Produce - Big and Little

Andy and I have big appetites, so we love our veggies in giant proportions. Our favourite winter veggie in the garden is kale. It's getting to the time of year now that they are full of caterpillars. Andy is still happy to eat them, but I get a little grossed out at the idea. And on the weekend Andy cooked one, and it ended up in my bowl. That put my off my pasta.

But caterpillars aside, we prefer our kale to come in mountains, rather than the tiddly bunches you get in supermarkets.

Kale mountain.

Kale with cauliflower, jacket potatoes and corn cooked on the BBQ, and a tomato and cucumber salad

And when choosing a sweet potato at the market last week, Andy chose this gigantor. That's 2.4 kilos, or 5 pounds, of a single sweet potato.

Sweet potato chips with black bean burgers (recipe from Celebrate Vegan)

But sometimes we don't have as much success. We tried to grow a row of carrots, and they were pretty puny.

Tiddly carrots. We roasted them with Aloo Palak Pie.

And our corn grew really quickly and looked great, but was very small. Tasty, but tiny.

Not done yet. 

BBQ corn with pumpkin, potatoes and carrot, and Chickpea Pumpkin Seed Burgers (recipe from Let them eat vegan!)

The corn and carrots do prove that sometimes the smallest produce are the sweetest and tenderest. But we still love giants.

Winners are grinners

We have a winner, folks. I listed all the eligible commenters in an Excel sheet. Then I used a random number generator to pick a winner. The tech-ish equivalent of choosing a number from a hat. 

And the winner is, Amy, aka Iron Chef Vegan! It appears that trash talking the competition on my Facebook page works - it must have convinced the universe to tell the random number generator to choo-choo-choose her. Amy - I'll facebook ya!

For those of you who didn't win, chin up! I bought the book from thebookdepository.com for pretty cheap. And you can go to the publisher's site for a free recipe - for Aloo Palak Pie. We made this pie the night I posted my giveaway post, and it was delicious. Potato and spinach and spicy Indian flavours - what's not to love? 

We ate the whole pie for dinner, just the two of us - if that doesn't tell you to go make this, I don't know what will!

Congratulations to Amy and thanks to everyone who commented and shared!
Note: I was not paid or perked in any way for the giveaway - my glowing reviews are all genuine!

Cookbook Review... and Giveaway!

In keeping with my recent posts about cookbooks, I have another new cookbook to tell you all about - and give you a copy of. This one, Pies and Tarts with Heart, is by Dynise Balcavage. You may know her as the Urban Vegan from her blog, twitter account, or Facebook page. I know her as my favourite cookbook author (maybe tied with Dreena Burton, though I'm basing my love of Dynise's work on three cookbooks compared to the one of Dreena's I have). She's also one of the two people who have read and commented on my blog since it's woeful early days back in 2006. And we met in Philadelphia in 2011, and she is even more wonderful in person than she is on-screen and in-print.

It is likely that my review of her newest book will be glowing. Because she is awesome. And also because pie is awesome.

But it is not inaccurate. The book is really good.  Here are two gems we've made so far:

I brought this Creamy Chocolate Tart to share with a gluten-free friend, so the base is made with GF chocolate biscuits. For the filling, I used Whittaker's Ghana Dark chocolate, which I love. It was rich and dark and sweet and everyone loved it.

When Andy's parents were visiting, I made the No-Bake Coconut Cream Pie. This was a last-minute rush job. I got home at 4pm on a Friday and they were coming to dinner that night, along with a friend of mine. I was expecting everyone to arrive by 4.30 or 5, so I madly rushed to blend up the crust, then the filling, and get it all together. Then I looked at the recipe properly and saw "refrigerate overnight before serving". Woops. Nevermind - I put it in the freezer for a few hours and it was fine by the time dessert rolled around. And I hadn't needed to rush - no one arrived until just before 6. But this was really easy to get together in a flash. And everyone really loved it, too.

Something that long-time blog readers may have noticed is that I have a tendency to tweak and alter recipes pretty regularly. Aware that I would be reviewing this cookbook, I followed the above recipes pretty much to the letter. But the wonderful thing about pie is how mix-and-match it is.

My new favourite crust is a mish-mash between Dynise's All-Purpose Cookie Crust and her Nutty Crust. Half cookie crumbs, half ground nuts makes for a sweet but not cloying base for pretty much any filling. We filled it with vanilla custard and strawberries on another night Andy's parents were visiting, and I think they would have married it, if marrying pie were legal and they weren't already married to each other. I posted already about my passion fruit mousse tart. I also made a variation on Dynise's Banana Cream Pie, blending two overripe bananas into the pudding, instead of layering slices.

