The Perfect Pie

What’s more aussie than a meat pie with sauce? Well, lots of things, probably, given meat pies were certainly not invented here, and are currently eaten across the entire western world. But I digress.

There is something about a meat pie (individual sized, not the big shared ones), with tomato sauce on top, eaten standing up, outside, preferably at some sportsball event, that seems to be pretty standardly Aussie.

So what’s a vegan to do? Make your own? No, everyone knows the point of the meat pie is convenient, no-effort eating. Go without? Bring your vegies and dip and die of the shame of unAustralianism? (oh noes!)

Nope. Here in Melbourne, we’ve got all your pie needs covered. I’ve tried them all (I think), and will describe them in detail so you can pick your perfect pie.

La Panella 465 High St Preston

La Panella is a bakery in Preston. They are vegetarian business, selling breads, cakes, donuts, pastries and, of course, pies and sausage rolls. You could easily mistake them for an omni bakery if you weren’t in the know.

Their pies are the square, shortcrust pastry type you ate when you were a kid. The filling is thin, with mice-like lumps, even the ocassional piece of creepy faux-gristle. The gravy tastes exactly as I remember commercial meat pies tasting. They are fantastically realistic, very tasty, and sure to satisfy your craving for any of the commercial meat-pie varieties from your pre-veg days. They sell their pies hot or cold (for storage at home to meet unexpected pie needs), and at around $2 each, they’re a steal.

Mr loves these pies. I like them. I like the flavour of the gravy, and the pastry is fab, but meat pies were the very first food I gave up (when I was 12), and the realistic texture puts me off. Great if you want the real deal, good for serving to omnis, and a fabbo cheap treat on market day.

As a bonus, they also sell seriously awsome vegan sausage rolls, and vegan iced donuts.

Organarchy RMIT food court, Swanson St.

Organarchy are the vegan food co-op of RMIT. As such they are only open at lunch times,  during uni semesters, Monday to Friday.

They serve pies of all flavours – curry, gado gado, shepherds pie, mushroom and tofu, the list goes on – all with wholegrain pastry (i think), and sauce or chutney optional. These pies are wholesome, warm and filling, although the intensity of flavour depends on your chice of pie – I find the some are great (like the curry), but some can leave a little to be desired (tofu and mushroom was a little bland).

These pies make a great  workday lunch for city office dwellers.

Funky Pies Available from your Radical Grocery Store, 347 Sydney road, Brunswick

These vegan pies originate from Bondi, but sold in various locations around Melbourne. There are a few flavours, however I have only tried the No Wurry Curry and the Funky Chunky varieties. The pastry was lovely, flaky and buttery (hooray!), and the fillings were flavouesome. The No Wurry Curry felt wholesome and was tasty, although a little lacking in salt for us salt addicted folk. The Chunky was great, and I liked the realistic flavour with  the obviously vegan texture.

Home Made

Sure, I know I said you can’t make a pie yourself, as it would defeat the purpose, but well, you could try. I’m a bad maker of pies, but I do go in for a cheap and nasty home made sausage roll every now and then. I just thaw out some puff pastry, wrap it around a vegan sausage, glaze it with olive oil, soy milk and sesame seeds, and pop it in the oven. Tada! sausage rolls! My nan will be very ashamed

And the winner is….

Well, it depends on what you’re after. For a real deal meat pie n sauce, La Panella is your best bet. For the best sausage roll in town, again, La Panella rules. For a wholesome hit, you’d best get down to Organarchy. And for a flaky pastry without an extra trip, put a Funky Pie in your shopping basket at the Radical Grocery.

Birthday Feast

It was Mr.’s Birthday yesterday, and in honor of the occasion, I made a fancy-pants dinner. I decide I could fit it in with the theme of the week, and create a ‘Modern Australian’ feast.

Modern Australian is basically jut modern restaurant food – either the use of native foods, traditional food with different ingredients, or fusions of other cuisines. Think wattleseed cake, pear, beetroot and cheese in salad, or quinoa with citrus and tofu.

