Brazilian slaw

September 27, 2019

We were tasked with bringing a salad to dinner at a friend's place and we turned to the Smith & Daughters Cookbook for ideas. We've enjoyed this Brazilian slaw at the restaurant in the past (it even makes our 12 hours in Melbourne post), so we decided to have a crack at making it.

It comes together pretty easily, especially if you take the lazy option of using pre-made chips for your garnish. There's a lot of chopping and prep involved, but you can easily knock it all together in half an hour or so I reckon. The pay-off is excellent - a zesty, fresh salad with lots of interesting textures and the added bonus of chips on top. It's a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Brazilian slaw
(slightly adapted from Shannon Martinez & Mo Wyse's Smith & Daughters Cookbook)

2 tablespoons of olive oil
kernels from two cobs of corn
100g oyster mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon tamari
2 small granny smith apples, cored and cut into matchsticks
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
100g pimento olives, cut into rounds
1/2 purple cabbage, thinly shredded
small bunch of parsley
small bunch coriander

dressing
100g silken tofu
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup soy milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup olive oil
zest and juice of one lime

garnish

tortilla chips (the recipe has you making your own, but we just gabbed these)

Start by making the dressing - pop all the ingredients except the oils in a blender and whiz them together. Gradually pour in the oils while the blender is on low until you've got a nice thick aioli-style dressing.

Heat a tablespoon of the olive oil in a small frying pan and fry the corn kernels until they're lightly charred. Take the corn out, add the other tablespoon of oil and fry the mushrooms with the tamari until golden. Set aside to cool.

Combine the rest of the salad ingredients in a big bowl, along with the corn and mushrooms and a good shake of salt and pepper to season. 

Stir everything together with about a cup of the dressing (you'll have leftovers) and serve, topped with the tortilla chips.

Artichoke & chickpea salad

September 9, 2018

This is a salad that we've been enjoying for several years, thanks to Smith & Daughters. It's been on a couple of versions of their dinner and brunch menu, and it's also in their cookbook. It's hearty and hardy and pickley and just a bit toasted, something that works both as a side and as a main dish on its own. 

The original version pairs artichoke hearts with Jerusalem artichokes; I've gotten lazy about the root vegetable and just use regular old potatoes instead. My two other convenient pantry swaps are dried thyme instead of fresh, and maple syrup instead of agave.

This is the second or third time I've prepared it to share at a friend's house. It's usually tough enough to travel in its final serving state, but this one had a two and a half hour train journey between prep and presentation so I got finicky and packed many of the components separately. Rocket: in its own bag. Almonds: lightly roasted then jarred. Roasted potatoes and paprika chickpeas sharing one lunchbox, charred artichoke hearts and capers in another. Lemon-cumin dressing: jarred and ready for a last emulsifying shake before pouring. It was worth the effort to preserve all those textures, and the entire salad was happily demolished in a sitting, making the train trip home all the easier.

Artichoke & chickpea salad
(slightly adapted from Shannon Martinez & Mo Wyse's Smith & Daughters Cookbook)

1 can chickpeas
olive oil
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
small handful of slivered almonds
500g potatoes
2 teaspoons dried thyme
400g can artichoke hearts
45g capers
2 large handfuls rocket
salt and pepper

dressing
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat an oven to 180°C.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas, then spread them out in a small-medium baking tray. Drizzle over the some olive oil, sprinkle in the paprika and add a little salt. Stir well and bake for 20-30 minutes (mine never really crisp up as promised).

This is a good opportunity to toast the almonds in a separate small baking dish. There's no need for oil! Just keep an eye on them to avoid burning - they'll only take about 5 minutes.

Scrub the potatoes and slice them into cubes, skin on. Place them in a large baking tray, drizzle them with olive oil, then add the thyme, plus some salt and pepper. Toss everything together, then bake the potatoes until tender, 30-40 minutes.

After the almonds are out of the oven and cooling, There's probably enough time to make the dressing. Place all of the ingredients in a lidded glass jar and give them a thorough shake.

Drain and lightly rinse the artichoke hearts, then slice them into quarters. Lightly dress them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Set a frypan on high heat and sear the artichokes on 1-2 sides. Remove the artichoke hearts. Drain the capers and pop them into the pan for just a minute, until they pop.

When it's time to serve, layer up the rocket, potatoes and chickpeas, artichokes and capers, then the almonds. Pour over the dressing and lightly toss everything together if you have the space.

Kale & leek bake

June 11, 2018

We decided to use the Monday public holiday to cook up something new (you might have noticed that the blog is very heavy on the restaurants these days - we're still cooking, but mostly old favourites). I flipped through the Smith & Daughters cookbook and settled on this kale and leek bake - it seemed perfect for the wintery turn that Melbourne's taken. There's a bit of faffing around - you flavour up some soy milk stock, separately cook the leek and the kale, stir together a cheesy sauce to bind it all together and fry up some chunky garlic bread crumbs for the top. 

