Vegan Votering, or: Enlightened Cuisine as voted by the judges

Throwing themselves into the swing of things, recently newish Melbournians Steph and Danni organised a dinner at Enlightened Cuisine to celebrate the New Moon Festival. Sadly Danni was sent leaving on a jet plane, thereby missing the mock meat madness.

Having slavered over the 'lamb' curry last World Vegan Day, I was keen to sample more (and from now on I'll just drop the ' 's. You know I don't mean the real and nasty stuff, although I do actually feel a little uncomfortable writing meaty names which is interesting). The table of 9 decided to order from two of the banquets, very reasonably priced at $32 per person for 8 dishes.

So how to review 16 plates shared amongst 8 people, with Jo chipping in too?

By exercising our God-given right to vote and my geek-given ability to count on my fingers.

So here, voted by your judges (me, Buzz, Craig, Bec, Jo, Cindy, Michael, Sarah-Jane and Steph), are the winners of Banquets B1 and B2. Due to some confusion as to when the dishes arrived on the table, and which was announced as belonging to which, not each face-off consists of a B1 vs B2. Rearranging them would have sullied the total votes, but at the end I have tallied total votes for each Banquet to declare a Banquet Emperor. I also recommend you check out Steph's post and especially her fantastic pictures, which have me seriously considering the purchase of a fancy up-towards-the-ceiling flash attachment and even dragging my SLR around instead of just whipping out my little, damaged-because-I-dropped-it-lens-first-into-miso-soup-at-Peko-Peko point'n'shoot.

So to the count. Australia Votes!

In the fried entree section, no photographs were taken, but the spring roll (B1) trounced the curry puff (B2) 7 votes to 2.



In the souping, Shark Fin Soup (B1) played nicely with Sweet Corn and Crab (B2), 4 and 4 votes respectively.



Moving to mains, the Kung Po Prawn (B1), which squiggled in a way I imagine real prawn guts might, lost mightily to the fried Sweet and Sour Pork (B1), which was served with the very authentic tomato and pineapple chunks, 2 votes to 7.



In the Battle of the Tofus, the warm, rich and spicy Ma Pu Tofu (B1) lost to the overwhelming 5 Spice Tofu (B2), small artery-cloggers of pure cripsy fatty dollops, 2 votes to 7.


Next into the arena, the Sweet and Sour Prawns (B2), little fried prawnies in batter, were crushed by the immensity of the Kung Po Chicken in Nest (B2), which was cashews and chicken in a little basket of French Fries, 2 votes to 7. Yes they were fries. And yes, I forgot to take a picture of the prawnies because the 45 minute wait between entree and main had frayed my nerves a little and I was ready to jump on the table, perform the Stompy Troll Dance, gather all the plates in my Troll Apron, and run away into the night.



Each Banquet came with a serve of Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables and Fried Rice, which we didn't vote on even though I was really liking the power of wielding the pen.

Finally, the Lychee Longan (B1) took on the Banana Fritter (B2). Michael declared his interests as a fully paid up member of the I Hate Nanis Club, of which Emily and he are Founding Co-Chairs and Chief Cheerleaders, and absented himself from voting because of his perverse aversion, and votes came out even at 4 each.



I am fully aware of the image that the picture above presents. Not only do I love crass, cheap humour, but it was the only picture that worked out and I love crass, cheap humour.

Geeking it up, we then voted for Best Entree (Shark Fin Soup tying with Spring Rolls at 4 votes each, with Jo not voting); Best Main in a two stage process (5 Spice Tofu finally scoring a massive 8 votes against Jo's Beef and Black Bean Sauce, a late entry); and again, a dead heat for dessert.

So to tally the Banquets (trumpets, drum roll, the envelope please): Banquet B1 scored a total of 27 points, and Banquet B2 scored 26.

But, as Red Pen Bitch, I have the veto! Banquet B2 also contained the two most popular dishes of the night, the 5 Spice Tofu (Overall Champion) and the Nest, and I therefore declare by the power vested in me by the State of Victoria and the Power of Greyskull, that Banquet B2 is the OVERLORD and WINNER.



Finally, calming me down from my voting bossiness, thoughtful Steph had brought us all Moon Cakes and told us the story behind the festival. Moon Cakes are ornate and decorative, and inside the sweet wrapping they are filled with sugary squidgy red bean. They were sweet in more ways than one.

Potluck at the T-House

After years of being a habitual potluck attendee (although I like the word 'attender' or 'attenderer' better), I have finally returned the favour to all my hosts (Emily, Michael and Cindy, Lidia although I didn't go, the Press Club, Kristy and Toby's Wedding etc) and hosted a potluck at the T-House.

