More beans, more eggplant, more potatoes and more walnuts (of course)

I’m convinced that at some point in the distant past, some wrote a book (in Georgian – one of the oldest living written languages) about the wonders of walnuts, and how to make sure you eat them at every single meal. It must have been a best-seller, because really and truly, walnuts are in everything here.

But enough about walnuts.

Tonight I had another go at Lobio, or red beans, although this time I followed a recipe for a cooked version. This version is a sort of soup/stew/dip, made of onion, garlic, kidney beans, herbs and spices. I used suneli (a special Georgian spice made from the flowers of the fenugreek plant), dried mint, coriander seed, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, fresh coriander and fresh parsley. The recipe said to use raw garlic and onion, but MR is a bit of an alliumphobe, so I used roasted garlic and red onion.

Lobio

It was warm and filling, but to be honest it just didn’t push my buttons like the salad version did. As kidney beans are the main source of vegetarian protein here in Tbilisi, I’ll probably try to make this again, though next time I think I’ll use raw garlic, and add more salt, more clove, and track down some fresh mint and dare I say it… dill.

I used two recipes conflated, which you can find here, and here. They are already vegan, hooray!

The second part of tonight’s menu was stuffed eggplant. The main feature that separated this Georgian versionto all the other kinds of stuffed eggplant was the method of cooking – the eggplant with stuffing got simmered in a skillet for about 45 minutes, instead of being baked.

Stuffed Eggplant

Sadly, this dish was also a little bland to my tastes, and I missed the oily, baked goodness I’m used to. The blandness could be because I only had kinda crappy tomatoes, or because I’m a salt-fiend. In any case if I make this again I will be using a little more salt, and maybe some nooch and lemon juice.

The saviour of the evening was the potatoes with walnuts, which is a very simple dish of boiled chopped potatoes, tossed with walnuts and fresh herbs. The original uses butter, I subbed olive oil. If you’re playing along at home, I would recommend using a butter substitute like vegan margarine for the flavour, although the olive oil was good.

Potatoes with Walnuts

I am a big fan of potato salads without mayo, so this was a winner for me.

On a tangent, I am very happy to say that as Christmas approaches, the shops have more and more “lenten” or “fasting” foods. Today I scored vegan cake slices, which we had for afternoon tea. At one lari a pop (about 70 cents), I’m looking forward to eating lots of these in future.

Georgian Cherry Cake

Georgian Chocolate cake

 

 

 

 

 

What’s for dinner Micronesian vegan?

Knock on wood, but I think we might finally have working internets that won’t wildly vary and drop out all the time. Now there’s just the near-daily power outages to get between me and some quality blog time.

So many stories of lizards, the gym in the jungle, boat trips and new jobs, but this blog is about food, so let’s get to it.

We have recently moved into a real house with actual cooking facilities, which is unbelievably great. Once you’ve spent two weeks eating curry ramen (the only vegan one on the island and full of msg) raw cabbage and trying to heat up tinned re-fried beans in a sink full of water from the kettle and then eating them with huge, dry, over-salted pretzels, you’ll find that even just looking at a stove to leads to some kitchen dancing and leaps of unqualified bliss.

I’ve paid multiple visits to every shop in Kolonia, and I am now the proud owner of a reasonably well- stocked vegan pantry.  Spices can be hard to come by, although I have gathered and now have almost everything I need (but if anyone feels like sending a care package of some special spices my way, or agar agar or massell chicken stock for that matter, go right ahead). We also found brown rice, whole wheat pasta, silken firm tofu, tinned beans, dried lentils, and frozen spinach, so I’m pretty happy.

The Pohnpei Pantry

As I’ve mentioned before, finding fresh veg is the hard part, so meals usually just have one vegetable, or two (where one of them is carrot or potato) although we’ve been lucky enough to have had two containers come in since we’ve been here.

So, here’s what we’ve been eating:

Miso with Tofu and Kangkong

Braised Eggplant and Buckweat Soba

Salt and Vinegar Tofu and Kangkong (with the soba and eggplant)

Spinach and Black Beans and left over baked veg

Roast Veg and Country Fried Tofu

Just a little shout out: the kangkong, or morning glory, comes from the garden of my friend Ecky. Thanks Ecky!

