Lane's Edge Cafe and Bar, Melbourne CBD

When E and I met for lunch in the city back in March I chose a sentimental favourite cafe.  Many years ago in our childfree days, we went there regularly for a glass of wine after seeing movies at the Kino Cinema.  These days we are far more likely to go out for lunch than for drinks.  The menu seemed to offer a reasonable amount of vegetarian options and the kitsch courtyard beckons. 

The small bar at the front is quiet but there is a lively bustle in the fun courtyard which has a kitsch ambiance with plastic ivy, red beaded curtains and coloured lights.  (It has overhead heaters in winter.) 

Our waitress was very helpful in talking through the options.  From memory I think there was a vegetarian pasta special but not a veg soup.  I tossed up between vegetarian pizza, spanikopita roti wraps, and the Mediterranean salad.  It was a sunny day and I fancied something light so I chose the salad.

The Mediterranean salad comprised lettuce, red onions, olives, tomato, pan fried feta. herb and balsamic dressing with warm Turkish bread.  When it arrived I was disappointed that it only had a few small wedged of bread.  It also had a lot of green leaves.  However the dressing was full of flavour and the waitress brought me more bread at no charge so I was very satisfied.

The pies on offer change regularly.  E chose the chicken and sweet potato pie which came with chips and salad.  He loved the pie but was not keen on the salad.  (Is he ever keen on salad!)  I sampled a few chips and they were crisp and hot. 

The menu had enough vegetarian meals for me even if not terribly different than what is on offer elsewhere.  But who wouldn't enjoy decent food in a courtyard that is like a little tropical oasis in the city.  It does not offer a lot to vegans though the dips and chips might be suitable.  The menu notes that they have gluten free options.  And if you are after a fancy cocktail, you will be spoiled for choice.

When we paid our bill I was amused by the irony of our waitress wearing a t-shirt that read "freedom is my religion".  Then we headed out into the autumn sunshine to enjoy our time in the city. 

Lane's Edge Cafe and Bar
39 Bourke Street (up near the corner of Spring Street)
Melbourne CBD
03 9654 2409
www.lanesedge.com

Caramel chocolate chunk muffins, National Celtic Festival, a party and more long weekend eats

What is the purpose of a long weekend if not for cooking and sharing good food, heading out of town and relaxing at home!  We managed to do all of this on the recent Queen's Birthday weekend.  I don't claim to have brilliant photography of all of it but sometimes when you are enjoying yourself, it hard to spend much time behind the camera.

Actually my pictures might have been better if I had remembered to take my DSLR camera to Geelong so I could have taken better quality photos.  We went down to my niece's birthday party at Inflatable World.  It was a great place for the kids to run around in the middle of winter.

My sister in law made gorgeous cupcakes for Ashy.  Sylvia had a sore tummy after everyone sang happy birthday so we didn't stay long.  I took a cookies and cream cupcake with me and they were delicious.

We stayed at my parents' place in Geelong and my mum had stayed home cooking rather than going to the party.  For dinner we had curried cauliflower naan pizzas and a delicious tarte tatin for dessert.  The pizzas were delicious but the tarte tatin was amazing.  The apples were cooked so that they just melted in the mouth as they should and were beautifully caramelised.

On Sunday, Sylvia, my mum and I headed out to the National Celtic Festival while my dad rested up at home. The weather was not as pleasant as last year's festival.  The sun shone but the wind rattled our bones.  We saw some highland dancing, some buskers and the medieval sword fights.  Perhaps the highlight was an amazing vegetarian burger from Jerry's Vegie Burgers.  Made of lentils, rice, corn and other vegies, it was so good with some satay sauce, tomato relish and green leaves in a bun.

We stayed at my parents' place long enough for Sylvia to play with her cousin, while I shopped, and to eat fish and chips for dinner (thanks go to my brother Dave who went out to the fish and chip shop a second time when my corn jack was forgotten!   Then home so we could get up the next morning and make dodgy pancakes in our own kitchen.  I tried making pancake mixture (with beetroot powder) to use in a squeezy bottle but it was not my finest hour in pancake making.  This spider web was the best of a bad bunch and you should have seen it once I tried to flip it.

