Sydney Cruelty Free Festival

Last Sunday I was lucky enough to be in Sydney for the Cruelty Free Festival. I stopped off early in the morning to have a quick look around, but having just eaten a big breakfast, I decided to head off to do some work & return later in the day.

By the time I got back it was about 2pm & my tummy was rumbling pretty loudly. After umming & ahhing for a while I decided on the spinach & mushroom gozleme for lunch.

The gozleme was much more filling that I anticipated, so I had to walk around a bit before I could face dessert. There was SO MUCH to choose from. Cupcakes, cheescake, brownies, icecream, pastries, cookies, I was overwhelmed with choice.

In the end I couldn't go past the vegan cornetti (cream horn). Look at that beauty!

The pastry was super-light & flaky, filled with a delicious soy cream. I'm normally not a big soy-cream fan, but this one was nice.

Because there was so much choice I decided to have a second dessert course. This is a hazelnut Hungarian pull-apart pastry. It was their last one, so even though I only wanted a half, I got the whole thing for $5 - bargain! It was huge - about the length of a paper towel roll but much wider. And it was still warm from the oven - I had to stop myself from devouring the whole thing & making myself sick.

After another day of eating way too much I settled down on the grass in front of the main stage to watch some bands. It was so nice I abandoned my plans to move on and stayed for the rest of the afternoon. I was lucky enough to catch one of my favourite Australian artists - Diana Anaid.

Diana is a long-term vegan and animal rights activist. It was the perfect end to the festival to lie in the sun and listen to her beautiful music.

Thanks CFF organisers! Hopefully next year I'll be able to help out as well.

Arrivederci Italia

On my last day in Venezia I visited the Rialto Market. It's been running in the same spot for about 800 years. So you know, just a little bit of history. This 1kg bucket of figs was only 2 euro. 2 euro! I found a quiet spot to sit & devoured most of them straight away.

From Venezia I caught the train back to Milano, where I'm staying with a friend for my last 2 nights in Italy. Yesterday I wandered around the city, looking at shops mainly. About 2pm I was getting very tired & I spied a gelato bar. I haven't managed to find any soy gelato since Roma, but there was something about this place. I totally scored - not only did it have soy gelato, but a range of fruit sorbets as well. I chose Cinnamon Soy Gelato & Fig Sorbet. I had no idea something could taste so good. The fig sorbet was possibly the yummiest thing I have ever eaten. So fresh & creamy & just plain delicious!

The shop looks quite plain from the outside - I couldn't even find a name for it anywhere on the window.

My final food experience was dinner last night with my friend. Of course I had to have one last pizza, and I decided on the Porcini without mozzarella. So good - simple & perfect.

So, that's the end of my Italian food adventures for now, but I'm already planning my next trip back here, so watch this space.

Italian desserts

Apart from Il Margutta, the other main reason I was looking forward to Roma was for the gelato.

As you can imagine, the stuff is EVERYWHERE in Italy. And almost none of it is vegan friendly. But, I had done my research & had found out about Il Gelatone weeks before. It was our last day in Roma and I was worried we wouldn't make it. Thank god we did.

Look at it - heaven in a cup. They have a clearly labelled section of soy gelato, with about 12 flavours. I exercised extreme self-control & chose just 2 - coconut & pistachio. Oh. My. God. You must go there. 'Nuff said.

After dinner in Trastevere my friend S was feeling like some more gelato & we happened across this place near the ancient quarter. I could not believe my luck when I realised that Il Dolce Sorriso had 4 or 5 soy gelato flavours! What are the odds!

This dripping mess is apple & chocolate. What a combination. Wow.

Finally, to finish is more of stuff I enjoyed throughout Sicilia - granite. Almost every gelato bar (and many cafes) serve granite throughout Italy, but I have found it to be quite different away from Sicily. On the mainland it's more what we call a slushie - basically superfine crushed ice with a heap of syrup. I'm not as much of a fan as the syrups are usually quite sickly sweet.

Just check out the colour on this strawberry granite I had in Florence - that's pure sugar right there :-)

Not long to go in Italia now, so can't say for sure whether there will be any more food adventures. Next stop - Australia - followed closely by New Zealand. So stay tuned.

