start on this til 7pm so this recipe was perfect – it was merely a matter of mixing all the ingredients and putting it in the oven. My monster bag of bread flour is white so I couldn’t put in all wholemeal flour and had to do a mix of white and wholemeal. Nevertheless, the bread was indeed nubbly with lots of grains and a thick chewy crust. My main complaint is that it is a bit too salty so I have reduced it from it from 1 tbsp to 1 tsp in the recipe below.

The soup I decided to make was a German lentil soup with veggie frankfurters that I recently saw on Scottish Vegan’s pages, which I tracked back to this recipe. I love a nice hearty soup with lentils or split peas and lots of chunky vegetables. Every now and again I see soup recipes with german sausage in them that I wish to vegetarianise. I have never thought of trying Not Dogs (as I call Vegetarian Hot Dogs). In fact I have never tried Not Dogs but I do like vegetarian sausages, so thought I would give it a go. I couldn’t resist filling the soup with lots of veggies that had been hanging around the fridge too long. The Not Dogs worked well in the soup. They added interesting texture and excellent colour to the soup. I found it needed all the salt in the recipe but wonder if stock or stock powder might not have been better, as the salt was needed by something else was lacking.

It wasn’t a quick meal but we were able to wait tonight. The soup and bread were a substantial and satisfying combination that brought just the warmth we needed on a cold winter’s day.

Nigella’s Norwegian Mountain Loaf
(adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess)

250ml lite soy milk (or skim cow’s milk)
250ml water
250g white bread flour
100g wholemeal plain flour
50g rye flour
7g easy blend dried yeast
50g rolled oats (not instant)
25g wheatgerm
3 tbsp sunflower seeds
3 tbsp linseeds (flaxseeds)
1 tsp salt

Mix water and milk in a jug. Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl and add liquid, stirring to make a sticky porridge-like dough. Scrape into a greased loaf tin and put in a cold oven. Turn oven on to 110ºC and bake 30 minutes. Then turn oven up to 180ºC and bake approximately one hour. You will be able to tell it is cooked when a skewer comes out cleanly and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. If not, return to oven for 10-15 minutes.

German Lentil Soup with Veggie Frankfurters
(adapted from Cooks Recipes)
Serves 6

1 onions, chopped
8 garlic clove, crushed
1 carrots, diced
3 celery ribs, diced
1 tablespoons olive oil
6 cups water
1 cup lentils
1 bay leaf
1 ½ teaspoons salt (I used my lemon myrtle salt)
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
6 button mushrooms, diced
100g cabbage, diced
1 small potato, diced
100g green beans, trimmed and chopped
2 zucchini diced
1 tsp seeded mustard
1 pound veggie frankfurters, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tbsp parsley

In a stockpot, heat oil. Add vegetables as you chop them in this order - onions, carrot, celery, cabbage, potato, mushrooms, garlic. This will take about 20 minutes.

Add water, lentils, bay leaf, salt, pepper, mustard, beans and zucchini. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook slowly approximately 30 minutes til lentils and vegetables just cooked.

Add thinly sliced veggie frankfurters and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Remove from the heat and stir in cider vinegar and parsley.

On the Stereo
Tangerine Dream (E’s album is so cheap it has no title but is released by Disky 1999)

Gingerbread in a cookie

I have never been very interested in baking sweet biscuits (or cookies) – not the type that are just butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Too dry, too hard and too plain. I prefer them to have chocolate, caramel, nuts, fruit, spices, oats etc - like bought biscuits – tim tams, chocolate digestives, tunnocks caramel wafers. I’ve been trying to think back to the biscuits my mum made when I was a child. She made ginger biscuits, anzacs and yo-yos which were nice but not as good as her cakes and slices.

But recently I have fallen in love with home made chocolate chip cookies. They are small, transportable and full of chocolate. I love them chewy and dense with oats, and they are so ready to accommodate any texture or flavour I fancy. As I have said before, I have a great cookbook by Gwen Steege, called The Search for the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. This book is filled with the entries into a chocolate chip cookie competition in the USA. The huge range of recipes has helped me to experiment with different ideas that interest me.