More successful was my almond feta that I made on Monday.  I confess that I left my almonds soaking for 2 days and found them with some cloudy shapes in the water.  I decided that the almonds were just cultured and ploughed on with the recipe.  It was very good in a salad sandwich with home made sourdough bread, spinach and Italian butter beans.

As the day drew to a close, I baked.  Sylvia wanted caramel cupcakes.  Fortunately Kari had posted a healthy recipe for choc chip caramel muffins only a few weeks previously. I love caramel but it is so sickly sweet.  These muffins were actually not very sweet at all and the bittersweet chocolate chunks in my muffins were quite dominant.  They were also quite stodgy in a substantial and satisfying way.  The stodge, however, meant they kept their knobbly shape of the thick batter rather than smoothing out when baking.

After baking, I made us a dinner of leftovers: pasta with a creamy sauce, Italian butter beans, tofu bacon and almond feta together with some spinach.  It made for a very satisfying pasta meal. Sadly it would be a lot of work to make it from scratch so it is unlikely to be a regular meal.  However I was rather pleased with bringing the creamy pasta (which Sylvia loves) and Italian beans together.

After dinner we all had a muffin and had one for lunch the next day.  We loved them so much that I made them again yesterday and again they were pounced upon with enthusiasm.

My only qualm about the muffins, which is not limited to this recipe, is that it is hard to detect the nuts.  Recently one of Sylvia's teachers expressed concern about one of her class mates having peanut butter sandwiches for lunch at school because of Sylvia's peanut allergy.  I get far more worried at the thought that someone will offer her a chocolate brownie made with a spoonful of peanut butter in it.  It is so easy to know peanuts are in a peanut butter sandwich but less easy to detect all the hidden ground nuts and nut butters in baking.  I don't have any answers to this quandry, given that I love baking with nuts but it is a concern.

Fortunately Sylvia is not allergic to cashews and has enjoyed these muffins.  I am pleased to have an easy recipe that is full of lots of healthy ingredients and minimal refined sugar and flour.

I am sending these muffins to Kimmy for Healthy Vegan Fridays 51, and Karen (and Janie) for Tea Time Treats.

More healthy baking from Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Chocolate almond rice bubble slice (gf, v)  
Chocolate tahini cookies (v)
Fruit, Nut and Tahini Slice (v)
Fruity Quinoa Muffins (v)
Glo Bars (gf, v)
Healthy banana bread 
Heidi’s chocolate cake
Rustic muesli squares

Caramel Chocolate Chunk Muffins
Lightly adapted from Bite Sized Thoughts
Makes 12 muffins

1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup medjool dates
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 scant cup soy milk
1 cup plain wholemeal flour
1/2 cup plain white flour
1/4 cup coconut sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
85 g dark chocolate, chopped (I used 70%)

Cover cashews and dates in boiling water for about 15-30 minutes (ie while you prepare the other ingredients).

Preheat oven to 180 C and place muffin papers in a 12 hole muffin pan.

Pour 1 tablespoon of vinegar into a 250ml cup measure and fill the rest of the cup with soy milk.  Set aside to curdle and thicken.

Place flours, coconut sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Drain water off cashews and dates.  Blend with about a third of the milk mixture until smooth.  (I do this in a high powered blender but I think a little texture would be ok if your machinery is a bit less powerful.)  Pour or spoon into dry ingredients.  Tip the rest of the milk mixture into the blender and blitz to lift as much of the dates and cashews off the blender and pour into the dry ingredients.

Mix the wet and the dry ingredients together with a spoon until just combined.  It will seem quite dry but will mix in ok.  Then gently mix in the chocolate chunks.

Spoon mixture into muffin papers and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in a muffin comes out clean.  Best at room temperature and they keep for 2-3 days.

