Homemade jam donuts and a new op shop

Arthur has been asking me to make jam donuts for a long time.  About four years in fact.  When I last made jam donuts, DeeW was crawling around and we had to put the deep fryer in our bathroom to keep her away.

So I agreed to make the donuts but we first had some stuff to do in the morning and went to an op shop as I had donations to drop off.  I’m supposed to be decluttering but I walked out with all this for the grand total of $2.50.  I already have two of these glass jars so I always snap them up when I see them:

I wish I’d photographed the original Simon Says game I saw.  Boring, you say.  What’s so good about Simon Says? you say.  WELL.  My fellow Aussies will oooh excitedly when I tell you it’s Simon TOWNSEND Says!  If it’s still there the next time I visit I’ll take a pic.  I think it was $10.  Worth it for a photo of Simon’s haircut on a box, don’t you think?

I was recently reading Woman In Real Life’s blog post about an op shop she visited and the Leave It To Beaver books she saw there.  Who knew they made Leave It To Beaver books?  And who knew they’d end up in a Melbourne op shop?  It was $5, bargain price for such a book but I resisted:

So, the donuts.  I really dislike deep frying so you can see why it’s been four years.  But I do love hot jam donuts and buy some from the van at Preston Market but that’s not often at all, which suits me fine.

Anyway, Arthur was also nagging for some spring rolls (lumpia) so this time I said I’d use the deep fryer.  When I made the spring rolls last week or so, I just used a pot on the stove.  I figured the deep fryer would be easier because you just put everything in the frying basket and let it go.  But oh my goodness you use SO MUCH OIL to fill the fryer.

And here’s where a slight problem starts.

The deep fryer is stored in a little storage room next to our laundry.  The deep fryer was put there around four years ago.  Except the deep fryer, from four years ago, had not been emptied before it was put away.  I’m pointing the finger at Husband.

Imagine four years of stinking hot summers and a deep fryer that still has the oil in it.  There was no mould but the rancid oil smell was bad enough.  Not to mention how sticky it all was.  I made Husband wash it out while I got stuff ready.  Even though he washed it thoroughly it still has that awful smell.

Anyway, I was going to use a fantastic recipe from “The Bread Book” by Linda Collister.  I’ve made it once before but it involved a fair bit of prep work– the first rise of dough, then you stamp out circles, plop jam on a circle, seal with another circle, leave to rise again, etc.  I don’t have the room to stamp out dough (well, I would if I cleaned the kitchen table) and I wanted something quick.  So it was a pretty cool coincidence that the latest free issue of the Woolworths Fresh Magazine had a recipe for donuts, although theirs were filled with chocolate.

This recipe was super easy.  I added 1/8th teaspoon of turmeric for a yellow colour but I could have added more as it wasn’t all that yellow and I doubt that much turmeric would affect the taste.  You know the nice yellow colour from the donut vans?  That’s what I wanted.

After the dough had doubled in size, DeeW and I rolled walnut sized balls:

then they were lowered in to the CLEAN deep fryer and cooked:

and finally a squeeze of jam and some caster sugar:

Getting the jam in was hard and we used a metal piping set.  Look what happens when you put too much jam in:

They tasted good but were nowhere near as beautiful as the donuts I made years ago, where the jam is placed inside the dough for the second rising.  That ensure the donuts stayed perfectly round.  Today the donuts got squashed a bit when we put the nozzle in.  They kind of look like demented eyeballs.

These are not something I see myself make again.  I felt sick from eating that oil (I get awfully queasy most of the time after eating something deep fried).  Still they were tonnes better than the gluten free jam donut I tried last week which was horrible and pretty much a solid oil formation.  I still feel sick thinking about it.  In future though, if we want jam donuts we’ll just go and buy them.

You can find the recipe on about page 26 of the Woolworths Fresh mag by following the link above.  I used egg replacer in place of the two egg yolks without a problem.  We used strawberry jam my mother in law made but nothing beats the jam the donut vans used and I have no idea what that is.  Or even if it contains strawberries.

Mmmm donuts!

Mothers Day treats from Mister Nice Guy’s Bake Shop

It feels like we haven’t been to Mister Nice Guy’s Bake Shop in aaages.  That’s probably because we haven’t been in aaages.  Arthur had requested I make pancakes for Mothers Day (as in, Mother does all the work) and I said think again buddy cos I’m not going near a frying pan.  We decided on treats from Mister Nice Guy to take to my Mum’s house for afternoon tea.

