Digging up my roots: Cuban pastelitos de guayaba

Lately I've been feeling a bit like something in between homesickness and nostalgic. I don't really have a home -- a place I can go to year after year to visit family and feel a sense of belonging even after years of absences -- nor is is nostalgia because I definitely didn't even want to be there when I did live there. I'm speaking mostly about Miami (in America, of course). I only lived there for 2 years of my 25, but each time I go back I find that I miss it a bit more each time I visit. I spent most summers there. As a child Miami meant pastelitos de guayaba, coconut ice cream, sweet biscuits with rainbow sprinkles that tasted a bit much like chemical raising agents, Cuban bread...Miami meant food, sweets and going to our favourite park.

On my last visit in Miami I indulged in many of my childhood favourites, including scarfing down nearly an entire box of pasta de guayaba (guava paste, pictured above) that has a layer of crema de leche as well. Yesterday I suddenly began craving pastelitos de guayaba or guava puff pastries and was determined to have some! Unfortunately I ate them before they could be chased down by the paparazzi to be photographed, but I do have the recipe left behind. Once I took a bite I was instantly transported back to those uncomfortable visits to my aunt's house where she always greeted us with a box of pastries from the bakery. So. Yum.

Pastelitos de Guayaba

1 can of pink guava fruit
1 tsp lemon juice
100 g Castor sugar
100 ml water
5-6 sheets of puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg, for egg washing

Preheat your oven to 190º C. Open your can of guava fruit and remove the seeds and pulp. Save half of the liquid. Using a food processor or immersion hand blender, blend the fruit shells with the lemon juice and half of the can syrup until you've got a smooth paste. Place the paste into a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes over low heat or until the paste has reduced a bit. Allow to cool slightly. Divide each sheet of puff pastry into 3 long strips. Smear a strip of guava paste down the center of one strip leaving space along all edges, moisten the 4 edges and place another strip over the first strip. Lightly press the edges and smooth them out making sure not to squeeze any of the paste out. Repeat the process until you've used up all of your puff pastry strips.

Place your strips on a lightly oiled tray, brush with some beaten egg and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. While the pastries are baking, combing the sugar and water and bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 minuets to create a simple sugar syrup.

When your pastries are golden brown, brush their surfaces with the simple sugar syrup and bake for an additional 5-6 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool slightly. Slice each strip into 4 squares and enjoy! As a side note the pastries would definitely benefit from using a commercially prepared guava paste or by reducing your canned guava paste down to a thicker consistency to intensify the flavour.

It's needless to say that during my next trip to Miami I'll be buying everyone Cuban cooking product I can get my hands on, as this time around my suitcases were already too full with my life's belongings.

Soups for Winter: Asian Vegetable and Noodle Broth

The arrival of winter means soups, pies and other warm, hearty foods, well, provided you don't live in the tropics. To fill up before heading off to work with grease laden food at my favourite place of employment I whipped up this clean tasting Asian-style broth -- hopefully it'll keep me from scarfing down chips at the end of my shift!

Asian Vegetable & Noodle Broth -- serves 1

500 ml water
2 cm chunk of fresh ginger
the juice of 1/4 of a lime
2-3 springs of fresh coriander, picked, no stems
120 g bok choy, chiffonade (thinly sliced)
60 g of firm tofu, 1 cm cubes
4 g of Asian rice seasoning (Furikake -- for rice balls, inari, etc-- a mixture of shredded seaweed, sesame seeds, etc.)
22 g rice stick noodles
10 ml light soy sauce
2 ml kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1 spring onion, cut into 3 portions

Bring the water to a boil along with the ginger root, rice noodles, rice seasoning, soy sauce and kecap manis. Turn down to a simmer and add the tofu, bok choy. Simmer until the noodles are soft and bok choy is tender. Before serving remove spring onion and ginger root. Garnish with fresh coriander and add a squeeze of lime. After finishing the broth you'll find crunchy toasted sesame seeds and shredded nori at the bottom of your bowl for added texture and interest.

108 calories/3.3 g fat/9.1 g protein/98mg calcium

A Proper Vegetarian Brekkie: A Lesson in Vegetarian Nutrition

"If beef is your idea of "real food for real people", you'd better live real close to a real good hospital."

Today is my day off, so I woke up early (9am) and cooked up a storm for breakfast for Will and myself. In school at the moment, we're studying seafood and preparing food according to special diets and cultural requirements and it's had really got me asking myself this question, "How healthy am I?". As a personal exercise, I'm keeping track of every single thing I put into my body. I've recently been worried about not eating enough protein, but yesterday I consumed 57 grams, when the minimum I need is 40 grams, which includes 13 grams of vanilla flavoured protein I add to my Weetbix in the morning. Unfortunately I didn't consume nearly as much fibre as I needed, but something surprising was the amount of fibre present in Jols Sugar-Free Pastilles (Forrest Berry flavour). It has 9.5 grams!