Pies and Tarts with Heart gives you a good foundation in how to do things like crusts, and makes playing around with fillings much easier. One of the things I love about it is the pictorial, step-by-step guides to crust making and shaping and decorating. In the spirit of the cookbook, here is a step-by-step to my experience with Dynise's Pennsylvania Dutch Corn Pie.

This was a recipe I tried to follow to the letter, and involved making pastry from scratch - something I have been reluctant to do in steamy Townsville. But Dynise's gentle encouragement throughout the book gave me courage, so I stuck some vegan butter and water in the freezer and hoped for the best.

I made a Basic Double-Crust Pastry, only I forgot to make it enough in advance to let it rest for 2 hours before rolling out. Freezer to the rescue again!

Tweaking my mum's practice of rolling out dough between two pieces of cling wrap, I put my pastry on  a silicon mat and put a sheet of non-stick baking paper on top. By not sprinkling with flour, it keeps the pastry moist and buttery. And then I can pick the whole mat up and flip it into the pie plate.

We have had the same wine bottle-rolling pin for years now.

Filled with sweet corn and potatoes, I then sprinkled some flour and other stuff on top before pouring over the milk. This is where things went slightly awry - I think I needed to mix the flour through, because at the end there were clumps of flour instead of a thick sauce.

 Topped, vented and trimmed, my corn pie was ready to go into the oven.

 Look, I made pastry! It wasn't a raging success, but it wasn't terrible either!

There are heaps more recipes in the book I want to try out, especially in the savoury section. I am quickly becoming the person who brings pie to things, but that's a persona I'm alright with.

Now, the part you have all been waiting for... the giveaway. Dynise's publishers have a copy of Pies and Tarts with Heart to give away to one lucky Australian! You have until Saturday, 12 October at 8am, QLD time to enter. I will choose the winner randomly and announce who you are in another post on Saturday. You can enter up to 2 times: (1) by leaving a comment on this post telling me your favourite kind of pie and (2) by popping over to my Facebook page and sharing one of my posts about the giveaway. Make sure you return here to leave a comment saying you have done so. And give me some way of contacting you so I can let you know you've won.

If you're not in Australia - sorry! There will be a few giveaways for North Americans this month - keep your eye on the blogosphere, or just get yourself a copy. It's cheap, and totally worth it. You're still welcome to comment, or to like me on Facebook - but let me know in the comment if you're not eligible!

Get commenting, and sharing, and make some pie!

Betty goes Troppo

Though I will undoubtedly ignore Andy's suggestion that we try every recipe in every cookbook we already have before buying any more, his comment did make me think. I always have stacks of recipes flagged that I want to try, but I don't always get around to it. So I resolved to get around to it. Here are a few of the recipes I've tried in the last two weeks from Betty Goes Vegan.

This cookbook has copped a lot of flak for relying so heavily on mock meats and cheeses. Of course that is a barrier to me trying a lot of the recipes straight away, but when I look at the cookbook I think about whether it would be better with seitan or tofu. I also think that a lot of the recipes are not intended for every day (though I'm sure Betty Crocker genuinely was). So while it's not my go-to cookbook, I appreciate it for what it is. Plus, the recipes I have tried so far have been good.

This one is a bit of a cheat - we had it months ago, not in the past two weeks. 

Curry Spinach and Lentil Pilaf, p.221. I followed the gist of the recipe, but cooked the brown rice and hte lentils together rather than coming to the recipe with both already done. Also (it looks like) I added some red capsicum and maybe zucchini, to up the veggie-quota. Topped with crunchy fried shallots. This was a good one-pot meal that had a gentle zing of curry flavour.

Zucchini Apple Bread, p. 326. Really this is more like cake, obviously. I cut the recipe in half and just made one loaf, but I wish I had done two. This made a great from-the-freezer morning tea to bring to work every day, but only saw us through till Wednesday.

Asian Tofu Steaks with Wasabi Aioli, p.255. Instead of thick steaks, I did nice thin ones. And instead of marinating it, taking it out of the sauce, and baking it separately, we put the whole thing on the BBQ. The sauce thickened up, and the seaweed had Nacho begging to have some plz. Unfortunately for her, we humans loved it too much to share (also soy sauce seems like it wouldn't be good for kittehs).

