a cuminy sabzi

Sometimes you are making a dal and you are like, I need to eat something green. And you rummage around and you find in your fridge: 

- 2 very small heads of broccoli 

- half a red capsicum 

- two small white potatoes 

and you think, I can make a little side dish out of this. 

a very easy cumin and mustard sabzi, to go with your dal

ingredients

2 small heads of broccoli, or one regular broccoli 

half a red capsicum, or whatever capsicum you prefer

2 middling potatoes 

1 tablespoon ground cumin (ish - I was too lazy to get out a spoon) 

Equal amounts of minced ginger and minced garlic 

1 teaspoon mustard seeds 

a stick of curry leaves 

some garam masala (but not much) 

cook this in a fry pan or a wok, not a pot! 

dice the potato, the broccoli and capsicum. boil the potato until it is almost cooked in some salty water; add the broccoli for the last three minutes. drain. 

in a little bit of oil, fry the garlic, ginger, cumin, mustard seeds and curry leaves. (remove the curry leaves from the branch) after about a minute, add all the vegies, and coat them in the spices. add a pinch or two of garam masala. fry this all together until it is starting to look a little dry and concerning, then add a splash or three of water. put a lid on the fry pan. let it steam until all the water is gone and the potato is starting to get a bit mushy. whip off the lid and serve. 

di san xian 地三鲜 / three earth treasures

hey quokkas 

inspired by a fairly disappointing 'chinese' meal i had recently delivered, this weekend i made the northern chinese classic disanxian. it was easier than i expected, taking about 45 minutes to prep and cook. traditionally you fry each element seperately in your wok and then wok hei them all together with the sauce at the end. this uses a lot of oil and means your housemates complain about it a bit, so next time i think i'm going to only fry the eggplant and the capsicum and roast the potato separately before wokking them all together, to see how that works. so stay tuned. 

can you believe it's been all these years and the blogspot method of embedding photos is still exactly the same, and you can't edit the photo on the page. classic. 

di san xian / 地三鲜

serves 4

ingredients

1 large western eggplant / 2 asian eggplants (about 450g)

approx 500g of potato 

1 large capsicum (i forgot to weigh) 

some garlic 

cornstarch 

sugar

salt

dark soy sauce

light soy sauce

peanut oil (or other light vegetable oil for frying) 

dice eggplant into bite size pieces. soak in slightly salty water for 20 minutes. mine were bobbing around barely covered. 

meanwhile dice the potato and capsicum into similar sized pieces. 

drain the eggplant and stir through some cornflour so all the pieces are lightly coated. this will both soak up the excess water so your eggplants don't explode at you in the oil, and make them CRISPY. 

pour a lot of oil into your wok. a lot a lot. like, 3cm covering the bottom of your wok. when it is ready to fry, add the potato. fry until cooked through, about 12-15 minutes this was really difficult for me because i've never fried potato from raw before. 

pull the potato out and put aside. now fry the eggplant. this took about 8-10 minutes. when i tested one it literally deliquesced under my spoon which is usually a disgusting image but was so so good. pull out the eggplant, fry the capsicum for about 30 seconds. 

somewhere in here, mix together the sauce ingredients. the only time i ever premix sauce is when it has cornstarch in it, because otherwise it goes glumpy. actually don't tell my mum i added cornstarch to a sauce, she will be like, if you cook it properly you don't need to thicken it with cornstarch. and honestly probably i didn't need it. 

so the sauce: a teaspoon size of minced garlic (fry it if it's fresh, but you can mix into the sauce if it's bottled). equal amounts dark and light soy, and a teaspoon each of salt, sugar and cornstarch. you will also want a few tablespoons of water, but you can add that direct into the wok. so you mix the sauce ingredients together until the bits that can dissolve dissolve. 

so anyway, back to the wok. you've removed the capsicum. remove most of the remaining oil. in fact, just remove all of it, but keep the heat on and don't wipe the wok, so you can use up the oil that just doesn't pour out. 

throw in the sauce and some splashes of water, then all of the veggies you've just fried. swoosh them quickly, and then serve. it is very important that you serve this meal over rice! i recommend you accompany it with a beautiful wok fried gailan with garlic, and maybe some sort of protein. enjoy your meal of fried earthly treasures. 

remember not to pour the oil into the sink! this is BAD FOR EVERYONE, including our sewerage system. if it's not full of vegetable bits, you can save it for tomorrow! if it is full of vegetable bits, pour it into your compost. 

fishie curry

This fish curry is so good I both started and ended my CNY with it: I made it for reunion dinner in the hometown with the fam; and I made it today for the last day of CNY with some friends.