You can't get fibre from animal products, so today I vowed to get more serves of fruits and vegetables to see if I can make the 30 gram fibre mark without exceeding my calorie allowance of 1300 calories.

The Menu:
1 grilled Roma tomato with fresh coriander, parsley and fresh pepper
1 small potato, sliced and grilled with rosemary, sea salt, pepper and olive oil
steam wilted spinach with sea salt and pepper (no oil)
pan-grilled capsicum (no oil)
1 egg, pan "fried" with non-stick cooking spray
1 slice of wholemeal toast with vegan margarine
1 soy chai latte

Our "Big Vego Brekkie" provided us with 464 calories, 22 grams of protein, 9 grams of fibre
and 20 grams of fat. A bit high for fat due to the 1 egg and the olive oil and vegan margarine, but double the calories I usually consume for breakfast.

My average breakfast of tea, weetbix, soy milk and vanilla-flavoured protein is just 227 calories, 2 grams of fat, 19.5 grams of protein and 4 grams of fibre.

It's needless to say that I probably won't be hungry until well into the afternoon. It always makes me laugh when I see the results of studies that say that eating lots of fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains is the way to keep your weight in control and lead a long, healthy life. All you have to do is is have a few vegetables, fruits and proteins (legumes, tofu, tempeh, eggs) at each meal, which keeps your energy levels up with proteins and carbs and you insides squeaky clean with the fibre.

Lesson of the day: eat your fruits and vegetables!

Brunch At Caffe Cortilé

I'd been looking forward to the Queen's Birthday, practically as if it were my very own. The last Monday I had off from school was Easter Monday and I agreed to go into work that day. This time I declined and started the day off with a lovely brunch in the city with Will, our couple friends and another couple that we have recently added to our list of "people we can do social things with". I had planned on checking out Pushka, but being that it was a proper holiday and all, this little mystery will be kept a mystery until further notices because it was closed. Instead, we headed over to my backup -- Caffe Cortilé-- which turned out to be one of the couple's favourite brunch spots.

Caffe Cortilé is snuggled between other cafes on Place Place in the Block Arcade off Little Collins. The place was packed when we walked in, but surprisingly enough when we told the waitress that we were a party of six she led us to the back where there just happened to be an open table for six. As soon as we sat down we were given two carafes of water to sip on while we browsed the menu. Everyone seemed to have ordered more or less the same thing: 3 soy chai lattes for the vegetarians and 3 lattes for the non-vegos and 4 vegetarian breakfasts, 1 eggs Benedict and eggs Florentine sans the hollandaise.

The soy chai latte came with a rather nice layer of foam. It didn't taste like powder, but I couldn't be sure they didn't take the syrup route like Gloria Jeans and Starbucks. It was one tasty chai, though. The vegetarian meal was different that the Melbourne standard, which usually tends to have mushrooms, a poached egg, spinach, avocado and a potato cooked in one form or another. Cortilé's vego breakfast came nicely presented and showed some imagination on the kitchen's behalf. Half of an avocado stuffed with feta and lashings of a sweet tomato relish came on bed of "seared" spinach (read: practically raw) perched on mixed seed toast.

Since I work in a kitchen myself and hate it when people make changes to dishes on the menu to suit their own tastes, I hesitated to ask them to hold the mushrooms and replace it with spinach. But I did and they complied with my request. I think mushrooms are an overused vegetable in vegetarian dishes and I don't like them, so I just HAD to ask them to replace them.

Personally, I think the vegetarian dish could have used an egg or beans or cheese to add some protein the dish. It was quite fatty, although tasty, with cheese stuffed avocado. Either way, the saltiness of the fetta cheese, the sweetness of the relish and the buttery fruity blandness of the avocado went quite well together.

The atmosphere is conducive to having good conversations, they have a great selection of sweets and the inside is chic and trendy. My biggest complaint? The service was really, really slow. But, apparently the food always takes a long time to arrive according to our couple friend who goes there for brunch often. I probably won't be going back on a regular basis simply because they don't have Eggs Florentine on the menu, they serve their spinach raw instead of sauteed and the only vegetable in the vegetarian breakfast is mushrooms -- I nearly hate mushrooms. I do give them extra points for the creative vegetarian option though.

Caffé Cortilé
30 Block Place
Melbourne (CBD), Victoria

The European: No Trash in Sight

I could have easily been cosily seated in any tapas bar or restaurant in Madrid on a winter night, but I wasn't. In fact, I didn't even have to leave Melbourne to experience a bit of Europe. I'm not talking Gross Florentino or Vue du Monde -- I'm talking about the European.