It's worth it though - hearty and thick, with an impressive cheesiness for a vegan bake. The crunchy breadcrumbs on top make it and we happily worked our way through the bake for work lunches all week. This will definitely come into our winter rotation. We served it up with this bbq baked tofu recipe, which was another winner - probably a bit more effort than you can really justify when you have so many other great tofu options, but a smoky, spicy treat to go alongside our cheesy bake.

Kale & leek bake

(slightly adapted from Shannon Martinez & Mo Wyse's Smith & Daughters Cookbook)

2 cups soy milk

1 cup veggie stock

3 garlic cloves, two minced and one smashed

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

small bunch parsley chopped (set the stems aside)

4 leeks, halved and cut into 1 cm pieces (set the green ends aside)

80g Nuttelex

olive oil

1 large bunch of kale, stems removed and leaves roughly chopped

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 cup flour

120g shredded cheese (we use BioCheese because it melts well)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 cups stale bread, cubed

Pour the soy milk and stock into a saucepan and throw in the smashed garlic, fennel seeds, bay leaves, peppercorns, parsley stems and whichever green leek bits you can squeeze in. 

Bring to the boil and then take the mix off the heat and leave it all to infuse for 15 minutes. Strain the liquid into a bowl and throw out the stems, seeds etc.

Heat a tablespoon of the Nuttelex and a glug of olive oil in a frying pan and cook the white leek pieces with a pinch of salt. Give it 10 minutes or so until it's softened completely. Set aside.

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Throw in a pinch of salt and the kale leaves. Cook them for 3-4 minutes until they've softened but are still bright green. Drain and refresh under some cold water to stop them from over-cooking.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease up a large baking dish.

Melt the rest of the Nuttelex in a frying pan. Add half the crushed garlic plus the thyme and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the flour and stir thoroughly until you get a paste. Cook for another minute or so and then gradually add the infused soy milk stock, whisking to keep it all smooth. Add the shredded cheese and mustard and keep cooking until the cheese is all melted through.

Fry the bread cubes in some olive oil along with the chopped parsley and the rest of the garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the cubes are crispy and lightly golden. Set aside.

Stir the leeks and the kale leaves into the cheesy sauce and then pour the whole mix into your baking tray. Top with the garlic bread cubes and bake for 20 minutes.

Melon salad with jalapeno-pickled pineapple

December 6, 2017

The Smith & Daughters Cookbook describes this fruit salad as a misunderstood menu item, met with indifference by most and then obsessed over by a rare few. I'm one of the weirdos who went wild for it in the restaurant, and it's become my most-made dish from the cookbook.

While the bulk of the salad is three kinds of mild-mannered melon, it's the sour, spicy jalapeno-pickled pineapple that bucks against all preconceptions. It's the counterbalance to those cloying rock- and honeydew melons I always needed but never knew how to ask for. They're fruits I've never previously sought out at the shops; now I've bought them five times in the past year!

Its creators explain that this salad is intended to sit right by the main meal, but that's not quite how I prefer it. I think of it more as a palate cleanser. I thought myself a genius when I served it alongside a corn chip tasting last autumn, and there are probably other rich, crunchy appetisers it would pair gloriously with. Earlier this month I took it to a friend's taco night and it was a bright, light end to the meal, when most people had already piled up one or two more tortillas than they really needed. It's not a conventional dessert, but it's pretty adept at replacing it mid-summer.

I have tinkered a little, but not a lot, with the recipe. I skip the garlic in the pickle brine, I use a dried bay leaf instead of a fresh one, and I use or omit the coriander stems depending on whether I already have them. I cut the fruit into whatever shape I feel like, and I find that the pineapple cores are completely edible once pickled.

This fruit salad has one last peculiarity you'd best prepare for - it doesn't mellow, but only gets more fiery with time!

Melon salad with jalapeno-pickled pineapple
(slightly adapted from Shannon Martinez & Mo Wyse's Smith & Daughters Cookbook)

1/2 pineapple
2 jalapenos
1/2 honeydew melon
1/4 watermelon
1/2 rockmelon
salt
handful of mint leaves

pickle brine
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup caster sugar
juice and zest of 1 orange
juice and zest of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
small handful coriander stems (optional)
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns

Prepare the pickles 3-24 hours ahead of serving. Place all of the brine ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring them to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer the brine until the sugar is completely dissolved. Turn off the heat and allow the flavours to infuse at room temperature for 15 minutes. During that time, slice the skin from the pineapple, slice the flesh into thin half-rounds and then into triangular segments. Slice the jalapenos into thin rings.

Place the pineapple and jalapeno pieces into a bowl or large jar, and pour over the brine. Cover and let it all pickle for up to 24 hours (I store it in the fridge, although the original recipe doesn't mention this).

When it's time to serve, remove the rinds and seeds from the melons and arrange them on a platter or place them in a large bowl. Scoop the pineapple and jalapeno pieces out of the brine and add them to the fruit salad; sprinkle over a little salt, add the mint leaves and a little of the brine. If you're serving everything in a bowl, fold everything together gently.