The plan was to make: olives, olive oil and bread; asparagus with lemon myrtle dressing; stuffed mushrooms on mountain pepper potato rosti; macadamia-crusted smoked tofu with a pumpkin, leek and eggplant medley;  panna cotta with rosella coulis.

I ended up changing it a little, as I couldn’t find any rosella or jam thereof, I didn’t feel like eggplant, and I had a tamarillo to use, so i made a sauce and didn’t stuff the mushrooms. In the end, the menu looked like this:

• Parmesan bread with olives
• Asparagus with lemon myrtle dressing
• Grilled mushrooms on potato and parsnip rosti with tamarillo sauce
• Macadamia-crusted smoked tofu with a pumpkin, leek and capsicum medley
• Almond panna cotta with berry compote

It all turned out yum, with the panna cotta and potato rosti with mushrooms being the favourites. The tamarillo sauce was tart and tangy, but went well with the more sedated rosti and subtle mushrooms. The panna cotta fell apart, as I didn’t give it long enough to set up, but tasted divine. The lemon myrtle dressing was a little too tangy for me, but mr loved it.

I enjoyed using some new ingredients  – lemon myrtle and tamarillos are new to me – and it was fun to play with some “Aussie” ingredients.

And now for the recipes and photos! I just made these up on the spot, but here’s an idea of what I did.

Olives and Parmesan bread

This is just bread slices in the grill, then brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with vegan parmaggiano.

Asparagus and Lemon Myrtle Dressing

• Asparagus spears, steamed
• 1 tbs Tofutti cream cheese
• 1 tbs Plamil vegan mayo
• 1 tsp lemon juice (I’ll leave that out next time though)
• About 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp lemon myrtle (i used dried and powdered).

Place all ingredients except asparagus into a small frying pan. Stir with a wooden spoon, removing and lumps by pressing with the spoon. Over low heat continue to stir until sauce is warm and homogenous-looking. Spoon over asparagus and serve.

Parsnip and Potato Rosti

• 2 potatoes
• 1/2 a parsnip (the large end)
• 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
• pepper, to taste
• 3 tbs olive oil, for frying

Place the whole potatoes and parsnip into a pot of boiling water. Cook for about 10 minutes. Remove, and allow to cool completely. Once cool, grate the potatoes and parsnip into a small bowl. Add pepper, yeast, and any other flavourings. Mix with fingers until combined. Shape into balls with hands, and flatten into patties (I made two large ones, but you could make smaller patties). In a wok or frying pan, heat the olive oil. Add the patties and fry, over medium heat, until the bottom is golden brown. This should take about 10 minutes. Turn over gently, and repeat on the other side.

I served this with basic cooked mushrooms.

Tamarillo Sauce

• 1 tamarillo, chopped finely, skin on
• 1 tomato, chopped finely
• pinch cayenne pepper (i really mean just a tiny bit)

In a small saucepan, add all ingredients. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat, and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Serve.

You could add various flavours to this. It would go well with a little pomegranate syrup, some lime leaf, or a little mango chutney. If your tamarillo isn’t ripe it may require some added sugar. The sauce is very tart, but that’s how its supposed to be.

Macadamia crusted tofu

• 1/2 cup chopped macadamias
• 4 smoked tofu ‘steaks’, about 8cm x 4cm x 0.7cm
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3 tbs corn flour
• 1 tbs non dairy milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. In a small bowl, mix macadamias and pepper. In another, very small bowl, mix the cornflour and milk until there are no lumps. Place the tofu on baking paper on a baking tray (the baking paper is really essential here). Brush the tops of the tofu with the cornflour mixture. it should be about 1-2ml thick on the top. Cover with the macadamia mixture. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Gently place steaks onto plates. Serve with vegetables (i used stir-fried pumpkin, leek and green capsicum, with no sauce).

Almond panna cotta

• 1 tsp agar agar
• 20 ml boiling water
• 250 ml almond milk
• 125 g soy yoghurt
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• contents of 1 vanilla pod
• 1/6 cup sugar

In a cup, add agar agar to boiling water, and stir to begin dissolving. Add all other ingredients to a small saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly, until it feels almost hot to the touch. Add the agar and water. Continue to heat, stirring until the mixture almost boils (it should have movement on the surface, but no big bubbles). Remove from heat and pour into ramekins. Allow to cool on bench, then refridgerate for at least 2 hours. To serve, turn desserts out of the ramekins, onto plates. Serve with berry compote – I used frozen berries, left in a bowl to defrost for 2 hours, with 1 tbs sugar and 1 tbs water.