The theme was 'new', as the T-House has recently been renovated and is therefore newish. The idea was to make a new recipe, use a new ingredient, try out a new gadget, or to recreate an old favourite. Experiment, my pretties!

We also welcomed 'new' guests - Steph and Danni who are new Melbournites (although we had already met them before when Cindy and Michael hosted an Indian potluck to meet them when they were visiting Melbourne earlier in the year, one which I slackly didn't blog about because I was so embarrassed that I didn't have a chance to make anything and that my contribution was a bag of Kettle crisps), and Anna who is a new vegan and blogger.

I made two new kinds of ice-cream from my new ice-cream maker, which I bought because after excitedly picking up "The Vegan Scoop" by Wheeler del Torro, I realised that I also needed an ice-cream maker to actually make the ice-cream in the book about making ice-cream. Yes.

I made peanut butter ice-cream, which is really just PB, soy milk, brown sugar and vanilla extract whizzed up (ie fat, fat, sugar and sugar), and a chocolate version with raspberry pieces. I also made vanilla and was going to turn it into vanilla with white chocolate chunks, but in a moment of forgetfulness I forgot to replace the freezing bowl in the freezer yesterday morning, meaning that I couldn't turn the chilled mixture into actual ice-cream this morning. I improvised, after a moment of unbecoming swearage, and made a banana, white chocolate, nutmeg and vanilla custardy mix.

I also made rice paper rolls, which I filled with vermicelli, cucumber, carrot, bean shoots, enoki mushrooms, and tofu that I had fried off in soy sauce. Rice paper rolls are ridiculously easy to make, but I still need to involve some Asian mint and make them a little prettier. Sometimes I think that my rice paper roll habit is just an excuse to wrap anything in lettuce with mint and dip it in chilli dark soy sauce.

Other savouries included a platter of delicious dips from Anna including olive and chickpea and a pesto; chorizo sausages from Kristy; and a light and fluffy cous cous salad by Lisa. An in-betweener that I would never have thought of but which was absolutely delicious was the watermelon, lime, chilli and coriander salad by Jo. Finally, Buzz made Cindy's magical sausage rolls to delight and acclaim, and as I write he is whipping up another batch for our dinner. The recipe is fantastic, but I also have to give snaps to his preparation. *edit! I rudely forgot Cindy's homemeade crackers and yummo dip, which I didn't snap, but which was eaten up PDQ.

The groaning savouries table.

The rush begins.

The lovely lady authoress.

Kristy's chorizo sausages, pre-cookering.

My blurry rice paper rolls with lettuce and mint. Yes, that is cos lettuce and normal mint. Let's not go there, sistah.

Jo's fantastic watermelon salad.

Anna's tasty dips.

A line up of likely suspects.

Sweets were equally as multitudinous. There was a kiwi sorbet from Toby; white chocolate and peanut cookies from Pip; adorable oaty-chocolate balls presented on a darling double-decker cake stand by Jo; a white chocolate risotto with apples from the ever-adventurous and always-successful Craig; lovely oaty biscuits by Lisa; chocolate balls also I think from Pip, or maybe Jo?; *Edit: Michael!; and gingerbread form Miss T Junior which she ironically presented in animal shapes.

A table about to get diabetes.

Craig's surprising but delicious white chocolate risotto.

My banana-white chocolate-nutmeg-vanilla-ice-cream-mix concoction.

Beautiful oat balls.

White chocolate and peanut cookies.

Lisa poses.


Sam was tuckered out at the end.



Also, it is my second Veganniversary on, putatively, Tuesday. Everybody dance.

A potluck in the south: TexMexxing, y'all

I eat more than I write, and that's why I am finally blogging about the TexMex potluck at Emily's house long after other, more diligent bloggers have done so. You can check out Kristy, Pip , Cindy and Michael (note there's two different links there to two different posts), and Lisa's posts too for more time-appropriate writing! Also, have a look at Lisa's chihuahua companion Kimba in her tequila-chihuahua outfit at Pip's blog. I will preface this post by saying that awesome as the food was, it takes second place to the adorableness of Kim's outfit (Sam wasn't having a bar of it).

The emergence of themed potlucks is, in my splendid opinion, a top hole idea. It gives structure and purpose, and allows us to really concentrate on finding something new and appropriate to cook. For pretendy-chefs like me who are always tempted to crawl back into the hole of easiness and comfort and prepare a boring variation on boring theme - and for me it's pasta five thousand ways - it's a real challenge and one that has the added benefit of expanding my personal repertoire as well letting everyone share in a special event.