This is actually a recipe from a friend's stepparent, and the only modification I've made is to make the fish vegan and add chilli and some lime kaffir leaves because I'm Malaysian, it's a sickness and I have my own tree now.

Anyway, when I invite you to dinner, definitely feel free to demand I make this curry.

200-300 grams vegan fish

1 inch knob ginger (minced finely)

1 - 2 cloves garlic (minced finely)

1/2 onion, leek, etc, sliced finely

fish curry powder (a Malaysian curry powder is fine)

cumin powder

turmeric powder
whole lot of chilli flakes or oil or something

1 large ripe tomato (grind, slice, dice as you choose. sometimes I use cherry tomatoes cut in half if I don't have bigger tomatoes)

3 - 4 curry leaves
2 lime kaffir leaves

200ml (ish) coconut milk or fresh milk or whichever vegan substitute your soul desires

If you have some snake or french beans you can feel free to chop them into 8cm pieces and add them at a time I will indicate. 

Fry onion thing in oil over medium heat until onions are soft and translucent. Add minced garlic and ginger and fry lightly, stirring all the time. Add water, curry powder, turmeric and cumin, curry leaves. Bring to the boil, simmer until gravy thickens and spices have mixed well. Add tomato mix and fish and cook for 5-10 minutes (until fish looks cooked through).

Add milky product, lime kaffir leaves, and any beans you might be using, bring to the boil and simmer for about five minutes.

Turn off the heat and go eat it all up.

Jambalaya

I'm a little bit obsessed with this jambalaya that I modded from The Gumbo Pages. No photo because it's not attractive, but it's so tasty and not that involved and makes heaps and it's so good. SO GOOD. Being Azn-Australian I dunno how proper/right my version ended up being, but it was really tasty so here's hoping.

Vegan Jambalaya
modified from Creole-style vegetarian jambalaya at The Gumbo Pages

Takes just over an hour; serves 8-10 portions.

Ingredients
half cup olive oil
1 brown onion, diced small
1 red onion, diced small
1 red capsicum, diced small
half butternut pumpkin, peeled, cubed
2 carrots, diced small
2 cups worth of sweet potato, washed but not peeled, cubed
1 zucchini, diced
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tins crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons chilli paste (or MORE if you think your housies won't notice)
some paprika
some salt
half teaspoon dried thyme
half teaspoon oregano
4 cups jasmine rice
several cups vegetable stock (6-8)
half cup tomato paste
300 g soft tofu, cubed
3 vege sausages, chopped

Method
Heat the oil over medium heat, add onions and garlic and saute for five in SO MUCH OIL; then add capsicum, pumpkin, carrot, potato, zucchini for another five. Then add all the spices and the bayleaves, fry up, then add the tomato paste, followed by a bit of stock to deglaze. Add all the tomatoes, bring to a boil, then add the stock and the rice and the tofu and the vege sausages.

If you don't have a pot big enough to contain ALL OF THIS DELIGHT, leave the rice out, and just add as much stock as needed to cover what's in the pot. When you're prepping your rice in your rice cooker, add a scoop from your cooking pot to the rice water. This will help carry some of the flavour across.

Cook the mix for about 35 minutes, without stirring (this is especially important if the rice is in the pot!).

Remove from the heat and let sit for five minutes before serving.

kylie kwong's cripsy skin duck (for cny)

For the end of the Chinese New Year festivities, I wanted to go fancy and ridiculous, so I veganised Crispy Skin Duck with Blood Plum Sauce from Kylie Kwong's heart and soul book. It was so good. SO GOOD.

I especially wanted to go duck because CNY isn't the same without duck. When I went home for the first night of CNY this year, my fam and all the meat-eating family friends got to eat duck, and I don't want to miss out on that luck! (In CNY symbolism, duck means fidelity, but also duck in Australia is expensive so sometimes it's wealth via showing off)

I made a bunch of modifications, mostly because a) the shape of vegan cake, and b) I couldn't find blood plums anywhere that day. But I will definitely be making this again and again and again. I want to try it with a bit less liquid and turned into duck pancakes, and I want to eat it on its own, just like this again.

Also at this party: Cindy and Michael made lo bak go and peanut cookies.

ingredients

a vegan duck (i used a 800g one from the cruelty free shop)
1 tablespoon sichuan peppercorns
2 tablespoons salt
a bunch of plain flour
veggie oil

the sauce!
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
250g ripe blood plums (I used oranges - kylie says the order is blood plums, blood oranges, oranges)
2/3 cup fish sauce (I use Vincent's vegan fish sauce) (I would use less of this next time - too liquidy)
6 whole star anise
2 cinnamon quills
juice of 2 squished limes

what to do

Grind together sichuan peppers and salt until it becomes a 麻辣 salt. Rub the salt into the duck, and leave to marinade in it for a few hours.