Tucked away on Spring street just around the corner from Bourke street you'll find a neat little euro-style bistro called the European. The interior is designed like most domestic kitchens you'll find in most apartments across Spain: long and narrow. As soon as we were all seated and chose a glass of wine -- I decided on a red blend from France -- our crisp linen serviettes were snapped open and laid on our laps in the most fashionably un-intrusive manner one could imagine. Being a European bistro and all I wasn't expecting much to be vegetarian, which there wasn't, but I decided upon the only thing I could short of a salad. I happily ordered the "rotolo of beetroot, pine nuts and goat's cheese". At last, a main without mushrooms! While we waited for our order, four serves of fresh sourdough bread and aioli were delivered to our table to share while we chatted. We ordered a serve of pomme frittes to share, which were perfectly tiny julienne strips of potato. They weren't french fries or chips, they were proper pomme frittes.

When my rotolo came, it was immediate eye candy, even in the dimly lit dinning room. It was a roulade of sorts with a thin, almost strudel-like pastry crust wrapped around rolled layers of goats' cheese, toasted pine nuts, beetroot puree, its leaves blanched to perfection and --guess what-- tiny morsels of an unidentifiable type of mushroom. It was garnished with a lovely herb butter sauce and delicate sprouts. I enjoyed every bit of it and ate the the mushrooms because a)they didn't taste half bad drenched in butter and b)I wasn't paying for my meal with my pocket money.

We finished off the meal with two desserts to share, which were a proper Tiramasu with coffee scented macaroons and a chocolate tart with a serve of curiously orange-flavoured ice cream. A piece of heaven in every bit, really.

One fourth of an entree of pommes frittes to share, a vegetarian main, a glass of wine and half of a dessert came to a total of $40. Not bad considering the service was impeccable, the vegetarian main showed some imagination on the chef's part and the wine list was impressively long and full of wines from every corner of Europe. Not bad, at all on a student budget. I'll be anxiously awaiting my next chance to eat beetroot.

161 Spring St
Melbourne 3000 VIC

Phone: (03) 9654 0811

Back to Blogging...

I've officially neglected my little food blog! I'm here tonight to say that I'm back...I'm back to blogging.

• I still work at the vegetarian restaurant, although one could say I've moved up the "ranks"
• I'm starting a cookery club at my college, which I'm ecstatic about
• I've acquire numerous new cookbooks on vegetarian cookery, in hopes that one of them will hold the secret to success
• I've had 3 Wednesdays off from work in a row and I am coming to the stark realisation that having days off is a luxury I can't permit myself to have unless the day off falls on a public holiday that also happens to fall on a school day. I have the Queen's Birthday off from school, and no, I will not be asking for an extra shift at work.
• The short lived Dirty Tuesdays are ceasing to exist. I simply don't have the energy to create exciting food for the rest of the week after coming home from 6-7 hours of cooking at school.
• We're going to Hawaii in November. Woohoo!
  

Tomorrow's mission...a trip to the up and coming foodie precinct -- Sydney Road.

Weeknight Dinner: Good Vegetarian

Roast Fennel and Orange Salad with a citrus vinaigrette
(it tastes way better than it looks)

Zucchini batons with a polenta-herb crumb served with a saffron aïoli dipping sauce

Everyone knows that anything, well, almost anything fried is delicious so it's without saying that dinner was absolutely fabulous tonight. I don't think Will and I have actually sat down and had dinner together since January or February so on my unexpected day off I organised 5-course meal: Zucchini Batons with Saffron-Aïoli (adapted from a dish a chef once made for me because I was vegetarian), Roast Fennel and Orange Salad with a Citrus Vinaigrette (adapted Vegie Food), Pumpkin and Mint Ravioli (a disaster due to temperamental store bought pasta dough), a cheese plate with Maggie Beer's quince paste, a Pont L'Eveque and fresh Asiago with savoury biscuits and sliced baguette, and finally a white chocolate pudding cake -- which is waiting to be baked as I type. To wash everything down neatly, we opened a bottle of Peter Lehman Semillon.

The zucchini batons and the salad were by far the best parts of the meal, but the salad from Vegie Food was outstanding. The faint hint of aniseed from the fennel and the refreshing burst of citrus from the chilled orange segments was a surprisingly tasty combination:

Roasted Fennel and Orange Salad (serves 2)

4 baby fennel bulbs
2.5 tablespoons olive oil
1 orange
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon of roughly chopped mint, no stems
1/2 tablespoons of roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Trim the fronds (the frilly green leaves) from the top of the fennel and set aside. Remove the stalks and cut a slice off the base of each fennel by 5 mm. Slice each bulb in half lengthwise, then slice each half into three. Arrange on a baking tray, drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Use your hands to evenly coat them with oil and seasoning. Grill the fennel until caramelised, turning twice during cooking. Allow to cool and toss through the mint and parsley.