As usual, there were lots of lovely treats at the bake shop:

My sister and I were pitching in for afternoon tea so got some cake (yum!) and a piece of the grasshopper cheezecake which is mint flavoured.  As it was brunch time when I visited the bake shop and I hadn’t had breakfast, I decided to try the ‘BLT’ bagel.  Oh my, it was delicious:

Part of our day today involved passing through the suburb of North Melbourne, a lovely part of town:

I love this old lettering on a store right near Mister Nice Guy’s:

… it matches this stove someone put out on the nature strip (grassed areas outside homes):

Best Mothers Day present: my legs look long and skinny!

Best wishes for a fantastic Mothers Day, to all you mums out there!

A really slack “What I Ate” moment

I’ve been slack AGAIN with my ‘what I ate this week’ posts.  Meal planning has gone out the window for another week because of Husband’s unpredictable work schedule.  I did manage to take some pics of various this-and-thats!

Kale and chickpeas dressed with lemon juice and nooch:

I can’t tell you how happy I am that Arthur and DeeW are eating porridge.  I get to cook ONE BIG BOWL then serve it out.  Bliss!  I had some with currants and golden syrup.  With toasted coconut, I call it ‘ANZAC Biscuit Porridge’:

Bad photo of the vegan packet rendang mix with leftover potato and sweet potato mixed in:

In the week before Greek Orthodox Easter my mum made vegan ‘koulourakia’.  Koulourakia are bready-biscuitty things served alongside coffee and tea.  Mum’s usual recipe has butter or cream but this version is made with oil.  Everyone makes their koulourakia differently.  My maternal grandmother made big hearty versions but my paternal grandma made hers sweeter and heavier.  My mum makes hers somewhere in between:

Speaking of Easter, here are the flowers Mum had on the table for Easter Sunday lunch:

For lunch Mum made rice with veg.  My sister made the roast veg and a leek potato soup.  Due to an unfortunate miscommunication, there was no vegan dessert.  It didn’t matter though as I was pretty full anyway:

One of my favourite smoothies is made with orange, lemon and frozen bananas:

I made a walnut basil pesto which was delicious.  I tried some gluten free rice macaroni.  The first time I cooked it according to the instructions.  Sat down to eat and the pasta was still hard (yes I’d tried a piece before turning the stove off!).  It was so hard I threw everything away and made a second batch.  I had to cook the second batch for double the amount of time stated on the packet and the piece I tested had turned to moosh.  Sat down to eat the second time and some of the pieces were still too tough and I’m not talking al dente!  I ate it  because I was starving but I’m never buying it again:

A Lebanese zaatar bread from Zaatar on Sydney Road in Coburg:

I went to lunch at Zaatar and ordered their falafel zaatar focaccia, which they assure me has no animal content at all.  It was delicious and I could barely finish it all:

My mum’s vegan ‘yemista’, which are Greek stuffed vegies.  Mum always uses rice but this time she used burghul:

I had a voucher for Lord of the Fries so I treated myself to their Spicy burger.  I forgot to take a photo until I’d demolished it:

…and this was my view as I ate my burger at LotF near Flinders Street Station:

It was a beautiful day and I had my camera with me, so I’ll leave you with some snaps of my super home town  :)

And home again:

\o/

Watercress Coconut Lumpia Spring Rolls from ‘Vegan Eats World’

‘Vegan Eats World’ by Terry Hope Romero was a book I pre-ordered with much excitement.  Vegan food, world cuisine– I’m sold!  When the book finally arrived I waited until I had a completely uninterrupted few hours just so I could sit down on the couch and really take my time looking through it.

The way I usually look through a new cookbook is like this: I look at pictures first.  Then I flip through the pages from the start and get a rough idea of the recipes.  Then I go back to the very start and read everything properly, the dedications, thank yous etc.  I then get a stash of little strips of scrap paper to use as bookmarks so I can come back to those pages.

With ‘Vegan Eats World’, I had to run and get myself some more little scrap paper bookmarks.  One recipe I made sure to note were the lumpia, or spring rolls.  I’ve never really wanted to make stuff fried in oil so I was pleased to see the recipe gives an option for oven baking.

Terry’s lumpia are made up of dried coconut that gets toasted, carrot, potato, cabbage, watercress, onion and garlic.  That stuff gets cooked up then you fill spring roll wrappers and roll them up and fry or bake.  I went for the fry option this time, just as one of those “I never do this otherwise, so why not try it”.  And truthfully, I wasn’t sure if they’d turn out in the oven.