Bring water and sugar to the boil, reduce to simmer for five minutes. After it's reduced a little, add plums/oranges (quartered if plums, eighths if oranges), fish sauce, and spices and simmer for a few more minutes. Kylie says just to simmer for one minute but I wanted to reduce it a little more. Stir through the lime juice and take the whole thing off the heat.

Slice your duckie into fingers, and toss in flour. Heat vegetable oil in wok until a clean chopstick pressed to the bottom starts to bubble. (This is a family trick to tell if the oil is hot enough) Deep fry a few pieces at a time until they're crispy and looking good, then drain a little. Arrange prettily and spoon the sauce over it. Don't through it over in an ugly mess because you're in a hurry, as I was.

EAT IT.

kering tempe

My housemates think I'm levelling up in tempeh, but what's actually happening is that I'm getting more South East Asian in my tempeh prep and cooking. It's so great! Let me tell you how.

Tempe kering (or kering tempe) is just tempeh that has been shallow fried and deliciously flavoured. The important elements are to slice the tempeh thin, to fry it in heaps of oil at a high temperature, and to add a delicious flavour with it.

One of my favourite comfort foods is pictured here to the left, a more traditional kering tempe served as part of comfort food maggi mee. To cook this I started frying the tempe in a whole lot of sunflower oil (which is my favourite vegetable oil at the moment). After I'd done both sides once, I added a paste mixture comprising of grated palm sugar, kecap manis, ginger, garlic, coriander seeds, cumin and chilli. Sometimes I use fresh stuff and pound it together, and sometimes I just use a whole lot of already ground ingredients. I usually guess proportions based on my mood, but about a teaspoon of each and a whole lot of kecap manis to go with about half a pack of tempeh.

To be totally traditional, this should be fried with peanuts, but I usually don't have peanuts in the house so sad for me. It's still good without!

To the right is a modification I'm really happy with. I roasted half a butternut pumpkin, skin on. This pumpkin was coated in sunflower oil and maple syrup, before going into the oven for about 35 minutes, turning halfway.

When the pumpkin was cooked I drained off the marinade and poured it straight into a fry pan, where I proceeded to add some extra oil and then fry the tempeh until it was in crispy sizzle town. I then poured the pumpkin in, fried it all around, and served it as a side dish. It's amazing!

Fried tempeh is a gift to us all.

It's important not to use olive oil when you're making kering tempe, because you need very high temperatures to get a beautiful, crispy tempeh. Use a canola, sunflower or peanut oil instead.

comfort, lazy noodle soup and other favourite comfort foods

A friend asked me for my top five favourite things to cook, and I listed them as follows:

Laska
Kari Kapitan (often with oyster mushrooms and firm tofu instead of the mock chicken)
Lentil Ragu + long pasta (sometimes also with tempeh)
yellow Dahl
Pasta Salad made with whatever is in the house (and, hopefully, five spice tempeh)

However then I realised I had missed one, because I have never previously blogged it; mostly, because I have never considered it worth blogging. Here, then, is one of the laziest things in my cooking repertoire: noodle soup.

Please note that when I say lazy, I mean it is lazy for me. Your laziness may vary. It is also a very flexible, forgiving recipe. You can add and subtract as you deem necessary (though I really mean it about the star anise).

makes: about two portions

ingredients:

2 star anise
1 carrot
2 or 3 bok choy (or a whole lot of chinese cabbage)
dark soy (you don't want it to go dark brown but you want it shaded - 3 tablespoons? less? something like that)
2 fresh chillis
5 cups water
1 tsp dry powdered stock, if you have it
1 inch fresh ginger, washed but not peeled

whatever noodles or tofu or frozen dumplings you have lying around the house, suitable for 2 people
any other vegies or whatever that you deem appropriate

method:
Bring water to a boil in a pot. In the meantime julienne the carrot, saving the ends; cut off the ends of the bok choy. Throw these ends, plus the star anise, soy, chilli, stock and ginger into the pot. Reduce heat and let simmer for twenty minutes, lid on but ajar. When it smells AMAZING, add your vegetables and noodles and dumplings as appropriate. I like to use a stick of rice noodles and two cakes of yellow mee, already soaked in hot water and rinsed to remove the starch. If I'm using firm tofu I'll add it at the same time as the carrots to give it the opportunity to soak in the flavour. Add the bok choy leaves and stems separate from each other, but near the end. But not so near the end that they're not soft. SOFT BOK CHOY/CHINESE CABBAGE IS LIFE.