2. Segment the orange over a bowl to catch any juices. Squeeze any juice remaining in the "membranes" into the bowl as well. Whisk 2 tablespoons of oil together with the orange and lemon juice until more or less emulsified. Season with a bit of salt to taste.

3. To assemble the salad on each plate, place the fennel in the center of each plate to form a small mound. Arrange the orange segments over the mound. Spoon the dressing around the edges of the plate and drizzle a bit over the salad. Use a few of the reserved fronds to garnish.

1 Day: So many possibilities

My day off tomorrow is actually a blessing in disguise. Is is going to be the first time that I actually get to prepare and enjoy a sit-down dinner at home with Will since, well, for months! It's funny how I look forward to and even dream about having a day off from everything where I can just do nothing, but when the day actually comes I want to take advantage of it and do EVERYTHING!

To Do List:

1. Go to Vic Market and do weekly shopping. Try a new cheese.
2. Return cookbooks to city library and get more!
3. Read the current issue of Vegetarian Times from cover to cover.
4. Cook a gourmet style dinner with a rediculous amount of courses. Roasted capsicum sorbet anyone?
5. Visit cookery supply shop on Elizabeth street. They might as well know me by name there.
6. Visit Books for Cooks on Gertrude street.
7. Open a bottle of Semillon. Maybe it's good.
   

Dirty Tuesday: Asian Super Stores

A new urban-sleek-chic Asian supermarket opened up in Melbourne Central, which is great it you happened to be at Coles and need tofu puffs. However, if you happen to be shopping at Safeway in the QV and need tofu puffs, look no further than Laguna on the second level. It's not sleek and doesn't smell like flowers, but it's rather comprehensive as far as my limited knowledge of Asian products go. I can't read the labels on half of the things in there but I managed to find: tamarind puree (for marinating my tempeh), agar agar (for vodka jelly shots), square rice noodles for kuay tieow-inspired (pronounced: koy-tiao) stir fries and a very authentic tasting pad thai sauce with very bad translations on the label.

I've recently become a fan of tempeh after fashioning a tempeh wrap at work for dinner. The key to making tempeh palatable is marinating it, like tofu, which is what I did for this week's stir fry: Pad Thai-style Kuay Tieow with tamarind-soy tempeh (square rice noodles, vegetables flavoured with pad thai sauce and sauteed tempeh marinated in soy sauce and tamarind puree).

Also on this week's menu...

Honey-Roasted Eggplant and Leek Salad with orzo, sun dried tomatoes and parsley
Channa Dahl with Brown Rice and plenty of fresh coriander
Macaroni Gratinate with a Roasted Red Capsicum Sauce, spinach and Feta

A Tribute to All Things Moorish, etc.

I fell in love with the unique taste of olive oil in Spain, but only at the every end of my 3 years in Spain. I remember my father always had it drizzled over his salad with a bit of white vinegar. I tasted it once, in secret of course, and I wanted nothing to do with it. One of the first few days in my off-campus (university-owned) apartment, I was set up in the kitchen, ravenously hungry from who knows what and about to cook myself some potato product that looked charmingly round ("Oh look, globe-shaped potato product, let's eat this for lunch", I said to myself in the supermarket). Upon extracting the potato balls from the oil and letting them sit on a pile of kitchen towels, I popped on into my mouth and just as quickly spit it out. I had mistakenly purchased olive oil instead of standard vegetable oil and found the new flavour quite unpleasant on my poor undeveloped palate.

It was my first year away from home and my first year cooking food for myself as new vegetarian. I'll be honest, I lived on cheese sandwiches, tortilla (española) sandwiches, chips, candy and pasta for the first two years in Spain. That sounds absolutely horrendous to me know, but back then I never dreamt of buying a cookbook or eating tapas in the bars. Every time I browsed over the selection of tapas in the bars I could never decipher one greasy pool of food from the one sitting right next to it, plus, most of it didn't look vegetarian, which is why I lived mostly on potatoes. It wasn't until I left Spain at the end of two years and spent a year and a half in America, that I learnt about Spanish cooking and began to cook with olive oil and never looked back.

I've been back to Spain twice since then and it was during my time living in the southern tip of Spain, Seville to be exact, that I began to appreciate the vegetarian-unfriendliness of Spain and how to work around it to get what I wanted. I went out for tapas, drank sangria by the litre, dowsed myself with tinto de verano when it was hot -- I was like everyone else, for once. There was no longer a need to stuff my face with hot chips.