Corn & jalapeño pancakes

April 17, 2017

A long weekend is a good time to make brunch at home. This one comes from the Smith & Daughters cookbook and it's been on my to-do list for months! We've enjoyed the Panqueques Piquantes at the restaurant several times, and they looked pretty achievable for the home kitchen. (By comparison, my all-time S & D fave is the mock tuna & pea croquetta, and I've no intention of ever deep-frying my own batch.)

Indeed, these pancakes are a breeze once you've gathered the right ingredients. Although there's corn involved, these are batter-heavy pancakes rather than fritters. (Incidentally, there is a ripper recipe for jalapeño & corn fritters in the book too!) The pancake batter is filled out with a little polenta and studded with corn kernels and jalapeños. They might sound savoury but once garnished with maple syrup and coconut bacon, they're firmly on the sweet side. 

I've had some fraught times frying pancakes in the past, but we've recently invested in a proper cast iron pan and it worked a treat with just a little spray oil. The first pancake was the mandatory mistake one, but after that I was flipping neat lightly-browned rounds with ease! More importantly, they tasted terrific with a slurp of maple syrup and sprinkling of coconut bacon. The coconut's sweet-salty chewiness makes the perfect contrasting garnish and I'm upgrading its status from optional (in the book) to definitely worth the effort of marinating and grilling your own.

Corn & jalapeño pancakes
(slightly adapted from Shannon Martinez
& Mo Wyse's Smith & Daughters Cookbook)

1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup polenta
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons egg replacer powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/2-1 jalapeño, finely chopped plus extra round slices to garnish
olive oil spray
a couple knobs of vegan butter or margarine to garnish
maple syrup, to serve
coconut bacon, to serve

In a small-medium bowl, mix together the soy milk, lemon juice and vegetable oil. Set them aside for a minute or two to curdle and thicken.

In a medium-large bowl, stir together the flour, polenta, sugar, egg replacer, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Whisk in the curdled milk mixture to form a smooth batter. Fold in the corn and chopped jalapeño. If you have the time, let the batter rest for 30 minutes.

Set a frypan over medium-high heat and spray it with oil. When it's hot, pour in ~1/3 cup pancake batter; allow it to cook until bubbles form around the edge and it's starting to set on the surface. Flip the pancake and cook for a further minute on the other side. Repeat with the remaining batter. I placed cooked pancakes on a baking tray in a low-heat oven while I continued to cook the rest of the pancakes.

Serve the pancakes garnished with a knob of vegan butter, a few jalapeño rounds, a sprinkling of coconut bacon and a generous drizzle of maple syrup.

Hot cheddar & pickled jalapeno dip

December 11, 2016

Almost inevitably, the much-hyped cookbook from local favourites Smith & Daughters was part of Cindy's birthday present this year. It was no surprise - I'd had to tell Cindy to hold off buying it herself so that we didn't double up. To add to the birthday excitement, I threw in an offer to cook up Cindy's choice of dishes for the night.

It wound up being quite a feast - hot cheddar and pickled jalapeno dip to start, artichoke and chickpea salad for main, horchata to drink and melon salad with pickled pineapple and jalapeno for dessert. The horchata wasn't a complete success (I think our food processor doesn't quite have the power to get the rice liquidised properly), but everything else was a hit. Cindy loved the pickled pineapple when we tried the fruit salad for brunch last February, and we've already made it again - the blend of sweet, spicy and sour flavours is incredible. The artichoke salad was similarly great, another dish we loved in the restaurant that lived up to our memories.

The star of the night though was the hot cheddar and jalapeno dip, which again we'd been impressed by at the restaurant. It's surprisingly easy to throw together - one pot and about 10 minutes and you've got a gooey, cheesy, slightly spicy dip that's perfect for dunking chips in or pouring over just about anything else. We'll just reproduce the cheddar dip here - I'm sure we'll add a few more recipes in dribs and drabs over the coming months, but you'd do well to duck out and grab this book for yourself.

Hot cheddar & pickled jalapeno dip
(from Shannon Martinez & Mo Wyse's Smith & Daughters Cookbook)

125g margarine
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/3 cup plain flour
2 cups soy milk
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
300g shredded vegan cheese (we used the Biocheese cheddar shred)
100g pickled jalapenos, diced
1/3 cup jalapeno pickle juice
1 teaspoon salt

Melt the margarine in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in the garlic and cumin and stir everything together, cooking for a minute or so.

Add in the flour stirring constantly. Cook for 2 minutes or so, making sure it stays reasonably smooth and doesn't brown.

Slowly add the soy milk, whisking constantly to keep things smooth. Add in the mustard, nutritional yeast, cheese, jalapenos, pickle juice and salt and stir everything together. Once the cheese melts you should have a thick, gooey dip - add more water if it's too thick or cook for a bit longer if it's too runny.