Ahem.

Remove the star anise, carrot ends and ginger before serving, unless you really want to eat boiled star anise (I don't recommend it).

I often eat with extra soy+chilli sauce that I make at the beginning of the process, which gives the chilli and the soy time to infuse each other.

This stock, with the same things but bigger proportions, is good for all sorts of chinese vego cooking. Also add garlic cloves (peeled) and oyster mushrooms to the stock while it's going for a fuller flavour. Very authentic. TRUST ME. TRUST THIS AZN FACE.

white pasta sauce (also good for hot chips)

I've never been very good at white sauces: they're not a thing I ever ate as a child (unless they were part of a hor fun, which is a different kind of white sauce all together), and I considered white sauce a different, unusual, completely foreign thing. It was a special treat, and certainly not anything I had any experience with at home. 

Since I've been vegan I've failed at every recipe I've turned my hand to; so it was with great delight that last week I was feeling lazy and magically a white sauce appeared as my dinner. 

So I stole this from Emma in talk and texts, and turned it into a recipe. On Friday it was leftovers of pasta with this sauce plus hot chips + potato cakes from the local fish and chippery; tonight I fried thin strips of tempeh and thinly sliced mushrooms in some teriyaki sauce to top it all with. It's versatile and delicious, and next I think I'm going to try it as a béchamel on a lasagne. 

There are no pictures because you've seen an ugly brown/cream sauce before. 

So I present to you, a super delicious but relatively easy white pasta sauce. 

Dice half a brown onion, and brown it (ha!) in 2 tablespoons of nuttelex/margarine, before adding a minced clove of garlic and half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes. Careful with the chilli, I basically killed my flattie Bella this evening by choosing to use about two tablespoons of chilli. I just like chilli, okay?

When it's all brown and delicious smelling, add a heaped tablespoon of (vegan, obvs) powdered chicken-flavoured stock (ILU, Massels), and 2 tablespoons of plain flour. Mix it all in, add a dash or three of milk, stir again, add some more milk and maybe some water and create a roux, then dash to the sink as you hurriedly drain and rinse a can of cannelleni beans. Add these to the pot, then stir and let simmer. Simmer simmer simmer, adding more water or milk as necessary, until you're happy with it. Mash some of those beans up, then simmer a bit longer. Hurrah, a sauce!

Tonight I also added teeny tiny diced carrots in the latter stages, simmering them until softened, and some frozen peas to the cooking pasta spirals, and of course the fried tempeh and mushies. Emma definitely had fresh spinach, basil and kale, all added after the sauce was taken off the heat, and also probably some other exciting things because I remember it being quite bulky. I would love to try this as a sauce over cauliflower and sweet potato. 

brazilian carrot cake of deliciousness (with orange and chocolate)

After a week of watching the Great British Bake Off S4 (I love Sue), it was time to bake Danni's birthday cake. It didn't rise super well and there are things I would change, but a friend said "I never liked carrot cake before, but I loved this!",* and I think that's a job well done.

This cake is moist, fragrant when cut into, and retains a beautiful flavour. The carrot, chocolate and orange all work very well together. I would have baked this again immediately but for a sugar, carrot and flour emergency in my kitchen.

This recipe came to me via Cindy, but I changed it up a bit.

Brazilian Carrot Cake (called such because the recipe's original progenitor is Brazilian)

cake ingredients:

2 cups plain flour
1 cup sr flour
1.5 tbl baking powder
pinch salt
1.5 cups sugar (I used a combo brown, coconut and castor due to a dire sugar emergency in my kitchen)
400g carrots, coarsely grated
5 tbl soy milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
half an orange's juice + zest

chocolate deliciousness for the top:
2 tablespoons cocoa
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons nuttelex
2 tablespoons soy milk
10g dark chocolate couverture

for on top of the top:
some dark chocolate couverture
a handful of walnuts

to make it a cake:

set ovens to stun180C.
sift together flours, baking powder, salt and sugar. in a blender combine carrots, soy milk, vegetable oil, orange elements and vanilla extract. pulse together until a thick, rough, fluorescent orange goop appears. mix through the dry ingredients.

pour into a greased baking tin, and bake for about 40 minutes; at which point, bake at 170C for another ten minutes. allow to mostly cool.

over a low flame, mix together the elements of the chocolate deliciousness. when it's all melted and smooth, allow to boil for a minute and then take off the heat. put aside to cool for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

chop up the walnuts, shave the chocolate. before the chocolate deliciousness can set, pour gently over the cake. top with walnuts and extra chocolate.

serve at your bestie's birthday dinner, and be annoyed when there's none left to eat later because everyone gobbled it up despite being full of burgers.