Coming up: A breakfast special, spotlight on a few local vegan products, and (hopefully) lots of recipes for coconut, taro, yams, breadfruit and kangkong.

Risi e Bisi and vegan “meat” balls

Maybe the best thing about risi e bisi is that the name rhymes. Its really just a plain-ish risotto with peas, although there are variations around, such as using mashed peas and slid peas, and turning it into a soup.

Again, I won’t post a recipe, as risotto isn’t rocket science, but I will give some links to various variations: Basic version, minty version, mashed verion – in italian, and a review of the recipe in 1000 vegan recipes.

risi e bisi

I refuse to put carrots and peas together in anything but soup, because something about it gives me the creeps (memories of cold peas pushed under mash maybe?). So my version uses an onion and garlic risotto with vegie stock, peas, and a little vegan cream cheese to creamy it up.

We also had some meat balls, served in tomato sauce. I made my usual home made tomato sauce, but added some zucchini, and made lemon-flavoured balls out of barlotti beans, bred crumbs, lemon zest, lemon juice, dried sage, vegan worcestershire sauce, golden syrup, soy sauce, and coated in flour and shallow fried.

vegan meat balls

They were delicious, but they were a bit loose and light, and next time I might sub some of the bread crumbs for something a little more substantial, like nuts or quinoa.

 

Have Trangia, will travel

Wow, long time no update.

Well, I back and well and truly settled in at home again now, and starting to work on the projects for this year – namely working on the Friendly Chocolate Cookbook, which has found a publisher in Aduki, helping the Greens for the by-election in Broadmeadows (because Brumby is a sore loser and has decided to take back his promise to the people of Broady and waste some public money), and getting us ready to ship out in March. Whew!

I’ll get back to scheduled programming soon, but first I wanted to do a bit of a vegan camping round up. So, here we go…

Our Vegan Camping Menu

I love camping, but I really, really don’t love the bought baked beans and tinned spaghetti that tend to go with it. So, I improvised.

To do it well, there are two things to remember. 1) buy vegies and protein as you go if possible, 2) pack really well.

Mr has always been the prepared sort, and has a huge camping box with the Trangia, spoons, plates, etc. I have added to it and always pack sauces, a few herbs, stock powder, cooking oil, some olives, tomato sauce, mustard, margarine (it wasn’t too hot), sugar, long life milk, cereal, chocolate, rice, tinned beans, tinned tomatoes, and anything else that will fit.

Here’s what we had on our trip:

Sausages on the Trangia!

We had sausages with lettuce from Nanna’s garden (Mr.’s) and delicious fairtrade sauces we got for Christmas.

Rice and beans, gourmet style

Rice and beans get an overhaul. Yum! That’s quick brown rice with vegies and herbs, and creamy beans with olives and tomatoes.

Sago plum pudding

Fruit Cake

It doesn’t look great here, but Mr.’s Nanna gave us a whole pudding and a fruit cake to take with us on our journey – they made excellent breaky, dessert ad snacks, and kept us happily full for most of a week.

We also had tomato rice, sauted mushrooms, and Morrocan flavoured black beans, which I didn’t get a photo of.

Tomato Rice

This stuff is vegan, available in supermarkets, and is a good way to speed up the cooking process if you don’t want to spend 45 minutes at the BBQ table.

A Trangia is a brand of camping stove, which works on metho:

The Trangia

The very best thing about camping cooking? The view!

A beach in Merimbula

 

 

Beans and Sausage and Philipino Spring Rolls

Ah, the perils of waiting too long between cooking the thing and writing about the thing. I can’t for the life of me remember the real name of this bean dish, or anything much about it, except that it was good.

A mixture of tomatoes, green capsicum, beans and sausage, it was similar to an Italian salad, but had very Spanish flavours. Really yum.

I do remember, also, that it was the first time I had tried the picnicker sausages from The Radical Grocery Store, and I have been completely in love with them since!

Unfortunately, you’ll just have to make do with a picture, because that’s everything I remember!:

Philipino Beans and Sausage

I remember a lot more about the spring rolls.