Some weeks ago I borrowed a book titled Shaha: A Chef's Journey through Lebanon and Syria along with Moro Cookbook. The cuisines of the Muslim- Mediterranean all share so much in common. For some reason, I like to throw Italy in there as well -- there is a focus on simply cooked food and good ingredients.



On a previous Dirty Tuesday I posted photos of Manoushi Bread, which is a Syrian/Lebanese bread similar Italian pizza, but with chewier tendencies and an all-together different vibe. It's typically not loaded up with toppings and sent to the oven to cook until crisp. These fantastic little rounds of bread cook up in about 3 minutes and taste best just out of the oven, although they can be reheated under the grill for a minute or two.

Manoushi Bread (makes 12 rounds) adapted from Saha: A Chef's Journey Through Lebanon and Syria

355 g plain white flour
1 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
175 ml - 200 ml warm water

1. Sift the flour, yeast and salt into a bowl. Dissolve the sugar in the water.
2. Slowly add the water while using one hand to mix. The dough should be on the stickier side, but you should be able to form a ball and knead it until smooth. This should take between 5 and 10 minutes.
3. Roll the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and leave to rise for 2 hours. While the dough is rising, prepare the toppings for your bread. Less is more in this case as the bread itself imparts it's own delicious flavours.
4. Divide dough into 12 pieces and form into balls on a lightly floured surface. Preheat oven to highest temperature if you're using a baking stone or 230-40º C if using a baking tray and set balls aside until ready to use. Roll out the balls into rounds and top. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Try caramelised onions and feta or minced sun dried tomatoes and Granda Padana cheese (or a proper Parmesan if you're not that strict with your vegetarian diet)
5. Bake for 3 minutes, cool only slightly and enjoy.

Tofu International: In the Mood for Tofu

Will and I finally made it out to Macro Wholefoods in Richmond. It was nice, but definitely not like the Wholefoods I came to love in America. It's the only type of supermarket I actually like being the size of small town. I found most products to be unaffordably expensive; I think I'll just stick to the Vic Market -- it's closer. While we were in Richmond, we stopped by Tofu International, which was a place I considered seeking employment during my stint of unemployment back in January. I'd never actually been to Bridge Road in Richmond, so seeing this little shop was actually quite comforting.

This food establishment is a bit on the cozy side and offers food options that are all vegetarian. The range of food wasn't extensive nor was it particularly mind-blowing. It was exactly what I expected from a food shop named Tofu International. It's a neat little place to get some healthy vegetarian fare while shopping in the area and people watch whilst doing so. There are 3 options: small, regular and large plates. The small portion is a typical tapa-sized bowl and the medium is perfect for a hungry stomach or to satisfy two "I'm not really hungry, but I could eat" stomachs. The medium plate was $13.00 and with each size plate one can choose any of the dishes available behind the counter. We settled on a Chinese tofu dish, an apricot-flavoured cous cous salad, saffron roasted potatoes and a broccoli and mushroom option. The tofu dish was by far the best served with a light ginger-soy consomme, although, one can never really go wrong with roasted potatoes, especially if they are to be enjoyed with lashings of a mysteriously flavoured tofu dip. There are also various souvlaki options available.

At $13.00 a plate I probably wouldn't make this place a "favourite", but it's definitely worth giving this little relaxed environment a shot when you're ravenously hungry after outlet shopping.

Tofu International
78 Bridge Rd
Richmond 3121 VIC

The Wonders of Simplicity

It's been a lazy morning. This is my first Monday off since November and it feels so luxurious to be able to wake up late and not really have much to do during the day. Will requested French Toast for breakfast; I was going to make eggs Florentine. I thought about making pancakes, but later decided on the French Toast as it didn't require going to the supermarket to get the eggs and lemon required for the eggs Florentine. Once again, tofu has surprised me with it's versatility. This is simply the best recipe for French Toast...and it's vegan:

Monday French Toast

1 pkg of silken firm tofu
15 ml vanilla extract
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 pinch of salt
1 tsp olive oil, or any other oil you have on hand
100-150 ml of vanilla soy milk
6 slices wholemeal bread (I used soy and linseed for texture

1. Toast your bread. Set aside.
2. Blend all of the ingredients in a blender and transfer to a bowl.
3. Heat an oiled fry pan over medium heat and dip your toast into the batter ensuring that both sides are covered.
4. Place in the fry pan and cook each side for 1-2 minutes until golden brown.
5. Keep warm in an 180ºC oven until ready to eat. Enjoy with icing sugar and/or honey.