 Hawaiian Toast, p. 44. Like French toast, but with coconut milk and pineapple juice. We had ours with mango jam. As you can see, it turned out pretty well. I loved it. Andy is lukewarm about french toast, but he ate 4 pieces.

Toffee Bars, p.309. The photo of this one, in the shiny colour pages, grabbed my eye. The recipe was easy enough. So after finishing some writing this weekend well in advance of a deadline, I decided I deserved some slice. I thought they would be very peanutty, but the base tastes more like caramel. Andy didn't like it at room temperature - he thought it was too 'nougatty', whatever that is. But cold, when the base is firm, we both want to eat all the slice.

So I've tried these 5, plus one more when I first got the book, which just leaves me with 494 to go. I've got Vegan Bacon & Kale Scalloped Potatoes on the menu for tonight - 493. But who's counting?

Bumbu Kacang

In April, Andy went to Bali for a conference. While he was there, he went to a cooking class. His certificate of achievement is still hanging (okay, a bit ironically) on the fridge. He also brought a little recipe book home with him. The class and the book are so not vegan, which Andy says aligns with his experience in Bali overall, but pretty much everything in the world can be veganised, right?

When we harvested a bunch of peanuts, I had a go at veganising the peanut sauce recipe, which we then turned into a sort of curry-satay stirfry-stew kind of thing.

According to the book, this is called Bumbu Kacang. This is my version, veganised. Terribly healthy it ain't, nor will I make any claims on its authenticity. But it was yummy.

150grams raw, unsalted peanuts with the papery bits still on
2 Tbsp. sunflower oil
1/4 cup warm water
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small, hot chilli, minced
1 tsp. miso paste
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 small tomato
1 tsp. soy sauce
zest from 1 lime
juice from 1/2 a lime

To make the Bumbu Kacang, heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the peanuts in the oil in batches (avoid crowding the pan). When they are just golden brown, remove them with a slotted spoon. In a mini-chopper (our method) or food processor or pestle&mortar, grind the peanuts with the water until finely ground.

Remove the peanuts to a bowl. In the mini chopper, blend the garlic, chilli, miso, and brown sugar until they are a paste. Pulse in the tomato. Stir this into the peanuts along with the soy sauce, lime zest and lime juice. Taste - adjust the flavours as needed to balance sweet, sour, salty and spicy.

At this point you could easily eat this as-is, perhaps as a dip for veggies or as a topping on grilled tofu. But we turned it into a full meal. Cauliflower, capsicum, zucchini and bok choy sauteed together; then the peanut sauce mixed in with a splish of coconut milk. We served it on rice, and topped with fresh coriander and some crunchy fried shallots.

The result was nothing like our usual peanut butter-based satay sauce, but holy pants it was good. Lighter, freshened up by the tomato in the sauce, but still intensely peanutty. A deeply satisfying use for a harvest of peanuts that I painstakingly shelled by hand.

Deliciously Healthy

Over the course of this year, I've noticed us shifting to a healthier way of eating. This isn't to say that we ate badly before - in fact, we generally tried to avoid bad food. But in the last few months we've shifted to actively choosing good things, instead of just avoiding the bad. I think this comes down to a few things. One is more awareness. Another is that as I do more exercise, I am hungrier and want to eat better to stay fuller longer. And a big reason is that we are much more financially comfortable now, so buying nuts and unusual grains and flours is something we can afford to do with a bit more regularity now.

One of the things that has made it much easier to shift to healthier eating is the fantastic, delicious, but very health conscious cookbook, Let them eat Vegan! by Dreena Burton. We just love it. Here are some of our winners.

"Fit-tuccine Alfredo". We skipped the chanterelle bread crumb topping, and served it on penne pasta with zucchini, broccoli and capsicum. Based on cashews, this sauce is suuuuper creamy and really delicious.

Raw-nch Dressing! [original exclamation mark] Made with a big handful of fresh parsley, this was fresh and creamy and filling. 

Perfect on a salad with enchiladas and corn on the cob. 

White bean mashed potatoes. This was a bit of hassle to make, and Andy didn't think it was worth it, but it really is much healthier than regular mash. With eggplant parma, sauteed gai lan, and roasted radishes.

Yellow Sweet Potato Chickpea Pie with Basil. This recipe, or some variation of it, is one of our favourites from the book. It's easy to make, and easy to modify, and really delicious. We have only ever made it with orange sweet potatoes, and sometimes use white beans instead of chickpeas, but it is always delicious. Unfortunately, it may have killed my blender last week. 