Philipino spring rolls are called Lumpia. They have a slightly different filling than chinese spring rolls – relying more on beef and garlic, although they still include the cabbage and other vegetables. To make mine, I used frozen spring roll wrappers, not trusting my think-pancake-type-food skills, and I used tempeh as the main filling ingredient, along with lots of cabbage.

I usually love spring rolls, but I wasn’t so hot about these. I think that’s due to the tempeh filling which had a very bitter flavour for some reason. If I make them again, I will use seitan, tofu or just vegetables.

Lumpia

 

 

Mezze two

On Mezze night number two, we had pumpkin kibbeh, tabouli, bean dip, flat bread chips, and fried tempeh kibbeh. Overall, it was delicious, and I have to say I’m pretty proud of my new creation, the fried tempeh kibbeh.

The pumpkin Kibbeh was bought from the Middle East Bakery on Hope st. I just happened upon them in the freezer while I was looking for the ill-fated felafel. They are vegan, and cooked straight from frozen, so they’re quick and hard to stuff up, which is always a winning combination.

I picked the bean dip after a cursory net serach about Lebanese food. I have since discovered that it is not Lebanese, but Egyptian. For that I apoligse. However I did make it, because it is what I had the ingredients for, and I have to say it was very yummy.  I used this recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, and served it with vegetable crudites and flat bread chips.

Bean dip with capsicum, carrot and snow peas from our garden

I made the tabouli from a recipe in Arak and Mezze (available from the Moreland Libraries), however I overestimated the amount of parsley I had left so it was a little heavy on the burghul.

As tasty as all of this was, the main event was the tempeh kibbeh. I made these up because we had some tempeh that needed using, and I wanted to try my hand at veganising the meat kibbeh I always see at Lebanese restaurants.

Pumpkin kibbeh to the right, Tempeh Kibbeh on the left

Vegan Tempeh Kibbeh

• 250 g tempeh, mashed
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoons of soaked burghul
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 2 chopped spring onions
• salt, to taste
• oil, for frying

1. With your hands, mash all ingredients together very well, until there are very few tempeh lumps left. If it is too dry, add a little oil. If it is too wet, add some more bread crumbs.
2. Taste the mixture, add salt if necessary.
3. Roll the mixture into balls.
4. Deep fry the balls in batches, in a wok or deep fryer. You could also bake the balls in the oven for a lighter dish.
5. Serve with bread and salad.

 

Beans and Bananas

On our third and final night of Tanzanian eating, we tried coconut bean soup and baked green bananas in orange syrup.

The coconut bean soup includes kidney beans, rice, coconut, tomatoes, curry powder and sweet green pepper (I’m starting to detect a theme here). In the information I have dug up about Tanzania, it seems that soups are usually served quite thick if they are going to be used as a meal unto themselves, however the recipes I found for this soup all seemed to be of ordinarily-thin soup consistency.

Just this once, I decided not to muck with a recipe at all, and used this version. I noted though that every version of this recipe is identical, or very close. I don’t know if its a very basic and well-known recipe, or if someone is cheating. If its the latter, I hope credit eventually falls to whom it is due, because this soup was delicious!

Mmm, coconut bean soup

Creamy, gently curry-flavoured, and full of beans and grains, it was just right for another cool and rainy Melbourne night, and filled us up in a way not all soups do.

For dessert, I attempted to make baked green bananas in orange syrup. I say attempted, because while I bought green bananas on grocery day, I then got busy for a few nights and didn’t actually make this dish until they were ripe. Also, I made waaaaay too much syrup. I don’t know if I read the recipe wrong, or if I didn’t boil it for long enough (I recently made accidental toffee due to boiling syrup for too long, and now I’m a little conservative in my syrup-making). In either case, I didn’t quite end up with the desired result. If you’d like to give them a try, this is the recipe I used.

They were supposed to look like this:

But instead they looked like this:

Hmm.

I baked them and baked them, but there was no browning to be seen. Eventually, at 9.30, we just gave in and ate them as they were.