Also, Emily bought a new tortilla skillet that she wanted to try out.

Pregan, my sister had made me some quesadillas which I devoured in cheesy gooeyness. I was eager to recreate them as non-quesadillas, and was happy to find that there are more than a few vegan versions floating around the interwebs. Some use soy cheese and some smashed red kidney beans to stick it all together, so I decided to take a bit of an experimental approach (and use up the one lonely can of kiddly beans I had a-mouldering in the cupboard ... no! it wasn't actually mouldy! I did not attempt to poison my friends!) and combine a bit of everything. I didn't take pictures of the preparation though as I was also cooking some food for my friend who recently had a gorgeous little girl (hello Minnie!) so my cookering that day was timed to the nanosecond.

I bought two rolls of Cheezly, the highly flavoured and highly orange nacho and the more neutral mozzarella, and grated the lot. Yep, the lot. I chopped some spring onions finely, diced some orange capsicum, used some sliced black olives form the fridge, sliced some spicy jalapenos, defrosted some corn (it's cheap and it lasts!), and smashed me up some o' them red kiddlies. I mixed it all together, and heated up Magic Pan.

I had a packet of El Paso Light Flour Tortillas - why get the full fat when I was just gonna sizzle it anyhows? - and I spooned the mixture into half the tortilla until it was about 1.5 centimetres high, folded it over into a moon shape, and then whacked it on to a pre-oiled Magic Pan.

Each non-quesadilla required a couple of minutes on each side, and there was a bit of trial and error in working out the boundary between nicely toasted and a bit too sizzled. However, none of them came out in such bad shape that I wasn't happy to present them to the potluck, so they're not really that hard to mess up. After they cooled I garnished them with some coriander.

Pip was kind enough to say she really liked them, and I think they came out ok. The kidney beans were very effective and coalescing all the ingredients, but who can seriously resist a great big handful of melted Cheezly?


I also made gazpacho, something I experimented with over the heatwave in February, and I can never get over how easy it is (and also I think of Red Dwarf so it makes me giggle).


Here's the recipe I tend to use to make a truckload, although there are some faaa-aaaancy variations out there that use black beans or watermelon too:

• 8 - 10 ripe tomatoes. It's better, although messier, to peel them.
  
• 1 orange or yellow capsicum
• 1 cucumber, sliced any way that your food processor will get at it
  
• a couple of stalks of spring onion
• a few cloves of garlic - I always like more
• a big slosh of lemon juice
• a slightly smaller slosh of olive oil if you want it a little less fattofied, but if you like it then feel free to splash it about some more (and use the good stuff; you'll taste it)
• parsely, coriander or other fresh herbs to taste
• red wine vingear to taste

Method: in the food processor until you think it looks good. You might like it more chunky and salsa-like than others, or you might prefer it baby-style pureed. Whatevs - you just can't mess this one up folks!

Back on the ranch, there were some truly stupendous TexMex offerings. I loved Lidia's Cowboy Beans which were beans with lots of mock meat including sausages and bacon, and which were accompanied by authentic (I think) cornbread, and Craig's chilli was hot hot hot!


Tim's chilli with corn, mushroom and chickpea was a good contrast in restraint, and the black beans, made by someone who's name I rudely forgot, were fascinating.



Vanessa made a fantastic paella with lemon wedges and artichokes, which I went back for long after I was full to have a little pick at, and a sangria that was, unlike festy sangrias I've had in Barcelona, not at all over spirited and very, very drinkable.


Tara made some unbelievably delicious salsa which I also got stuck into for thirds, and Lisa also made a fabulous dip - the creamiest, smoothest guacamole I've ever had. I didn't get a chance to try Cindy and Michael's green pumpkin seed mole from Veganomicon and I sorely regretted it.


And what would a potluck be without dessert? Kristy and Toby outdid themselves with two types of cupcake - tequila and chilli chocolate. I downed a tequila one and the icing was incredible - not enough to get you pished but definitely adults only!


There were two kinds of Mexican Wedding Biscuits, chocolate ones made by Cindy and some plain from Jo. They were both perfectly crumbly, and were complemented by some raw oatmeal cacao nib cookies which were fantastically sweet and sweetly accessorised with an ingredients list.


Finally, Pip and Tim made some churros. Yep, real, live, fried churros with melted chocolate. And cinnamon sugar. And lots of fatty sugariness - mmm-mmm-mmmm. They were fried and sweet and delish, and, like the sangria, better than what I've actually had in Spain. So there, Iberian Peninsula!


