Green Gourmet Giraffe

Friday, 8 July 2016

Aboriignal Street Art in Melbourne (2) for NAIDOC Week 2016

If you go on the NAIDOC March today you will probably at some stage hear someone chant, "always was, always will be Aboriginal land". A lot of the time, there are so few reminders that we are on Aboriginal land that it saddens me. Occasionally I am gladdened by the sight of Aboriginal inspired street art. Today to celebrate NAIDOC week I am sharing some photos of Aboriginal street art around the inner north of Melbourne.

The above photo is from the Upfield train line near Bakers Road.

I am not sure if this giant statue of Bunjil the Eagle that watches over Wurundjeri Way is street art but it is public art. And it is important art in the centre of Melbourne, reminding us that we are on the land of the Wurundjeri people.

A side of a shop in North Carlton

A signal box in Thornbury.

Building in Hosier Land in the CBD

An impressive mural on St George's Road, Thornbury. Unfortunately it is such a busy road that it is hard to take in all the details which tell of the history of Aboriginal people.

Here are some close ups of the mural. You can read more about the mural which is owned by the Aboriginal Advancement League on the Northcote Koori Mural Wikipedia page.

You can see more Aboriginal street art photos and also see my Aboriginal flag cake that I made this week.

Wednesday, 6 July 2016

Aboriginal flag cake for NAIDOC Week

It is NAIDOC Week in Australia. The name comes from 'National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee' when moves were made to have a public holiday to celebrate Indigenous culture in Australia. Now we have a week of celebrations. This year I decided to make an Aboriginal flag cake to observe the week.

NAIDOC Week heralds a variety of events including flag raising ceremonies, talks, family days and a march. We don't often get along to many events but I like to go to a local neighbourhood house for craft. Above is a selection of some of the Aboriginal flags from the craft session.

I made the cake the day before with Sylvia and her friend who was over for a play date. They were great at helping to measure and mix all the ingredients. As only small children can be! I iced the cake and left it overnight with a tea towel over it. The next day I went to the supermarket seeking inspiration for the cake. Initially I had decided to pipe dots of icing until I worried about making a black icing. I had thought of using smarties but then I would have so many lollies leftover.

At the supermarket I found red and black liquorice. Back home I hunted through my cupboards and found a bag of lollies I rescued out of the Minion pinata from earlier in the year. Yes! I still had some pineapple liquorice for the sun. It does pay to keep old lollies in the back of the cupboards!

I used strips of liquorice to outline the flag. This made it much easier to colour in. Then Sylvia helped me chop the liquorice into dots to use to fill in each space. I had initially thought they might look like Aboriginal dot painting but the liquorice had ridged that made it look more like the sea of hands that was planted outside Parliament House in Canberra to mobilise non-Indigenous support for reconciliation.

For those of you not familiar with the Australian Aboriginal flag, the black represents the Aboriginal people, the yellow represents the sun which gives life, and the red represents the ochre of the earth and the Aboriginal people's relationship with the land.

The cake that we made was a Butterless Butter Cake that I have made previously. I doubled the recipe and used aquafaba instead of egg yolks. It is more my sort of cake than the Victoria Sponge we made recently but any cake would do. I am very pleased to have made this large cake. We will eat some of it at home but I have plans for some of the cake that I will share soon.

Meanwhile to quote poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, "to our children's children, the glad tomorrow".

More posts on Aboriginal people on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Aboriignal Street Art in Melbourne (2) for NAIDOC Week
Choc almond slice and Koorioberee
Porridgies, children's books, racism and recognition
Reconciliation damper, snags and dead horse
Street Art in Melbourne #6 Aboriginal art for Sorry Day
Walnut hedgehog and a museum visit (including Bunjillaka)

Butterless butter cake
Adapted from Have Your Cake via Green Gourmet Giraffe

4 eggs
6 tbsp aquafaba (or 2 egg yolks)
1 1/2 cup rice bran oil (or other neutral oil)
1 cup honey*
1 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 1/2 cup white plain flour
2/3 cup desiccated coconut
6 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and line a lamington tin (9 x 13 inch) and 3 cupcake holes.