* where do we think this comma goes? '!",' seems awkward.

scones

how i spent my sunday night, by stephanie a penguinface (aged 31 and a bit)

a) cooking japchae
b) watching and writing about Serangoon Road (new blog posts on this show occur every Monday morning on my blog No Award; I live tweet my rage at @yiduiqie on Sunday nights)
c) scones (sweet scones are the best okay)

scones are easy and delicious

to make them you need: 2.5 cups of SR flour
one third of a cup of sugar (pref white)
30g marg/nuttelex/etc
half cup milk
half cup water
1tsp apple cider vinegar
half cup sultanas (optional)

extra sugar and flour

add milk + vinegar; set aside.

rub together sugar, flour and marg; add sultanas if you're adding them. make a well, pour in all liquids, mix with a knife or something but don't over mix i learnt this the hard way. flatten out to 2cm (i just pat them with my hands) on a floured surface. cut out (i use a tumbler), sprinkle with the extra sugar, bake at 220C for 15 mins or until golden brown. eat straight away plain or i guess you could use jam or something but why wait.

i've taken to taking out a cup of the flour+sugar+nuttelex mixture so i can make a non-sultana batch of about five for non sultana people eating; so this batch made in total 13.

i'm not saying i accidentally used plain flour this evening and had to desperately try and save it with baking powder but uuhhh see pt d below

d) dancing around the house to Laure Shang (visit that song, you won't regret it).

ginger and chinese five spice cupcakes

My friend Sara-Jane is on the Great Australian Bake Off, so despite my usual reluctance to watch tv I wrote it in my diary, and Tuesday at 8pm found me watching commercial tv with ads and everything. 

This first episode included the challenge 'signature cupcake', which, who has a signature cupcake? If you have one, let me know, because I've never heard of anyone having a signature cupcake. Signature cake, sure (berry and dark chocolate double layer cake, thanks). But signature cupcake? 

So I made one up. And went shopping for ingredients at 10pm, after the show finished. 

Ginger and Chinese Five Spice Cupcakes with Lemon Icing

Someone referred to the ginger and chinese five spice biscuits I bake basically once a week as my 'signature cookies' about two weeks ago, and it's what my mind drifted to when I was considering what would be my signature cupcake. 

what you need:

photo stolen from SJ

2 heaped cups of SR flour

3/4 cups of brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbl ground ginger

2 tbl chinese 5 spice

3/4 cup milk

150g margarine

2 tbl light agave or golden syrup

2 chinese soup spoons of apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla essence

handful of crystallised ginger

for the icing

more crystallised ginger (not heaps)

300g icing sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

140g marg

what you do:

Oven: 190C

Melt together the margarine, sugar and golden syrup over a low heat. Allow to just melt, then cool a little, before adding in the milk and the vanilla essence. Follow this with the apple sauce and combine. Sift together the flour, baking powder, ginger and five spice. Mix into the liquid until just combined. 

Into lined/greased cupcake pans, spoon a base, and insert one piece of crystallised ginger (i make them smaller), then cover with more batter. Continue until you've got all your cupcakes. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, then allow to cool on a rack. 

Icing: beat together all the icing ingredients except for the crystallised ginger. When the cupcakes are cool, then ice. Chop up the ginger so it's tiny and sprinkle on top. 

slow cooked lentil ragu with fettucine

last saturday i had my very first visit to little deer tracks in coburg, where i had an amazing lentil ragu over linguine and obsessed about it all week, until finally i cracked and on friday attempted one of my own. it was delicious, we finished nearly all of it and i was so sad when i ran out of pasta. 

it filled the house with beautiful, rich aromas and filled my mouth with tastiness and my belly with warmth, i recommend you make this immediately as we now, finally, appear to be commencing our descent into a melbourne winter. 

slow cooked lentil ragu over pasta

ingredients

1 brown onion (diced finely)

2 celery stems (diced finely)

1 carrot (diced finely)

1 field mushroom (chopped finely)

1 garlic clove (diced finely)

1 red chilli (diced finely)

200g puy lentils

600g diced tomatoes (i used canned)

4 cups stock

1 bay leaf

handful of basil leaves (shredded)

splash of dried oregano

long pasta (fettucine, linguine)

what you do

soak the lentils in some hot water while you chop your veggies. 

in some olive oil, brown the onion, then add the celery and carrot with the mushroom. allow to fry until the mushroom starts to release its juices, then add the garlic and the chilli and fry through for a minute or two. drain the lentils and add these and the tomato to the pot. simmer for a few minutes before adding the basil, bay and oregano, as well as the stock. bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, and leave simmering, half covered, for as long as it takes for the lentils to cook through. the longer the better - i simmered for about an hour. top up with stock or wine as appropriate, if necessary. 