However, they were still pretty yum, and it was a nice sweet treat with soy ice cream following a creamy, hearty soup, and we were both pretty satisfied. And anyway, who doesn’t want more syrup?

Picadillo and a Bean Bonanza

Picadillo is a mince-based dish, sometimes eaten alone, and sometimes used as a filling for various tortilla dishes like burritos and tacos. It is served in many countries, including the Phillipines, and is basically just mince and vegetables.

I used this recipe from MexicanFoodie and served it up with some rice cooked with tomatoes, chillies, capsicum and onions, as a sort of Mexican Risotto.

It was the perfect weeknight dinner- fast, filling, tasty, and with a nice protein hit from the vegan mince we used.

Picadillo and rice - not exactly photogenic

On the last day of Mexico week, it was time to make refried beans. I had a lot of bits and pieces in the cupboard and the fridge, and decided to turn this into meal less ordinary, with some inspiration drawn from Vegan Mexican Food’s 7 layer Fiesta Bean Dip.

I used variations on this recipe to produce to versions of refired beans: a typical kidney bean version with chilli, and my own canellini (white) bean version with some nooch, liquid smoke and cumin.

I made a quick red salsa and green salsa, and mashed some avocado, then layered them to make a 5 layered bean dip in the colours of the Mexican flag (kinda, and with repeats).

It was tasty and filling, and I served it with steamed vegies and some bread. Top marks, if I do say so myself, for creative use of fridge dregs.

Layers - not exactly neat, but you get the idea

Its pretty from this angle

Burgers and Biccies

Burgers are perhaps the most ubiquitous of all the American foods to have swum the ocean and dragged themselves, panting onto the beaches of Australia. They are so common, in fact, that I almost forgot to include them at all.

There are stacks of stories about how hamburgers were supposedly invented, and by whom. One story has them invented by the Earl of Hamburg in England, as he ate his steak between two bits of bread (which would actually be a steak sandwich, but who’s being pedantic), another claims they were originally made of ham, and invented in Hamburg, Germany, and yet another claims they were invented on a ship as a way to quickly feed lots of migrants at once. Even Genghis Khan is said to have had a hand in it.

Most stories, however, point to the Hamburger being invented in America, either in Hamburg, New York, or in Wisconsin, although the first person to serve a hamburger with a bun rather than bread is said to have been from Connecticut.

In any case, we know it today as both the American fast-food version, served with very little salad in a sugary bun, and the mountainous Australian corner-shop version, with every salad, and possibly some egg and bacon thrown in.

For the sake of our waistlines, I served it as an open burger (very posh), with lots of vegies. We had avocado, carrot, spinach, zucchini, tomato, onion, and some vegan bacon. I didn’t have buns, so we used bread. Not very American, but tasty nonetheless.

Open burger with the vegie lot

I have a standard burger/pattie recipe, although it is so lacking in detail, its really just a process.

Take a bean or legume of some sort and cook it, then mash it. Then add a grain of some sort If it is a cooked grain, add some bread crumbs or flour to soak up any excess liquid. Season with anything you like, mush it all up with your fingers, shape it and either fry or bake. Easy

My standard variations are:

• lentils and quinoa (with a little ground quinoa to soak up juice), flavoured with curry, tumeric, corriander and soy sauce,
• black bean and tempeh with bread crumbs, flavoured with worcestershire and sage, and
• kidney beans or white beans with couscous, flavoured with orange, worcestershire, and thyme.

This was an easy night for me, as I didn’t even have to make the burgers- I always make extra, and there were still two types in the freezer: some lentil patties, and some black bean and tempeh patties. Yay!

For the sake of it, I’m also gonna show you some pics of the latest tested recipes for the chocolate book. The book currently remains nameless, although I’m thinking of going with something along the lines of “The Aussie Vegan Chocolate Lover’s Cookbook”, and may as yet go unpublished- I’m only half way through the writing stage.

The latest finished recipes are the Marble Mocha Moments, a coffee-choccie version of my Great Nan’s YoYo biscuits recipe, and the Chocolate Vanilla Sandwich Biscuits, which taste eerily like a very popular accidentally-vegan biccie sold by a nasty multinational. Enjoy!