Update: September 2015: Made these with substituting 1/4 cup of maple syrup for milk - it brought out the caramel flavours.

On the stereo:
Title: Meghan Trainor

IT Reflections: Apple Photos, Cake Fails, Zomato, Blog Updates and Quicklinks

If there is any constant in the online world, it is that software will continue to change and develop.  It will also continue to surprise, horrify and delight me.  Today I have a few issues to discuss (or even rant about): the introduction of Photos software by Apple to replace iPhoto, what is a 'cake fail', replacing UrbanSpoon with Zomato, mobilaggedon, and some updates on my blog.  And a few quicklinks to make you think and smile.


Blog updates:
Let's start with a few small blog updates and a wish for more time to work on tweaking my blog:

• I have updated my Favourites page to sort the savoury meals into categories and reflect my current cooking.
• I added some children's books to the Child Friendly Almanac page.
• I spent time fiddling around with icons and tables to upload Follow Me buttons for Facebook, Pinterest and Delicious on my sidebar.  (inspired by Where's the Beef's buttons).  As usual there is always more to do.

Apple replaces iPhoto with Photos
Back in April I updated myMacBook operating system and found that Apple has replaced iPhotos with Photos.  It was very disconcerting and I still miss iPhoto.  I miss being able to organise my photos into events with a decent sized thumbnail that will flick through the collection of photos when I hover on it, and I miss sorting my photos by title.  Some of the editing functions in Photos are better now that they are together like crop and tilt. 

I read this article explaining how the new Photos software is very basic but gradually updates will introduce new features so that eventually it will be better than iPhoto.  This is frustrating in the short term but it is good to understand how software is updated online.  Meanwhile I have had to adjust some practices and suddenly have found that searching and archiving photos has become slower.

What is a cake fail?
A while back I was laughing at some photos of cake fails when I found one of my photos included as a fail.  I initially kept laughing and then sobered up.  I have no delusions about my ability as a photographer and I know that my skills had been even worse before I started blogging.  However I shared this photo from years back to document ideas in birthday cakes rather than brilliance in decoration or photography.

More pertinent I question the title 'cake fail'.  It is one of those moments when the internet seems impersonal and cruel.  Would the author say this to me if they knew me?  Probably not.  And if they did I would point out (calmly I would hope) that actually it was not a fail because I had fun decorating the cake with my little niece and she had loved her cake (even if today she says she doesn't remember the cake).  And the cake tasted good!

I made another castle cake this year.  I didn't let Sylvia help because I had a vision but part of me feels it would have been kinder to have just had fun decorating with her.  Everyone needs to learn and kids need to have fun.  The dark side of the internet is the pressure to appear perfect to people who don't know us without the space for learning or fun.

In fact I worry I fall for the internet's focus on style over substance.  Some of my best photos are not necessary the ones that are the most honest.  When I get out my food props and shove the clutter out of the way, I present food in a way that does not reflect my life.  In all honesty the lace tablecloth and dainty cup and saucer only come out for photos.  I never stack up choc chip cookies nor wrap muesli bars in pretty fabric except for a photo, and I only own doilies for food props.  I could go on and on about photos but will let you check out some other posts instead.

Mobilaggedon
I felt some similar frustration about online preference for style over substance when I heard about mobilaggedon in April.  For those who did not hear the story, we heard that Google would start to privilege sites that were mobile-friendly, meaning the many site would disappear from Google searches.  I understand that more people are using mobile photos and websites should be developed with this in mind but quite frankly I don't do a lot of web surfing on my iphone because I much prefer a bigger screen for both reading and looking at images.

I know that Blogger (the blog platform I use) has a mobile-friendly version so I assume my blog (and most blogs) would not be affected.  However after spending a lot of time and effort in a previous workplace trying to ensure our website was mobile-friendly, I understand that for smaller organisations, it is not necessarily an easy ask.  I was reassured to hear an interview with the Google Communications Manager in Australia in which he said that Google had 200 factors that are used in ranking searches.  And quite frankly after grappling with issues of search on a website upgrade, I take my hat off to Google for how easy they have made it to search the web.

