Best deal in London thus far

Situated in the heart of Brick Lane, London, my friend Anton and I happened upon an old warehouse with a number of stalls set up inside. You could choose from Japanese, Nepalese.. some others that I didn't take in cos they were meat heavy.. cupcakes, mulled wine.. but what really caught our attention was the vegan/vegetarian stand selling huge plates for only 4 pounds! I think this was an end of day special, but bear in mind it was only around 4.30 when we ate. A delicious meal.. my most satisfying food purchase so far.

SPCA Fundraising

So a week or so ago I decided to register for SPCA Cupcake day to do some good old fashioned fundraising. Before I did, I emailed the women in my office asing if anyone would buy any. Hells yeah, they did! So, 72 cupcakes, over 3 hours in the kitchen and a whole lotta fondant later, I made over NZ$140 for the SPCA. And yes *cringe* I did say fondant, much to my sister's scorn and dismay. But come on, icing 72 cupcakes? Not to mention transportation issues, seeing as I don't drive.

Vanilla

Red velvet

Lemon

How to: Peanut Sauce

Ordinarily, I am not a fan of salad. It's a side dish! And even then, more often than not, it's a carelessly arranged handful of leaves, laid on the plate as a mere garnish in hopes of being able to justify charging double digits for a meal. This little lady does not eat leaves.

So now I will contradict everything I have just said and tell you about one of my favourite salads. Gado gado is a warm salad from Indonesia, and with an Indo mum, it's kinda hard to avoid it. I like to make it using whatever vegies I have lying around, the potatoes being filling enough to make it a meal. But depending on how many potatoes you use, you can also serve this with rice to make it more substantial. I'm not going to bother with telling you ingredients, cos like I said, you can use whatever veges you have. I don't know if that's how they do it in Indonesia, but that's what I do in my kitchen! Much to the dismay of my hips, peanut sauce is in high rotation on my playlist, as you may have gathered.

Peanut Sauce

2 Tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
Juice of half a lime
1/4 cup coconut milk
Chilli oil

In a small bowl, mash the peanut butter together with the soy sauce with a fork. You want the soy sauce to merge with the peanut butter to become smooth.

Add the sugar and lime juice and stir. Taste. Does this taste ace to you? If yeah, then add the coconut milk. If nah, you can keep adding more soy, sugar and lime to taste.

Pour in some boiling water to thin it out a bit, about a spoonful at a time, depending on the consistency you want. If you like things spicy, add a couple of drops of chilli oil.

Makes about a cup

How else to enjoy the wonders of peanut sauce, you ask?

Over sesame bok choi, with edamame, mango and avocado summer rolls and stir-fried vegies
With steamed broccoli, sliced tofu and a salad with an orange soy dressing
With mango, tofu and vegetable rice paper rolls
With stir fried vegetables, tofu, cashews and noodles

Lentil Pie

My Le Creuset heart shaped ceramic baking dish arrived yesterday! My sister was kind enough to inform me that it was most certainly not pronounced Le Croos-it as I had first thought, along with a "OMG how could you not have heard of that before?" Apparently I'm behind in the times when it comes to hip cookware.

So tonight I racked my brain trying to think of a meal worthy of breaking in the dish for the first time, and I came up with with pie. I like pie. And I really like pastry. I went for the fast route and used ready-made puff pastry cos we haven't done the dishes in like.. a week, so I didn't want to add a rolling pin and mixing bowl to the stack. I wasn't trying to replicate meat tonight, but as it so happens, what I created was something reminiscent of all those family-sized mince pies from my childhood, but with better karma cos this meal is totally cow-free.

LENTIL PIE

1 Tbsp fennel seeds

1 can lentils, drained

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp paprika

1 Tbsp tomato sauce

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 onion, diced

4 Tbsp flour

1 tsp garlic powder

2 cups vegetable stock

1 tsp Marmite

2 tsp soy sauce

2 sheets ready-made puff pastry

In a small dry frypan, gently toast the fennel seeds for 1-2 minutes. Add the lentils, soy sauce, herbs, garlic & onion powders, paprika and tomato sauce and stir to combine. Cook for about 8-10 minutes, adding spashes of boiling water to keep lentils wet and season to taste. Set aside to cool.

To make the gravy, heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat, and saute onion for 5 minutes or until soft. Add flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring well to make sure the flour doesn't burn. Add garlic powder, stock, marmite and sauce and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in lentils and set aside.

