Wilson Avenue Launch and Green Refectory vegan sausage rolls

Urban architecture fascinates me.  There is so much scope for creativity and beauty in our cityscapes that I love seeing what innovators produce.  On the weekend, we went along to the official launch of the new Wilson Avenue public space where some of the road has been pedestrianised between Jewell Station and Barkly Square.

My eyes were initially drawn to the rock climbing wall in the middle of the space.  However looking around there is a lot of street art too.  We even were able to watch street art in action as one of the walls was being painted during the event.  You may remember the picture of the girl's face previously on the wall (seen in the bottom corner of the bottom photo on my post about the Wilson Ave pop up park.)

There were lots of activities scheduled for the launch.  We were there because E was playing with his ukelele pals.  First up they played on the grassy knoll and then later they played at the other end of the space. 

Sylvia had a go at the climbing wall.  She had lots of fun with her friend who came along.  There was a lull in the fun when they ran into each other and one of Sylvia's wobbly teeth suddenly got a whole lot wobblier (and bloody).  However they recovered to watch with awe as the samba dancer shook her booty.  They danced along to the accompanying drum band that played with high energy. 

There was also a space in the program for the dignitaries to make an appearance.  I was particularly impressed at the Welcome to Country by a local Aboriginal elder.  He explained why we acknowledge elders past and present, explained about the smoking ceremony and told some local creation stories. 

This was hipster Brunswick with the Mayor wearing purple tights, kids doing their own face painting and kombucha freely available.  I was amazed and so happy that the drink on offer was kombucha from The Good Brew Company rather than coffee (which I don't like).  I had a glass of the apple, mint and chlorophyll, which was wonderfully refreshing.

There were also people walking around with trays of food.  I didn't even bother to check if the sausage rolls were veg but I did have some scones with jam and cream as well as slices such as hedgehog and lemon slice (cut up into mercifully small squares).  I was curious to know where they were from and asked one of the waiters.  It was provided by Green Refectory.

Which is perhaps why I thought to go just a few doors along to the Green Refectory pop up cafe.  The original Green Refectory is a bit further down Sydney Rd and is always busy and full of nice baked goods.  The pop up (which the waiter told me had been there for a year despite originally being planned for just 12 weeks) likewise had a tempting array of food.

What really excited me was that they had vegan sausage rolls.  I asked what was in them and was told they had tofu and nuts.  It sounded promising.  Regular readers probably know I love vegetarian sausage rolls and make them at home often.  However it is hard to find a good one when out and about.  So I was pretty excited by these vegan sausage rolls.  They were really good.  I agree with the waiter that when the weather gets better it will be lovely to buy a takeaway sausage roll to eat in the new Wilson Avenue public space.

On the way home we stopped in at the St Vincent de Paul op shop around the corner.  It is a fairly upmarket charity shop with lots of quality goods but not many bargains.  Despite this, or perhaps because of it, we left with a few purchases.

All in all we had a great time of it.  Great music, great fun, great food and great to catch up with friends.

Green Refectory pop up cafe
99 Sydney Road, Brunswick
03 9387 1150

Tea Towels III

Continuing my occasional series of tea towels, here is the third installment with some of the tea towels we have bought on holiday or been given.  As E's mother in Scotland had a great collection of tea towels, it is fitting that many of our tea towels are from Scotland.

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, 2011

Adelaide

Downton Abbey (a freebie with a DVD we bought)

Marks and Spencer tea towel

New Zealand

50th anniversary of the Australian Breastfeeding Association 

(previously the Nursing Mothers Association of Australia), 2014

Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland (featured in The DaVinci Code)

A Scottish tea towel

This is how they say "Keep Calm" in Scotland!

Orange, NSW

Love the design on this Scottish tea towel

Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee 2012

The Willow Tea Rooms (designed by Charles Rennie Macintosh), 

Glasgow, Scotland

Yet another Scottish tea towel

I love the architectural drawings of all those beautiful Edinburgh buildings

To see more, go to my first and second post on my tea towels.