Zomato takes over UrbanSpoon
Another recent change in the webscape in Australia (and other countries) is the takeover of UrbanSpoon by Zomato.  I have found UrbanSpoon really useful for searching where to eat out so it made sense to share my blog posts on eating out on UrbanSpoon.  (In fact I wish I had started doing this earlier than 2014.)  So if you look for UrbanSpoon now, you will find yourself redirected to Zomato and all the information from UrbanSpoon has moved there.

I was contacted by one of the Melbourne marketing team to discuss the changes over a coffee.  I was really interested to hear that UrbanSpoon had been a small staff group of about 40 worldwide and Zomato was setting up an office of about 40 staff just in Melbourne.  Which means that there will be more visiting of restaurants by staff, more consistency in prices, menus and photos as well as some interesting options for searching by location.  So you may notice that where I had links to UrbanSpoon on eating out blog posts these have now changed to Zomato.  I will be interested to see how they develop.

Blogging and IT quicklinks
And while we are talking about blogging, it seems a good time to share some links about blogging

• State of thr Union: how the blogging world has changed - Design Sponge
• Is blogging dead: how blogs are changing and you can stay on top - Problogger
• Seven mistakes even nice looking blogs make - Blog Clarity
• Steve Jobs of Apple was a low tech parent - New York Times
• 19 ridiculously useful tips every blogger should know - BuzzFeed
• The secret life of passwords - New York Times

Some fun music videos
Finally if you have got this far through this post, you really want something to give you a smile.  Here are some fun videos:

• A sky full of stars (video made in Sydney) by Coldplay
• Mickey Mouse wedding proposal (Jehan and Vish 2014)
• The fear (check out the balloon people) by Lily Allen
• In your arms (cute jellybean video) by Kina Grannis

Vegan meringues - made with aquafaba (chickpea brine)

Now that every vegan in the world seems to have tried aquafaba meringues, it no longer seems very novel and yet I had to try it.  For the uninitiated aquafaba is the brine that chickpeas or other beans are cooked in.  The residual protein and starches seem to imitate the properties of egg white.  If you want to see what experiments are in progress, just check out the Vegan Meringues - Hits and Misses Facebook Group.

When I first read about these meringues, my jaw dropped to the floor in amazement.  Yet it took me a while to try it.  In fact it was after having the brine of two consecutive tins of chickpeas sitting in the fridge until it went manky that I decided I just had to try it and stop filling the fridge with old chickpea brine.  Also I remember making maple syrup meringues in summer and how sticky they became in the humidity so it seemed wise to try these in winter.

And by jove, I was dumbfounded at the miracle of how much the aquafaba acted like egg white.  I take my hat off to the genius who created this.  My mum makes pavolvas a lot so the taste of the beaten egg and sugar is a taste I remember fondly from my childhood.  I am not a huge fan of meringues but E and Sylvia love them.  I took some meringues to my parents' house and they were similarly amazed at the meringues. 

The meringues were crisp all the way through.  While cooling on the tray I could hear a little crackle and they were ever so slightly cracked.  Perhaps they needed to cool slower in the oven?  On the first day I made them they tasted a bit beany but the next day the bean taste was undetectable.  By day 6 they had become chewy in the middle but were still edible. 

Now that I have had success with aquafaba, I am keen to try it in other recipes.  Sylvia just loves pavlova so I guess I should try a pavlova though I had heard from others that this is harder with aquafaba than meringues.  I also would like to try it with maple syrup after making maple syrup meringues in summer.  So much experimenting to do.  Thank goodness we love chickpeas!

