Vegan White Christmas

I'd never actually had white christmas before I went vegan, so I have nothing to compare this too, but it was a pretty big hit at the work christmas morning tea. I think these tasted better after a day or two of refrigeration,  it really seemed to meld the flavours. You could use any fruit that you like, I just used what I had in the pantry.

What you'll need:

2 cups rice bubbles
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
Half a block of copha (melted)

1/2 cup glace cherries (chopped)
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup dried cranberries
2/3 cup shredded coconut
A handful of sultanas
1/3 cup of icing sugar
1/2 block vegan white chocolate (optional)

Patty pans in a mini muffin tray

Place 3/4 cup of desiccated coconut in a food processor and process until it becomes powdery and crumbly (2 minutes or so). Melt copha in a saucepan and then add processed coconut and mix well.
In a large mixing bowl mix rice bubbles, dried fruit and nuts and icing sugar, stir in copha mixture. Place a few spoonfuls into the patty pans until all the mixture is used.  Refrigerate until hard (at least an hour) and then serve, these will last for a few weeks in the fridge and like I said I think they're tastier after at least a day of refrigeration.
Once mine were hard I melted some white chocolate and piped it over the top and then refrigerated again until hard.
 Enjoy Xx

Tasty Home-made Hommus!

I don't care how you spell it, hommus/hummus/homous is delicious! Especially when you make it yourself, plusmit doesn't have all the nasty preservatives and additives that store bought hommus contains. It's really quick and easy to make and goes with everything! Trust me, once you start to make your own you will never buy it ever again.

You need a hand mixer or a food processor, I've made it in both and I think my hand mixer works better as you get a smoother consistency. If you have never bought tahini look in the health food aisle of your grocery store (I've bought it in both Coles and Woolies), and if it's not there you may need to find it at a health food store eg. Mrs. Flannerys.

What you'll need:

One tin chickpeas - drained
Juice of a large lemon
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp of tahini
Large pinch sea salt crystals

Optional: Cumin, Smokey paprika, Olive oil

Place tahini, salt, garlic cloves and lemon juice into mixer bowl and blend for a few seconds until tahini turns a paler colour, add rinsed chick peas in a few batches blending as you go, I keep a cup of water beside me and just add a few splashes to keep my hommus at a consistency I like, blend until the mixture is a smooth paste (add more or less water to achieve a consistency you like, I prefer mine quite thick)

I also add on occasion a few tsp of cumin powder or smokey paprika, if I'm serving it as a dip I'll drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.

I love hommus because it's so versatile. I had it for lunch today on a wholemeal lavosh with baby spinach, tomato, avocado, fresh green chilli, mint and coriander. Very delicious! It last for about a week in the fridge in a a sealed container, and get's even tastier after a day so I recommend making it the day before for a party. Enjoy Xx

Vegan Degustation at Mondo Organics

I just want to share this because it was an AMAZING experience. For my birthday my partner Adrian took me to a 6 course vegan degustation at Mondo Organics in West End. I have to say it was one of the best meals of my life, and it's so hard to find vegan fine dining in Australia let alone a 6 course degustation with matching wines. They normally do a vegetarian degustation but they were more than happy to organise us a Vegan one with only 5 days notice, I really recommend that you guys check them out if you have the opportunity.

All these photos were taken with my phone in low lighting so they're not a great representation, and this happened back in August so my memory is a little fuzzy on exactly what was in each dish, but I think this gives you a good idea.

The first course was a field mushroom consomme accompanied with fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, I don't have a photo but these are the drinks that accompanied it. We then had an apple salad that I don't have an image of, there was fresh apple, dried apple, little freeze dried coconut things, bulgur wheat and a few other things a can't remember, both of which were lovely.

We then had a salad of roasted beetroot, dehydrated beetroot, heirloom pickled onions and beetroot leaves, there was some other components that I can't quite remember but it was delicious.

This course was our absolute favourite, it was a roasted artichoke with a rhubarb sauce and toasted nuts (among other things) it was seriously amazing!

Then we had a beautiful dish of mandarin slices, wild rice, caramelised parsnips, nuts and coconut, the dressing and flavours were amazing. 

