The ghost of menus past

I’ve covered around 25 cuisines on this blog now, and one of the best things that has come of it is that the food we eat on a regular basis has changed (and gotten much better!).

Despite incidences of my cooking becoming increasingly rare since I started working again and Mr stopped, there are particular foods that I just keep coming back to when I do get around to cooking. Lately these constants have been Georgian, Turkish and Italian. Pizza, kidney beans, walnuts and tahini replacing the dahl and stir fry dinners of yesteryear.

All this revisiting means I’ve had the chance to perfect some recipes which didn’t work out that well on the first go, so I decided it was time to repost them.

Turkish Brekky

Ok, so this isn’t exactly a cooked meal, but it was fun. While we were in Turkey breakfast was usually offered as a buffet featuring cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, olives and bread, along with simit and tahini with grape molasses (which tastes like caramel). I mocked up a vegan version using agave instead of grape molasses, and using a bit of cheezly. Tasty, healthy brekky!

Next up is the Georgian feast we prepared for some friends who visited recently-ish. It was a little while ago, when our garden was still overflowing with winter crop, so we pulled out all of this:

Garden haul 1#: silverbeet, beetroot, parsnip, cauliflower, cabbage, snow peas, spring onion and kale.

and turned it into this:

Pkhali and eggplant with walnut

… as well as kidney bean salad (lobio), ajap sandal (eggplant and tomato dish), pilaf with cabbage, and fried potatoes, and mini spanakopita which I took to work for Veggie Club.

The pkhali and the eggplant with walnuts were both really yummy and so much better than my first disastrous attempt at imitating Georgian walnut paste. I’ve been using this recipe from Georgian Taste, however I have included a few cashews to make it even creamier, I have left out some of the garlic in deference to Mr, and I used beetroot this time instead of spinach.

For the eggplant and walnut paste I followed the recipe for pkhali, but left out the spinach altogether. I then fried some strips of eggplant and wrapped them around tablespoonfuls of the walnut paste. Yum.

I also made my first attempt at creating a vegan khachapuri, which is a totally delicious looking, totally un-vegan Georgian cheese bread. It turned out brilliantly, and though it is time consuming to make, I think it will have to go on the “again, again!” list.

I scoured the web for recipes and ended up using a mix of this recipe at food.com and this recipe at Nami Nami, but of course it needed tweaking to veganise.

Slice of vegan imureli khachapuri

Vegan Khachapuri

Makes 2 loaves

For the dough:

• 250ml soy milk
• 3tbs margarine, melted
• 14g instant yeast
• a pinch of salt
• pinch baking soda
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 3 1/4 cups plain flour

For the cheese filling:

• 2 cups cheezly, mozzarella flavour, mashed with a fork
• 1/2 cup Vegusto vegan cheese, strong flavour, grated
• 100g silken boxed tofu, mashed with a fork
• 1 tbs rice flour, whisked with 1/4 cup  soy milk
• 1 Tbs plain flour
• 2 Tbs vegan margarine
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• pinch of nutmeg (just because I ave this thing about nutmeg and cheese – you could leave it out)

Follow the directions as per the Food.com recipe, although only warm the soy milk, don’t scald it.

 

I have no new Italian recipes to share, but I didn’t want to post yet another picture f yet another haul from our garden that made it into a meal – because I’m so amazed at how well this whole growing-our-own-food business is going

Garden haul #2: spring onions, herbs snow peas, lettuce and broad beans.

Dinner from the garden: garden salad, pizza (herbs from the garden and mushrooms from our mushroom box), and broad beans with vegan facon.

 

 

 

 

Vegan Italy in Photos

Not too much chatter from me today, because I have neither recipes nor reviews to share. Italy has such good produce, pasta and pizza, that we hardly went out at all, I was so happy to cook simply.

So, you’ll have to settle with vicariously enjoying what everything I ate and saw looked like. Belissima!