More aquafaba recipes online:
Chocolate chip cookies - Vedged Out
Chocolate mousse - Mouthwatering Vegan Recipes
Eton mess - Not Quite Nigella
Eggless pasta - Vegan Dad
Faye's mousse your own adventure cake - Veganopoulous
Lemon coconut banana cake - Veganopoulous
Rhubarb ice cream - Seitan is My Motor
S'mores cupcakes - Agent Minty
Yeasted pumpkin seed fruit loaf - Bunny Kitchen

Aquafaba Meringues
From Banana Bloom
Made about 75 meringues

1/2 cup aquafaba (chickpea brine)
3/4 cup castor sugar

Beat aquafaba until frothy.  Continue beating and gradually add the sugar.  Beat sugar and aquafaba about 5 minutes until mixture is smooth and glossy and you can made stiff peaks with it (also it should stay in the bowl if you are brave enough to hold it upside down).

Spoon or pipe onto a lined baking tray and bake at 100 C (or as low as your oven will go - I did 120 C because my oven is very slow) for about 1 hour or until meringues are crisp.

Cool on the tray.  Keeps about 5 to 6 days in an airtight container.

On the Stereo:
Discography: the complete singles collection: Pet Shop Boys

B'Stilla vegan dinner, South Yarra restaurant

Last Monday I drove through the dark rainy night to meet up with a vegan dining group at B'Stilla for the special vegan dinner.  I was glad to get in from the rain and rushed past Julia deVille's taxidermy display, (which is not my thing).  The restaurant specialises in Morroccan cuisine.  My seat didn't have great light for photography (given it was an 8pm booking in winter) but I liked my view of decorated tiles and painted tangine pots.  The owners also use seasonal and locally sourced ingredients.

Upon perusing the menu initially I was overwhelmed by the four course menu.  Then I saw that as well as offering wine pairing with the meal, there were also some unusual mocktails.  I appreciated some interesting non-alcoholics options and ordered an Apple, cucumber and mint soda.  It was just enough sweetness and wonderfully refreshing. 

It wasn't long before we were served three dishes for the first course.  I particularly loved the warm Grilled batbout bread with tomato citrus jam.  Then I tasted the Crispy baby okra with zhoug which had a nice crunch on the outside and was pleasingly soft inside.  Others loved it but I found it so spicy that I couldn't eat much of it. 

All of the dishes were served in sharing plates in the middle of the table.  The one exception was the small individual bowls of Harira Soup with chickpea, ginger, date, celery and lemon.  It was quite thin and light but was lovely with the harissa and lemon wedges that were served on the side.  I appreciated that we were choose how much of the spicy harissa to add, to allow for varying tolerances to chillis.

The star of the show was the B'stilla stuffed with eggplant, pumpkin, cinnamon and saffron and accompanied by salads. The organiser of the dinner, Rosalie, informed me that traditional B'stilla (from where I gather than the restaurant takes its name) is pigeon in brik pastry.  Our vegan b'stillas was dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar.  It was served with Spiced roasted beetroot, green charmoula and walnuts, and Morroccan slaw with almond, apricot and chilli dressing.

This dish was memorable because the B'stilla pastry was so hard to cut through, the slaw was served on such a pretty plate, and it is unusual to have a slightly sweet main with such savoury dishes on the side.  I've never eaten a less sweet beetroot dish.  It was very early and lovely with the crunchy walnuts.  The B'still filling was meltingly soft with pastry shards falling around it.  I didn't take enough notice of the slaw but it went well with the meal and I didn't find it particularly spicy.

I don't go out for evening meals often and usually consider it fancy if I push the boat out to two courses.  So after two substantial courses, I felt quite full and ready for dessert.  I was surprised to find we still had a a huge dish of Root vegetable tangine with chickpeas and pumpkin seeds and a pile of Steamed couscous.  I really enjoyed it and loved the crunch of the seeds but this was the least impressive course.  I suspect I had had my fill by then but it also felt more like the food I make at home.

I did not expect to love the dessert of Saffron rice pudding with barberries and pistachio.  Rice pudding is generally not a favourite of mine.  However this one was superb.  I loved the warm spices and the tart dried fruit in it as well as the crunch of the nuts.  It also looked really pretty.

