Friday, June 29, 2007

The last of the Catch-up posts

More food!

Pot pie. Steamed veggies, smothered in vegemite gravy, baked in crust.


Some recipes from The Alternative Vegan. Sorry for the bad photo, I didn't take it :) On the black plate, starting at the top, Asian-roasted potatoes, which are super easy to make. Toss potatoes with sesame oil and sesame seeds (I also used a bit of paprika), put in the oven, then toss with vinegar. Next to it are two pieces of herby flat bread. Then at the bottom, a variation on Dino's 'QUICK Garbanzo Soup'. I added spinach, and left out the water so it wasn't soupy.
Some farmer's market bounty. Even though it's been freezing here (14C/58F inside my house this morning!), it is the prime season for produce. We got all this, and lots more, for less than $20.

A unique find from the market this week. Jaboticaba, or tree grapes. They grow on the bark of the tree; the farmer selling them showed us a photo and it looks so cool! They smell like red wine and taste like grape juice. The skin is quite thick and a little bitter, so we sucked out the insides and spat out the seeds. (We've also eaten dairy-free Jaboticaba ice cream, from Frosty Mango. Yummy!)
This mandarin was so fresh, it still had the tree attached to it!

Another recipe from Alternative Vegan. I call this one Eggplant Version 1.5, because it was a combination of Dino's 'Version 1' and 'Version 2'. Spicy, tomatoey eggplant on rice, topped with fresh thai basil.
A mushroom, spinach, and rocket risotto.
Pierogies, Poland's answer to ravioli. These are not super traditional, as they are filled with mashed potatoes, diced tomatoes, and a crazy mix of herbs and spices (some even had sweet chilli sauce inside!). Andy made a big batch a few weeks ago and stuck 2 meals' worth in the freezer. For a quick dinner, we thawed them out, and sauteed them with onions and purple cabbage.
Apple-cinnamon french toast. Or something like that. This recipe was loosely based on the recipe from Vegan Planet, but it turned out horribly. The batter was too thick, and the bread got mushy and stuck to the pan every stinkin' time. I blame Andy's variations rather than the original recipe. The topping was nice though!
Veggie hot dogs, pre-tomato sauce. I was jonesin' for some hot dogs and baked beans, so we picked up these Sanitarium dogs from Cole's.
Served with Old Fashioned Baked Beans, from Vegan Planet. These turned out way too saucy, probably because of something I did. I used tomato soup instead of puree, and added BBQ sauce instead of molasses. Maybe that led to the screw up?
Hot dogs and baked beans was followed up with apple cobbler, served hot with vanilla So Delicious ice cream.

I think those are all the pictures from the camera, so you can expect shorter posts from now on!


PS--Check out Veganista, a new Australian vegan blogger.

9 comments:

Amy said...

Tee hee - first comment!!!

Food looks amazing - what are Pierogies - and recipe puhleeze???

14 degrees=cold? We had a minus 1 morning here in Brisbane last week. I'm sick of the cold, I want a 25 degree day NOW!!!

Great to see so much fabulous food!

Anna said...

Hi Theresa--thanks so much for the mention. This all looks delish...vegan pot pie, gotta try that sometime. And it's great to discover an American who can appreciate vegemite. I've been trying to convince my hubby it's good stuff in limited quantities, but he hasn't come round yet...

Amy said...

Pierogies recipe!!! I need it now! (PLEASE!!) they sound amazing!!!

Yup, cold here too! I think it got to 10 C today :D It was hot enough to take your jumper off compared to the last week ;)

Errrm did you check the vege dog ingredients? Most of the sanitarium stuff has egg white but I'm not sure about those (I'm gathering they're soy protein?)

Love the food. It all looks delicious!

bazu said...

Everything sounds so fantastic! I want pierogies and apple cobbler and... everything... right now! I'm just now catching up to everyones' blogs- I've missed you!

Amy said...

Wow--yum! I am envious of your cheap veggie haul. I just paid $10US for a large bag of cherries which aren't even that tasty. (But I did also get 2 pints of delicious blueberries for $4.)

MeloMeals said...

I enjoy vegemite.. it really adds something delicious to soups and gravies..

Stay warm! All the food looks great..

KleoPatra said...

i have never had a pot pie. i would love a taste of that. Does a little Vegemite go a long way? i have had it but it's been years and i remember i didn't fancy it... i think i had too much at one time.

i have had pierogies and like 'em a lot. Yours must have been so good!

Your market buys are groovy. Look at all that good stuff even in inclement weather in your part of this big ol' world. i'd never even heard of tree grapes before... pretty cool, even if the outsides had to be spit out to get the good stuff!

i'll send some San Diego sunshine your way...

urban vegan said...

That's it. I'm moving to Australia.

Theresa said...

Pierogies are like polish ravioli, usually filled with potatoes and/or cabbage. There is a recipe in Vegan Planet, if you can get ahold of it. Basically the dough is flour, water, oil and salt. Then you roll that out and fill it with mashed potatoes (to which we usually add other chopped veggies and spices) and seal, then boil quickly, then fry up to make them crispy. They're so time consuming, but really worth it, especially if you make a big batch and freeze some for later.

vegetation--I checked and double checked, and there were no egg whites, but yes, lots of soy protein. :(

kleo--a teensy bit of vegemite goes so far! I used about 1 T. for 2 or 3 cups of gravy, and it was plenty! Australian Andy puts that much on one piece of toast, because he *loves* the stuff, but I use much less. Good for vitamin B, though!