The star of this pizza is Romesc-oat Sauce, a roasted capsicum-based thick spread with the nutty taste of toasted almonds and toasted oats. 

BBQ Sunflower Tofu, cooked on the BBQ instead of in the oven. Easy peasy, delicious, made with sunflower butter for a different kind of taste. With BBQ eggplant, rocket, and bok choy. 

Jerk Chickpeas, with added eggplant and rocket. 

Lemon-Infused Mediterranean Lentils - made with veggies mixed in, and a little bit saucier. 

There are lots of gems in this cookbook. It makes me want to look more into Dreena's recipes - but Andy thinks I should make more things out of the cookbooks we have before I get more new ones!

Quick Bite

Of pie. Who can say no to that?

The bubbles and the colour make it look a little bit like egg, but this is just tofu, sugar, passionfruit and agar.

This is a mix-n-match Urban Vegan pie. I used the cookie crust recipe from her newest book, Pies and Tarts with Heart. I'll review it properly in October, along with a giveaway! So check back for that. But, spoiler: I love it so far.

Yum strawberries and passionfruit mousse tart. 

I filled the crust with her Easy Passionfruit Mousse, from her first book, The Urban Vegan. Even though I used fresh, rather than frozen passionfruit, it was still rather easy. And holy crap it was good. The tartness of the passionfruit played against the sweet sugar, all offset by the occasional spicy twinge from the gingernut biscuits that made up the crust.

Light and fresh and a great dessert!

Fragments of a tropical vegan

Hi! I am hopelessly overworked this semester! And trying to do things to keep my stress levels down, which also take time. Things like striking, to prevent some of the overworking in future years, maybe. Things like starting yoga classes again, for relaxation and adaptability. Things like gardening and running with Tika and reading novels and crocheting and spending time with Andy. Blogging isn't my top priority at the moment, but I do have some things to share. Rather than taking the mental effort to make some narrative sense out of them, I present to you some fragments.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Kale. We grew the pumpkin, the kale, and the coriander. We added garlic, white wine, and coconut cream, and ate with store-bought chappatis for an easy, quick dinner. 

A few weeks ago I saw Joey post about this vegan tuna salad recipe. I tried it out that weekend but used nori and wakame for the seaweeds. It was yummy, but didn't taste at all like tuna, in my opinion. Chickpea-based tuna salads are still the real winner! 

We have been eating PILES of passionfruit because our vine is ridiculous. We've also given stacks away. This cup-and-a-half went into the freezer to be enjoyed during the summer months. 

We eat flowers. It's a shame salad vegetables grow better here in winter, than in summer, but we are really starting to appreciate a good salad in the winter. This one has mizuna and rocket, a radish, nasturtiums, and cherry tomatoes from the garden, plus cucumber and capsicum from the markets. For dressing, I used Dreena Burton's recipe for hummus salad dressing, with a big handful of parsley from the garden. 

I've gotten a few new cookbooks recently, because they make me happy. This is a variation on a recipe from The Sexy Vegan's Happy Hour at Home. They are roasted green capsicums (because that is what we had most of) rolled up with hummus and rocket. Yummy and nice to have some little bites instead of a huge bowl of food every night.

Tika, Defender of Kale and Spring Onions.

Nacho, Disrupter of Academic Work.

Belated Birthday

Andy's birthday was, oh, more than two months ago! And we did celebrate on the day. But I was just looking through some photos and realised I never blogged about it. And it was a yummy, if junky, celebration, so it deserves to be blogged about.

For dinner, I convinced Andy that we should have a junky tater tot casserole. I even had to walk up to the grocery store to get tater tots at 6pm, that's how committed I was to the idea. Here's how you do it: bake the tater tots until they're just about done. Then smother them in tomato sauce, vegan cheese, and vegan bacon bits. Bake a little more.

This is one of those meals that is SO DELICIOUS while you eat it, and then you regret it pretty much straight away. But SO DELICIOUS while you eat it.

Despite our tater tot casserole regret, we soldiered on with dessert, because, birthday cake! Normally, I make Andy a trifle. But his birthday was in the second-last week of classes, and we were both very busy, so although I offered, he requested a self-saucing pudding instead. Which was good, because I think it was really cold that week.

I made individual ramekin-sized puddings, and then we flipped them out into bowls for beautiful, puddingy cake. A weensy bit of ice cream or custard would have been really great, but I'm not complaining!

We probably eat like this about once a year. I promise my next post will be much healthier.