VeganMoFo: To market, to market, to the internet!

Hurrah, another day of VeganMoFo. And what a beautiful day it was too - sunny and warm and everything good about spring. I was going to talk about my favourite things in the kitchen today, but given the weather and my activities today I have decided to postpone that and talk about other fun stuff instead.

Farmers' Markets are something I have always meant to go to, but never quite got around to doing. Until recently! Unfortunately my work arrangements mean I can only get to a market every second Sunday. In theory I could go every second Saturday, but I would get there quite late and by that stage they are sooooo crowded!

For the past few Sundays I have been going to the Mount Gravatt Markets and loving it! All that fresh produce just sitting around waiting for me to buy it and eat it. So much more satisfying than buying it from the green grocer, let alone those other places of mass selling. I really enjoy the Mt Gravatt ones - they are smaller local markets, but there is a lot of variety there. The area has a fairly heavy asian influence, which means there is some great stuff available. Plus my favourite mushroom man has a little stall there, with all sorts of amazing mushrooms including portobellos as big as your face!

This morning fate allowed me to go to a Saturday morning market, so I decided to go to the Brisbane Market Place at Rocklea, which I had heard were meant to be big. We got there at about 8am, lots of free parking available, and headed on in. Overall, I prefer Mount Gravatt. It is smaller, but with just as much if not more variety. Some of the lines waiting to pay were unbelievable! One thing the Rocklea markets did have was a huge flower section, which made my mum very happy and she got some very pretty poppies.

There are a few more markets I am keen to get to next time I have a Saturday's grace. Top of my list is the Green Flea Markets at West End. Not in the least because they have YKillAMooCow there, with vegan pies, sausage rolls and dagwood dogs. Now, I never was a dagwood dog fan. But heck, if there's a vegan one out there I need to try it! I'm also hoping they might have some more unusual stuff. One of the draws of markets is the eternal hope I will find something new. Quite often my US cookbooks have vegetables in there that I just can't find easily here in Brisbane. Top of my list are yuca, jicama and tomatillos. Any Brisbanites who have found these before - please let me know where!

There are some other markets in the area and a bit further afield I would like to try as well. I love the general atmosphere of them, and the absolute beauty of the produce. I bought some asparagus the other day I could write sonnets about, it was so perfect! Nothing like that washed out, limp, smelly stuff from Peru you get offered elsewhere.

Here is a photo of some adorable baby Jap pumpkins (kabocha to you USians) that I bought today. I plan on stuffing them with butternut vindaloo stew, as written in Vegan With A Vengeance.



Another invaluable source for us vegans is the wonderful internet! There are somethings I just cannot find, no matter what organic and health food groceries I scour (though I always will love you Mrs Flannery's. And Macro - hurry up and open a store near Brisbane!). In these cases, internet comes to the rescue! I recently placed my first order with The Cruelty Free Shop. They must think I am a total sugar head, because it was all sweet stuff! But that's because I am able to get most of the other stuff around here. It arrived a few days later, to my great excitement. Pictured below is Liebers' Chocolate Sprinkles, Vegetal Soy Cream, Sweet And Sara Marshmallows, Popples Vegan Popcorn and an assortment of yummy filled vegan chocolates and truffles. Not pictured are Tropical Source Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips, which are sadly on backorder but shall be arriving soon for all my baking needs!



And finally, some vegan food porn! I had a packet of raspberry vegan jelly in the cupboard that was about to expire. I also had Now Vegan, a newish Australian cookbook by Lynda Stoner, which had a recipe for Jelly Tart. What a great thing for a hot spring evening's dessert! I made it in about half an hour before I went to work in the morning, popped it in the fridge, and it was all set for dinner when I got home! For the base, Lynda's book said a packet of plain biscuits. One of my pet hates in cookbooks is when they just say 'packet' or 'block'... how much is in a packet? So instead I used the cookie crumb base from The Joy Of Vegan Baking. I like to use Nice biscuits and Nuttelex for all my cookie base needs. You'll need to make 2-3 times the quantity depending on how big your flan or pie plate is so you can get good coverage all the way up the sides. The fruit I used was sliced kiwi fruit and banana, and as my fresh strabwerries weren't very nice (so sad) I just scattered some whole frozen strawberries on top. Make up the jelly, pour it over and in a few hours - yummy tart!

VeganMoFo - A kitchen is a temple

Welcome to VeganMoFo! A wonderful month of blogging as much as possible about food. Spearheaded by the wonderful Isa from The Post Punk Kitchen. This was meant to start on the 1st of October, but I have been sabotaged by work on the 1st and internet not working on the 2nd, so I will just have to make extra posts to make up for it!

I thought I might start the VeganMoFo by showing off my shiny new kitchen. And by mine, I mean my parent's shiny new kitchen. At the end of last year the kitchen in the family home, where I now once again reside, was redone. The old kitchen had served us well for 26 years, but definitely time for a change! So the new kitchen was designed, with a lot of input from me I confess! Soft closing drawers, caesar stone benches (so much fun for rolling out pastry!), induction stove (which despite initial misgivings on my part is quite nifty) and, my pride and joy, a snexy double oven! Indeed! I can cook dinner and dessert, sweet and savoury baked goods, things that need to be cooked at the same time at different temperatures.... all done in glorious tandem!