And then finally, as if we weren't full enough we had a lovely dessert that contained shortbread, macadamia's, fresh raspberries and a lemon granita.

Each course was accompanied by a beautiful  organic, vegan wine, it really was an amazing experience. It's not cheap but for a special occasion it was totally worth it. They already have vegan desserts permanently on their menu but I figure if enough people request a vegan degustation maybe it'll become a permanent fixture!

Super Delicious Scrambled Tofu

I've tried a lot of different scrambled tofu's in my time, and one of my favourite things about this dish is that you can put absolutely anything in it and it still tastes good. I have a complete inability to stick to a recipe so that fact that 'anything goes' with scrambled tofu, gives it extra points in my book. Whenever I make this I usually just throw in whatever ingredients I have on hand and then flavour it according to whatever I feel like eating. Which is exactly what I did this morning when I discovered a lonely packet of tofu sitting in the back of the fridge. I took the photos with my phone so don't judge.

I made this for one (it could have fed two), so I only used half a block of tofu, but just double everything if your feeding more people :)

What you'll need:

1/2 block firm tofu - crumbled (I used soyco Hi-protein firm tofu)
A few good sloshes of dark soy sauce
A splash of vegan Worcestershire (I used Newmans)
A good squirt of American-style Mustard
1 tsp freshly cracked pepper
2 tsp of Keens Curry Powder
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
2 cloves garlic - crushed
1/8 cup Savoury Yeast flakes

Whatever vegies you like to beef out the mixure, I used;

1/4 small onion diced
1/4 large zucchini diced
6 mushrooms sliced thinly
1/6 red capsicum diced
1/4 tomato diced
A big handful of english spinach roughly chopped.

Chop  veggies of your choice and leave to one side.

Roughly crumble your tofu into a bowl, add soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, mustard, liquid smoke, pepper, curry powder, garlic and, savoury yeast flakes and stir well to combine.

Heat a heavy bottomed pan, fry off your onion for a couple of minutes in some olive oil. Add the other veggies (except spinach) and fry for a couple more minutes until they begin to cook. Add your tofu mixture and cook for about 5 minutes or until mixture is thick and delicious looking, if your mixture is too wet, turn up the heat and allow he excess moisture to evaporate, if your mix is too dry add water in small amounts. When your tofu looks ready throw in your spinach and stir for 30 seconds or until spinach is wilted.

I served mine on olive sourdough with slices of avocado.

Peanut butter choc-chip Xmas trees!

Let me just start by saying I'm not really that much of a peanut butter fan, but I saw these on another blog and had to try them. I altered the recipe slightly to what I had on hand, and they just look so cute.

What you'll need:

1.5 cups smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup golden syrup
1/4 block vegan dark chocolate finely chopped
2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tin coconut milk (chilled)
1 packet finely desiccated coconut
green food colouring
Rainbow choc chips (or other sweets to decorate)

Mix the first four ingredients together until well combined, if your using an electric mixer make sure you only mix for a very sort time or the oil will begin to separate from the peanut butter.

Mix desiccated coconut with a few drops of food colouring until it has reached a shade if green that you like, and then pour into a shallow dish. Pour coconut milk into a shallow dish also.

Shape your peanut butter mixture into small xmas tree shapes (I will describe mine as vaguely xmas tree shaped) once shaped roll each tree in coconut milk and then the green desiccated coconut (you may need to repeat this process to get a completely green tree, I dipped each tree twice). Once all your trees are nice and green press rainbow choc-chips into the sides (I found they would stay there with a little gentle coaxing), if you are using larger lollies to decorate you may need a chocolate or icing mixture to get them to stick.
I reshaped any that started sagging and a little refrigeration time will really help these tree's to stay nice, and firm, and upright.

Vegan Reindeer (Rudolph) Cupcakes!

Ever since I discovered that Greens' moist vanilla cake mix is vegan (I confirmed this with the company) I have been finding it hard to bother making my own vanilla cake, they only cost $2 and all I do is add 2/3 cup of soy milk and as much melted nuttelex as I need to make it a cake batter consistency, you could put 'no egg' in but I just don't bother and they work out fine.