Self catering in Italy part 2

A very short post, following from my earlier one about self catering. We didn't have kitchen facilities in Roma, which was a shame, but in Firenze we had a cute 1 bedroom apartment with a stovetop in the kitchen. Being in Tuscany, all we needed to do to ensure a delicious dinner was pop into the supermarket next door & pick up a few essentials.

This is mixed vegetable pasta with cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, green olives & fresh rocket. Served with a dash of balsamic & some salt/pepper. I think it's one of the best meals I have ever eaten - and that includes the leftovers I ate cold as a salad the next day for lunch. Ahh, Tuscany, I have fallen in love...

Slightly less fresh and a little less tasty were these soy desserts I picked up in Roma. Seeing the '100% vegetable' label on anything pretty much guaranteed I would give it a try. These were supposed to be some kind of creme caramel with toffee sauce. The reality was a slightly greyish looking blob of stuff which looked extremely unappetising.

They also had a strong soy flavour, barely disguised by the huge amount of sugar. All I can say is, when in Rome, don't go there.

Something raw, something cooked

I'll start with the raw. Last month I attended a 3 day vegan yoga retreat at Hepburn Retreat Centre (formerly Continental House). It was a truly inspiring experience, I only wish it had lasted for a full week. I met some amazing people, cooked/ate some amazing food & chilled out with yoga sessions in between. One of the things I took away from the weekend was that I want to start incorporating more raw food into my diet. The raw philosophy makes perfect sense to me, and anything that helps me incorporate more whole foods into my diet can only be a good thing.

At this stage of my life I can't imagine ever going 100% raw, but I also remember thinking I'd never go vegan when I was vegetarian for all those years. I guess the lesson there is never say never. For now, I'm taking small steps, which includes replacing at least 1 cooked meal a day with a salad or smoothie, plus upping my fruit intake generally. I'm also trying to replace cooked sweets with raw ones.

These Sunny Cashew Apricot Energy Cookies caught my eye immediately. I mean, seriously, how good do they look!

OK, OK, mine don't look that good. In fact, mine kind of crumbled as soon as I even went near them with a knife. A combination of not grinding the mix fine enough, not freezing for long enough & a lack of binding liquid. You should check out the photo on the recipe page though - they really do look amazing.

I tell you what though, they tasted awesome. They're very similar in make-up to the many varieties of fruit balls I've made. Except the cookies are sans added sugar & freezing them changes the texture to make them slightly crispy & yum!

Given that I'm not 100% raw yet :-), I gave this Vegan Zucchini Frittata a try for dinner last night.

I added tomato to the top and I'm glad I did as I think the extra flavour was needed. Don't get me wrong, the frittata is tasty, definitely improved with a nice garden salad on the side. Unfortunately, it didn't really hold together & turned into more of a scrambled tofu once it hit the plate. But, given the healthiness factor, I'll probably make this again.

So, what does a vegan eat for Christmas?

Yes, I know this post is a month overdue...
Christmas this year was at my Mum & Dad's house in NSW (unfortunately D had to stay behind in Melbourne).

I started the day by drinking some of these (old-fashioned G&Ts):and some more of these (Midori splice - so 90s!):Then I baked a lentil & walnut loaf to go with Mum's yummy roast vegies. The loaf wasn't all that memorable so I won't post the recipe here - it was just one I found via Google on the day. I was a bit tired so didn't bother with any gravy or toppings.
Dessert was fresh fruit salad with some gelatine-free jelly that Mum had kindly made for me.
So there you have it, Christmas over for another year - simple and stress-free, just the way I like it :-)

Mega post of pre-Christmas baking

Rather than spam you with individual posts, here's one big catch-up post of everything I made in the lead-up to Christmas.

This is Potato Wedges - I just cut up the potatoes, put them in a baking pan with a slurp of olive oil, then sprinkle some salt/pepper/rosemary over the top. Then I bake them at about 190C for 30-40min - delicious!The cauliflower is Lisa's Roasted Cauliflower. This didn't turn out so well for me - but I didn't follow the recipe properly so it's definitely my fault :-). I didn't have any onion & I used a little too much sesame oil & rosemary so the flavours were all out.