Beat eggs, aquafaba (if using) and oil until creamy (I used electric beaters). Beat in honey until well combined. Add in orange juice and vanilla essence. Gently stir in dry ingredients.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and cupcake cups. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave in tin for about 20 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.

NOTES: To make this cake into an Aboriginal flag cake, cover with buttercream, use liquorice strips to outline the areas of the flag and then fill in each part with chopped liquorice (black, raspberry and pineapple). *This cake is really sweet - I might be tempted to halve the honey next time, though it gives a lovely flavour to the cake.

On the Stereo:
Costello Music: The Fratellis

Tuesday, 5 July 2016

In My Kitchen: July 2016

July finds us in the middle of the school holidays, with the fallout from the Brexit poll in the UK and waiting for a government to be formed in Australia in the wake of a tight federal election. I think I am ready for a break!!! But let us not dwell on the upheaval. Instead we can cheer ourselves up by peeking into my kitchen to see what good food and fun stuff has been on offer lately.

Above are some Sakata rice crackers. Sylvia loves the seaweed variety and they are often in our kitchen. Lately Sakata have been offering a couple of new varieties that we have enjoyed: We have enjoyed the Sweet and Sour but we really love Coconut, Thai Basil and Lime. It tastes like a Thai curry in a cracker.

It has been a while since we have had new oven mitts. The old ones have many stains and spills that tell of many hot dishes coming out of my oven. I bought these oven mitts on my travels in March in Scotland and Paris. They are so clean and bright.

I spied this Manchego cheese at the supermarket. I have read of it in recipes and was interested to try it. It melted magnificently but I found it has animal rennet in it - oops (and from an online search it seems that most manchego is not vegetarian).

I am continuing to make overnight sourdough bread using my new roaster. I like it so much that I have ordered a second roaster. Last week the batteries on my scales gave up while I was weighing the flour for sourdough bread. The dough ended up being a lot more sticky than usual. Instead of despairing, I checked out Celia's high hydration overnight sourdough bread for some guidance in handling such a sticky dough. The resulting bread was a little sticky but it lasted for a few days much better than my usual bread.

I made a pumpkin soup for lunch recently. I drizzled a bit of truffle oil on top but it was more than I intended. Despite this I enjoyed it with some cheese on toast.

My garden is a bit scraggly right now. It is winter and I haven't given it much attention since getting home from Scotland in April. The rosemary is particularly threadbare. Yet I can still scrounge together some rosemary, thyme and bay leaves for a bouquet garnet. This one also had parsley from my mum's garden.

As well as giving me parsley, my mum has given me this knife sharpener. It seems more accurate than just using a straight sharpening steel but does not fit so neatly into my kitchen. I hope it will mean sharper knifes!

I made Ricki Heller's vegan sour cream and onion kale chips a couple of years ago when recipe testing for her cookbook. They were brilliant. I made them again recently but I think didn't have enough kale leaves and they were too soggy. Sylvia and her friend Amelie had made kale chips at school and loved them. So they were excited until confronted by these. I must try a simpler version soon.

I wrote about buying apple and sage sausages in May . I kept them in the freezer until last night when I finally cooked them up. They were delicious. I served them with a meal that was a bit of this and a bit of that. I had a little chickpea, potato and tomato stew and rice leftover. I made a mashed potato with truffle oil (delicious) and cooked up some brussel sprouts.

We have been buying Zaatar pizza after gymnastics on a Saturday quite regularly. It is a cheap warming bread that we can fill with hummus and salad vegetables. When my dad and brother came up to put up the cat steps, we pushed the boat out and bought a packet of biscuits. They are not really my sort of biscuits but they were very good. Everyone else loved them.

One week after gymnastics we decided to go to the supermarket instead of Zaatar pizza. This lead to all sorts of temptations. I bought E and myself some Linda McCartney mushroom and ale pies. Sylvia chose Fry's schnitzels. Finally we found what she called "vegetarian meat" in child care and it is all she wants to eat right now. For sweet food we bought some Minion yoghurt and marshmallows (urgh) and a packet of toffee apple Tim Tams (so-so). Lastly we bought some umbrellas which have been very useful in the recent wet weather.

There is no central list of In My Kitchen posts this month. Maureen is taking a much needed break though Francesca has an informal list. It is s sign of how much fun this blog event is that many bloggers are still posting about what's in their kitchen.