With us being only 11 days out from xmas I decided to do some pre-christmas baking, partly cause I was bored and partly cause I wanted to test run some recipes before my work secret santa afternoon tea on x-mas eve.

I used two packets of Greens' and made 16 quite large cup-cakes ( I added some cinnamon and ground ginger to the batter to make it seem more christmassy). Most people have a plain vanilla cake recipe so I'm not going to put one up, you can find a million on the internet, so just use what ever cake you like to make the cup cakes, and allow them to cool completely.


To decorate.

1 packet slivered almonds
1 packet red glace cherries
1 packet pretzels
1/4 block vegan dark chocolate melted
handful vegan choc chips (I used the brown ones out of a pack of rainbow choc chips)
a few tsp soy milk

To ice my cupcakes I used the icing packets that came with the cake mix and mixed through a few teaspoons of soymilk  and my melted chocolate until I got my icing to a good consistency. It came out really well and looks similar to a ganche (nice and shiny).

I cut 8 pretzels and  8 cherries in half  to give me enough noses and antlers for my reindeer and then iced my cupcakes with my chocolate icing.
 Push each pretzel half into the cupcake firmly until it stays upright (I just played around until I found a position I thought looked good).
Place two slivered almonds on for eyes and your half cherry for a nose.
I then dipped by choc chips in a little left over icing and used this to stick them to my slivered almonds to make little pupils.
They come out really cute, and although I am currently to full to eat them from licking about a kg of icing off my fingers I have been told they're delicious.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Mexican Breakfast Tagine

Ok, so it's been a while, but I've had a busy year and finally have six days off, so I decided it's time to start putting up the myriad of things I've been cooking and not posting.

This is actually what I had for breakfast this morning so why not start there ( I also had it for lunch, and then dinner, that is how good it is).

MEXICAN BREAKFAST TAGINE

If you don't own a tagine i'm sure any ceramic baking dish (stove top safe) will work. If you don't know what a tagine is it's a north african ceramic cooking pot that looks like this.

My house mate owns an Emile Henry Tagine pretty much identical to the one above and I have to say it is amazing and I love it and if she ever moves out I'm stealing it. Also the cinnamon quill in the recipe is a must! It will not be the same without it, trust me it's worth putting one in!

What you'll need:

Two small brown onions - chopped

Two large cloved garlic

Two fresh green chillies

One bunch coriander

One large tin of 5 bean mix (drained)

One tin of cherry tomatoes (I used russo brand)

One cinnamon quill  

One tsp of cumin

One lime

One tsp of liquid smoke

Half a bag small mushrooms (stalks removed)

I also had some sundried tomato pasta sauce which I threw in about 300ml but a few teaspoons of tomato paste would probably suffice.

What to do:

Place your tagine on stovetop on a medium heat, add olive oil to coat and fry chopped onion for a few minutes until translucent. 

While the onion is frying chop your garlic, chillies and a handful of coriander leaves together. Add these to onion mixture along with your cumin and a cinnamon quill and fry for another few minutes until fragrant, stirring occasionally. 

Once garlic is beginning to cook, add beans, tomatoes and pasta sauce (or tomato paste) and mix well. Add the juice of half a lime and the liquid smoke and mix through.

Once this mixture is bubbling add your mushrooms, place them evenly spaced around the dish, cup side up, and sprinkle with some more coriander.

This is actually a photo of a different tagine I cooked with large mushrooms but it's just to give you an idea of how to place them.

Place lid on tagine, turn heat to low and allow to simmer on the stovetop for atleast 45 minutes ( I think mine was more like an hour).

Stir and Serve!

I sprinkled mine with more coriander (I really like coriander) and some chopped shallots. I served it on toasted sourdough with lime wedges, coriander and more freshly chopped green chillies!

                                          

Crepes with sweet red bean paste

Azuki beans are one of those things I've never really attempted to cook with before, this recipe came about after an attempt by my housemate and I to make mochi, however after we discovered that we had no rice that idea was pretty much moot. Not wanting to waste our red beans we came up with this instead!