cook the pasta as appropriate and serve together. 

i also shredded a small handful of baby spinach leaves and added them in right at the end. if i'd had some some red wine i would have added a splash or five at the beginning to bring out a rich flavour, but it was totally fine and rich without. 

will make this again almost immediately. i'd love to try this as a lasagne sauce. you can barely tell there are mushrooms in it if you chop them finely enough. 

a whole lot of pumpkin pasta

It's been getting cold and it's been getting rainy, and last week I went to the Caterpillar's Dream and had a very disappointing lasagna, and I wanted to do something exciting with my pasta. I remembered that Cate had issued a challenge: Sweet Spices, Savoury Suppers, and I realised this would be a perfect opportunity to try making a pumpkin sauce and throwing everything in the house into it. 

you will need:
1kgish of pumpkin
1 shallot (sliced thin)
some minced garlic
half a zucchini, grated
100g firm tofu
1 cup soy or almond milk
half cup stock
olive oil
small head of broccoli
handful of nuts (i used pecans)
some baby spinach
1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp sage (or more if it takes your fancy) (you could also add a shake or two of cinnamon)
soy sauce
whole lot of salt and pepper
long pasta for four people

what you do:
boil and mash the pumpkin. puree/mash it with the stock and the soy milk until it's all lovely and smooth. add in the minced garlic.

during the pumpkin prep stage, put the pasta on to boil. when it's almost done to your satisfaction, add the broccoli florets and let them boil a little. drain, rinse with cold water, and put it all aside.

dice the tofu, marinate in some soy sauce, and then fry until it's all lovely and crispy. put this aside.

in a little oil, fry the shallot until golden, then add the zucchini and fry for about five minutes. add in the pumpkin mixture, and let it simmer for a while. add the nutmeg and the sage, and as much salt and pepper as you like (i stood there cracking pepper and salt for a while so i'm not sure how long - taste it, but remember you'll also be adding tofu that was marinated in soy sauce). when you're happy with it, stir the baby spinach through, and then combine with the tofu, pasta and broccoli. top with nuts and serve. (i shallow fried and chopped the nuts but raw is fine too)

If you haven't previously checked out Cate's blog, I recommend it - it's not vego but she does lots of great cooking for various dietary requirements, and I have personally had the pleasure of eating all sorts of her delicious creations.

spiced sweet potato and pistachio cake

I wanted to bake something today, and there was half a sweet potato in the house, and I thought, why not? No regrets, it was delicious straight out of the oven and if you give me half a mo, I bet I'll declare it's delicious cold with a cup of tea, too.


sweet potato and pistachio cake

you will need:
one and a third cups of flour (I used half self-raising and half plain)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 very heaped teaspoon of ground ginger
a shake of salt
a shake of ground cloves
half a teaspoon of nutmeg
an amount of sweet potato that makes 1 - 1.5 cups after it's boiled and mashed
1 cup of sugar (i used castor, but i bet brown or coconut sugar would also work great)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
one third of a cup of oil (canola or something plain)
two chinese soupspoons of apple sauce
a handful of pistachios.

to make it:
peel, dice and boil sweet potato, then drain and mash. let it cool down a bit (i used this opportunity to read some more blogs). then combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt in a large bowl. in a separate bowl, whisk together the oil and the sugar until combined, then add the vanilla essence and the apple sauce. mix this with the sweet potato until it's a nice consistency, and pour into the dry ingredients. mix until it's just combined, then throw in the pistachios and give it a stir twice more just to get those through.

bake at 180C for about 30 minutes, or until baked through. i used baking paper in my loaf tin.

easy good food: pasta salad with marinated tempeh

I've had a few requests lately for easy, nutritious, fast, after-work vegan food, so this is the first post in an occasional series of easy good fast foods. For the most part they're rounded meals on their own, or close enough. They're my comfort foods, my lazy foods, my whatever is in the house foods. I almost always have the supplies, or most of the supplies, in the house required to make these meals.

They do rely in part on pre-prepared things, but no shame, I mean, I'm not gonna sun dry my own tomatoes, am I? (spoilers: I'm not)

We'll start with one of my favourite summer recipes, sun-dried tomato pasta salad with marinated tempeh.

I know! How can something that involves marinating be fast? Trust me on this one. It's great. It's so great I made this salad twice on Thursday last week, and a big batch of it on Boxing Day (not just for me).