Sunday, 3 July 2016

Mini Victoria Sponge Cakes, Birthdays and Elections

We are halfway through the school holidays and it has been a whirlwind of busy times without much down time. Sylvia has had swimming intensive in the mornings and we have had quite a few afternoons where I worked and she went to a holiday program. On Thursday we had a free afternoon at home. Sylvia had been reading her cookbooks and had her heart set on making mini Victoria sponges.

I have made a vegan Victoria sponge cake before. The one Sylvia chose had 4 eggs. Too many for my liking. Yet it is a favourite of E, her Scottish dad. Maybe this sort of cake is in her blood. On both sides of her family. My mum's sponge cakes were light with no butter added but we had this sort of cake that I just called plain cake. Other people call it butter cake, vanilla cake or pound cake.

I often bake with oil or margarine. I can see that it is a good experience to learn some basics of baking. This is the sort of recipe where you watch butter go from bright to pale yellow as you cream butter and sugar. Sylvia helped with reading the recipe, beating, cracking eggs, and decorating.

The main challenge was finding appropriate small cake tins. I have two round ones I got from my grandmother and four small heart shaped tart tins. The round ones were quite high so I sliced these in half. The heart ones were far more shallow and baked quicker. I sandwiched these together in twos. The cakes were quite sturdy with all the butter and easy to handle.

A traditional Victoria sponge is made with equal weights of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. This one had 225g each of butter, sugar, flour (and 220g eggs if you use 55g eggs) but I am more comfortable with the cups measures. It could easily be halved or even quartered to make less mini cakes.

Victoria sponge also has jam with cream or buttercream (always buttercream for E) and is merely topped with a dusting of powdered icing sugar. However I am not much of a traditionalist. I wanted to have fun with icing. I followed the recipe and added 2 cups of icing sugar to the buttercream recipe. It was far too stiff to spread and needed thinning.

Sylvia and I chose a cake each to decorate with buttercream. We filled one cake with jam and buttercream and the others were filled with nutella and buttercream. For fun. On top of the two un-iced cakes, we sifted icing sugar with had a go at using a stencil to sift hot chocolate powder in dots. (This last part was much harder than it sounded.)

We ate the cake for dessert that night. It was yellow and fluffy inside like a proper Victoria sponge. I enjoyed it. Yet I actually prefer the vegan sponge. Or if I had had my druthers I would have made a batch of peppermint patty slice. At least she ate a small bowl of our favourite pilaf for dinner.

The following night we left the remaining Victoria sponges behind to eat dinner in Geelong at the Clarendon Hotel with my family for a couple of birthdays. The cake was this impressive rainbow sponge cake.

I had meant to head home the next morning, especially as it was the day of our national elections and I planned to vote locally. (Voting is compulsory in Australia.) However Sylvia's cousins came over to play and so we stayed. Unfortunately this is the only opportunity we have to catch up with them during the holidays.

So instead I went to the local primary school near my parents' home to vote. Here is the handful of how to vote cards that were pushed into my hand as I walked in. I didn't leave until 35 minutes later after queuing and scratching my head over the huge senate ballot form (38 parties) that was too large to lay flat in the polling booth.

We were home last night in time for tea and to watch the election on the telly. It was a most unsatisfactory night's viewing. The votes were so close that I heard this morning that we might not have a result until Tuesday. Australia has had its fair share of leadership and government changes over the past decade. The world has seen this week how serious the ramifications of a divided party can be. (Brexit!) I still live in hope of a strong and compassionate leader for our country. Unfortunately this year does not seem the year for it.

I am sending this cake to Jibber Jabber for Love Cake which has the theme of Garden Party this month; to The Baking Explorer and Cakeyboi for Treat Petite; and Pebble Soup and Coffee and Vanilla for Inheritance Recipes.