Overall I really enjoyed my meal.  It was delicious with lots of unusual flavours and ingredients.  The service was great and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming.  At $45 for four courses, it was excellent value.  No doubt this is the sort of value that has found B'stilla named as the Age Good Food Guide Best Restaurant Under $30.

I also really enjoyed the company, with most interesting conversation on zeitgeist vegan issues such as aquafaba meringues, Ikea vegan meatballs and dehydrated potato flakes in vegan egg sandwiches.  It should be noted that B'stilla is not usually open on Mondays and this special meal is not from the regular menu.  However upon perusing the online menu there are some similar sharing dishes that would suit vegans and vegetarians.

Also see other blog posts about our dinner by fellow bloggers, Rosalie at Quinces and Kale and Cindy at Where's the Beef.

B'Stilla
30b Bray street, South Yarra, 3141
03 9826 2370
Open: Tuesday to Saturday 5.30pm 'til late
http://bstilla.com/

Lime and coconut cake, glazed tofu and mistaken identity

On my recent In My Kitchen post I showed you a haul of lemons and limes from our trees in the backyard.  You might not have noticed that they were all yellow.  I am never sure when green limes are ripe and often they are yellow by the time they come off the tree.  Which means that when stormy weather blows the fruit off the tree I might get my lemons and limes confused.  It brings up awkward moments when I think I have made a lime and coconut cake but wonder if it is in fact a lemon and coconut cake.

Of course there are clues.  Opening up the fruit and finding it green usually means it is a lime.  But because I was unsure about some of the windfall fruit, I worried some of it was actually unripe lemons.  So I am now relying on the Meyer lemons having quite smooth and bright yellow skins to tell them apart.  However when I made lemonade this week I did find myself opening a lemon only to find it is a lime.

You might attribute my uncertainty to my decision to whip up this cake quickly after school when I was helping Sylvia with readers and ukelele practice and getting dinner ready.  It was that easy to put together quickly but afterwards I worried I had confused the lemons and limes.

My mum visited the next day and had a slice of cake with a cuppa.  She assured me that it was lime.  Then she had another slice and took a slice home for my dad.  Often my mum finds cakes quite sweet but she loved this one.  The cake disappeared rather quickly.

I attribute my mum's love of the cake to my decision to reduce the icing sugar by half.  It meant that the icing was more of a glaze and quite tart.  It was so thin that it dribbled down the sides and pooled at the bottom of the cake.  Possibly half the glaze would be enough.  I used a whole lime because I have lots of limes and the cake was made to use up some of them.

This is a simple old fashioned recipe.  The cake is yellow and buttery with the slight texture of coconut and that wonderful taste of coconut sprinkled in the icing.  It is the sort of cake I could imagine in my grandmothers' time, though I am not sure that limes were so common then.

And I am sneaking another recipe in here because it also has a case of mistaken identity.  I thought I would used up some cranberry sauce I have had since Christmas.  I used it in a glazed tofu that I adapted from Apricot and Orange Glazed Tofu that I made years ago.  I made it less spicy (without the chilli paste) so that Sylvia would eat it and she loved it.  We had it with some Toby's Singapore Noodles and broccoli.  The noodles were so much nicer with the tofu than eaten alone. 

It was only after I made the tofu that I discovered I had used up the rest of my mum's quince jelly instead of cranberry sauce.  So I will have to make it again and use up the cranberry sauce which is still lurking in the fridge.  Perhaps I could try it with some lime juice instead of orange juice, if only I can tell my limes apart from my lemons.

I am sending the cake to Jen's Food for this month's Credit Crunch Munch, coordinated by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food 4 All!  This cake uses basic pantry ingredients and fruit from my backyard.