An Addictoion of Sorts

My current read is a brilliant book by the name of Great Australian Chefs by Mietta O'Donnell and Tony Knox. Perhaps it's a bit lame, but I figure I'm going to become a chef in this country I might as well figure out how the great chefs came to be. I originally hired the book from the library because I recognised some of the names from participating in the Master Class at the Langham Hotel last week. The book features a biography of sorts, a bit out how they got to where they are at the moment and a few of their feature recipes. The recipes are just fascinating; they're a peak into the mysterious world of fine dinning. The authors have a bias towards Victoria, Melbourne specifically, so there are many Victorian chefs featured in the book -- many of whom I caught a sneak peak at the Langham Hotel but was too embarrassed to actually go up and speak to them. Sometimes my North American accent embarrasses me...stupid, I know.

On the days when I have class, if I have enough time, I sneak off to Cuisine World on Elizabeth Street to see what new gadgets I can add to tiny kitchen. It's becoming a bit of an addiction, really! I might as well know the shop workers by name and vice versa. Every time I complete a new unit, a strange contraption that my eyes had previously settled on without any particular message being produced in my brain instantaneously takes on a whole new meaning. And almost as instantly, a little voice inside me says, "I NEED that!". Valley Girl and Sports Girl used to be my favourite shop at Melbourne Central, but now that clothes shopping is out of the question, General Traders and House have become my favourite places in the world -- where else can you buy something useful for yourself for under $6? A silicon whisk? An icing sugar shaker? A ravioli press? I needed it all.

I have three days off this week where I have nothing school-related to do. My mission for tomorrow is to go check out Macro Wholefoods in Richmond and make home-made pasta. Tune in next time, same place, same time for for juicy loops on cookery and modern-day addictions.

Things This Sweet Should Be Against the Law

Cakes this large should really be against the law. I'm not really sure what it was that possessed me to double the recipe and almost send myself into cardiac arrest due cake overload. The slices from this little monster are what you'd expect at that cafe around the corner that sells generous slices of your favourite butter cake to go with that generous cup of coffee -- totalling nearly $10. Oh but wait, you get to read the paper while you enjoy you dose of sugar and caffeine for the day all while following your vegan diet.

Yes dear readers, this cake is vegan. It's a vegan vanilla pound cake with a lime glaze to be exact -- courtesy of the April issue of Vegetarian Times.

Upon close inspection we can observe the golden crust that forms a ring around the entire loaf, that golden crust is what I used to save for last when I was a child (that dark spot in the centre is just my big head casting a shadow). I was so excited when it was cool enough to eat that I served myself a very generous cafe-style slice (which was followed by a much thinner waist-line conscious slice). Mistake. This cake is to be enjoyed slowly, perhaps with a bit of green tea or other herbal tea. It's sweet, it's moist and it's just darn good.

Vegan Vanilla Pound Cake with Lime Glaze -- adapted from Vegetarian Times
(all ingredients are measured using a scale; half this recipe for a smaller cake)
280 g silken firm tofu
200 ml vanilla soy milk
165 ml canola oil
250 g raw sugar
20 ml vanilla extract
450 g plain flour
10 g baking soda
12 g baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 180º C. Combine tofu, soy milk, oil, vanilla extract and sugar; beat or blend until smooth.
2. Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and mix thoroughly. Fold the tofu mix into the flour mix.
3. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 180º C for 30 minutes, then cover with grease-proof paper and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
4. To make the glaze combine the juice of 1 lime with enough icing sugar to create a white paste with enough consistency to coat the back of a spoon rather thickly. It should also be able to run off the spoon more or less freely.
5. Allow the cake to cool for 5 minutes then remove from pan and allow to cool for a further 5 minutes on a cooling rack before drizzling the glaze. Allow the cake to cool completely before serving to allow the glaze to fully set.

Dirty Tuesdays: Fresh Herbs

Ever since I started doing the dinner service at work I've come to know which dishes I like plating up, which ones I don't and what sort of qualities things need to have in order to make service easier. My favourite dish to make is the house salad because the end result is a very impressive, vertical looking salad. I don't make the salads, but some of them look unappealing. I will wait until I've been there for more time before making suggestions.

In light of this little discovery, I've been experimenting with salads each week for Hey-Hey Tuesdays.

This week's little gems in a rosemary roasted-potato salad with roasted onions, lentils, parsley and brown rice (left) and (right). The latter dish was really meant to have a sort of sauce with it, but I really had about zero energy left by the time I got to finishing the less-than- spectacular sweet potato gnocchi.

Yesterday I had my assessment for stocks, soups and sauces and while everything I made was acceptable, none of it was exceptional. Not to make up excuses or anything, but how about having enough equipment for everyone to use!

Boy, am I glad the vegan challenge is over! I really didn't have nearly as much time as I would have liked! It was more of a chore than a fun project.