If your pie-dish isn't non-stick, lightly spray with cooking oil and press 1 sheet of pastry into it. Trim any excess pastry and use these bits to fill any spaces that are not covered. I used 1 1/2 sheets to cover my dish, cos a heart-shaped dish is pretty awkward to line. Pour over your lentil gravy mixture, it should be warm but not piping hot. Cut your remaining pastry sheet into 1cm strips and criss-cross over the filling to form a lattice. Alternatively, you can use a whole sheet of pastry to cover the filling completely, folding over the pastry from underneath and pricking airholes with a fork.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, increasing the temp to 200 degrees for the final 5 minutes of cooking to brown the crust (I used a ceramic dish which requires a longer cooking time. For a regular pie dish bake for 10-15 minutes).

Tales from the blooper reel

I like green tea. I would even go so far as to say I love green tea flavoured desserts - if they're done well. Over the weekend I made an excellent example of what happens when good things go bad. Inspired by this pic and the confidence that only a new box of matcha powder can bring, I decided to make vegan green tea cookies (actually, we call them biscuits in NZ, so why I'm starting to say cookies all the time is beyond me) with a layer of extra matcha-ey goodness in place of regular white dough. Blinded by the pretty dough I never taste-tested it so what came out of the oven were these lovely crunchy biscuits that showed good promise on first bite, then delivered an awful bitter aftertaste that just kept on giving. I gave one to my sis so she could see what the fuss was all about and she said "WHY DID YOU GIVE THIS TO ME?!" Moral of the story: Don't abuse your matcha powers.

Chickpea and Leek Soup

This is the soup that I always make when I'm feeling sorry for myself.. or when I just want soup. The chickpeas have a nutty, creamy taste that goes perfectly with the buttery leeks. I would nearly go so far as to say this is my never-fail soup, but then I seem to recall a nasty incident about 3 years ago involving an exploding blender and second degree burns. I still have the battle-scars to remember it by. Hmm, I never did clean that ceiling... So, this is my once-failed, non-pureed soup. Who needs puree anyway when you have teeth? Enjoy!

CHICKPEA AND LEEK SOUP

1 small onion, diced

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 carrot, diced or sliced

1 small leek, sliced

5 mushrooms, sliced

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 Tbsp flour

4 cups vegetable stock

3-4 Tbsp soy sauce, or to taste

Salt & pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat a generous glug of olive oil on a low heat and gently saute the onions for about 8 minutes, keeping the pot covered. You want the onions soft and white, not browned.

Increase heat to medium and add the celery and carrot. Saute until soft, adding a splash of hot water to help heat through.

Add leeks and 1 Tbsp butter or margarine, and stir until soft and cooked. Add mushrooms, and more olive oil if needed, and continue to saute until cooked, stirring occasionally.

Add chickpeas, vegetable stock and soy sauce, sprinkling in the flour and stir to combine. Lower heat and let simmer for half an hour.

Taste and adjust seasonings. Tastes even better the next day

Bean Patties with Bean Aioli

I don't know about you but it is cold here. Last night the heater was on in full force so my hands could defrost just so I could move my fingers. Wellington wind sure is lethal.

As I thawed out in front of said heater, in my state of frozen semi-conciousness I pondered over what my dinner choices were. Sandwich? Too cold, give me comfort food. Delivery? Too poor, no job. With a sinking feeling in the pit of my gut I realised I would have to step into that icebox of a kitchen and busy myself with food preparation. Or at least, freeze my ass off trying.

I only had a quarter of a block of tempeh left, a lot of silken tofu, a mugful of canned beans and some leftover rice, so while I was dillydallying with spices and whatnot it hit me: hey! I'm creating something here!

BEAN PATTIE WITH BEAN AIOLI

100g tempeh

Palm sized cube of silken tofu

1/4 cup of canned white beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup of cooked rice
1 Tbsp fennel seeds, toasted
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp tomato sauce
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

salt & pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to boil and then steam the tempeh for 10 minutes. Crumble tofu in a bowl and stir in beans.

Add tofu, fennel seeds, and seasonings to bowl and mash until combined, not pureed.

Stir in cooked rice and breadcrumbs. Taste, and adjust seasonings if needed.

Heat olive oil in a frypan over medium heat. Cook patties for about 3 minutes on each side, or until golden. Serve with bean aioli.

BEAN AIOLI

3/4 cup canned white beans

2 tsp garlic powder

1tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

salt & pepper

In a small bowl, mash together beans, garlic and lemon juice until soft. Add olive oil slowly, whisking continuously until smooth. Season to taste.