Sweet bean paste:
250g azuki beans soaked over night
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups water

Place azuki beans, and sugar in a small saucepan, add water and bring to the boil. Simmer with a lid on for 40 minutes or until beans are soft and mashable. Check regularly and top up with more water if it gets too dry. Once soft, mash with a potato masher until beans resemble a smooth paste. If too dry add water in small amounts

Crepes:

1 cup plain flour

pinch of salt

2/3 cup soy milk
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp melted margarine
2 tbsp golden syrup

Mix all ingredients together to form a thin batter, if your batter is a little thick and water in small increments. Use a large non-stick crepe pan, that is well greased. Over a high heat, pour some crepe mixture in and roll your pan to cover the bottom evenly with batter. Remember you want them to be thin! Once bubbles come to the surface of your crepe, flip it and cook for a further 30 seconds - 1 minute on the opposite side.

To bring together;

Place 1 - 2 tbsp of bean paste in the centre of your crepe and wrap around the 4 sides. To serve add a dollop of ice cream and drizzle with golden syrup.

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Sweet and Sour "Pork"

I'm not really a fan of faux meats, but I made this for the novelty, and it actually turns out really tasty. I used 'vege rib' I buy it in sunnybank at Yuens Market where they have a gigantic aisle of the stuff. If you can't get vege rib just use firm tofu, it's equally as good.

Firstly take your vege rib and tear it into useable chunks; then set a pot of vegetable oil to heat for deep frying.


Batter:
9 tablespoons of cornflour
9 tablespoons of plain flour
1 tsp of baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup of water

Mix all ingredients together to make a smooth batter, you can add more or less water depending on how thick you want your batter. Add chunks of vege rib and coat evenly; fry in batches in hot oil until golden brown, and then allow to drain on paper towel.

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

Half a cup of tomato sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp of sugar
2 cloves garlic - crushed
1 tsp of freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup water
2 tsp corn flour
2 shallots cut into thin strip

Mix tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar and water in a bowl. Fry off your garlic and ginger for 1 -2 minutes in a small saucepan over a moderate heat, add the tomato sauce mixture and bring to the boil stirring occasionally. Add shallots and allow to simmer for another couple of minutes.
Mix the cornflour with 1/4 cup of water, and stir through sauce; allow to thicken for another minute or two (if sauce becomes too thick just add more water).

To Serve:
I serve this with some quickly stir fried veggies and steamed rice.  The best way is to pour your sauce over the deep fried vege rib right before serving so that they're still lovely and crispy when you eat them.

Enjoy Xx

Mushrooms Campagnola

My mum used to make this when I was a kid, although she used veal, the flavour combination is awesome and field mushrooms work fantastically in this recipe.

What you'll need:

1 Brown onion - Diced
3 cloves garlic - finely chopped
1 400g tin of diced tomatoes
2 tsp tomato paste
250 g chopped spinach - defrosted and drained if frozen
4 large flat field mushrooms
Vegan cream cheese (or mozarella if your making a vegetarian version)
Basil
Tarragon
Salt
Pepper

Using a large shallow pan fry your onion and garlic for 2 minutes until fragrant, add tomatoes and tomato paste, salt, pepper and herbs to taste and simmer with a lid on for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile cut the stems off your mushrooms and fry on a low heat until just cooked.
Place your mushrooms, cup side up in your tomato mixture and cook for another 5 minutes with a lid on. Split up your spinach and place in mushroom caps, then take a few teaspoonfulls of cheese, flatten it slightly and place it on top of the spinach till the spinach is mostly covered.
Turn your pan to a low heat and cover continue cooking until cheese is melted and spinach is warmed through.

Serve with garlic bread

Stuffed Banana Chillies

2 Large Banana Chillies
400gms cream cheese
4 large mushrooms chopped
1 tomato chopped
half a red capsicum chopped
1 small zucchini
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1/2 small onion
1 tsp sambal oelek
1 cup chopped baby spinach
fresh chopped parsley, thyme and basil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Fry onion and garlic for 2 minutes, add tomatoes, sambal,  spinach, capsicum, zucchini and mushroom and fry for a further 5 minutes or until veggies begin to soften. Take them off the heat and allow to cool.
Take your chillies and carefully cut around the stalks, remove and scrape out seeds using a sharp knife or teaspoon.
Add herbs, salt and pepper and cheese to cooled veggie mixture and stuff carefully into chillies using a teaspoon. Once filled cover in olive oil and roast for 20 minutes.
Enjoy Xx

Melon Brain

Melon brain = awesome...
they look so effective and cool, I did this one for friday 13th this year
cut a water melon in half and peel off the green skin, leaving the white behind
cut brainy patterns with a sharp knife....ta da!