I didn't hang around much long after the obligatory tequila; Sam had had a bit of a testing night after not wanting to play with the other puppies and was clearly rejecting this attempt to introduce he and Kimba to their culture-of-origin.


In any case, I was in a world of stuffed-belly and the introduction of hard spirits might have seen me burst like Bec's awesome pinata after she and Toby had demonstrated their proficiency at various martial arts on it:



But seeing as there was an absolute mountain of lollies from Rishon's inside the pinata, I was glad I did. Ain't they purdy?

The Great Vegan Sleepover Potluck continued, or: Himalaya Bakery, Dayslesford, and the Chocolate Mill, Mt Franklin

After more than two hours of yoga, the thought of the promised tofu scramble at Himalaya Bakery caused me to bolt with shameful haste to the car. Emily had talked it up and I, poor vegan, had never had fuscram before. The Himalaya, in the main street of artsy Daylesford, thoughtfully labels all its yummeries as vegan, gluten free, spelt-y or sweetened without refined sugar. The service was friendly and vegan-aware, although the poor girls were perhaps a bit over-burdened on a busy Sunday morning. I ordered the tofu scramble with mushrooms and a side of tomatoes, and a chocy-oaty biscuit. My soy latte was pretty strong but very welcome - I did not feel like treating my body as a temple after the yoga; more like I needed to artificially kick-start it with caffeine and a nice serve of savoury.

The meals took quite a while to arrive, as we shuffled seats and donated chairs to the neighbours who requested them but then didn't use them and wouldn't give them back ... while poor Craig had to sit alone for lack of seating, and Michael and Cindy were placed within waving distance. This is hardly the Himalaya's fault, but a word to parents with toddlers in a pusher who are chair stealerers - you are not cool. Luckily Mike had the presence of mind to whip an outside chair inside so Craig was able to rejoin the circle.


My fuscram finally arrived, with a little pot of what we confirmed was Nuttelex, long after my coffee was drained. I was ready to use 'hunger is the best sauce' to devour my meal with gusto, but it needed a bit more sauce than that. The fuscram was on the bland side, and I was glad of the acidic tomatoes to liven things up. The tofu was chunky and mostly intact, meaning that the large pieces were untouched by the mushrooms and therefore relatively unflavoured. It was presented on some good but not outstanding bread, and all in, the meal was not what it was cracked up to be (Emily swears it was better before .... but I think Lisa's description of her own homemade version will lead to me asking for her catering services!)

Kristy's choice - onion, baby spinach and tomato on toast with a white-bean (?) spread went down well, and I rather think that the fuscram would have benefitted from some of the bright veggies on her plate.


I was more than ready for my biscuit (when I asked for it to come to the table, what I really meant was: you'd better not have sold the last one in the jar because I paid for it 40 minutes ago). I had originally intended to save it for later and leave all my chocolate-in-my-tummy space free for the later trip to the Chocolate Mill, but the fuscram experience demanded rectification. Oaty, sticky, a little bit chocolatey, and very nice - but not better than I've had at potlucks.


Kristy got a pretty damn good-lookin' pastry - can't say how it tasted, but the pastry looked flaky and the fruit juicy. Cindy and Michael ordered a danish - I'm not sure if it's the same as below - but they gave it rave reviews so it's on my list for next time.


After a trip to the markets - where we saw some honest to god Deliverance style families who stared in a spooky slackjawed toothless way at us - we drove to the Chocolate Mill, some 15 minutes out of Daylesford and again, talked up by Emily as offering a hot chocolate that was more chocolate than liquid.


I was pleased to see that, like the Himalaya, the Chocolate Mill clearly marks what is vegan in both blocks and the individual gourmet pieces. The effect is slightly reduced by large signs on every available surface saying something like "no manners = no service, for adults and children". Sounds like they've had some issues in the past ... but I'm not sure that www.passiveaggresivenotes.com -worthy signs are the way to go.

I tried a little pair of cherry filled lip-shaped dark chocolates and a little mint leaf (no photos; they just didn't live that long). They were made with quality ingredients and it was great to have a number of vegan options available in the fancy cabinets as well as in the standard dark blocks.

The dark blocks came in different degrees of intensity, which Michael is working his way upwards through over here.

The sun wasn't conducive to hot chocolates, but nonetheless Lidia and I were unable to let it go and shared the dark chocolate-soy version, also helpfully labelled (Bec and Craig didn't have as much luck with the vegan milkshakes; and someone overheard the staff commenting that it was little more than flavoured soy milk. Well make it differently then or don't offer it!).