In My Kitchen August 2015 (recipe testing and apple pie)

August seems to find me busier offline than ever.  Which means my blogging energy is on the wane.  Don't worry!  I am not about to give it up!  I just am finding it tough with not enough natural light in a cold dark winter in the first year that it is really mattering to me since I started blogging.  I have borrowed a light box from my brother but need to find time to work out how to use it.  I am still trying to sort out the space issues with photos on my computer, as well as being kept busy with a whole host of other activities.  Including recipe testing which is taking some of my blogging energy.  Then there are the recipes that just aren't ready for a full post!  Like the apple pie that needs further work.

Let me start this month's peek into my kitchen with a taster of my recipe testing.  I was so excited that one of the recipes for the cookbook by Leigh Drew that I got to test was a batch of vegan cheeseymite scrolls.  They were so good.  Sylvia ate one when it was warm and then refused to eat them once cooled on the grounds that they were "too vegany".  I was so in love with them I could have cried when they were all gone.

I was intrigued at a Kraft version of Nutella.  We all loved it.  E thought it superior to Nutella.  I found that it could be eaten from the spoon.  Sylvia was impressed at adding it to a smoothie.

Recipe testing has had me looking out all sorts of equipment I don't usually use.  I have purchased a new frypan that can go from stovetop to oven.  However I didn't buy pie tins because I have this motley assortment of pin tins from my late maternal grandmother.  I photographed them with a 20cm cake tin beside them to show just how little and cute they are.

Lime spiders are a Christmas tradition in my family.  So when I saw this lime spider soft drink sentimentality gave way to pester power and I bought it for Sylvia to share with her friends at our Christmas in July lunch.  I had a small taste and it was just sweet lemonade without any of the fun or fizz of a spider. 

Another disappointment in the kitchen was this vegetarian jelly.  I am not a huge fan of jelly but Sylvia loves it.  So during a kitchen clear out I found this packet that was best by 2010.  I mixed it up and it never set properly.  Unfortunately because it was so many years out of date I am not sure if that was the problem and I wonder if I should buy more to check.  Sylvia loved eating the swampy jelly and would be happy to test taste!

Not all has been awry in my kitchen.  This packet of Sakata Roast Tomato and Balsamic rice crackers was bought on the recommendation of Kari in her July In My Kitchen post.  We consume a lot of rice crackers here, mostly seaweed.  Kari said that these are her favourite so I wanted to try them.  Sylvia and I were most impressed.  They are part salt and vinegar and part bbq and 100% delicious.

I am not a connoisseur of olive oil.  I love the stuff but don't use a lot in recipes.  However I do love to support a local company.  So while I was entertained by the label on this bottle, the clincher was that the company's address was close to where I live.  Then I was disappointed to read their website and find it full of marketing guff without any real information about the company.  I am yet to open the bottle so I can't tell you much more about the actual oil but it does have a cute photo on the label!

A few weeks ago I had a friend of Sylvia's over and made this tart while they played.  It was a triumph of leftovers.  Pastry that was clogging the freezer, the remainder of a vegan cheese sauce, some cherry tomatoes on the turn, and some leftover sun dried tomato butter.  I fried the tomatoes in the butter til soft and most of the liquid was absorbed and baked them on the cheese and pastry.  It was delicious and was a good snack for the kids.  I think Sylvia preferred the crusts!

It is the time of year when fresh fruit is not at its best (though I bought 3 punnets of strawberries for $6 today) so we have been having lots of smoothies.  I really enjoyed this peach nectar in a smoothie with banana, orange, strawberries, passionfruit and soy milk.

On the weekend I made overnight sourdough bread but it was too cold for it to rise enough to be ready to bake by lunchtime.  Instead I bought some zaatar pizzas from Zaatar on the way home and filled mine with hummus and vegies.  E had Sriracha on his which is his new favourite hot sauce.  The price of the pizzas has risen from $1 to $1.30 but it still makes for a cheap and delicious lunch.

Finally I want to reflect on our meal on Saturday night.  I thought I would make something simple for the main course so I could make apple pie.  It still took me from 4.30 to 7.30 to make dinner.  To be fair, I did spend time speaking to my mum on the phone, getting Sylvia's dinner, breaking the sugar container, and generally organising other things around the house while I made dinner.  There is no such thing as making dinner with no distractions at my house.