I also attempted to make some brownies so I could cut them into little head stone shapes....but unfortunately I accidentally somehow managed to get a plastic handled knife in the oven whilst they were cooking and it melted and filled the oven with acrid plastic smoke....so just imagine their awesomeness. Xx

Coffee Triumph Cake with Poached Pears

Why triumph cake? Cause this recipe actually worked...although perhaps coffee procrastination cake is more appropriate as I really should be studying for my exams right about now. This was one of those occasions where you just kind of throw things together and hope for the best, and against all odds, it totally works. This cake is moist, spongy and super yummy! This makes a big cake, for a layer cake halve the mixture into two tins or halve the recipe for a smaller loaf tin. I cooked in a 30cm round spring form tin.

Coffee cake

What you'll need;

1 cup soy milk

1 tbsp vinegar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

3 heaped tsp instant coffee

2 tsp vanilla essence

4 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar (yes its a lot)
2 tsp baking soda (bicarb)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Mix soy milk and vinegar together and sit for a minute or two till it curdles, add  few tsp full of hot water to your instant coffee to dissolve and add along with all other wet ingredients to the milk mixture.

In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients until combined then add to wet mixture and beat well until there are no lumps. Place mix in a greased cake tin and bake for 45 -50 minutes or until centre is cooked.

Icing

Half tub of tofutti cream cheese
1/2 cup of milk
1 tsp instant coffee dissolved in water
1/2 cup icing sugar

Mix all ingredients until well combined and refrigerate until cake is ready to be iced. When cake is cool ice and place poached pears on top

Poached Pears

I got these awesome little mini pears the other day cause woolies had a fill a bag for $2 trolley full of (in my opinion) perfectly fine fruit and vegetables. You could do it with large pears, just serve them on the side.

6 mini pears - peeled
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp orange marmalade
4 strands saffron
2 tsp all spice
2tsp cinnamon (or one cinnamon stick)
2 tsp whole cloves

Put all ingredients in a small heavy bottomed saucepan and cook over a very low heat until pears are soft, may take 10 -15 minutes.


When cooked remove pears from the poaching water and reduce it over a high heat for a further 2-3 minutes. Brush some of this liquid over the cake while still hot. Cut pears in half and place on or around cake once iced. Enjoy Xx

Creamy Mushroom and Broccoli Pasta

Yay Pasta!
I hope that didn't sound forced...generally when I make 'pasta' sauce, I leave out the pasta and eat it on bread...partly cause I'm obsessed with bread and partly cause thats the way I roll.
But this is good, even for a self admitted pasta avoider.

What you'll need:
2 cups pasta, any kind I used the tricoloured swirls
1 small onion finely diced
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1 cup sliced broccoli florets
2 cloves garlic crushed
1/4 cup white wine
2 heaped tbsp tofutti cream cheese
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tbsp freshly chopped chives
1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
nuttelex for frying

Put your pasta on to cook.
You can use olive oil for this but I think nuttelex gives the mushrooms a nice flavour,
Melt a tbsp nuttelex in a hot fry pan and add onion, cook for 2-3 minutes until transparent stirring regularly. Add mushrooms and garlic and fry for another minute or two, add broccoli and wine and leave to simmer.
Place cream cheese, milk, herbs and some salt and pepper into a jug and whisk until well combined (heating will help this process microwave for 30 seconds or so) add this mixture to your fry pan and mix thoroughly. Cook for a further 5 -7 minutes or until broccoli is cooked to your liking.
If sauce starts to get to thick just add a small amount of water, don't worry if you add too much, it will evaporate off.
Once pasta is cooked, drain and add to sauce and mix through. Sprinkle with some more fresh parsley and some cracked pepper and enjoy Xx

Punkrock chickpea gravy and beer battered chips

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT THE EXISTENCE OF CHICKPEA GRAVY? 
No seriously, why? I can't even begin to describe how super awesome it really is! I have a burnt tongue to prove it, it's straight-out-of-a-pan-with-a-spoon-without-bothering-to-wait-until-its-cool-enough tasty.


