Mango Trifle from the ground up

One of our December holiday "traditions" is to make trifle. We don't do it every year, and sometimes we make trifle outside of December, which is why I've put "tradition" in bunny quotes. But, we've had trifle a few times at Christmas, and we like it a lot.

This year we had an idea (okay, we saw it on Better Homes & Gardens) to put mango into trifle. We've got mangoes up the wazoo, so I decided to create a tropical trifle for Christmas this year. And I had an opportunity to pre-test it when I was asked to bring dessert to dinner at a friend's house.

Only trouble is, it was in the mid-high-30s, Celsius - and humid - the week I was due to make the pre-test trifle. So I didn't want to put on the oven to make a cake for the bottom layer. And since vegan cakes aren't so easy to find in Townsville, I couldn't take the storebought cheater's way out. I contemplated, and considered, and was finally struck with inspiration - pancakes! They are basically just like cake, and don't involve the oven. Since I cut up the cake layer of the trifle into chunks anyways, why not use pancakes?

So here is how we constructed our tropical trifle, from the bottom layer right up to the top.

Ground floor. Make a batch of pancakes. This can be done ahead of time. I needed 8 pancakes which were about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. When you're ready to build the trifle, sandwich two pancakes together with jam (mango, obviously). Cut them into squares and put in the bottom of the trifle bowl (we use a deep-ish glass baking dish). Sprinkle with a weensy bit (or a lot) of cointreau, or use some other kind of booze.

First floor. Cut the cheeks off of two mangoes, and cut them into chunks. Put these on top of the pancakes.  Give the trifle bowl a good shake to settle everything in together.

Second floor. Now, make some jelly. If you have an easy source of tropical-ish flavoured vegan jelly, lucky you! We don't. So I made some pineapple jelly using a tin of crushed pineapple and about 2 tablespoons of agar flakes. Soak the agar in just enough water to cover, and meanwhile boil the pineapple, juice & all, for 3 or 4 minutes. Tip in the agar and keep it boiling for another 5 or 10 minutes, until the agar fully dissolves. You can check whether the agar has worked by dipping a spoon into the pan and then sticking it in the fridge for a minute. It should set up obviously - if not, add more agar (I had to, I think because the acidity of the pineapple).  Pour this over the mango, and again give it a good shake to let it settle into the cracks.

The tinned pineapple resulted in a layer of juice-jelly settling around the pancakes, and a layer of fruit-jelly sitting on top of the mango. I kinda dug it this way, but Andy's mum & grandma & aunties all set the jelly in a separate pan, break it up with a fork, and then put it on top of the fruit, so I will do it this way for the Christmas trifle.

Third floor. When the jelly has cooled a touch, add a sliced banana. Or whatever other tropical fruit you have and like.

Penthouse. Make custard. I used the recipe from Joy of Vegan Baking, with a few alterations. In a jug, mix 1/3 c. raw sugar, 2 T. plain flour, and 4 T. corn flour (corn starch). Open a 400ml can of coconut cream (sold as, I believe, coconut milk in the US - cream of coconut is something else involving sweet). Whisk about 1/4 c. of the coconut cream into the sugar until smooooooth. Heat up the rest of the tin of coconut cream, plus a smidge of water to rinse the can, over medium-low heat. When it's at a simmer, tip about 1/2 c. of the hot coconut milk into the jug, and whisk again until smooth, then tip all of that into the pan. Cook and whisk constantly until it's nice and thick, and then turn off the heat and whisk hard for 30 seconds. Then pour, gently (don't want to mess up those carefully placed bananas!) onto the top of the trifle.  Smooth the top, cover with cling wrap, and chill.

Admire the layers. Add toasted coconut on top, if you can be bothered. Or don't. Consume.

Run Wild...

For our last day in Ireland, we let ourselves be talked into going on a tour of County Wicklow, south of Dublin. The couple we stayed with in Dublin said it was a gorgeous area, and other guests they have had really loved the Wild Wicklow tour. It was a bit more spendy than we loved, but we figured it would be the best way to get out of Dublin and see a bit of Irish countryside in a more exciting way than just getting the train to a small town nearby and poking around a bit.

Andy and I had never been on an organised tour before this, but then again, we had never been on holidays overseas either - most of our travel is either within driving distance of Townsville or work-related. So our lack of going On Tour is partially based on snobbery and partially based on lack of opportunity.And while we didn't love the groupiness of the tour, and the constant chatter of being on a tour, we did really appreciate getting shown around and seeing things that, if we had taken a self-drive option, would likely have been completely outside of our radar. So my review of the tour itself is tempered with that appreciation, despite the four annoying Kentucky tourists who we couldn't seem to get away from.

The day started with a trip to the seaside part of Dublin. We stopped for a few minutes at DunLaoghaire Harbour - pronounced "Dun Leery" and apparently mispronounced by Hilary Swank in the film P.S. I love you, which I haven't seen.

We drove past gates that apparently protect the homes of Ireland's rich and famous - Bono and Enya, before being let off the bus for nearly an hour at a very expensive shop/cafe. I find shopping terribly boring and neither Andy nor I wanted coffee, so we amused ourselves in the garden, instead.

Back on the bus, we drove up into the mountain range and stopped to admire the peat, covered in remnants of heather, and the mountain lakes.

We drove a bit further on and had a whiskey overlooking Lough Tay, known colloquially as Guinness Lake - part of the estate of the Guinness family, the most recent resident of whom had sand shipped from California to make a beach, also transforming the brown peaty water lake into the spitting image of a pint of guinness.

