Banana caramel walnut pudding

I am defining this as Australian, because I found the recipe on the Vegetarian Network Victoria site.

That site has some good resources, including a veg*n alcohol list.

My students have been taking turns bringing morning tea to work one day each week. I had been doing the usual vegan response to baked goods: “Does it contain dairy or eggs? No thanks, I’m vegan. Looks lovely, though. Very thoughtful.” However, one lovely person went searching for vegan recipes. She made this wonderful Banana Walnut Caramel Pudding from the recipe here.

It was really good. When I said so, she sent me the link to the recipe. I made some a few days after. It was intended to be for school lunches the next week, but we (with some visitors) ate the whole thing over the weekend.

For my effort, I doubled the recipe, swapped half of the flour for wholemeal and only used 1 ½ times the caramel for the top. I also kept the walnuts back and put them on top of half the loaf, because Z does not like nuts in baked goods. It was still very good, though not as luscious and sweet as the original.

How to Eat Vegemite

The quintessential Australian ingredient is vegemite. It is a yeast based paste, similar to marmite. It is accidentally vegan and a good source of several B vitamins. Vegemite can be an acquired taste. “Acquired taste” is usually code for something which is vile the first time you try it, but that you may come to love. Many people certainly find vegemite disgusting on first taste, but it also has a devoted following, especially among Australians, who frequently start eating it as babies.

What does vegemite taste like? It is very salty, with an umami savouriness offset by some bitterness. It is less sweet than marmite, promite and similar yeast spread products.

How do people eat it? It is commonly used as a sandwich filling, but may also be used in stocks, gravies and soups to impart a dark colour and savoury flavour.

What is the secret to not finding it vile? Use vegemite sparingly. Seriously. You only want a tiny bit. If you put it thickly on bread, you will be sorry. Do not spread it like jam. Treat it like a strong condiment.

The best and most common way to eat vegemite is on toast. Spread toast with margarine, to taste. Spread very thinly with approximately ½ teaspoon of vegemite. You can see mine above. You should be able to see the bread and margarine through the vegemite.

Another great way to have vegemite on toast is also shown above. Spread toast with vegemite. I don’t bother with margarine. Top with avocado. I love this one!

Other common options for vegemite are on toast with tomato or vegan cheese, on crackers with margarine, on bread with margarine or in broth. Remember to only use a little and you will come to love it.

Pie and Peas

For the rest of AusMoFo, I have decided to blog on an Australian theme. This means that I want to concentrate on Australian sourced ingredients, common Australian foods or the type of food identified as traditional Australian foods. I am aware that this will to some extent show an Anglo influence and misses many of the foods that Australians eat every day. After all for non-indigenous Australians, the Australian “tradition” is basically to eat the types of food that your ancestors ate before they moved to Australia. However, some foods have been enthusiastically embraced by wider Australian culture as “Australian” like pies, lamingtons, pavlovas (the NZ contingent has a different view!), scones, damper etc. I hope to touch on some of these this month.

As a side note, good Australian restaurants regularly show a much more fusion cuisine style, usually influenced by either south-east Asian or Mediterranean traditions. In most large cities, you will also find food from many international sources, including Thai, Indian, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Middle-eastern, French, or central European. Some cities are starting to see Ethiopian and African food outlets. Generally, older generations tend to follow a very Anglophile (meat and 3 vege) style of eating, while younger people tend to eat from a wide variety of food traditions.

One very Australian food is the meat pie. Well, there are vegan versions of this mystery ingredient staple. I bought a box of them at Greenfest earlier this year, made by a genius who makes them for the Vegan and Vegetarian Society of Queensland functions. Humble Pie Co also makes several vegan pies. Of course, you can also make your own with TVP, lentils or vegetables.

Australians would usually eat pies with tomato or BBQ sauce. (Tomato sauce is an Australian product very like ketchup.) Other common additives are mushy peas, for pie and peas, or potato in place of the top pastry for a shepherds pie. In South Australia, they also serve the pie floater, which is a pie, served in a bowl of pea soup and topped with sauce.

Last night we had pies and veges for dinner.

You can see my pie and peas, with tomato sauce. In the back are roasted potatoes (with a sprinkle of paprika), cauliflower gratin, popcorn mushrooms and carrots. The mushy peas were from a tin. I will post the recipes for the mushrooms and cauliflower at some time during AusVeganMoFo or VeganMoFo, I promise. (No crossed fingers!)

We all loved this. The children gave the mushy peas a miss, but enjoyed the pies. Z always loves the cauliflower and had thirds!

My life and Marriot function food review

I have been away from my home computer for a couple of days. Wednesday, we celebrated M's birthday again. Thursday, I was in Sydney for work. Last night, I went to a function for work.