Mine fell apart, as mentioned above, but I have since updated the recipe..so, you know, don’t let this image scare you off giving it a go

White-girl curry tofu

I haven’t heard many other Aussies talk about this dish with the fervor my sister does- she is a true fan. When we were kids its was a big hit at our place, and the only point of tension would be the debate about using sausages, or barbecued chicken. I used tofu this time, after suffering from sausage-overload during a weekend away. I fully expect to bear the wrath of my sister for committing this atrocity

When I was a kid this was just called curry. Curry chicken, curry sausages. I learned to call it ‘white-girl curry’ after moving away from home and eatng a lot of actual curries. Its nothing – really nothing- like curries from anywhere else in the world. Turns out curry doesn’t usually have flour in it!

So, what is white-girl curry? It is basically just onion, celery and meat, in a white sauce flavoured with chicken stock and Keen’s curry powder. Its fluorescent green, and you eat it with white rice. Sound familiar?

It may have originaly been an Australian Women’s Weekly recipe (I’m almost sure it would have been), but I learned to make it from my Mum when I was a kid. Its one of those recipes that was never written down, and yet everyone makes it the same way.

Being a Monday night, the night I work and Mr and I don’t see each other, I didn’t get a good photo. I did manage to take a quick snap of some leftovers after work, which may not look great, but at least it gives you an idea of the colour.

A very small amount of curry tofu

So, without further ado, the White-girl Curry Recipe. Please note I don’t often measure, unless I’m trying to write up a recipe for you. I fell into bad habits last night, so the soy milk measurement below is a guess. Add more if you need, and add it slowly so as not to make it too thin.

This recipe serves 2-3

• 1 onion, small dice
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped into small pieces
• 300g firm tofu, cubed
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 tsp Keens curry powder
• 1/2 tsp Massel Chicken flavoured stock
• 1/3 cup plain flour
• 2 tbs vegan margarine
• about 1  1/2 cups soy milk, maybe more
• 1 tsp Keens curry powder
• 1 tsp chicken flavoured stock
• salt to taste
• White rice (we used basmati) to serve

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and cook for 5-10 minutes, until soft.
2. Add the tofu, celery, and the first lot of curry and chicken stock powder. Cook for a few minutes, until tofu and vegies are coated with the curry powder (it will go yellow when it’s ready). Remove from saucepan, put tofu and vegies aside.
3. In the same saucepan (don’t wash it!) add the flour and margarine. Stirring, melt the margarine. The mixture will form a dough. Stir over medium heat until the dough starts to form crumbs.
4. Lower heat. Add a little milk, very slowly, whisking to form a paste. Continue until all the milk is added.
5. Add second lot of curry and chicken stock powder. Turn heat up to medium, and continue to stir until the mixture begins to thicken to about the consistency of pouring custard.
6. Turn heat to low. Add the tofu and vegies mixture, and stir until heated through (if they have cooled).
7. Taste now. Add salt, more curry or pepper if needed.
8. Serve over cooked rice.

What do they eat in Australia?

I won’t be using a book this week, because I have my own recipes for everything I intend to make. I’ll post them here, if anyone feels the need to replicate them.

Australian’s eat  and cook a range of foods from various cultures (Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Italian and Greek, among others), however the food usually referred to as Aussie food, is based on British and Irish food, brought over by the invaders and subsequent settlers.

It has changed over time. Even in my short life (so far) I’ve seen it change from pretty basic “meat and three veg” to a more interesting range of stir-fries, curries, pastries, casseroles and other dishes. It should be noted that Aussie food, (not food from other cultures cooked in Australia) is much less spicy and uses fewer herbs than many world cuisines.