Behind the Scenes: A Vegetarian on a Mission

And just like that, my experience working with world-renowned chefs was over. With 4 full days under my belt working in someone else's kitchen --Anthony Ross' kitchen to be exact (executive chef of the Southbank Langham Hotel)-- using skills I've learnt both in school and at my current job I feel like I new person on a mission. This hotel kitchen (kitchen-s, actually) is larger than any other kitchen I've set foot in; it can really only work efficiently by working under the brigade system. Most of the chefs were approachable and will answer my questions, while others instill a sense of fear in my bones just by mere eye contact. However, being the little cook-in-training from the hospitality college with no name that I am, I couldn't muster up the courage to actually go an speak to any of the celebrities, if you will.

I have more positive than negative things to say about my experience during these past four days. I had rather high expectations, perhaps delusional illusions of grandeur to be exact, about what preparing fore this master class even would entail. A few of my college mates weren't as lucky as they was an spent more time than I care to mention in the cold larder kitchen where, apparently much magic happens, but all I witness was magic pertaining to sandwich preparation. I could have cared less if the sandwiches were going to be served to the Queen of England, really. I didn't agree to only half a paycheck this week to make sandwiches.

I noticed that at the end of the my 4 days that the students from other more well-known training institutions (Holmesglen Institute of TAFE and Fifteen, to be exact) were preferred over myself and my classmate to do the more exciting preparations. While I did learn how to properly peel an onion and how to pick herbs, I really don't see why the trainees from Jaime Oliver's Fifteen restaurant or the students from Holmesglen were any more capable at blanching spinach or sweating onions and celery for the soup base of a ribolita soup. In general, the trainees from Fifteen, Jaime Oliver's restaurant, were delegated the best tasks while preparing for London's River Café event. They got to saute the potatoes, they got to carve the meat for the final plate up...even though they had quickly gained a reputation for "unreliable".

The most positive thing I gained from my time at the Langham is a clearer idea of where I want to see myself next year after I finish my course. I making the cross over and will be actively searching for employment in fine dinning early next year. I had originally planned on working exclusively vegetarian establishments, but being that Melbourne is unfortunately devoid of a wide choice of them, I'd actually be doing a disservice to myself and vegetarian foodies across Australia. Watching the Fifteen trainees dash about the kitchen with their well-developed knowledge of Italian food made me feel a bit juvenile for not only working in a vegetarian restaurant (trendy or not) but for also thinking that I was learning going to learn something about cuisine in general at my current place of employment. I'm actually learning heaps at my current job, but nothing in the way of...erm...fine dinning.

I go the library every few weeks and take home every vegetarian cookery book I can find, including a few non-vegetarian ones. After 1 day at the Langham I went to the library, paid my over-due fees and grabbed every book I could find on prominent Australian chefs and food writers -- I've vowed to learn more about the Australian food scene. I'm hungry and thirsty for knowledge or all sorts and my mission won't only stop at the books, but will continue in my classes by being more assertive (do I really care if anyone in my class thinks I'm bossy?) and will be carried on at my place of employment by asking for more responsibility.

In the end, I was chosen to participate in the master class for a reason -- because someone believes I have potential. Before I start getting too sentimental and have to reach for a martini, I'll end on this note.

The New Gossip: The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

When I found out that the Food & Wine Festival was coming to Melbourne I got really excited, I almost felt a chill shake its way down my spine. I then had a look around the website and concluded, "Yeah. Right. Like I can afford to drop $150 on a meal, just for myself". That was weeks ago. Then this happened.

I was at my college last week on my way back from the kitchen getting my usual cup of tea in the morning and I noticed a new set of papers along the wall. I picked up one up and it happened to be a notice inviting 12 students from the college to participate for 4 days in the master class being held at the Langham Hotel for the Food and Wine Festival. When I read it I somehow felt that I deserved to be one of those 12 students; these sorts of demanding feelings never really happen to me. I clutched the notice in one hand and my cup of green tea in another and took the stairs (two at a time) to go drag some information out of my chef-instructor. "Do you know anything about this?" I practically demanded. One thing led to another and yesterday I found out that I was one of 12 students out of the entire college chosen to participate in the event.

Today was my first day and, boy, was it exhilarating. I will spend the next 4 days helping prepare for the master class, which will showcase the hottest chefs from all over the world. who will be giving lectures and demonstrations on their own cuisine. I was having a chat to the chef and apparently the chef from Spain speaks zero English and I was told that I'd be paired with this chef to help prepare for the master class. Andoni Luis Aduriz is one of the hottest Spanish chefs in Europe, closely following Ferran Adriá in his molecular gastronomy footsteps. Adriá is basically one of my chef idols. Both of their creations are like edible works of abstract art on plates. Art + Edible + Food = the best idea ever

These guys inspire me to push vegetarian cookery to it's limits, although I find I have little time to actually pursue such inspirations these days. With each passing day I spend frying away entrees at my restaurant, I become increasingly vocal about what I think vegetarian food should be and taste like.