Graffitti - not by us, we just found it

 

OMG they have vegan chocolate croissants here (albeit heavily packaged)

 

Sunset somewhere in the mountains of Emilia Romagna

 

pasta with oil and herbs and ratatoullie

 

A sunny day in Buti, Tuscany

 

ValSoia Vegan meatballs, lemon risotto and glazed veg

 

Il Colosseo (which was closed due to flooding)

 

Spooky haloween pumpkin soup with lovely couchsurfers

 

Excellent gelato from Gelatone in Rome

At a fountain in a piazza eating vegan gelato

 

Vegan parpadelle with basic veg and olive oil

 

Best pizza in thw rold? Take out in Rome

 

Detail of a painted wall in Pompei

See, we also ate some food without wheat in it

 

Pizza with potatoes, apparently... oops, not quite what I meant. In Imola.

 

Pizza verdure senza mozarella in Rome

 

Sunset over Rome (From the Forum)

Pizza on Pohnpei!

Its official. Well, even more official-er than before: You can too be vegan in Micronesia.

The Rusty Anchor, a bar with pool tables and one of the best views on the island, has started making wood fired pizzas, and get this, the owner has learned to make them vegan.

As we leave Pohnpei for the US in a few days. Tonight we went tonight to say goodbye to the owner, who is also a work-friend of Mr’s, and he made us spectacular, thin-crust, vegan pizza with eggplant, mushrooms, capsicum, tomato, onion and his special recipe tomato and chili sauce.

Stuffing my face with vegan pizza in Pohnpei

It was so good. Paired with the gorgeous view, some purrs from the friendliest cat on the island and some lemon, lime and bitters (the only bitters in the country) it made for a fabulous send-off.

Bundy the cat

More Bundy

Good view (just ignore the earth works)

If you are heading to Pohnpei and fancy yourself some vegan pizza, head over to the Rusty Anchor (in a safe but derelict hotel building, also called Rusty’s, or Wayne’s bar) and tell Wayne that Keira sent you for vegan pizza. Make sure to tell him how spicy you want it.

Stromboli (ok so not exactly Italian)

I’ve seen it around, but I’ve never actually eaten stromboli before. Its basically pizza, rolled up to make a loaf.

I was about to tell you that Stromboli came from Sicily, and was named after the eponymous volcano. I’m certain I read that somewhere. If I did, the lying liar of a web article appears long gone.

It turns out stromboli is American, not Italian, created near either Philadelphia or Spokane. So, its “italianesque”. Like nachos are “mexican-inspired”. Damn yanks, ruining my idea of the history of my favourite foods.

So, its not actually Italian. Doesn’t matter, it’s still delicious!

I make pizza frequently, and I’m sure I had a recipe from somewhere else at some point. These days I just go by my gut, so follow on if you dare.

From the outside

Vegan Stromboli

for vegan pizza dough

• about 200ml lukewarm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• about 1 tablespoon yeast
• about 3 cups bread flour
• pinch salt
• some more olive oil
• herbs for sprinkling
• olive oil and soy milk – for a wash

for the filling

• oil, for frying
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 capsicum, chopped
• 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 4 tbs tomato paste
• 2 x picnicker sausages(vegan cabana)
• 1/2 packet cheezly
• 1/2 cup pitted olives