More citrus cakes from Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Choc-lime marble cake
Chocolate marmalade cake
Citrus grape cake (v)
Cranberry mandarin syrup cake
Lemon and honey cake (gf)
Orange, lavender and almond syrup cake 

More citrus cakes from elsewhere online:
Chocolate, whole orange and almond cake (gf) - Apple and Spice
Flourless orange poppy seed cake (gf) - Chocolate and Zucchini
Gluten free lemon trickle cake (gf) - BBC Good Food
Lemon, buttermilk and black pepper cake - Laws of the Kitchen
Lemon, lavender and honey cake - Amber Rose
Lemon olive oil cake with grilled nectarines (v) - Chef Chloe
Lime coconut and olive oil cake - The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua and The Boy
Sticky lemon and yoghurt cake - The Age Good Food
Yellowman's lime banana bread - Taking Julia North

Lime and coconut cake
Slightly adapted from Frills in the Hills

Cake:
2 limes, zest and juice
50 grams dessicated coconut
175 grams butter or margarine, softened
150 grams caster sugar
175 grams self raising flour
3 eggs

Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
1 lime, zest and juice
dessicated coconut for sprinkling
extra lime zest for decoration

Grease and line a 20cm ring tin.  Preheat oven to 180 C.  Mix lime juice, zest and coconut in a small bowl.  Mix remaining ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and add coconut mixture.  Scrape mixture into prepared tin and bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack. 

Mix icing sugar with lime zest and juice and spread over cooled cake.  Sprinkle generously with coconut.  Scatter with extra zest.

Quince and orange glazed tofu
Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe
Serves 2 to 3

250g extra firm tofu 
1 tbsp oil for frying

Marinade:
1 tbsp quince jelly (or cranberry sauce)
1 tbsp tamari
juice of 1 orange
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp seeded mustard
1 tsp chilli paste (optional)
small pinch of black pepper

Pat tofu with a paper towel and slice into thick fingers.  Mix marinade ingredients in a shallow tub.  Place tofu in marinade for 15 minutes to overnight, depending on your timing.  Heat oil on a large frypan.  Add tofu (shake off as much marinade as possible) and fry on medium high until lightly golden brown on each side.  Add marinade carefully - the oil will splatter with the addition of liquids.  Continue to fry and turn the tofu until the marinade thickens into a glaze and the tofu is golden brown.

On the Stereo:
Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters: The Twilight Sad

In My Kitchen June 2015

It has been a chilly autumn and with the arrival of June comes what promises to be a long cold winter.  In my kitchen there has been purchases, presents and lots of cooking.  As I wont be writing these recipes into blog posts, I am just squeezing in a few of their stories here.

Last month our lemon and lime trees were heavy with fruit.  This month most of the fruit is blown off the tree and I am amazed at our yield.  I needed Sylvia's toy trolley to bring them all inside.  Lemons and limes are finding their way into soups, stews, cakes, and lemonade.  They are being given to visitors, including members of a Gypsy jazz band that we invited into our yard on the weekend (as you do when bands play in your back lane)!

A friend pointed me in the direction of the Catalyst documentary (Our Chemical Lives) and the dangers of plastics in our lives.  It was one of the reasons I bought these new bowls to replace some of the plastic bowls we have been using for Sylvia.  I have also bought a new electronic kitchen scale because my large bowl I use for bread dough kept falling off my previous electronic kitchen scales.  And I love the colour!

After seeing the documentary, I have been throwing out some of my more worn plastics, including my green plastic chopping board.  In its place is a new wooden chopping board that is already stained with pink from a pomegranate.  Here it is seen with the loaf of overnight sourdough bread that was responsible for Sylvia losing her first baby tooth.

I was in my local health food shop looking for an aluminum free deodorant and was delighted to discover a packet of beetroot powder.  It has already been put to good use in my ombre potato and cheese torte.

Sylvia and I have had a few craft moments at the kitchen table, including card making.  I have enjoyed experimenting with painting and collage on greeting cards.  Every time I do one that I like I think I never have to buy another card again but I don't always churn them out as quickly as I intend.