So, without further ado my friends, here are some photos of this glorious new abode for all my kitchen needs.

My baby, pride and joy - the double oven.

One side of the kitchen - sink and dishwasher are fairly ho hum and standard.

Servery - very handy for cooking but still talking to people in the dining room. Plus having the raised back means extra space for having things on the bench without falling off!

And finally, the end wall of the kitchen. Complete with induction stove and appliance cabinent.

Tomorrow, I'll be showing off my favouritest cooking wares!

And here's today's obligatory food porn - this is German Apple Cake from the Joy Of Vegan Baking. It looks very pretty!

A week of dinners.

I love dinner time. That zen time at the end of the day where I can unwind in the kitchen. It doesn't always have to be long or complicated, some days I get home with just not enough time for that! I don't get to cook everynight. Being on call at the clinic several nights a week means dipping into my handy freezer stack of leftovers, not to mention the times I sometimes actually manage to go out for dinner (like tonight - hello The Forest!). Still, I thought that at the beginning of each week, I might do a review of the dinners I have made from the previous week.

(FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS RIGHT LITTLE GIRL, DO NOT LET THE FREAKY CLOWN INTO YOUR HOUSE. OK, sorry about that. Supernatural outburst. It happens).

Wednesday

Hoisin Drenched Garlic Seitan with Bok Choy, from Vegan Planet. I made a batch of seitan that morning (thanks to my favourite VWAV recipe) to make this recipe. This is super easy and really delicious. It has also started my love of the zen like state of mincing garlic by hand. Served with jasmine rice.

Thursday

Spaghetti with Cauliflower Romagna Style, from Vegan Cooking For One. This is very, very easy to make. I love the texture of wholemeal spaghetti. I have served it here with roasted green beans and a very liberal sprinkling of nooch.

Sunday

Oops! Got my pictures mixed up, so let's skip straight to Sunday. Asparagus And Lemongrass Risotto, from Veganomicon. With beautiful asparagus straight from the Mt Gravatt farmer's market! This is amazing! It does take time and patience to make a risotto properly, but this makes it all worth it. Sprinkling fresh lime juice over the finished product just takes it to a whole new level! Served with sauteed broccolini.

Saturday

Back to Saturday! Shredded Seitan With Green Beans And Shallots, from Vegan Planet. Using the second half of my tasty seitan. I doubled the sauce for this recipe to have enough. It is based on sherry, soy and Dijon. The taste is interesting, not bad, but not something I would hurry to make again. I was worried about putting the seitan through the grater on my food processor incase it smooshed it, so I had a lovely time slicing it up very small.

Also, tomorrow is the start of October, which means it is the beginning of The Post Punk Kitchen's VeganMoFo! Stay tuned for lots of vegan food blogging!

Good samaritans and good seitan.

So, it has been a few days since my last post. Surprisingly, not all of it is due to working! The weekend was all mine, and Sunday had a wonderful trip to the farmer's market at Mount Gravatt, which included my first purchase of kale! Stay tuned to see what I do with it.

Good Samaritans

At the clinic again tonight. I just had a call from a man who drove past a beautiful fluffy white cat who had been hit by a car and was on the side of the road. He was ringing to see what he should do, and he couldn't believe that someone had just left the cat there. His obvious emotion was touching. I guess I don't know the outcome of this case, he is on the other side of town and if the cat is alive, it needs to go somewhere closer to them than here if possible. But even if the cat had passed away, he was going to take it somewhere to get it scanned for a microchip. Just in case it had an owner somewhere fretting who could be contacted. I can only hope that kitty angels will watch over the situation.

Good Seitan

My plan for Mondays was to post a week in review of my dinners for the past week. Alas, I am at the clinic tonight as another vet is on holidays, and this computer will not upload from my camera to Flickr. So I will do it tomorrow! However, I of course have the handy Vault to dig into. I need to upgrade my Flickr account because I have only uploaded photos from three cookbooks and I've already almost exceeded the monthly limit! Hmph.

So, seitan... I love seitan! Yummy, scrummy, wheat gluten meat. My first experience with seitan was bought, which was fine but quite expensive. But now I make my own. My favourite recipe is from Vegan With A Vengeance, and this is the one I make the most often. Here are some photos of VWAV recipes I made with my very first batch of home-made seitan last year. There were some great dinners!


This is Jerk Seitan with Coconut Rice and sauteed broccolini.

Cold Udon Noodles with Peanut Sauce and Seitan. This is absolutely one of the best things ever! Cold noodles with cucumber and carrot strips (I used carrots instead of red capsicum), mung beans, warm peanut sauce and hot crispy seitan. Taste sensation!