Here are some gingerbread men I made from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I made them to take to a pre-Christmas afternoon tea but they were barely edible so didn't make it out of my kitchen :-(This is the first thing I have made from my favourite cookbook that didn't turn out. I think it was the molasses - the recipe called for 2/3 cup, and I used blackstrap molasses. I should definitely have used a lighter molasses or less of the blackstrap because the flavour was so overwhelming I had to bury them in icing to make them edible.

Because my gingerbread men didn't work out, I made these lovely Orange & Blueberry Muffins instead, also from The Joy of Vegan Baking.These were perfect - more like a cupcake than a muffin & the orange & blueberry were just perfect together. The recipe is for Lemon & Blueberry, but I only had an orange on hand & citrus is easy to substitute, so I wasn't disappointed.

This dish is Creamy Mushroom Pasta (see recipe below). I don't make it often, but I really do like it. The sherry is the secret I think - it really lifts the flavour of the mushrooms.
Creamy Mushroom Pasta

• 500g pasta (I used wholemeal penne)
  
• 2 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
  
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 1 tsp dry basil
  
• 1 tsp dry oregano
  
• 1 tsp dry thyme
  
• 3/4 cup cooking sherry
  
• 2 TBS soy cream cheese (I use tofutti)
  
• 1 cup soy milk
  
• 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
  
• Salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta until tender. Saute onions in a little oil over medium heat for 5mins, until translucent. Add mushrooms & stir until heated through. Add herbs & season to taste.

When mushrooms are cooked, add sherry & mix in cream cheese. Let reduce a little & add milk. Add garlic & continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

Serve over the pasta.

Nearly at the end now - this is a salad I threw together one night after a tiring day at work. I was in a hurry so served it slightly warm, but it would be equally good cold.First, I sliced a zucchini thinly, placed the slices in a baking pan, sprinkled olive oil over the top & baked it for about 15mins. Then I sliced 1 bunch of asparagus & blanched it in boiling water for about 1min. Then I tossed the asparagus & zucchini together in a bowl with baby spinach, 1 diced tomato & 1 can of chickpeas. I poured a little more olive oil over the top & added salt & pepper. It was really good, which is always a relief when I'm making up recipes as I go - I haven't had much success with this in the past.

Last but not least, here are some Felafel Burgers from my other favourite cookbook - The Vegan Table.The recipe suggests baking or sauteing these in a frypan. I chose the baking method but they turned out a little dry. Still yummy in a wrap though - I think we had these with hummus, tomato & spinach.

Salad, Rum Balls & Indian from a packet

I know, I know - I've been AWOL for a few weeks. I won't go into details - just that I really needed a break. What follows will be some quick catch-up posts so I can get on top of the back-log of food. This post is all about stuff I have bought.

First up - this is a salad I picked up when desperate for a quick lunch between job 1 & 2 a few weeks before Christmas.It's from Passionfoods in South Melbourne, a great organic grocer just at the back of the market. They sell all the usual stuff in terms of groceries, but also a range of prepared hot & cold meals. This one is the Organic Tofu Rice Noodle Salad with Pam Shoy & Sesame Tahini Dressing. Quite a mouthful to say and quite delicious to eat. All you can really see in the photo is the sesame seeds on top, but underneath the salad was filled with scrumptious tofu, crisp fresh vegetables & perfectly prepared noodles.

Moving on to dessert, we come to the Leda Chocolate Rum Balls.. I've seen these in the supermarket a number of times but they're a bit pricey so I've never bothered to buy a packet. The urge to impulse buy overtook me before Christmas though, so I finally got around to trying these.They were pretty good - extremely rich as you'd expect. They didn't blow me away & I still prefer the Leda biscuits - especially the Minton ones.

Finally, a supermarket purchase that didn't go so well. I've blogged about microwave Indian meals before. I usually prefer the Maharajas Choice ones but decided to try something new & went for the Tasty Bite Spinach Dal.You can probably tell from the photo that it wasn't the most appetising meal. The colour put me off & it tasted pretty bland, so I'd recommend staying away.