Pie Central: Mediterranean Vegetable Pies

As promised, after an endless search for the scrap of paper on which I'd written this recipe, I am posting a recipe I developed to use my newly acquired pastry making skills.

Mediterranean Vegetable Pies --makes 4 mini pies--
340g eggplant, cut into thin 1/4 slices
1/2 small onion, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
60 g semi-dried tomatoes, finely minced (preferable from the deli and not preserved in oil)
100g ricotta cheese
80g frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of all it's liquids
6g fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tbs vegetable stock
thawed ready-rolled pie dough or use your own recipe (a basic short crust recipe is 200g plain flour, 100g butter or margarine and 50ml water)

1. Sweat the onions and garlic in 1 tbs of olive oil over medium low heat, do not allow any colouring. Add the eggplant, toss and cook until the eggplant is very soft and the flesh has acquired a brown colour. While the eggplant cooks, prepare the rest of the vegetables as indicated.
2. In a bowl, combine the eggplant with remaining ingredients and use your hands to thoroughly combine everything by compacting them.
3. Line your pie tins with pastry, fill them, close them and bake them at 190ºC for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden.

Dirty Tuesdays: Fresh Herbs

Vegetable & Tofu Tart with a wholemeal crust

Individual Mediterranean Vegetable Pie

Manoushi Bread with Assorted Toppings

Work is picking up and so I've gotten behind with my vegan challenge and making frequent posts. Since yesterday was a public holiday -- no work, no school (yay!) -- I had so many hours to plan what I'd cook to post for Oh-Say Tuesday.

This Week's Menu: (*vegan):
Minced Soy Meat Tacos; as per Will's request
Individual Mediterranean Vegetable Pies (the ricotta could easily be substituted for crumbled tofu; tried it, loved it)
Manoushi Breads with assorted toppings (Syrian/Lebanese style pizza)*
Roast Pumpkin and Kipfler Potato Orzo Salad with Mint*
Carrot, Broccoli, Zucchini and Tofu Tart with a wholemeal crust*

Unfortunately working 38 hours a week plus school leaves me with little time to post recipes. However, if anyone who happens across this little blog is interested in the recipe I'll happily share.

Dirty Tuesdays: A Taste of Saffron

Mondays have officially become the days where I cook meals for the rest of the week; it's kind of like my chance at being a personal chef. We'll call Tuesdays, Dirty Tuesdays as it's a rather blah day of the week, my work weeks begins and I will be posting Monday's creations. This weeks menu was mainly devised from a stack of cookbooks I've hired from the library: Carrot & Saffron Soup, Sancocho Canario, Leek & Broccoli Tart and a Bulgarian Filo Coil. I also made some pesto to use in a fifth dish but I was really quite tired of cooking by that point. I'm currently learning about stocks, soups and sauces in school and took it upon myself to make my first batch of vegetable stock to use for cooking rather than using convenience stocks in the form of powder or cubes.

I took a trip to King & Godfords - a fine foods shop in the Lygon street district - and treated myself to a few products a good cook shouldn't be without: proper sea salt from the salt beds of Italy, smoked paprika and saffron threads; both from Spain. I almost splurged on some luxurious macadamia nut oil, but decided against it. Below you'll find photos of my two contributions to my vegan challenge: Sancocho Canario & Bulgarian Filo Coil

Sancocho Canario adapted from The Food of Spain & Portugal by Elizabeth Luard
(a sweet potato and chickpea stew from the Canary Islands)
1.5 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 cloves garlic, bruised (smashed with the side of a knife)
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, lightly toasted in a dry pan without burning
1 kilo of tomatoes, scalded, skinned and chopped
1 medium sized sweet potato (250-350 g), peeled and cut into even sized chunks
1 thick slice of pumpkin, peeled and cut into even sized chunks
1 can of unsalted corn kernels, drained and rinsed
fresh coriander or mint leaves, to garnish

Bring the chickpeas to a boil with 2.25 litres of cold water and add the bruised garlic along with the chopped tomatoes. Allow the pot to come up to a boil again before adding the vegetable in the order given while allowing the pot to come back up to a boil between each addition. Bring the stew down to a simmer and allow the liquid to reduce down to the same level as the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Finish each serve with fresh coriander or mint leaves, or serve over rice if desired.

Bulgarian Filo Coil adapted from The Cranks Bible by Nadine Abensur (my vegetarian celebrity cook hero)
..recipe coming soon...