To serve two people (maybe three)
Pots and things that will need washing up: two (a pot for pasta, and a frypan, but maybe you can mix the pasta in the pot). Also a colander.
Time: ten minutes for prep, ten-fifteen for cooking
Complete meal: you got your proteins, your fresh vegetables, your grains, your oils/fats, your deliciousness.

You will need:
100g plain tempeh
some five spice powder
little bit of sesame oil (teaspoon or two)
a tablespoon or three of light soy sauce

200g pasta spirals (spirals! very important!)
100g sundried tomatoes (if they're pre-sliced strips, this is easier, but if they're not remember to cut them into strips)
dash of lemon juice
dried chilli flakes to your desired hotness (I usually use about half a teaspoon) (these really should be flakes, by the way, not ground)
big handful of something fresh that you can eat raw (such as snow peas, or capsicum)
handful of nuts or seeds (such as cashews or sunflower seeds)


What you do:
Slice the tempeh thin, like bacon strips or something, then mix together the five spice, sesame oil and soy sauce and marinate the tempeh in it. If there's not enough liquid, add some more. Sometimes I add minced ginger if I have any in the fridge, but it's totally not compulsory. Leave to marinate.

Put on the pasta to boil. Slice up the fresh things (and the sundried tomatoes if necessary) into nice single bite chunks. You will notice this is basically everything. At this point, fry the tempeh in a little vegetable oil until it's nice and brown on both sides.

When the pasta is firm but ready, drain it and then in a bowl (or the pot!) mix together all of those ingredients that aren't the tempeh or marinade, including the things that look like dressing (lemon juice, chilli, and the oil from those sun-dried tomatoes!), and the nuts. Mix well to make sure the dressing is even! Serve with tempeh on top or beside. Eat.


Variations:
This seems oily, I know, but you control the oil via how much of the sun-dried tomato oil you put in. Other than that, you can change up your fresh veggies, your nuts and seeds, and even swap out the tomato for marinated artichokes or capsicum if that takes your fancy! Don't swap out the spirals, they are perfect for grabbing onto the flavour.
I am submitting this to Cate's Cates for the Substantial Salads Challenge. You should submit stuff too!

things to do with avocado

Say you have spent almost a year in China, with intermittent access to good avocado, and now you are home in Melbourne and eating every avocado dish in the inner north (post on this to come), but maybe this is becoming a bit expensive what with the two soy flat whites and the at least $10 for avo on toast and the inevitable distraction on the ride home where you accidentally end up at Radical Grocery or Savers or something, and you are thinking you should eat more avocado at home.

Here are two things Fi and I did with avocado this week (I was more of a consultant but definitely at least an executive consultant):

Avocado and tomato on toast with dukkah and a little olive oil; avocado and grapefruit with coriander and mint (also on toast) (and I don't even like coriander, which makes me the worst SEAzn ever, but it was delicious in this combination).

Proportions are up to you, though I would not over do it on the grapefruit, the grapefruit is there to add a delicious tartness but not overwhelm the essential avocadoness of this. I recommend only a small amount of olive oil, drizzled via a spoon in order to control the flow and amount. Cut the avocado and grapefruit up into similar sized cubes, and slice the tomato (then slice again, so they are thinner than the avocado pieces but maybe a little longer). No need to put anything on the toast, though you can add a little olive oil if you like.

DELICIOUS.

disanxian & tofu + cabbage soup

Two of my favourite discoveries while I was living in Beijing were 地三鲜 (disanxian) and 豆腐白菜汤 (doufubaicaitang). 地三鲜 is the greatest eggplant dish ever, featuring the 'three earth treasures', a complicated and oil heavy (but delicious!) combination of eggplant, potato and green capsicum in a soy saucey roux. 豆腐白菜汤 in contrast is a simple soup made up of tofu, chinese cabbage, and not a lot else, which is deceptive in its tastey-ness. It looks really boring and sounds really plain, but it's actually one of my favourite soups ever. Be warned if you order either of these in restaurants, though - sometimes they're made with chicken stock!

As I have mentioned before I learnt how to cook a lot of dishes during my year in China, and I hope to share a lot of them with you now that I'm back in my own kitchen and trying them out here at home, but these are by far my favourites and hence why they were almost the first thing I cooked upon my return. The delay in blogging them is mostly because I was too lazy to translate out of Chinese and into English for you. Sorry! I promise I do love you!