Ethiopian Seitan (with zucchini instead of green capsicum), brown rice and steamed carrots.

The dinner choir sings!

I've been talking about food a lot. Not so much about kitties. But don't worry, I have many, many stories to tell, and I love to talk about the kitties. My cats get fed breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. Set amounts for the day, but divided up. Dinner is met with exreme enthusiasm, as it is the 'non-biscuit' meal of the day. I try and make dinner shortly before sun down, so in theory it should become later as the days become longer. Not so, according to the cats. Specifically, according to Sahara. At almost 4.15pm every afternoon, she jumps up from where ever she may be snoozing, and begins the dinner choir for the next hour until dinner finally appears, usually around 5.30pm or so. It is uncanny her timing! Almost on the dot!

So, because I love talking about my kitties, I thought I might introduce Sahara to those who don't know her. Sahara is my most recent kitty friend. She was rehomed to me following a business card I picked up at the Royal Easter Show in 2003. She's a beautiful cinnamon Abyssinian kitty. She only has one eye, she lost the other to a particularly bad bout for feline herpes (an upper respiratory tract infection) when she was just a wee kitty. Not that it has slowed her down at all - she is precision plus when it comes to catching things! Sahara is my youngest, born on the 28th of August, 2001. She came to me when she was 18 months old. She is really the cheekiest little cat I have ever met. But she is so sweet and loving, that she can get away with almost anything. She especially loves great big bear hugs, which gave her the nickname SaraBear or Bear. Also nicknamed Minx, Slinky, Cheeky, Pumpkin Belly or simply Sara for short.

Here are some photos of her for your viewing pleasure:

Sahara posing (she is the biggest poser), with the lady bug cat nip toy I got her for her 7th birthday.

Speaking of food... Christmas morning 2007, and Sahara thought she might join us for our family breakfast.

Sahara reads Veganomicon. What a very well read cat!

I still have two more kitties to introduce to you, and loads more kitty stories to tell, so I hope you enjoy the cats - there's lots more to come!

Today's Vegan Food Porn

And as always, some vegan food porn for the folks at home. Digging into The Vault again!


This is a delicious vegan indian feast I made from (yes!) Veganomicon. To the right are Samosa Stuffed Baked Potatoes, and on the left is Sauteed Spinach and Tomatoes with basmati rice. In the middle there is a bowl of 5 Minute Mango Chutney. Delicious!

Food that heals.

You know the feeling, where you wake up. Your head is sore and fuzzy, the joints are achy, the throat is throaty... and you have 'flu'. OK, not the real influenza. I had the joy of that last year, and if that was the case I wouldn't be awake, let alone blogging! But flu-ish enough that you are not up to functioning in the normal world.

On days like this, I always try to get up and showered, and remove myself from the bedroom. To 'the nest'. The nest involves a sofa, the TV, DVDs, a pillow, blankets, kittens and, now, a laptop. So entertainment and naps are on tap.

I tend to have a strange appetite when I am sick. Ranging between feeling like I couldn't even look at food, to ravenous cravings for the most unhealthy and horrible stuff. So today have alternatively craved jam roll (thanks Baker's Delight!), salt and pepper chips, and slab cut fries. Hardly the stuff of nutritious legends.

But the food I crave the most when I am ill is soup. Specifically hot and sour soup, though a sweet corn soup or a miso soup (even out of a -gasp- instant package) makes a good second. Unfortunately, my takeaway hot and sour soup tonight was more hot than sour and a little underwhelming. But a good hot and sour soup just seems to soothe all the aches away!

My favourite hot and sour soup comes from Veganomicon (I swear, I do own more cookbooks!). I haven't made it for a while, but here is a picture of it for your viewing pleasure:



It is fabulous. And just hits the spot when you are feeling a little bit down.

So the point of all of this blogging, is that I was wondering if anyone else (of the few people reading) would care to share their favourite foods for feeling ill. Especially those super easy to make foods for those of us who end up sick all on our own. Kittens a great, but they lack certain culinary skills.

Supernatural musings, with bonus food.

Once again, at the clinic. And what does one do when one is at the clinic? Watch Supernatural and have random thoughts.

Jensen Ackles has got to be one of the tastiest morsels ever to present himself onto my TV screen. I bow before the almighty ZB for showing me the light and bringing the Ackles and his perfect, pouty, ducky lips into my life. Hurrah for Supernatural! Oh no, Sam is getting one of his 'headaches' - cue squinchy eyes and pinching of the forehead! Can we get back to Dean please?

Alas, being at the clinic means no exciting new food made today. But because I have a zillion photos of past foods, I thought I might share something from 'The Vault'.

With the warmer days and nights coming on - especially these last few - it is time to be thinking of food more suited to summer. This was an amazing dinner I made early this year, when the nights were just as balmy. It is Butternut Squash Rice Paper Rolls and Corn and Edamame Sesame Salad, both courtesy of the fabulous Veganomicon.






Sorry for the randomness of these posts. I am in training for VeganFoMo in October!