At home, a typical breakfast most likely includes cereal with milk and/or toast with spreads, with fruit juice, tea or coffee. Lunch is generally taken to school or work, consisting of left-overs from dinner, soup, sandwiches, fruit, etc. Many people eat out for lunch, having sushi, chinese, roast lunch, schnitzel, fancy sandwiches and salad or many other foods. Dinner can be anything, but it is usually savoury and hot. We snack (on sweets, biscuits, savoury biscuits, fruit, nuts, all sorts of things), and go in for sweet foods fairly often (desserts).

For the menu plan this week, I want to cook some foods from my childhood, some ‘typical’ Aussie meals, and some fancy Modern Australian cuisine.

Here’s the plan:

• Meat pies and sausage rolls, with sauce
• Curried sausages/’chicken’
• Sunday Roast
• Meat and three veg
• Pumpkin scones
• Modern Australian degustation- olives, olive oil and bread; asparagus with lemon myrtle dressing; stuffed mushrooms on mountain pepper potato rosti; macadamia-crusted smoked tofu with a pumpkin, leek and eggplant medley;  panna cotta with rosella coulis.
• Golden syrup dumplings
• Anzac biccies
• Lamingtons – maybe, they’re kind of a pain in the butt.
• Scones

The fancy degustation menu is in honor of my Mr. having his birthday this week.

Introducing….Australia!

This week we’ll be eating what we grew up eating. That’s right, it’s time to visit our home country, Australia.

Why? Because I still have a whole pumpkin left over from the bounty we scored at my Auntie and Uncle’s place, and, as it turns out, we Aussies eat more pumpkin than many other countries.

But now, its time for some stats and info.

Australia, where the bloody hell is it?

Australia is made up of the mainland, the island of Tasmania, and lots and lots of tiny islands. The Pacific Ocean is to the East, and the Indian ocean is to the West, with the Tasman Sea between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, the Coral sea to the very North East, and the Timor and Arafura Seas to the North.

Basically, its North of Antarctica, East of New Zealand, and South of Indonesia, but shares no land borders with, well, anyone.

We have 5 States and 2 Territories, and the capital is Canberra, which is inland on the Eastern side of the country.

Economy, People and Politics

• Population: 21,515,754
• Urbanisation: 89% of the population
• Median Age: 37.5 years old
• 1.78 children are born per woman
• Ethnicity has been calculated at 92% white, 7% asian, and 1% other. (i don’t know who they’re counting, and if they’re leaving people out)
• About 63% of people claim to be some denomination of Christian, about 18% of people are Atheists (myself included), 2.1% are Buddhist, 1.7% Muslim, 2.4% Other, and 11.3% are ‘unspecified’.
• GDP per capita: $38, 800
• Unemployment is about 5.6%

Australia is a Constitutional Monarchy, with the Queen of England as our Head of State, and the Australian Governor General as her representative. That said, the Cabinet and Prime Minister (who doesn’t exist n the Constitution) actually run the country, although legislation and budgets must be passed by both houses of parliament (explained below).

There are three levels of Government in Australia (for most places – some only have 2): Local Councils, State Government, and Federal Government. There are two houses in Federal Parliament, the House of representatives (lower hose), and the Senate (upper house).We also have an appointed High Court.

We don’t have fixed terms for the Federal parliament, however they are approximately 3 years for Members in the House of Representatives, and 6 years for most members of the Senate. Half of the State senators are elected at every election. There are 4 senators from Territories (2 each for the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory) who are elected every three years. Voting in State and Federal elections is compulsory for everyone over the age of 18.

There are currently a number of political parties in the Australian political arena, as well as some independents. The system has long been considered a two party system comprising of the Liberal Party (economically neo-liberal, social conservatives) and the Labor Party (a teeny bit less socially conservative, economically less neo-liberal,), but that is changing as support for the Greens grows.

The next Federal election has just been announced, and will be held on Saturday the 21st of August, 2010.

Interesting stuff about Australia

• We’re the 6th biggest country in the world – Russia, Canada, the US, China and Brazil are bigger, India is smaller.
• About 1% of the population is Vegan.
• We invented notepads, aspirin and the wine cask
• Right at the moment, we have our first ever Woman Governor General and Women Prime Minister.