One of the ingredients I have been keen to try in choc chip cookies is molasses. I love the dark mysterious bitterness of molasses. But my recent cookie baking has been for people with unknown tastes and I haven’t dared to venture too far into investigative cooking.

Chocolate chip cookies make good presents. I made a huge batch of over 100 at easter which I gave to my family as presents and also put in the freezer for snacks – they are great to take to work for that inevitable mid-morning munchies moment. This stash recently came to an end.

I looked to Gwen Steege’s book for a new recipe to try. I found one called Molasses-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. As well as having them for snacks, I wanted to take some to a friend, Will, who has just moved into a new house. I hope Will will be fine with some molasses but I did leave out the raisins as I didn’t think he would be keen on these. And if he really doesn’t like them, at least he has something to offer others visiting his new abode.

These cookies were not quite what I expected. They were dark and spicy. In fact they reminded me of gingerbread, which delighted me because I have been longing to make a chocolate gingerbread. I add some orange zest because the taste was so heavy but I think next time I might like some currants in the recipe.

They spread a lot when they cooked and were quite flat with lacy bubbles. I was a little disconcerted to find that the recipe directed me to let them cool on the tray. I have one big baking sheet that I usually lift hot cookies off so I can put the next batch in the oven straight away. The first batch were on baking paper so I was able to slide the baking paper with cookies off and start on the second lot. While the next batch were in the oven I was being impatient and lifted the cookies onto a wire rack when they were lukewarm. But I thought I could get by without baking paper for the second batch and cool them completely. Big mistake! Once cold and hard they were very hard to get off the baking sheet and I ended up with a pile of crumbly cookies and lots of broken bits. I have amended these directions in my recipe below.

Gingerbread Choc Chip Cookies
(adapted from recipe by Mrs Harriet A Kemp of Seattle)
Makes 4 dozen

½ cup SF white flour (or plain flour plus tsp of baking powder)
1 cup plain wholemeal flour
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp lemon salt (or salt)
1 tsp linseed meal (flaxseed meal)
1 cup castor sugar
185g (¾ cup) butter
1 egg
¼ cup dark molasses
¾ cup quick cooking rolled oats
¼ cup sunflower seeds (generous)
1 generous cup dark choc chips
Zest of one orange

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Cream butter. Add egg and cream with butter. If you don’t have electric beaters or opt to do it by hand like me then you might need to add a spoon of flour to stop it curdling – makes a world of difference. The recipe says 2 minutes but I just did it til it seemed nicely creamy. Add remaining ingredients. The dough is quite sticky and a beautiful deep nutty brown colour.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. These biscuits will spread so give them a little space. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on baking sheet 10-20 minutes. When lukewarm, lift onto wire rack to cool completely.

On the Stereo
The Love Songs of Burt Bacharach: Various Artists

Sentimental Baked Eggplants

Recently I couldn’t resist buying some lovely black glossy eggplants I’d seen on sale in the supermarket. They always bring to mind a fantastic Charmaine Solomon recipe that one of my housemates, Will, introduced me to. When I left the house I wrote down the recipe and I can’t make it without feeling a little sentimental. It brings back memories of this student household where we all ate such good food because the five of us shared the cooking. We only cooked once a week and were able to put a lot of energy and creativity into the meals. How I miss that luxury when I rush in late, wishing a good meal was placed in front of me. If Virginia Woolf was around today, she would realise money and a room of one's own isn't enough for a woman. We need time and head space too!

The recipe in question involves eggplants stuffed with a creamy ground cashew mixture and a topping of crispy garlicky cheese and breadcrumbs. I really wanted to make it for dinner last night. The ingredients were waiting at home but my energy levels were too low to throw them together. Instead I ate something which could quickly travel from freezer to microwave.

Once my hunger was appeased I returned to thoughts of eggplants. I really wanted to do my baked eggplants before they went off. I decided the best way to do this was to spend some time preparing last night so I could skip in the door tonight and pop it in the oven. It is so relaxing to cook with plenty of time, some mellow music on the stereo and E on the couch reading Nostradamas Ate My Hamster (I have to mention this bizarre title)!