Sweet delights

Here's 2 different desserts that I have picked up from other bloggers. One is super-healthy & deceptively simply & the other is not so healthy, but still pretty easy.

First up, Banana Soft-Serve. If you haven't discovered this awesome dessert yet, you must do it now. Go on - go and freeze some bananas because you need to try this.

I first found out about this dessert about a year ago from Tahn. I have to agree with Tahn - this post really will change your life.Look at that creamy goodness!I sifted some cocoa over mine - a lazy substitution for a chocolate sauce topping.

The second dessert I discovered was vegan honeycomb. K was the trendsetter, and it has since been re-blogged by others. I had no idea honeycomb was vegan by default, nor that it was so easy to make. Needless to say, I'm pretty damn excited now that I know.Here's my honeycomb just out of the pan - so golden & beautiful!Here it is half-covered in melted dark chocolate - I wanted to try some of the honeycomb on its own to really taste the flavour. I also didn't put chocolate on the bottom as K did, again, preferring to taste more of the honeycomb rather than the chocolate.Finally, here's some of my honeycomb chunks - perfect! It really melts on your tongue too - just like the store-bought stuff!

Potluck success.

I attended my first potluck on Sunday & I had a fantastic time! The food was all delicious & I loved how generous everyone was. Thanks to Kristy, we also have photos to prove it.

I made the Mocha Peanut Fudge. It was the first time I had made it & I actually found it a little bit too rich, but other people seemed to like it. Here's another photo of some of the fudge that may not have made it to the potluck :-)It's not one of my recipes, you can thank Alice over at Vegan Zest for Life for this one.

I also made one of my favourite salads - Asparagus & Risoni. It's a lovely spring salad that's really quick & easy, recipe below.

Asparagus & Risoni Salad

• 250g risoni
  
• 2 bunches asparagus, ends snapped off
  
• 2 cups peas (fresh or frozen)
  
• 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, picked, washed & finely chopped (I only ever use 1/2 a bunch, but if you love parsley, feel free to use the whole bunch)
  
• 1 large lemon
  
• Extra virgin olive oil
  
• Salt & pepper to season

Cook risoni 8mins, until al dente. Drain, place in a large bowl & drizzle with a little oil to prevent sticking.

Peel & blanch asparagus in boiling salted water 2mins – remove with a slotted spoon & put in iced water to stop the cooking. Drain & slice thinly on an angle.

Repeat the blanching process for peas, blanching just 30secs. Add asparagus, peas & chopped parsley to risoni.

Finely grate lemon rind & juice the lemon. Add to salad & season well with salt, pepper & a generous drizzle of oil just before serving.

A couple of things became clear when I was making the food for the potluck:

1. I needed a double-boiler. I was using a plastic mixing bowl that didn't quite slot into the saucepan properly & there were a couple of times when I nearly lost a complete bowl of fudge.
2. I needed a citrus juicer. I had the top of one, but not the bottom. And the top doesn't fit neatly into any of my containers or bowls, so it's really difficult to juice things.

After the potluck, I made a quick pit-stop at David Jones in the city - I have a voucher to use up. A lot of the kitchen stuff was 40% off until Sunday, so I wanted to pick something up before the sale ended. Here are my new goodies - a lovely Esteele double-boiler (that happens to fit perfectly into my existing large saucepan) & a cute little juicer.

Oh, and I've decided to participate in Vegan MoFo this year - I hope I can find enough to write about!

The joys of Thornbury

First to get the confusing part out of the way. Pearl Oyster is a cafe at 114 Miller St, Thornbury. Don't believe the 2011 Australian Veg Food Guide which tells you that it is at 238 High St, Thornbury. If you go to High St you won't find anything like this awesome cafe at that address.

Now, the back-story. Last weekend, I woke pretty early & felt like going somewhere different for Sunday breakfast. I already know that most of the cafes in the Australian Veg Food Guide don't open on Sunday mornings, but I double-checked anyway. The closest I could find was Pearl Oyster which opened at 12pm, which I thought was way too late for breakfast... right? D was fast asleep though, so I decided to read for a little while. I ended up reading for a long while, and before I knew it, it was 11.30am & suddenly Pearl Oyster was a possibility!