The filling has vinegar in it (the kinds of vinegar are listed in the recipe) but I left it out entirely.  I also left out the onion because of pure laziness.  I just couldn’t be bothered dicing an onion.  That’s me.  There’s a dipping sauce recipe listed but I just used sweet chilli sauce instead.

I was surprised that these turned out great.  Not that I doubted Terry at all.  It was more this pattern I have, where I put effort in to a recipe and then somehow it doesn’t end up the way I think it should be so I’m all mehhh won’t do that again.

I ended up making another batch in the oven just to see how they turned out.  Baking does not give them the nice even browning and I found they went too crunchy.  Still, the kids ate them all up:

Since the initial experiment I’ve made them a few times and added chopped kale to the mix. The only problem with them is you can easily eat the entire batch in one sitting…

Pizza at Rubicon Cafe

Last week I was treated to lunch at Rubicon Cafe in North Melbourne.  My dining pals and I went at a non-busy time so the place was empty.  In our group we had vegans (well, me), vegetarians and GF folk and we were happy to see there was something for everyone.

I was in the mood for pizza and the friendly guy who served us was very helpful and told me they’d make me a vegan special.  Sounds good right?  And it was.  It was also of hub cap size:

Vegan pizza is one of things I usually avoid because, well, the ones I’ve had are mostly crap and boring.  Not this one.  It had potato!!! And pumpkin!!!  And cherry tomatoes, capsicum, mushies, olives, spinach, red onion, broccoli WILL YOU STOP THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH.

This is the best vegan pizza I’ve ever had.  I was never much in to cheese on a pizza so the lack of vegan cheese wasn’t a problem at all and in fact if it were an option I would have said no.

It was about $16  and despite how huge it was, I managed to stuff it all down, leaving some crusts (and some dignity) behind.

Rubicon Cafe is located at 50 Errol Street, North Melbourne.

Summer salad and Beans at Wide Open Road

Husband said magic words the other day: “let me take you to lunch”.  Arthur and DeeW were with their grandparents and Husband and I had errands and stuff.  We were around Sydney Road in Brunswick so I suggested Wide Open Road because I was in the mood for those slow cooked beans.

We were there a bit after the lunch hour so we were one of only a few tables occupied.  Then I got a bit of a shock to see the menu had changed.  No slow cooked beans.  No smashed peas with maple walnuts on sourdough.  No apple-slaw sandwich.  I wasn’t feeling very well that day and was a bit down in the dumps-sooky when going through the menu and finding that nothing really jumped out at me.  I wanted beans so I ordered the side of ‘smoky braised beans’ and the summer salad.

The beans were delicious and the smokyness was just right.  Not like when you make a smoky-something at home and put too much liquid smoke in.  These were perfect and I really wish they’d make a big serve instead of having it as a side dish:

The ‘Summer Salad of strawberries, orange, pomegranate, watermelon jelly, coconut tapioca and puffed grains’ was pretty nice too, although I did feel the light sprinkling of puffed grains was a bit unnecessary, though that could be because I really don’t like the chewiness of puffed grains.  I was a bit disappointed that the watermelon jelly was just a few tiny thin slivers.  The coconut tapioca part was really nice though and the best thing about it was that it wasn’t overly sweetened.  The sweetness was just right, so that part gets a thumbs up from me:

Wide Open Road is located at 274 Barkly Street, Brunswick.  See their website for more details:   http://wideopenroad.com.au/

* * *

After lunch we had some stuff to do around Melbourne University.  I love walking around the uni grounds, some of the buildings are beautiful.  See? Enjoy!

A late lunch at Gong De Lin (finally)

It seems like everyone in the Melbourne veg*n blogging world has been to Gong De Lin.  Okay well maybe not really, but I feel like I’m about fifty thousand years behind the times because I’d never been.  I was in the city today and was starving around 3:30pm so I said listen up Veganopoulous, you will go to Gong De Lin OR ELSE (or else you… will be hungry I guess).

Yet again, I forgot to take a photo from the street.  Anyway, there’s a little elevator that goes up to the third floor where Gong De Lin is located.  It’s a small, cramped, smelly elevator.  I sure bet Aerosmith didn’t have this lift in mind when they wrote Love In An Elevator:

Gong De Lin was completely empty at this hour:

I had a bit of a tough time working out what to order.  I thought about tofu but I have enough tofu at home I have to eat soon.  I wasn’t in the mood for noodles.  I don’t like soup much.  So I decided to get the sizzling black pepper steak, to see if it was something that Husband, Mr “Sizzling Pepper Non-Vegan Steak” would think was okay.

