Easy caramelised tofu

In our house, there is one tofu recipe that is always popular. This is a simple recipe that I took from the amazing Jennifer of Vegan Lunch Box blog. You fry 500g cubed tofu, add approximately 3 tablespoons of sugar (brown is good, but white will do) and 2 tablespoons soy sauce. Fry gently until the liquid is absorbed and the sugar has melted. In the picture above, it is served on rice with stir fried vegetables and peanut sauce.

The kids love this tofu. In fact Z calls it "My favourite tofu."

It is good hot or cold, in salads, added to stir fries, with noodles or in lunch boxes. It even finds favour with a lot of omnis. Thanks Jennifer for an awesome staple for our house.

Easy Minestrone

A few nights ago, I made a big pot of minestrone. It is not the most authentic recipe, but it is popular in our house.

The recipe that I use is one that I read ages ago in a women's magazine. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one and now just make the soup from memory, so I have tweaked it a bit anyway.

I used the left-over cabbage from the cabbage roles that I made a few weeks ago. When I made them, I chopped the remaining steamed cabbage and put it in the freezer. The cabbage amount below is just an estimate based on about how much was left.

Easy Minestrone

2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic (more if you like)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 800g(?) tin backed beans
1 440g tin crushed tomatoes
1/4 cabbage
2 sticks celery
2 carrots
1 teaspoon dried thyme
dash black pepper (or more to taste)
2 vegan stock cubes (your choice of flavour)
250g short shapes pasta
water to cover well.

1. Chop the fresh vegetables. Gently fry them in a large soup pot with the oil.
2. Once the onion is translucent, add all remaining ingredients except the pasta. Add water to desired soup consistency.
3. Bring to boil and then simmer 20 minutes.
4. Add pasta. Bring soup back to boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer until pasta is tender (10-15 minutes).
5. Add extra water if the soup has become too thick as the pasta cooked. Reheat it if you do this.
6. Serve with crusty bread.

This recipe freezes well. It is usually popular with everyone, including omnis.

Random Cat Photo

And finally for today I present my lovely cats asleep and cuddling:


I think that this is just too cute!

Random Food Roundup

I have taken heaps of food photos, but not had long to blog. So here are some meals we have enjoyed in the last few weeks.


Savoury pastry, with agave glazed carrots and mixed stirfry veges with peanut sauce. The pasty is a square of puff pastry topped by home-made rocket pesto, Redwood Cheatin' Ham (vegan - pretty good flavour, though the texture is a bit more luncheon meat than ham). Both Borg's and Aldi puff pastry are marked vegan.


Pizza with 3 toppings. There are spinach and toffuti mozzarella, Mediterranean vegetables and pumpkin with Cheezly herb and garlic vegan cheese, ham and pineapple, also with Cheezly.


Quick cannelloni with a medley of baked vegetables. The cannelloni is just 20 instant cannelloni tubes stuffed with a mixture of 500g frozen spinach, 1/2 container of Toffutti Better Than Cream Cheese and finely diced onion. I then put a little oil and a layer of home-brand pasta sauce in a lasagne dish. After putting in the stuffed cannelloni tubes, I covered them well with more of the sauce and scattered over some small chunks of Cheezly Herb and Garlic cheese. Baked for 40 minutes and it's ready.


La Dolce Vegan biryani (pretty good), plus some mushroom chunk curry (the one on front right - I love mushroom chunks to replace dead cow in recipes) and a quick salad of onion, tomato, cucumber, coriander leaves (cilantro) and a little lemon juice.


Sausage roll, chips and veges. I made the sausage rolls with Borg's vegan puff pastry and a filling of Vegemeal Herb Vegetable Sausage Mix. Everyone over 10 loved the sausage rolls. The younger 2 hated them. No idea why the difference of opinion. I thought they were great.

"Fronch" toast and microwave berry sauce

I had 1 and 1/2 slightly stale French breadsticks in the pantry. What to do? An omni would make French toast, that egg and milk eggstravaganza. Well, so would a vegan, sans egg and milk!