1. Make sure the water is really lukewarm. You should almost not be able to feel it when you put you finger in it. If it is too warm, wait, as heat destroys the yeast.
2. Add sugar and yeast to the water in a large cup or small jug, leaving it plenty of room to froth. Let them sit for 15 minutes, until starting to get very frothy (on a warm day it can double in size, on a cold day it looks like frothy beer).
3. Sift flour into a large bowl (you know, if you’re a sifter – not me). Make a well in the centre, add yeast mixture, and slowly combine to form a dough, as for the pasta.
4. knead the dough on a floured surface for 15 minutes (set the timer, it always feels like you’ve been kneading for longer than you have). The dough should become smooth and elastic, and should be a little warm.
5. Clean the bowl, oil it, and leave dough in it to rest, covered for 45 minutes, in a warm place (i put mine by the window or on top of the oven if it was on earlier in the day).
6. While it is doing it’s thing, you can make the filling. In a frying pan, heat the oil, add onions, and fry for 10 minutes, until translucent. Add mushrooms and capsicum, and fry for a further 10 minutes.
7. Remove from heat, add olives and chopped sausage. Leave to cool.
8. By now the dough should have doubled in size. Punch it down (for dough newbies, that’s literal – punch it in the middle, just once). Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for just 30-60 seconds.
9. Roll out into an oblong shape – we’re not making pizza, so try to avoid the temptation to through it in the air and make circles.
10. Leaving an inch around three edges, coat the dough in the tomato paste. The cover with the cooked mixture, and finally with the cheezly.
11. Roll the dough up to make a loaf shape.
12. Pop it into a baking dish, brush with oil and soy milk, and spinkle with some dried herbs (i like rosemary or oregano).
13. Bake at 170 degrees celsius, for 20-25 minutes.
14. Allow to cool a little before cutting into slices to serve.

I wrapped it up in a tea towel and took it into the city for yummy dinner in Flagstaff park, to fuel us for an e-reader shopping expedition. Good stuff

Some left over stromboli for lunch

 

Pizza

I used to love Lebanese pizza, but it has been a long time since I’ve had any, given it is usually covered cheese.

Lebanese pizza looks like other pizza, though the dough is covered in Zatar (a mix of oregano and spices) with only one or two other toppings added.

I cheated, which is the theme of the week really, and used zatar bread bought at my local Middle East Bakery, on Hope st. We picked a few toppings, based on what we’d seen at Tabets on the non-veg pizzas.

The results were:

Tomato, sundried tomato and capers,

Tomato pizza

Mince pizza,

Mince and capsicum

and Cheezly with olives and tomatoes, not pictured.

Zatar pizza made for a quick and delicious meal. Using pre-baked Zatar means you get a cripsy pizza, and you need to use pre-cooked or no-cook toppings. You could make your own dough to get a softer base.

 

New-York Pizza and waldorf salad

I love making pizza. I have this pizza base recipe I was given in a high-school hospitality class, and I’ve used it ever since. In an odd piece of coincidence, my recipe for Waldorf Salad is also something I picked up in that same class. Seems like something from high-school stuck after all.

I haven’t been to New York, but I have seen movies, and even I know that New York pizza is thin, large, bid on cheese and sauce, scant on other toppings, and so greasy that is drips oil.

To emulate, I used my general pizza base recipe of 2 tsp dried yeast in some lukewarm water to prove, then added to as much flour as is necessary to make a non-sticky dough, kneaded for 10-15 minutes, rested for 30 then stretched. Just play with the amounts of water and flour for more or less dough. To make one medium sized, medium crust pizza, its about 200 ml water,  to 2 cups flour.

I usually like to make a fluffy, crusty base of medium thickness for my pizza, but this time we went with thin… we were making New York pizza, after all.

The topping was tomato sauce (semi-home made with tomato paste and chopped tomato simmered with water, salt, and oregano), Cheezly, thinly sliced hot dog (the left over one from the night before), and mushrooms.

It went in the oven, and came out as an enormous, not-quite-round-but-otherwise-perfet-looking pizza.

Pizza

We sliced it and tucked in. I tried to fold it like they do on the Ninja Turtles, but either it wasn’t thin enough, or it was over cooked. It did bend/flop when you picked up a slice though, and that was satisfyingly movie-like enough for me.

A slice of melty wonderfulness

We had it with Waldorf salad, which is a simple salad of celery, apple, grapes and walnuts, dressed with mayonnaise, which was created at the Waldorf Hotel, in New York. I left out the grapes and used Plamil Egg Free Mayonnaise instead. It was pretty good, although next time I’ll use less dressing. It was my first taste of vegan mayo, and I have to say, I was impressed- I didn’t even like mayo before I went vegan, but this stuff was pretty good.

Waldorf Salad

A very tasty New York-ish night, it turned out to be.