I made a few changes to the recipe. One of the most exciting changes was continuing to explore Australia’s Indigenous herbs and spices. I used Tasmanian pepperberries instead of black pepper. What a lovely smell – like the name says they smelled faintly of pepper but also the sweet aroma of berries too. I put in Tabasco Sauce to please E and fresh parsley because it seems superior to dried oregano and I need to use it. I wanted to make more changes but it is such a good recipe I didn’t want to mess with it too much.

My plan worked in a way. It would have been better if I had not got caught up at work - the roasted pumpkin that I planned really should have been in the oven longer. It was only just cooked but the eggplant topping was crisp and brown in the way I dream of when I think of this recipe. The tomato sauce, which was just a jar of pasta sauce with some tomatoes, mushrooms and red wine sauce, was great. E is not a fan of eggplants but he ate it all happily.

Baked Eggplant with Cashews
(Adapted from Charmaine Solomon’s Complete Vegetarian Cookbook)
Serves 4

2 medium eggplants
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 button mushrooms, finely chopped
½ tsp ground pepperberries (or black pepper)
1 tsp salt – optional
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 cup ground cashews
Tabasco sauce, to taste - optional
1 cup fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs (I used light rye with caraway)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Cut eggplants in half lengthwise (Charmaine says to slice stems off but I think they look nice and help keep the shape of the eggplant so I left them on). Score deep vertical cuts in the flesh. Drop in boiling water or steam in a large saucepan for 7-10 minutes until just tender. Drain well with cut side facing down til cool enough to handle.

While eggplant is cooling do your chopping and grinding. Fry onions oil over low heat in a medium sized saucepan til golden and softening – about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and fry an additional 2 minutes. While the vegetables are frying scoop out eggplant centres, using a spoon. (Charmaine says to leave a thick shell to hold its shape but I left a fairly thin one – it still fills out ok but I figure this gives me more of a chance with E and his eggplant aversion.) Chop eggplant flesh finely. Take off the heat.

Add salt (if using – if you have salted cashews like me don’t use any salt!), pepper, cashews, and eggplant flesh. Stir to combine. Spoon mixture into eggplant shells and smooth down. I put a few drops of Tabasco Sauce on each (or you could add it to the mixture if you prefer).

Mix breadcrumbs, olive oil, garlic and cheese. Spread over filled eggplant shells.

Bake 25-35 minutes. Or you can prepare in advance like me and bake 20 minutes. I froze two halves for another day and baked the other halves for 40 minutes which gave a lovely golden brown crust but might have done less if my roast veggies had been quicker.

On the Stereo:
Is a Woman: Lambchop

Kraut Rock Cupcakes

E is a big fan of kraut rock – the more obscure, the more he loves it! I never thought this could be an inspiration for baking. But is there anything that doesn’t have some link to food!

This week E and I were discussing what I should bake. He wanted vanilla. I wanted chocolate. Finally he said I should have a kraut rock theme like Amon Düül II’s album called Yeti – I think this was an allusion to vanilla (and coconut?). But unfortunately for him, his beloved ‘krauts’ reminded me of a recipe I found recently that fascinated me: Chocolate Sauerkraut Cupcakes which Alanna at A Veggie Venture made earlier this year.

I have a fine collection of chocolate cake recipes and have cooked chocolate cakes with all sorts of interesting flavours and textures – beetroot, Guinness, mayonnaise, black pepper. So I couldn’t resist sauerkraut!

At first I thought sauerkraut with chocolate was one of the weirdest combinations I'd seen. Unlike zucchini, carrot or potato – common vegetables I have used in sweet baking – sauerkraut seems a rather strong taste to pair with sweet food. But then I checked the ingredients and it is only cabbage, salt and vinegar. Salt and vinegar are not such unusual ingredients in cake recipes. I didn’t even use the blender but just chopped it finely with my chef’s knife - it gave the cake a little texture in the way grated zucchini or carrot might but not in a strong tasting way. So don’t be afraid to try it.