I had a feeling we had been there before & I wasn't wrong - when we pulled up out the front we both experienced deja vu (this was after I had established through lots of Internet searching that it was in fact on Miller St, not High St). I was excited though - I only had fond memories of enjoying the sunshine & excellent service in their back courtyard. This time the weather wasn't so sunny, so we were promptly seated inside & delivered perfect coffees.As other reviewers have pointed out, they have quite a few vegan options on the menu, including tofutti cream cheese. I took full advantage of this & ordered the Avocado, Cream Cheese, Tomato Chutney & Rocket Baguette, substituting Tofutti for the dairy variety.This really hit the spot - it was fresh, creamy & easy to eat. D chose some kind of omelette - I think it had spinach, chilli & crispy fried spring onions. He enjoyed it, which is the main thing.I really recommend Pearl Oyster - even though their opening hours are a little restricted (***EDIT*** - see hours below, clarified by Bella, one of the chefs - not so restricted after all!), it's worth the effort to get there. The service is friendly & fast & the food is fresh, delicious & a little bit different.

Here's something to get your mouth watering - we couldn't possibly visit Thornbury & not pay a visit to La Panella. We've been there a few times before, but because we live so far away it's been quite a while. That's probably a good thing, considering the range of calorie & fat-laden vegan desserts they have!

This time we picked up about 10 cold sausage rolls for D's lunch - $1.50 each (I will never get over how cheap this place is)! Plus a cream-filled eclair for my dessert on the way home.Look at that cream! This actually didn't taste that great - there wasn't enough sugar in the cream & it was a little bit bland.

And because I'm a sucker for icing, I also got a strawberry-jam filled donut for later. It only lasted until after dinner that night - happy to report that there was no shortage of sugar in this one!Pearl Oyster
114 Miller St, Thornbury
**EDITED** Mon,Wed-Sat 8am-4:30pm; Sun 9am-4pm

La Panella
465 High St, Thornbury
Mon-Fri 6am-6pm; Sat 6am-5pm; Sun 6am-4pm

'Tuna Salad' 2 ways

I've just worked 7 days in a row & can't believe I have a week of posts to catch up on again! I'm looking at photos from last Sunday & it's like a lifetime ago.

Last Sunday was such a beautiful sunny day that I was in the mood for salad by dinner time. Since The Vegan Table is like my bible these days, I immediately started flicking through it, looking for inspiration. I didn't get very far in when I came across the 'Better-Than-Tuna Salad'. It's a combination of flaky chickpeas, vegan mayo, capsicum, carrot, celery & walnuts. I had never eaten tuna salad before I was vegetarian so I can't compare to the cruelty-ful version, but I can say that this salad was delicious! It's also another versatile one - as long as the chickpeas & mayo are in there, I'm sure you could add & subtract ingredients to cater for what you have on hand. The salad is crunchy & creamy at the same time & also quite delicately flavoured. The mayo plays an important role - the brand I used wasn't fantastic (it was a sunflower oil one I saw in the organic grocer), so make sure you use a nice one to get the most out of this recipe. I'd recommend Kingland - it's the closest to the original version.The next night the salad was recycled because I was feeling lazy - here it is with some lettuce on corn tortillas, with a re-heated & squashed chickpea & mushroom sausage (that I cooked ages ago) on top. Of course, there's also the obligatory tomato sauce, because I'm a firm believer that it goes with everything (kind of like lemon). There was nothing particularly special about this dinner - it was just a functional meal to get the necessary nutrients in at the end of a long day.I may as well squeeze in a dessert while I'm at it. I made these fruit balls on Monday night as well I think (my memory is failing me). They're a version of these Apricot & Walnut Balls. I didn't have enough walnuts or apricots, so used about 1 cup of walnuts, almonds, cashews & brazil nuts; and 1 cup of mixed dried apricots & dates (soaked in hot water for 10mins). I threw the whole lot into the food processor with a dash of lemon juice & about 1tsp of agave nectar & processed until smooth. The mix was quite soft, which made it difficult to roll in the coconut - but they firmed up pretty well after an hour or so in the fridge.