While I am ecstatic to now be able to eat this whenever I want, I am also a little sad as I really didn't need another excuse to binge on carbs. I'm a carbo-holic.
The original recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, which I don't own....so I accessed it here http://www.food.com/recipe/punkrock-chickpea-gravy-304633 


Now I only realised after I started making this that the ingredients I didn't have were pretty close to the number of ingredients I did so...I had no mustard seeds, so I just used 2 tbsp of mild american mustard, no lemons, so I used half a lime, I also only had smoked paprika and no nutritional yeast or coriander...oh and I used fresh thyme and rosemary...but even with all these changes it was still super tasty, so when I actually get my hands on the real ingredients I'm sure it'll knock my frilly socks off.


As I was shovelling spoonfuls of gravy into my mouth, I realised that it was a little sad, so I needed something for it to accompany, it being 1 pm on a monday means its time for beer so.. Beer battered chips were the obvious choice!


You'll need;


2 - 4 washed potatoes with the skins on
1 bottle cold beer (I used Tooheys Extra Dry)
2 cups plain flour
2 tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil for deep frying


Put your oil on to heat


Cut your potatoes into long strips


Pre-steam or boil potatoes until they're just turning soft, and I mean just, you still want them slightly firm (Approx 7 minutes)


Meanwhile mix flour and paprika together, whisk through beer until a light fluffy batter forms.


Dip potato pieces in batter until well coated and fry in batches until golden brown, drain on kitchen paper and serve with chickpea gravy! 
Enjoy Xx

Roast Pumpkin Soup

Hooray! It's soup weather! The best damn weather you could ask for...productivity is low but desire to eat soup is oh so high!


What you'll need;
1 medium sized butternut pumpkin peeled and chopped
2 carrots peeled and chopped
1/2 sweet potato peeled and chopped
1 large onion finely diced
4 cloves garlic
fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
8 cups vegetable stock


Preheat oven to 180 degrees, placed chopped pumpkin, carrots and sweet potato into a roasting tray cover in olive oil and some salt and pepper and roast for 45 minutes or until veggies and soft and beginning to brown. After 15 minutes have elapsed throw whole un-peeled garlic cloves into the tray as well.


Once your veggies are cooked fry your onion in a soup pot with a little olive oil, once translucent add your roast veggies. Squeeze garlic out of the skins, it should be nice and soft, and add to the pot.
Add fresh thyme, about 2-3 teaspoons should do.


Add your 8 cups of stock and bring to the boil, allow soup to simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes, after this time mash/process the mixture till it is smooth, allow to cook for another 10 minutes with the lid off, or until desired consistency has been reached. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with some fresh crusty bread!


I like my soup nice and chunky so I just mash with a potato masher till there are no large chunks. This dish can be made without pre roasting the vegetables but it is just so much sweeter and has a greater depth of flavour if you pre-roast them. but if you are short on time just throw them all in the soup pot and let them cook for about 30 minutes or until soft.
Enjoy Xx

Daal and Chapatis

Ah daal, the poor students staple, it costs about $1.20 to make and can feed you for a week, and the best part is that it is so versatile. What ever you've got it can probably go in daal.


You'll need


2 cups lentils (I used brown)
1 brown onion roughly chopped
1 tomato roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
4 tsp cumin
4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp biryani seasoning
Salt to taste


Rinse lentils well and remove any that are discoloured. Place lentils into a saucepan and cover with 4 cups of boiling water.
Add a few pinches of salt and place a lid on the saucepan, boil for 10 -15 minutes or until lentils begin to soften. Adding more water if necessary.
Once lentils are softened fry off onion in a saucepan until browned.
Add the lentils to the onion, add tomatoes, garlic and ginger and cook for  minute or two.
Add spices and simmer for another 10 minutes or until lentils are fully cooked, if the mixture begins to dry add more boiling water.
I like to taste the daal throughout the cooking process and adjust the seasoning to taste.