E took my decision like a man and got out his signed copy of krautrocksampler: one head’s guide to the great komische musik – 1969 onwards by Julian Cope. He pointed me to a song by Amon Düül called ‘Mama Düül and her Sauerkraut-band Start Up’.

So I set about making the cupcakes. Here I have to say that I am with the Passionate Cook in my confusion about what are cupcakes and what are muffins. I have quite a few muffin cookbooks with lots of interesting ingredients. I was always under the impression muffins had lots of exciting flavours and textures, and were superior to cupcakes, which in my understanding were smaller and quite plain. So I would put these into the muffin category. But I notice it is trendy to call them cupcakes again because suddenly there are lots of cookbooks full of colourful and interesting cupcakes and not a muffin cookbook in sight.

I had to adapt Alanna’s recipe. I only have one 12 hole muffin pan and only wanted one batch so I downsized the recipe to allow for this. I also only had Self Raising Flour (ie 2 tsp baking powder added to each cup of all-purpose flour) so I think these might have been a bit lighter than intended. I also didn’t feel like getting my electric beaters and food processor out – one of the joys of muffin recipes was always that it was simply a matter of mixing the wet and dry ingredients together. And to ice them I used some orange cream cheese frosting that had been in my freezer for about a month.

For all that meddling they were good. E was pleased at their lightness. I was pleased to have some home baked chocolate goodies in the house again. I think the sauerkraut was merely seasoning and some slight texture but the recipe will take place with some of my more eccentric chocolate recipes. And I now have lots of sauerkraut to use up because it didn’t use up much of what was in the tin I bought.

Kraut Choc Cupcakes
Adapted from A Veggie Venture
Makes 12

2/3 cup sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup water
1½ cups self raising flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp flaxseed meal (ground linseeds)
½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Mix margarine and butter with a spoon or electric beaters. Add eggs, sauerkraut, vanilla essence and water and stir til combined. Add remaining ingredients and mix til combined.

Line 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake paper cups (or if like me, you forget, just spray the pan with oil spray but they might be reluctant to come out). Bake for 20- 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely before icing. Alanna did a chocolate cream cheese frosting. I used an orange cream cheese frosting – in fact it was so good I would recommend some orange zest in the recipe.

On the Stereo:
Amon Düül II: Tanz der Lemminge

Degraves Espresso Bar – Built to Last

This afternoon E and I spent a good 2½ hours roaming the laneways and arcades of Melbourne city on a tour run by the CAE. Wilma Farrow, our most entertaining guide, took us through laneways of redbrick nineteenth century warehouses and early twenthieth century arcades and filled our heads with some wonderful stories. I have posted a photo of my favourite arcade, Royal Arcade with the scary Gog and Magog who fascinated me as a child.

After the tour, we were in desperate need of a seat and some warmth. So we dropped in to Degraves Espresso Bar. It suited our mood of going back in time perfectly. The overall impression when we entered is olde worlde cream walls and dark wood paneling. The air conditioners look ancient and the bar is wooden and looks to have been there for years. Our seats were rows of deep padded leather chairs that seemed to be old cinema seats – the leather had the odd tear and the wooden arm rests were a bit worn but they seemed to be built to last – much like the café. But you can tell they are cool not dowdy because the staff look art school and they play Mazzy Star on the stereo.

Many the time, E and I have passed the bustle of tables in the middle of Degraves St but we have never been into this bar. Today, I was attracted by the cakes in the window which looked like old-fashioned goodness. The cake proved to be as good as it looked. It was called a teacake but I think in Britain it is called a Victoria Sponge. Dense buttery cake with sweet buttery icing and tart berry jam sandwiched beneath the layers.

It was also good to sit in a warm cosy café. I got peppermint tea and was pleased it was loose tea leaves in a silver teapot with a proper tea strainer and a jug of hot water. My mother would approve! And there is nothing like sitting with a hot tea cup in your hand after standing about in cold drafty laneways. A perfect end to an enjoyable afternoon.

Degraves Espresso Bar
23 Degraves St
Melbourne
03 9654 1245