Wednesday was M's actual birthday. She was very happy with her new pushbike and spent the afternoon after school riding it. She desperately wanted to go to Sizzler's for dinner, so we did. (Yeah: $20 lettuce for the vegan - yum, yum.) I think for the kids Sizzler's is really an excuse to have all-you-can-eat icecream, which M amply demonstrated.

After dinner, Mr Brisvegan and the children dropped me at the airport. I caught a 9.00pm flight to Sydney, while the children went home to bed. Why was I in Sydney? As I've mentioned in previous posts, I work as a practical legal training lecturer for a Brisbane university. We train several Eastern seaboard branches of a large international law firm. I went to Sydney to do training for the Sydney and Canberra offices. Thursday was a good training day. I grabbed sushi at the airport for dinner on the way home.

Last night (Friday), I went to a Women Lawyers Association of Queensland awards function at the Marriot hotel in Brisbane. It was a very successful, well attended function with excellent speakers. The three award recipients were amazing women who combined full time work with significant legal and non-legal community work.

So, how well did the Marriot do vegan food? It was well executed, but pedestrian, even a little boring. I was sitting next to a vegetarian. My meal was the same as hers less dairy. The "less dairy" was what made my meals a bit lack-lustre. It showed that the chef was relying on the goat's cheese and parmesan to flavour the dishes.

The entree was a vegetable stack. It was pretty to look at, being a neat little tower of grilled vegetables about 4cm round and 6cm high, with a drizzle of balsamic reduction around it. The vegetarian version was topped with a quenelle of herbed goat's cheese on top. However, mine was simply the vegetables. The veges were simply lightly grilled and not really seasoned or even showing something like a good olive oil flavour. They were fresh and good, but nothing awesome.

The main was a mixed vegetable risotto. Mine came out first, then 5 minutes later the vegetarians were served a version which had had parmesan added and curled on top. Again, mine was competent, but rather bland. The vegetables were things like zucchini, which can be delicious, but don't have the flavour punch of something like asparagus. The vegetarians all liked the dish, I suspect because their version relied on parmesan for a savoury lift that mine lacked.

The desert was a fruit plate, the average chef's response to vegan sweets. I liked it, because I love fruit, but again, it did not show much inspiration.

Overall, I enjoyed the function, but thought that when someone paid over $100 per head, the food could have been great rather than merely competent. (As a side note, the omnis were all very happy with their meals, so the chef is obviously of the school that requires flesh foods to shine.)

I have had better twists on all of these options at other restaurants and function. For example, Mr Brisvegan and I went to 2 Small Rooms for our anniversary last year. They made me an amazing 3 course meal, with a vegetable and beetroot salsa stack, (which was lifted by excellent flavouring, including the earthiness of the beetroot and hints of sweetness and horseradish), a sublime pea risotto (with the merest ghosting of mint offsetting the sweet peas and savoury risotto) and a fruit salad with an amazing spiced pear granita. Once you see how these basics can be made truly excellent, it is hard to be anything but critical of the bland offerings so often presented at other venues.

So, my summary is that a vegan will be fed at a Marriott Brisbane function, but it may not be anything special. I would not book a function there myself.

Aussie Vegan Mofo

Every year, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of several amazing vegan cookbooks and powerhouse behind the Post Punk Kitchen site (fantastic forums!) runs the Vegan Month of Food blogathon. Vegan Mofo will be in October this year. The goal is that Mofo bloggers will register at the PPK and then post a post at least 5 times for each week in October. I signed up for Mofo a couple of weeks ago.

Unfortunately, Amy at Iron Chef Vegan, an amazing Aussie blogger, also from Brisbane, can't Mofo in October, as it is too close to her law exams. She has suggested an Australian Mofo for September. I have said that I will join in at least 3 times a week. So, I promise to blog more this month and then like a Mofo next month!

Quick pasta aka leftovers

The day after M's party, we had guests for most of the afternoon. When Mr Brisvegan's brother and sister-in-law left, it was 6.00pm and the children wanted dinner.

I looked in the fridge and saw all the leftover toppings for the party pizzas. Inspiration struck: Leftovers would make great pasta!

With few additions, the leftovers made a tasty pasta sauce that would be worth creating again, though I would probably increase the vegetables.

Party Leftover Pasta

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, sliced
tablespoon of crushed garlic
3 sliced vegan hotdogs
1/4 cup diced yellow capsicum
3 sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup cooking sherry
1 teaspoon each dried oregano and thyme
2/3 cup barchetta cut kalamata olives
1/2 zucchini sliced
salt and black pepper to taste
400-500g short pasta

1. Cook pasta following packet directions
2. While the pasta is cooking, fry the onion and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat.
3. Once the onion and garlic are transparent, add the capsicum, mushroom and hotdogs. Fry for a few minutes
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
5. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and mix it through the sauce.

You could add other vegetables to this sauce and it would be good. I think that tomato, broccoli or eggplant would be particularly good.

The children loved it, though Z picked out all the zucchini and mushrooms.