I'm posting these two recipes together because I only have the one picture - tofu and cabbage in a white bowl on a white background makes for the brightest photo ever! So it didn't really work out.
地三鲜 / Disanxian 
Three Earth Treasures
ingredients
2 garlic cloves, minced ish
two chinese soup spoon of dark soy, and the same of light soy
half a cup of stock
a little cornstarch

1 big eggplant (or 2 small eggplants), cut into chunks that are about twice as big as the potato.
2-3 medium potatoes, cut into funny, irregular but similarly sized chunks
1 green capsicum, cut into chunks

a whole lot of oil

method
Bring up the heat on your wok and load it up with some oil. Fry the potatoes until golden! Remove them, and (in the same oil, add more if necessary) fry the eggplant until golden! Fry the capsicum for a minute or two! Remove most of the oil (if you need to, I usually use just enough oil from the beginning that by the time I get to this stage there's not much left whoops), leaving just enough to do some stirfrying.

Fry the garlic, then add the stock and the soy sauce. Bring the soup to a boil, and thicken it, then add the vegetables and give it all a chance to reduce. You want this dish to be a little saucy but not too much!

Fried and delicious, it's so tasty. Serve with other dishes and something carby.


豆腐白菜汤 
Tofu + Cabbage Soup

I would just like to reiterate that there are no words to describe how much I love this soup. It can also be served with some rice noodles, but I like to have it as a final dish in a banquet.

ingredients
an appropriate amount of chinese cabbage, enough to fit into two hands when it's shredded thickly
five or six cups of veggie stock
a shake or two of salt
a shake of rice wine
thinly sliced ginger, about 2cm
400g firm tofu, diced into cubes of about 2cm
a teaspoon of sesame oil
optional: a star anise, a shake or three of light soy sauce, some rice noodles, dried shiitake mushrooms

method
Bring stock to a boil and add the ginger, salt, cabbage and rice wine, as well as the soy sauce and star anise if you're adding it. Allow to simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, then add tofu, and allow to cook through (about five minutes). Add (rehydrated) mushrooms, noodles, or sesame oil at this point if you're adding them.

Serve with your meal. It's delicious.

dan dan mian / 担担面

As soon as I got back to Melbourne, as per discussion with Wendy, I started search Melbourne's Chinese grocers for Very Important Ingredients, in case she would have to sneak them in on her return. Then, just over a week ago, my cookbooks arrived in one of my boxes posted from China, and I was able to start the joys of replicating the things I learnt.
One of the things I was looking for was sichuan peppercorns, which Cindy kindly provided to me, on the condition that I write up the things that I cooked with it. And I am happy to oblige!

I was tweeting with my friend Stefefanie (defined so because I am the Steph who came first) at the same time as deciding on this recipe, and she mentioned that dan dan mian is a go-to dish for her because it's so easy. I'd suggest, it's an easy recipe if you don't decide to a) grind your own sichuan peppercorns, and b) also decide to make your own infused chilli oil before starting.* It's still pretty easy, though! And super delicious.

dan dan mian / 担担面

these proportions will make two servings

ingredients

for the sauce:

1 teaspoon ground sichuan peppers

a whole lot of chilli oil, enough to make it super spicy but not so spicy you couldn't eat it, this will vary on your chilli oil and your tolerance. i recommend five or six tablespoons.

1.5 cup stock (I used the massel vego chicken stock, but vege is fine)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 clove minced garlic
a heaped half tablespoon of tahini (or sesame paste, if you can find it)
1 tablespoon chinese rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil

"meat"
200g plain tempeh (crumbed)
handful dried shitake mushrooms
little peanut oil
1 clove minced garlic
minced ginger (about a cm worth)
a shake of rice wine
a shake or three of dark soy sauce
2 spring onions (chopped) (including both green and white bits, but keep separate)
one small carrot, grated

some noodles! enough for two people. preferably yellow wheat noodles, but whatever you prefer is fine.

method

soak the mushrooms in some hot water for 20-25 minutes, until they're soft. squeeze out all the water, and dice them as finely as you can. reserve the mushroom water.

cook the noodles as per your requirements! in the meantime, make the sauce: combine all the sauce ingredients together, add in the mushroom water, and mix them until they're looking well combined. Put this aside, and when the noodles are ready, drain the noodles.

in your wok (or a frypan), fry the garlic, ginger and the white bits of the spring onions in the peanut oil until they're fragrant, then add the tempeh, carrot and mushrooms. fry this until it's starting to colour/cook, then add the soy sauce and fry through. add the rice wine at the end to deglaze and remove from heat.

to serve: noodles in the bottom of the bowl; pour in half of the sauce mixture, and layer the meat mixture on the top. garnish with the green bits from the spring onion.

changes: this dish is often served with bok choi, which is first steamed and then layered in before the meat; sometimes this dish is served dry ish, as here, and sometimes it is served as a spicy oily chilli broth with a few pieces of noodles and meat, in which case double the sauce proportions and leave the rest as is.


*Chilli oil how-to to follow soon