Chapatis


2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
2 tsp olive oil


While the daal is simmering you can prepare the chapatis.
Place flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Add half the water and the olive oil and mix together.
Add the rest of the water slowly until you form a soft dough.
Roll the dough into small balls and then roll flat using a rolling pin on a well floured surface.
Cook one at a time in a hot frying pan. Cook for 2 minutes on either side and serve warm with daal.


This recipe is just a guide, honestly you can put any mix of vegetables and spices into it and it will still taste awesome! Enjoy Xx

Shiitake Miso Soup

This is probably the easiest simplest thing to cook....ever.  And it's tasty


A handful of dried shiitake mushrooms sliced
2 pieces dried black fungus
Pinch sliced dried seaweed
2 teaspoons white miso paste
2 spring onions sliced.
2 cups boiling water


Re-hydrate the fungus and shiitake in some boiling water for 10 minutes or until soft (if your shiitake mushrooms are whole this will take longer).
Place miso paste in small heavy bottomed sauce pan and add a small amount of the water from the mushrooms to mix through.
Add water then mushrooms and spring onions and cook over a medium heat until boiling, reduce heat and add seaweed.
Allow to simmer for 1 or 2 minutes.
Rest for 5 minutes and then serve


Variations: Cubes of silken tofu are also really good in this dish, I just didn't have any on hand. Also fresh mushrooms can be used and some grated ginger...other ingredients which I don't currently have.

Mushroom and Snow Pea Salad

This salad is really simple, it seems too simple, but comes out incredibly tasty. You can add any vegetables you want but this is the traditional way my mum makes it. Play around with the dressing, all measurements are approximates, this is something I generally do by sploshing the ingredients together until it tastes good. Some fresh cucumber or steamed  and cooled broccolini would also be great additions.


Salad
250 grams button mushrooms - sliced
1 red capsicum  - cut into strips
500 grams snow peas - topped and tailed
Dressing
2 tsp fresh ginger - grated
2 tbsp sherry
1 red chilli - finely chopped
1 tbsp sweet soy
1 tbsp light soy


Arrange snow peas around the edges of a serving plate


Combine dressing ingredients and mix well.


In a bowl toss mushrooms capsicum and dressing.


Place mushroom mixture in the centre of your serving plate.


Top with freshly chopped coriander (optional)

Crumbed Mushrooms

So simple and sssssssssssoooooooo tasty. We had some friends over for drinks last night and having about $20 between us needed cheap and simple snacky food to feed them. This recipe has everything you could possibly want...
Crispy deep fried goodness? Tick
Mushrooms? Tick
What else do you need?
You can also add any flavourings you like to the crumbs, I used some fresh herbs but you can experiment with chilli's, curry powder, really anything you want.


What you'll need...


Button mushrooms....as many as you want...less is NOT more!
Plain flour
Soy milk
Panko breadcrumbs
Mixed fresh herbs ( I used parsley, lemon thyme and garlic chives)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil for deep frying.


Put your oil on to heat.
Chop up your herbs finely and add to bread crumbs, you can use any breadcrumbs but I really recommend Panko, they are extra crispy! Mix through a few tsp of salt and pepper.
You'll need to make a little production line, have  a plate of flour, a bowl of soy milk and a plate of the crumb mixture set up.
Brush any dirt off mushrooms and trim of any long stems.
Dip your mushrooms one at a time into soy milk, coat in flour, re-dip into soy milk and then roll in crumbs. Set aside until all are crumbed and ready for frying.
If I can stress anything it would be make sure you flour them first! If you just directly crumb the mushroom all your crumbs will float off as soon as you put them into the hot oil.
I test my oil by putting a cube of bread in, if it floats and bubbles your oil is hot enough.
Lower the mushrooms carefully into the hot oil and cook in batches until all are golden and crisp, should take about 2-3 mins per batch.
Drain on some paper towel to soak up any extra oil.
Serve warm with a few beers and some good friends!