We stopped for lunch at a "traditional Irish pub", which must cater to hundreds of tour-participants a day. I had some veggie soup, which was meh. It started raining while we ate. It was still raining when we got to Glendalough, which was a shame, because I would have liked to spend lots of time looking around.

The site has been a monastic settlement since about 600AD, and this round tower was built before the 12th Century.

According to our tour guide, who may not be an academically rigorous source of information, Ireland's round towers inspired the Brothers Grimm to write their story Rapunzel.

Also on the site are some old churchy ruins.

And a sprawling cemetery.

Our last stop was the Upper Lake at Glendalough.

The swans are friendly (hungry).

Andy touched the water, as he does.

And we walked up to a pretty waterfall.

And were blinded by how green everything is - so many shades of green.

The emerald isle indeed.

Dirty Dublin

I can't believe I've been home for six weeks and am still posting about travel, and only up to the halfway point! Here's a post about our next destination: Dublin.

After some beautiful weather in Scotland, we were a bit dismayed to be rained on, heavily, for almost the whole time we were in Ireland. We were also dismayed at how expensive everything is. But, there was lots of pretty stuff, our accommodation was great, and we happened upon some exciting veg food finds.

On our first full day in Dublin, it was cloudy but not yet raining. So we did lots of wandering around (continuing to get lost, despite having maps, and having street signs in english, and whatnot). We poked our heads into Dublin Castle and found they were giving free tours, because one part of the castle was closed to visitors. So we said 'yes please!' and had a tour through the central courtyard, which was central to the Easter Rising in 1916.

We looked at the remaining tower, and went into the underground bit where we saw lots of archaeological evidence that showed the occupation of this site since Viking times.

We went into the chapel, which isn't used any more, but is still really gorgeous.

We checked out the really old Church of Audoen, which had gravestones for the floor - a slightly creepy idea, but kind of cool in terms of the history of the place, too.

There were other churches that cost money to get into, so we skipped them. And there was the Jameson Whiskey Museum, and the Guinness Factory, both of which were also too expensive. So we skipped them, looked around Trinity College and Temple Bar, drank pints in pubs, and went to some free museums. These were especially useful when the downpour started.

Trinity College, founded in 1592.

As a result, there aren't quite so many photos from Dublin. But the museums were cool - one about military history, with lots of attention paid to the fight for independence from Britain; one about archaeology, with bog men and medieval religious artefacts and gold; and one about 'natural history', which is referred to by locals as the 'dead zoo' because it is just a vast collection of taxidermied animals.

Food-wise, we did eat plenty of hummus and bread, and chips, and other thrifty meals.  I forgot to take my camera out at Juice, where we had a two-course lunch for €8.95 each. I had nori maki for a starter, which was good but small. Andy started with pitta and crudites with olive tapenade, which was plentiful and delicious. We shared, of course. Then for our mains, I had the bean casserole of the day, which turned out to be green lentils, veggies, and a tomato-coconut curry sauce. With brown rice. Andy had corn fritters, which were not vegan and not big enough for him. Luckily this time my meal was big and heaping, so I shared.  Go to Juice if you are in Dublin, it is good.  

I did take photos at Cornucopia, which turned out to be a cafeteria-style place where you ordered one main and two salads, which were dished out onto your plate from a big pan. Andy found this deeply disappointing, and he talked for days about how much he didn't love it. I thought the food was good, and we got loads of it, so I was happy.

I ate some kind of tempeh stew on rice, with salads of garlic potatoes with roast hazelnuts in vegan mayonnaise, and broccoli couscous something or other.

 
Andy had an eggplant bake sort of thing, with a noodle salad and some other bean-y vegetable salad. One of the reasons I suspect he was unhappy with it is because he ordered wrong - I should have been generous and swapped plates, but those garlic potatoes were just so yummy.

Sweet Chilli Tofu

A few weeks ago, Andy and I were perusing the shelves at our local grocery store when we happened upon an intense mark-down. Singapore sweet chili-marinated tofu steaks. Normally more expensive than we are willing to spend. Reduced to 20 flipping cents.

We couldn't resist, as we can't whenever we see something reduced to 20 cents, and we bought the whole lot.

Now we have a freezer full of tofu which is pretty tasty, and makes an easy addition to a meal.  It just needs to be heated up quickly in a frying pan, and it goes wonderfully with veggies.

It's a good add-in to a stir fry.

 And if you cook it on hot enough heat, it sort of caramelizes, making the perfect accompaniment to pan-fried potatoes and mushrooms.

Now, we just have 15 or so more to get through!

Around the world in... Statues

We saw loads of statues on our trip round the globe.  Here's a few of the ones that struck my fancy enough to take a photo. (Click to see bigger photos.)

Is it just me, or does this Boy Scout statue in Washington DC seem a little inappropriate?  Small child, two scantily clad adults... One holding flames in her bare hand - ouch!

At the base of the Big Buddha, on Lantau Island, twelve Chinese warriors like this one had different hats on.  This one's hat is a bunny rabbit.

Though technically not a statue, this eagle pulpit in a Dublin church was cool enough for Andy to specifically request a photo.

In NYC's financial district, there are mushrooms growing.

In Central Park, some eagles attack a goat.  Anyone know what this one is about? I'm really stumped as to the symbolism...

Philadelphia, the city of statues, brought us this giant clothes peg...

A bit of love...

A lightning bolt, key, and kite in honour of old Ben Franklin...

A chunky guy in a suit...

Some board game pieces...

And... whatever this is.

In Scotland, we were a bit scandalised by this creation, outside the Kirk of the HolyRood (Church of the Holy Cross) in Edinburgh. Photos don't really do this justice: it is a goat, with horns draped over a man's naked ass, while the man cuddles a lion.