Above is a capsicum that I chargrilled over the gas flame because it seemed quicker than roasting it.  I was following a recipe from Ottolenghi for Marinated peppers with pecorino.  I wasn't too impressed with this dish because the marinade was too garlicky.  However I changed so much - chargrilling, no watercress, less cheese and less herbs - that I don't hold Ottolenghi responsible.  I still have some marinated peppers to use in another dish.

I had some shortcrust pastry in the freezer so I decided a pie would be easy as stewing them is pretty straight forward.  However chopping up the apples took quite a while.  I stewed up about 8 granny smith apples (give or take what Sylvia could swipe from the chopping board) with 1/4 cup castor sugar, 1 tbsp brown sugar, a shake of cinnamon and juice of half a lemon.  I cooked them until mostly soft and they then cooked to a lovely soft filling in the pie, though I wondered if they should have had held their shape.

I had decided to serve the marinated peppers with fresh bread, brussels sprouts and tofu besan omelet.  The omelet was meant to be a matter of quickly whizzing up ingredients but as I used a firm tofu instead of a soft one, I found myself having to add lots of milk to reach the right creamy consistency.  Then there was more mixture than usual and it stuck to the bottom of the frypan.  Usually my omelet slides out like a golden disc but this one was a mess on the plate.  It still tasted lovely and the leftovers were eaten in a sandwich and then on mee goreng.  In hindsight scrambled besan would have been quicker.

For dessert we had a slice of apple pie.  The filling was lovely but the pastry was not quite right.  I think part of the problem was that I was using supermarket pastry rather than making my own.  I had some pastry scraps that I rolled out but you can see they were still quite thick on the bottom.  I prebaked the bottom for about 10 minutes which shrunk from the edges and then I couldn't pinch together the top and bottom around the edges.  Brushing the top with milk and sprinkling with sugar was good as the pastry was not sweet.  I baked it for about 40 minutes at 180 C which I think was right and might have been ok if I had not prebaked the bottom.  More experiments are required.  (Hence my recipe notes here to refer back to.)

I had asked E to buy ice cream for the pie because I knew he and Sylvia would like this.  He was in a rush and bought chocolate orange ice cream.  It wasn't what I would have chosen but they enjoyed it.

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. Celia usually has the links to other In My Kitchen posts on her side bar but she has some other pressing issues this month and has asked us to scroll down the comments to find links.

Don Don, ACMI and Blur

Last year I met with some former colleagues for lunch at Don Don.  I think I might have been there many years ago with some friends from our travels who absolutely raved about the place.  Since then E and I have been there for a few quick and cheap dinners before going out, the last one being last week before seeing Blur.

Before Sylvia was born, we were fans of Gopals for its quick and cheap food.  If you don't want any choice about your meal then Don Don is every bit as quick and cheap, maybe more.  I have been enjoying it but it is not all vegetarian like Gopals.  The menu is small.  Vegetarians have a choice of tofu curry don, soba salad and miso soup.  I have stuck with the tofu curry don which is a bargain at $5.90. 

It is indeed cheap and cheerful with plastic bowls and spoons.  The tofu curry don consists of lots of rice and Japanese curry sauce with tofu, a token vegetable (I have had zucchini and cauliflower) and some pickled vegies.  The meal is pretty basic and not as generous with vegies as I would prefer.  But for the price it is a decent feed.

After dinner we had enough time to go to ACMI Cafe for coffee and cake.  It is some time since we have been there.  When Sylvia was a baby and went where we went, we visited quite a bit.  (Unlike these days when we go where she goes!)  So I couldn't help looking out at the highchairs and space for strollers to see that it is still very child friendly.  I suspect that Sylvia would love the booths that are new since our last visit.

E had a coffee with a very nice biscuit.  The range of herbal teas was too limited for my tastes so I had a ginger beer with a slice of warm chocolate mud cake with lots of lovely gooey ganache on top.