Sylvia's favourite meal lately is pasta with creamy cheese sauce.  I decided to make this variation with grated carrot and peas in it but it did not go down so well with her.  E and I loved it.

I was reminded of how good Angela's Glo Bars are and made another batch.  I forgot the choc chips and thought they were really good without them.  But I had some chocolate melts so I drizzled some over the bars.  I think it was more about good looks than giving much of a chocolate taste but there were those in the house who liked it.

After I made the plum teacake with quince jelly glaze I used the rest of the plums to make chutney.  I wrote in my post when I made it years ago that it took only 30 minutes to simmer down.  This one took hours to simmer (2 or 3?) and I kept stirring regularly and yet it still managed to catch and burn on the bottom of the saucepan in about 5 minutes. 

So I turned to fill my sterilised jars only to find that E had decided to wash the lids.  Apparently he was being helpful but I still don't know what he thought I was doing when I simmered them in a saucepan for 10 minutes!  So I quickly resterilised the lids and filled the jars and prayed that the chutney would not taste burnt. 

I filled a few jars and had a spoonful or two over to try the next day.  I had it on bread with some tofu besan omelet.  It was good so I am hopeful.  However the spices still tasted a bit grainy and I remember they were better after the jam sat for some weeks last time so it is resting while we finish the last of the tomato chutney.

Last week I told you about a most excellent chickpea, walnut and cranberry salad sandwich that I made with a delicious avocado dressing.  I really loved the dressing on a bowl of vegies and chickpeas too. 

I have had my eye on some five seeds sourdough irish bread for ages.  The idea of combining the speed of soda bread and the flavour of sourdough sounds brilliant.  I halved the recipe and found the dough quite dry, even with adding more liquid.  This might be due to the different consistencies of sourdough starters.  It was nice but not brilliant.  I'm game to try it again so stay tuned....

I bought a huge squash from CERES farmers market.  It was stuffed with a rice, lentil and vegie mixture.  Nothing to set the world on fire but a good honest dinner.  I really liked putting some leftover tomato broth from the baked cauliflower into the water that I used to cook the rice.

I would like to pack more vegies in my lunches.  While writing about my new blender, I thought I should check if I could make chickpea flour out of dried chickpeas.  I could.  Then I found myself with heaps of the stuff.  I mixed it with lots of stuff from the fridge that needed using - cauliflower, pesto, corn, spinach - and fried it up into burgers.  Most of them went into the freezer to be on hand for sandwiches or quick lunches.  If only I can remember they are there!

Joanne's Eggplant Balls at Eats Well With Others looked so yummy when I read her post about them that I had to try them when I had eggplant in the house.  They were a pretty rough and ready dinner because I sort of ran out of time to do much side dish.  The next day the leftovers were great on crackers with hummus and lots of vegies on the side.

E headed off to the City Library on the weekend to check out their booksale.  He returned with an indie rock cookbook (Lost in the Supermarket) for me.  It has a very sweet salad by the very sweet Belle and Sebastian, some great potstickers from Gorch Fork and a tongue in cheek recipe for Fly Soup by Antony and the Johnstons.  It is great fun to read through and I might even try a few of the recipes.

Even more exciting than an indie rock cookbook is Vegemite chocolate.  I was so excited when I saw it in the supermarket that I couldn't wait to get home and try it.  In the queue to pay, I happened to see an American friend and showed her.  Her reaction to vegemite was a bit like Jimmy Fallon's (ie horrified).  We hurried home to tear off the wrapper!

It is only when I read the small print that I discovered it was actually chocolate with a caramel filling that was mildly flavoured with vegemite as in salted caramel.  It was quite tasty with that odd flavour of vegemite hovering right at the edge of your tastebuds in a vaguely weird and yet acceptable way.  Would I eat it again?  Oh yeah!  Would I eat it a lot?  Of course not.

I am sending this post to Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial for her In My Kitchen event.  Head over to join in (by 10th of each month) and/or check out what is happening in other bloggers' kitchens.