More plain vanilla cakes on Green Gournet Giraffe:
Avocado pound cake with cream cheese frosting
Butterless butter cake
Plain butter cake
Sourdough vanilla sponge cake (v)
Vegan Victoria sponge cake (v)

Mini Victoria Sponge Cakes
From Grandma's Recipes

225g butter
1 cup (225g) castor sugar
4 eggs
2 cups (225g) self raising flour

Filling:
75g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 - 2 cups icing sugar
jam or nutella
icing sugar to dust

Grease and line six to eight 10cm cake tins. Preheat oven to 180 C.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beating after each egg. Gradually beat in the flour. The batter is quite thick. Spoon batter into the prepared tins, smoothing the top of each. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake is golden brown and springs back when touched on top. (I had a couple of thicker cakes that took longer to cook.) Cool on a wire rack.

To fill the cakes, first made the buttercream icing by creaming butter, vanilla and gradually adding icing sugar until you have a thick icing. I had four cakes that were paired up to sandwich together and two cakes that I sliced open and filled. So either pair up cakes or slice them open and spread buttercream on one slice, top with jam or nutella. Sandwich other cake on top. Sieve icing sugar on top (or if you want to be pretty, use leftover buttercream to ice and decorate).

On the Stereo:
Super Trouper: ABBA

Thursday, 30 June 2016

7 Chocolate and Malt recipes - We Should Cocoa #70 round up

This month I had the honour of hosting We Should Cocoa, the long running blog event that challenges bloggers to pair chocolate with a different ingredient each month. I chose MALT because chocolate and malt is such a comforting flavour combination. It reminds me of childhood. I hoped others might also be fond of the combination. Then I got very worried that malt was a bit of a niche ingredient. I was delighted that we got an interesting group of chocolate treats sent in by fellow malt lovers. Without further ado, here they are:

Three ingredient Horlicks (malted milk powder) chocolate pots - Fuss Free Flavours

Firstly we have these magnificently simple Horlicks chocolate pots from Helen of Fuss Free Flavours. They are the perfect indulgent and impressive dessert to finish a dinner party or for that quick chocolate fix. Even more fun with the addition of Horlicks malt powder .

Malted superfood bars with mango and coconut chocolate - Tin and Thyme

Choclette (coordinator of We Should Cocoa) sent in some healthy malted superfood bars with mango and coconut chocolate. These nutritious bars are jam packed with the goodness of nuts, seeds, dried fruit and grains. And just in case you think they are just too healthy to be fun, they are studded with chunks of mango and coconut chocolate. These would be delicious and healthy lunchbox snacks.

Malted loaf with chocolate, fig and brazil nuts - Green Gourmet Giraffe

I too chose to use malt syrup in this malted loaf with chocolate fig and brazil nuts. Using these add-ins made a plain loaf into something quite fancy to impress your friends and family. It was based on a favourite overnight sourdough recipe. If you are not in possession of sourdough starter, I am sure you could use the malt syrup, chocolate, dried figs and brazil nuts in a regular yeasted overnight bread as well.

Vegan oil-free chocolate malt cake - Veganopoulous

Faye of Veganopolous didn't find any vegan malted powder but she used malt syrup to flavour a vegan oil-free chocolate malt cake. I have always been a little wary of using too much malt syrup and was impressed at how much malt syrup she used. It sounds just lovely. Check out how she keeps the moisture in the cake while keeping the oil out.

Chocolate malt pie - Bite Sized Thoughts

Like Faye, Kari looked to malt syrup as a vegan option for this decadent chocolate malt pie. It had a nutty date crust and a chocolate mousse filling which might be the first time that tofu and malt have been paired together. And don't the marshmallows on top look pretty.

Rye rye whisky brownies - The VegHog

The VegHog moved away from malted syrup and powder into the more alcoholic realms of maltiness. She used a favourite whisky to douse these dense chocolately Rye Rye whisky brownies. They sounds really intense and really yummy. With some cream and berries they would make a decadent dessert.

Malted chocolate cake - Mainly Baking

Suelle from Mainly Baking brings up the rear with a malted chocolate cake. She enjoyed the malt and chocolate flavour combination. It looks lovely and dense with chunks of white chocolate. I am sure the white chocolate went well with the Horlicks and malt extract.

So there you have some great ideas for bringing together chocolate and malt, whether it be in powder, syrup or whisky, whether you are after decadence or healthy. And over half the recipes are vegan. Thanks to everyone who sent in recipes and thanks to Choclette for supporting me to host We Should Cocoa.

Head over to Tin and Thyme to find out the theme for We Should Cocoa in July.