The main event was the Blur concert at the Rod Laver Arena.  I didn't take a lot of notice of Blur when they were at the height of their fame but I have great memories of dancing to their music in nightclubs and of spending time with friends in London who were the sort of fans who lived for backstage passes to Blur gigs.  The band is also a sentimental favourite because one of the CDs that E bought when we were first going out was a Blur EP.

When E and I left the concert we turned to one another and said, wow that was so much better that I expected.  It was a fantastic concert.  Even sitting up the back, we were immersed in the energy of this amazing band, though shielding our eyes from the intense light show at times.  Their songs are beautiful and moody and cheeky and fun.  The band members are such fascinating people.  (Did you know that the drummer is a practicing criminal lawyer, a computer animator and a political activist?)  It was their first gig in Melbourne for 18 years and I am so glad we were there because who knows when their next gig will be.

Don Don
198 Little Lonsdale Street, CBD, Melbourne
Tel: 03 9670 7113

Paneer tikka masala and Spinach and chickpea curry

It was the end of a busy week during the school holidays.  I was late making dinner, E was late home and Sylvia was late to watch her film.  She bore it well, ate beans on toast while I chopped and fried and stirred.  She complained about the noise of the paneer frying and then snuggled up with us on the couch to watch How to train your dragon.

I had been meaning to make the Paneer Tikka Masala for some time.  At the start of the week I had made dahl to eat with the masala.  It took me a week to find time to make the masala so fortunately we had the big pot of dahl to tide us.  By the end of the week I still had some left. It made a fine accompaniment to the masala.

The masala seemed to last a long time.  I made a cauliflower in spicy peanut gravy (with cashews instead of peanuts and peas instead of the leafy greens) that I had made years ago and it was really nice but very grey.  I made the sauce in my high speed blender which made it smoother than my previous attempt. 

A night or two later I made another curry with spinach and chickpeas.  The recipe methodology needed some slight tweaking to work for me so.  However it was a great simple fast recipe that I hope to make again.  I particularly like that it uses lots of chickpeas for those on the aquafaba bandwagon.

I was very pleased to have three curries to serve together.  I love lots of curries but only manage to make them on different nights.  However by the time I had eaten the spinach and chickpea curry over a few nights I had had my fill of curries.  I blended the leftovers with some vegies to make a very good soup.

I am sending the Paneer tikka masala to Gluten Free Fridays and the Spinach and chickpea curry to Healthy Vegan Fridays.

More curries from Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Banana Curry (gf, v)
Beetroot, Greens and Chickpea Curry (gf. v)
Chana Masala (gf, v)
Chickpea and potato curry with mango chutney (gf, v)
Chickpeas and paneer in a spicy creamy cashew gravy (gf)
Spicy pea curry (gf, v)
Watermelon Curry (gf, v)

Paneer Tikka Masala
Slightly adapted from Ivy, Phyllis and Me
Serves 6

4-5 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of sweet paprika
1 tablespoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of chilli paste
3-4 tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
400g tin of tomatoes or 3 fresh large tomatoes
500ml vegetable stock (or less)
600g paneer cheese, cut into cubes
1 tsp of salt

Brown onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan.  Stir the ginger and garlic in for 1 minute.  Stir in the spices to make a paste.  Gradually stir in the yoghurt and then then tin of tomatoes.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the stock and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes.  It should reduce thought mine didn't that much.  (However once it had sat for an hour or two it thickened a lot.)

While tomato mixture is simmering, fry paneer in remaining oil over medium high heat until golden brown.  I did this in two batches.

Mix tomato mixture, fried paneer and salt.  Cook another 2 to 3 minutes and serve with rice or naan bread.

Spinach and chickpea curry
Adapted from BBC Good Food
Serves 4-6

1 tsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp mild curry paste (I used Rogan Josh)
400g tin of tomatoes
2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
250g baby spinach
squeeze lemon juice
basmati rice, to serve

Fry the onion in oil until soft.  Stir in curry paste for a minute or two.  Add tomatoes and chickpeas.  Cook on medium to medium high for about 5 minutes until thicken slightly. Add spinach and cover for about a minute or two until it is wilting.  Stir in seasoning and lemon juice.  Serve with rice.

On the stereo:
Melt: Straightjacket Fits