If you want the recipes, you’ll have to become a tester

Marble Mocha Moments

Choc-Vanilla Sandwich Biscuits

Chowder, Cobbler, Cornbread and Beans

Sunday: Corn Chowder and Peach Cobbler

During my search I didn’t find much info on Corn Chowder, so I wont share a history with you.

Basically, chowder is a thick, creamy soup with stuff in it. In corn chowder, the stuff is corn and potatoes. I used the recipe for Chipotle Corn Chowder from  Vegan YumYum, although I didn’t make mine Chipotle-ish. I added a little bit of Tofutti Sour cream (which I am using in everything lately, as it has become a staple), and left out the chilli.

It was creamy, corny, and filling, although I have to say it don’t got nothing on my mumma’s cream of corn soup. Sorry, just saying. Even though it isn’t as good as my mum’s, it was pretty fab, and we both had seconds, so it was doing something right!

The corn chowder looked like this:

Corn Chowder (crap photo taken by hungry person)

The Peach cobbler was made with a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I made two individual cobbles instead one big one, cos the last thing we need in the house after all this American food is left-over desserts!

Peach cobbler in a ramekin

I only had tinned peaches, and buckwheat flour,

but decided to make do. Mine turned out tasty, but the buckwheat flour didn’t harden the way I had hoped, do the topping was a little spongy. It wasn’t a bad dessert, but probably not one I’ll make again.

Monday: Beans and Cornbread

Corn meal was used by the Native Americans, from whom the Europeans took the idea. Cornbread is a quick bread made from cornmeal, eaten mostly in the South and Southwest of the USA, where it became popular because wheat bread was very expensive. Why was wheat bread expensive? I don’t know.

I had my cornbread with beans, which seems to be the way to have it. I made my usual beans, recipe below including secret ingredients, and used this recipe for cornbread, from the PPK. I used 1/2 polenta and 1/2 cornmeal (finer than what they use in the US, bought from BAS Foods on Victoria street.) According to the internets, this is Yankee Cornbread, not the Southern style. This is because I didn’t add pork products or make it in a skillet.

I may have over cooked it a little, as mine was certainly not what I would call moist. On its own it was dry and not very flavourful, and was beginning to get disappointed. But then I tried it with the beans. It. Was. So. Good! I couldn’t believe the transformation that occurred just by dipping it in some beans. It went into the beans as a boring and bland caterpillar (stay with me now), and came out the other side a beautiful butterfly of yumminess.

Conrbread and Beans

I ate mine at work last night, so excuse the left-overs-in-plastic-ware picture.

I get why its such a staple now. I suggest everyone give it a try, next time you plan to make boring old beans and rice. The recipe takes about 5 minutes to prepare, and 35 minutes in the oven, which is only a little longer than brown rice.

Keira’s Beans Recipe

serves 3-4

• 1 onion
  

  Cornbread and beans is ready for its close up

• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 cans barlotti beans (or any other smallish, redish bean)
• 1 can chopped or crushed tomatoes
• 2 tsp Massel gravy powder (secret ingredient #1)
• 1 tbs organo
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbs cocoa powder (Secret ingredient #2)
• 2 tsp pomegranate syrup (Secret ingredient #3)
• 2 tsp Massel beef flavoured stock powder

1. Separately, chop the onion and garlic finely.
2. In a large saucepan, cook the onion until it becomes transparent. It can take about 10 minutes, don’t skimp! Never undercook your onion.
3. Add garlic and fry a little longer (about 2 minutes).
4. Drain the bean juice off, then add beans to the pan, along with a little water (about 3 tbs) and the gravy powder. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the tomatoes, oregano, cumin and cayenne pepper. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Return to a low heat. Add the pomegranate and cocoa. stir through.
7. Taste test. If it tastes great, stop here. If it isn’t salty enough, add the beef flavoured stock. You could use the vegie sock, but not the chicken stuff, as it is to sweet for this dish. The saltiness will depend on what was in your tin of tomatoes, I use unflavoured tomatoes, so they need a little extra.
8. Leave over low heat for a further 5-10 minutes, and serve with the cornbread, or brown rice.