The hot chocolate came in lovely organic handle-less bowls, encouraging a very wintery cupping to sip. The foam was thick and required satisfactory amounts of stirring before we saw the liquid below. It was made with a proper chocolate base and the amount of thick melted un-syrupy chocolate at the bottom was very gratifying. Lidia and I are very proud about the lack of fighting between us to slurp the bottom.


Satiated and satisfied, we piled back into the cars for the trip back home. Despite the improvements that could be made at Himalaya, and the excellent standards at the Chocolate Mill which are on par with but not exceeding that of Melbourne choclatiers, how marvellous that in regional Victoria there are a number of businesses that happily serve and promote vegan options. There aren't many regional areas that could say this, and I'm sure to return for more.

A potluck of epic proportions, or: I go on a vegan sleepover

The gracious Emily is to be thanked for organising a lollapalooza of a potluck. Exceeding all previous attempts, the Hepburn Springs/Daylesford extravaganza shindig was an overnighter of epic proportions.

Emily rallied the troops, and Cindy, Michael, Kristy, Toby, Lidia, Craig, Bec, Ballarat Mike and I all answered the call (Lisa was far too busy and important being an authoress and had to decline. She was missed but the literary world will be the better for it). We travelled to Hepburn Springs to stay at Continental House, a vegan life sanctuary guest house run on the guiding principle of Ahimsa (look it up) by the lovely Zalan and specfically for a Saturday night banquet that I prepared for with an extra-horrendous gym session. That was definitely not ahimsa on my legs but I was prepared to sacrifice for the legend of the Conti House Vegan Banquet.


I'll indulge in a bit of judgmentally Judgy McJudging here: I was really glad that we missed the second and fourth Saturdays of the month when the banquet is all raw. Much as I think that my gizzards would benefit from an increase in raw, now was not the time. Definitely not. Under any circumstances. Nuh-uh. I'm done now.


Conti House is adorned in op-shoppery that is clean and serviceable, although having to unplug the only light in the room I shared with roomie Lids so that I could use the only power point to charge my phone was a little bemusing. The rooms are small but sweet, with walls thin enough and curtains scanty enough that any thoughts guests may have of nocturnal naughtiness should be shelved (not me and Lidia! Just sayin' eh bro! And for the record poor Buzz was left in Melbourne by himself).

And to dinner. We all arrived early, champing at the bit and with very rumbly tummies (or mine anyway), and took advantage of the non-alcoholic sparkling ... actually I didn't. I prefer to leave space for real calories.


The soup was a pumpkin an orange creation accessorised with corn chips, whole tomatoes and in my case, a great big kaffir lime leaf, which took Kristy and I a while to discover as the source of the limey-ness. Being a person incapable of cooking any soup that doesn't bring to mind words such as 'hearty', 'steaming hot', 'chunky', 'farmhouse', 'full of lentils', 'very wintery' and 'really not soup but a dish with a bit extra juice', it was good to discover a delicate and well-balanced mix of unusual flavours with this one.


The main feast was served onto groaning tables, and in an outstanding show of constraint we all (except Craig) lined up formed a queue around the table that involved only minimal pinching, grabbing, swearing and under-breath mutterings.


My plate was bright and colourful, filled with a variety of food that was a credit to Zalan and the other Conti staff. I'll stick to my highlights for the sake of brevity, but there was not a single serve that wasn't excellent and enjoyable.


A creamy chickpea curry had a the soft mouth feel and gentle spices that you would expect from a gentle korma. A seriously fresh tabouleh made me want to purchase some burghul instantly - it had all the hallmarks of a home-made, well-seasoned salad. A squash and pumpkin bake was spicy and Italianesque, providing a great contrast in texture with its gratin-y top. Two dips - beetroot and a roasted capsicum that had us all guessing in a most embarrassing non-foodie way - encouraged me to use my fingers to lick up the residue and thereby, hopefully, avoid ever having the misfortune of winning Ladette To Lady. The best, however - it was raw. I suck it all back. The slices of thick, creamy, fresh avocado floated my boat and then tipped it over.

Didn't it leave lovely colours on the plate?




The desserts were fascinating. A banana soycream with perhaps almond meal on top of stone fruit for me, and atop an avocado cream for Kristy - unfortunately Emily and Michael revealed their antipathy to bananas (losing my respect utterly in the process!) - were really cute and I happily put all of mine away. Avocado for dessert - now that's a chef!


Conti House was a blast. Retro to the maxest, a rocking banquet, and some have-to-be-seen-to-be-fathomed hedge at the entrance - gold.

One word though - the Sunday morning yoga goes for almost two hours. Not one, two. Before breakfast. It finished at 11am. Participators were hungry; non-participators were pawing at the floor.

The shenanigans of Sunday are to come.