After ordering, I began to think that “what the heck have I done?” thought.  I’m not a fan of seitan and I want to avoid pure wheat gluten.  So yeah… a total “WHAT HAVE I DONE” moment of stupidity.  I was in the mood for jasmine tea and a pot cost $2.  I sipped it and looked out the window at the slightly blah scenery, thank you construction work:

I ordered some plain steamed rice and when the meal came out, it was sizzlin’ a-mightily:

Okay so first off, the actual taste was good.  The sauce was nice and not overly sweet and the vegies had a good crunch.  Because the sauce was sticky, some of the ‘steak’ was stuck to the foil covered serving plate, so little bits of foil remained stuck on the food.  No, I didn’t eat those bits.

Now I have to say, this did not resemble a steak in any way.  As veg*ns we’re pretty much aware that seitan won’t always fool a meat lover and this dish is certainly not one I’d recommend you use to convince your steak loving friends to eat because “it’s just like meat steak, honest!”  Because it’s not.  The texture of the seitan was just too soft for that.  This is a meal I’d refer to as “sizzling seitan”.

But if seitan is your thing then I do highly recommend the sizzling black pepper steak!

I paid $20.80 which kind of made my eyes bug out a little.  This is pricey for what I got and I was thinking why didn’t I just go to Om’s Vegetarian?  But Gong De Lin is a place I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while now and it was nice to have the time to myself to do something ‘special’.  Next time though, I’ll get a tofu dish or something without seitan!  Service was helpful and quick but of course, I was the only customer!

Here are a few photos out and about in Melbourne.  This is the old Melbourne General Post Office, which now houses a bunch of boutiques and other stores:

I absolutely love this building.  I want to get really rich, buy it and live there.  I love it so much, I have no idea about its history:

A typical Melbourne city street scene:

Gong De Lin is located at level 3, 264 Swanston Street.  They are open 7 days from 10am to 10pm.  When you walk in at ground level there’s the lift in front of you to your left.  The lift opens on level 3 directly in to the restaurant.

And I have to mention Chrissy Amphlett, who passed away two days ago. It’s only now as an adult that I’ve really enjoyed watching music videos and live performances of The Divinyls and I never really appreciated them as much when I was growing up.  Chrissy, in my opinion, was one awesome, rebellious rock chick but when I heard she had been cast in The Boy From Oz, as Judy Garland no less, I thought it was a bad choice.  That was until I heard her sing and she was magnificent in the role.  She wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I think under all the hunched over scowling (more so in her earlier days) and attitude, she was a deeply sensitive person and extremely intelligent.

Thanks Chrissy!

Chickpea Sensation Patties from ‘Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan’

As part of my push to get back in to meal planning, I went through a small pile of cookbooks to try out new recipes.  The kitchen table was cleared for me to work and I got Arthur to sit down and do some of his English grammar work.  He complains and moans about it being the most boring thing on earth.  That is why I know he is up to no good when he is intently scribbling in his workbook:

That’s my boy.  Did any of you pick up on the hip hop dude’s hand in the conductor’s bum?  (the “AHHHHH” is supposed to be a scream of surprise…)

Today’s recipe choice was the Chickpea Sensation Patties from Dreena Burton’s “Eat, Drink & Be Vegan”.  I am yet to go wrong with a Dreena recipe.  I love her books and read through them often.  Dreena recently wrote a blog post on finding a balance between motherhood and working.  It’s a good read and I found myself nodding along here and there.

Back to the patties.  They involve a food processor which always get a thumbs up from me!  The most time consuming part was chopping the onions and celery then frying them up a little.  In other words, not much work at all.  You just moosh everything up in the food processor then fry the patties.

The patties reminded me of the stuffing you’d make for a Christmas dish (without the rosemary).  The kitchen was full of warming smells.  I really liked them but the kids didn’t, as I expected.  Tthat’s okay, they much prefer bland foods and I was an adult before I could handle thyme and rosemary.

I steamed some cubed potatoes then fried them up with a tiny bit of oil and a generous pinch of good Spanish paprika.  For Husband, I put some raw carrot, snowpeas and green beans on his plate because that’s the way he eats them.  Being a believer in the benefits of raw food, I’m not complaining!