Sunday, 26 June 2016

Pumpkin and apricot tangine

The Age newspaper says that we are experiencing a cold snap right now. We are eating lots of soups and stews that last for a few nights. One of these is a pumpkin and apricot tangine that I have had bookmarked for far too long. It was a hearty stew that is perfect for this weather.

Before I tell you about the stew, let me say that it was great to have a weekend without many plans. It opened us up to impromptu activities. Firstly my dad rang to say he and my brother would help with making some cat steps that we had be discussing. Our cat Zinc is getting old (14 years) and sometimes gets up on the fence and seems unsure of getting down. We hope this might help. She seems a bit unsure of the steps but hopefully they will be useful next time she finds herself on the fence. And if not, then I am sure E will appreciate somewhere to put his cuppa.

Today I read chapters of Harry Potter to Sylvia during the day, had a bike ride and took Sylvia's bike for a ride. It has been a while since she has ridden her bike what with one thing and another. I hope we might have some bike riding now that we are into the school holidays. We found that the back tyre was quite flat and took the bike to the petrol station to pump it up. Now she is all set.

Sylvia is quite keen to bake. I hope we might do some baking over the holidays. Our days are already filling up and these days I have to make sure that there is time to just hang out at home. Unfortunately she is not into making dinner, though she is quite good at putting together a platter of bikkies, hummus and vegies.

She is very fond of dried apricots but not in savoury food. I quite like dried apricots in savoury dishes. It was the reason I was initially attracted to this recipe. The apricots contribute to the flavour rather than appear as sharp sweet fruity nuggets of flavour.

Like many stews, I enjoyed this more the second day, though I made more of an effort with garnishes the first day. I wasn't sure I got the seasoning exactly right, because the apricots and pumpkin made it so much sweeter after cooking that it wasn't easy to taste until done when it can be harder to adjust. However the tagine was packed with lots of vegies and lots of flavour that kept us enjoying it across a few nights.

I am sending the tangine to Jac for Meatless Mondays, Kimmy and Mary Ellen for Healthy Vegan Fridays and Corina for Cook Once Eat Twice

More recipes with dried apricot on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Apricot and cheese balls (gf)
Apricot chutney (gf, v)
Apricot delight (gf, v)
Black bean and apricot chilli non carne (gf, v)
Curried red lentil and apricot soup (gf, v)
Dried fruit and coconut balls (gf, v)
'Morroccan' chickpea barley salad (v)
Overnight sourdough fruit bread (v)
Tahini, quinoa and apricot toasted muesli (v)

Pumpkin and apricot tangine
Adapted from Bit of the Good Stuff
serves 6-8

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
500g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into bite size pieces
400g / 14 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tbsp tomato purée
400g / 14 oz can chickpeas, drained
2-3 large leaves kale, destemmed and chopped
16-20 dried apricots, chopped
1 tbsp honey or other sweetener
2 tbsp harissa
1 tsp salt

To serve:
Couscous
Flaked almonds, lightly toasted
Sesame seeds, lightly toasted
Shelled hemp seeds (optional)
Fresh parsley, chopped

Fry onion for about 5 minutes over low heat or until translucent. Add carrot, red capsicum and garlic and fry for another 15 minutes until vegetables are soft. Stir in spices and pumpkin. Cover and sweat for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about an hour. (Note that the seasoning should be tasted at the end rather than the start of simmering because the pumpkin and apricot will release sweetness as it cooks.) Serve on couscous with nuts, seeds and parsley.

On the Stereo:
Sergent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Beatles

Friday, 24 June 2016

My personal vegetarian 100 - the second list

Years ago bloggers were sharing lists of the top 100 foods you must try. Of course it has a lot of meat so I posted my Personal Vegetarian 100 list in 2008. It is time to revisit and update the list. (And why not today when you might just want to take your mind off the Brexit!)

Back in 2008 I thought I had the definitive list of food I had discovered as a new blogger. Now I know that the food trends and discoveries just keep on coming. Eight years on I have a list of a further 100 foods that comfort, fascinate and inspire. It is a mix of popular and quirky with some personalAussie classics thrown in. Many of these were unknown to me back in 2008 though not all. As with my previous list, I have bolded those I have tasted and linked to all I can