Tofu Makhani from Holy Cow!

I’ve been really bad with meal planning lately.  The way I like to plan is to look through my bazillion cookbooks and try a few new things.  Unfortunately for the past few weeks, my kitchen table has been covered with all sorts of junk.  Before I sit down to work, I must have a completely clean, clutter free space.  I like to lay out all the cookbooks and a notepad and make a list of what I’d like, what the kids and Husband would like and notes on what we all might like together.  Which is rare, as the kids and Husband all have their own food ‘issues’.  This week, I went through these books:

(yes, sharp eagle eyed readers!  That is indeed a new kitchen table)

So I was going through these cookbooks and a few websites.  Holy Cow! is one of my favourite vegan recipe sites.  I love Indian food.  Love love love it.  So for the stuff I jotted down, I went and did a nice big grocery shop.  I usually like to avoid the big supermarkets but we had a gift card thingy:

Hey!  Who put these in my trolley?:

So years ago, before I was vegan, some friends and I went to dinner and one of my buddies ordered the chicken makhani/butter chicken.  I’d always ordered a korma or rogan josh but after that I was converted to the rather unhealthy chicken makhani.  Husband loved it too.  The vegan version I’ve been using is The Kind Cook’s Not Butter Chicken recipe and I really do like it.  Today I decided to try Holy Cow!’s recipe for Tofu Makhani  because I wanted to make something with cashews.

The recipe is very straightforward and involves marinating some tofu in advance (if you want) then frying it.  For the sauce part you toast some spices, then add onions and the other stuff and finally whiz it all up in the blender:

Husband doesn’t eat tofu (by choice) so I added in some green beans and potatoes I’d steamed.  See steamy photo:

I enjoyed this dish but I suspect I added a bit too much of something (ground fenugreek maybe?) as there was a slightly bitter aftertaste.  It tasted better on the second day and I kept finding myself going back to have another sneaky piece of tofu  :)

Are you a makhani nut too?

Cafe Sarabella, Coburg. And why it is full of awesome

I am ashamed you guys.  I’ve been frequenting the area around Coburg Library for about two years.  And in that time I have never been to Cafe Sarabella.

Cafe Sarabella is tucked away in the Victoria Street Mall, between Sydney Road and the Coburg Library.  It’s a great little area out there with seating and recently lots of colourful yarn bomb installations.  There’s a Middle Eastern shop there that sell nuts and stuff and I buy my pecans from there, but have not ventured a few doors down to Cafe Sarabella.

I decided to check it out today as I was in the area.  Buying pecans.  Anyway, I’ve read some great reviews recently and heard word of mouth recommendations.

The lovely Sara was behind the counter and I asked her if she had anything vegan today.  Did she have vegan or what?  CHECK THIS OUT:

Okay so here I have her oven baked samosa in filo pastry, beetroot in spices and curry leaves, green beans with almond, potatoes with cumin seeds and other tasty spices, rice and lentils.  On the side she put two generous dollops of really hot chutneys.  Hotttt but delicious and you know why I mean generous dollop now.  I took those home for Husband as they were too hot for me.  This all cost $11 and I was stuffed.  Next time I’ll have either the samosa or everything else as this was so much and Sara mercifully said she’d put less rice because I had the samosa.  Of course I managed to stuff it all down in to my stomach.

The food was delicious and Sara herself is an absolute delight.  I was the only customer sitting down (it wasn’t lunch hour) and I ate my meal with Sara at the little table in the window (there are other small tables outside). Sara’s customers bring her fresh organic produce from their gardens and she in turn creates lovely meals and gives back.  She gave me a little taste of her gingerbread almond cake (vegan!) and I was so tempted to buy a slice to take home but I thought I’d leave it for next time as I didn’t want it getting squished in my bag.

I”m always really happy to find not only a vegan place, but one which has exceptional customer service where the owners really care about their food and their customers.  Going to Cafe Sarabella and chatting with Sara seemed like chatting to a friend you’ve known for ages.

I forgot to take a photo of the outside, but here’s the view from my chair by the window.  Hallo Sara!

Cafe Sarabella is not vegan or vegetarian but those options are there.  What I love about it is that the stove setup, with the Bessemer cookware, is exactly the sort of scene I grew up with.  This is honest, genuine home cooked goodness and I prefer that over a fancier restaurant meal any day  :)