I made the Fronch Toast from Vegan With a Vengeance. The recipe calls for rice milk, but I subbed it for soy milk, as that was what I had. Mixed with corn and besan flours and a pinch of salt (that's me, not Isa), the soy milk is the basis of a light batter. After dipping the sliced bread in the batter, you fry it. I recommend using a generous knob of margarine in the pan, as it gives a better flavour and texture. It also stops the french toast from sticking.

I topped it with cinnamon sugar for some berry haters and microwave berry sauce for Z, M and me. I made the berry sauce with the syrup from a can of berries, that was sitting in the freezer. I had previously used the berries to make a cobbler. However, I think that it would be even better with the berries in it.

Microwave Berry Sauce

Makes 6 generous or up to 12 smaller servings of sauce for deserts or French toast.

1 440g can mixed berries in syrup, syrup retained
2 teaspoons wheaten cornflour
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Mix the cornflour into some of the syrup from the can of berries.
2. In a microwave safe dish, mix the cornflour mixture into all of the other ingredients.
3. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Mix and then microwave for another 2-4 minutes or until slightly thick and hot.
4. Serve hot or cold over French toast, waffles, pancakes or desserts. (Or if you are M, eat it out of a bowl with a teaspoon!)
   

(May also be made with just the syrup for 4 silky smooth serves of sauce or may be blended for a smoother fruitier result.)

By the way, I had to make a second lot of batter to use on normal sandwich bread. The hungry hordes were not satisfied with only one serve of this delicious French toast.

Sydney Trip: Mother Chu's

I'm still talking about Sydney over a week later!

My final Sydney post is about another favourite restaurant of mine, Mother Chu's Kitchen. This is a vegetarian, mostly vegan, Taiwanese and Chinese restaurant. It is a family business, presided over by Mother Chu herself every night.

Unlike many chinese vegan restaurants, Mother Chu's does not rely heavily on mock meat. The menu uses very few dead animal names. Instead, it lists gluten, tofu, tempeh, soya roll (with seaweed, a bit like mock fish). It also has a great range of traditional naturally vegan dishes. If you order steamed rice, there is a choice of brown or white rice. I love brown rice, so I think this is a great option.

The food is very good and moderately priced. I have tried a wide variety of food and have never been disappointed. This time I had:

Wonton soup first. Lovely broth with several wontons and gently cooked Chinese veges. I liked the addition of heaps of veges to this soup, especially the greens, which are a favourite of mine.


I followed the soup with this unusual dish. It is eggplant stuffed with a mix of minced tofu and veges, then battered and deep-fried. It was then topped with a mild miso chilli sauce and julienned vegetables, including enoki mushrooms. Instead of being slightly sweet, which I had expected, the sauce was tangy with some sort of vinegar. It was surprisingly good, as the tangy sauce balanced the richness of the deep-fried eggplant. Again, there was more vegetables, which is a feature of many of Mother Chu's dishes. I enjoy a lot of vegetables, so this was welcome. (For the less vege-obsessed, there are some dishes with little vegetables.)


Finally, I made room for Mother Chu's homemade vegan ice cream. I chose mango and passionfruit for my two scoops. This slightly creamy, fresh ice cream is a delicious end to a Taiwanese experience.

If you are trying Mother Chu's, you may wish to book the night before for Peking duck, which must be ordered a day ahead. They also make excellent home-made gluten and fantastic tempeh and tofu dishes. This is another restaurant without alcohol, but there is once again alcohol-free wines and beers, plus several soft drinks and teas. They are worth a try for consistently good food that can be standard Chinese (e.g. sweet and sour) or something a bit out of the ordinary.

For the bibliophiles, after you go to Mother Chu's, there is a great little used book store just a few doors torwards the city. It has all sorts of new and used books, including a range of graphic novels. Even better, it stays open late most weeknights. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name, but I can tell you it's worth a look.

Sydney Trip: Peace Harmony

Another restaurant that I regularly go to in Sydney is Peace Harmony. Peace Harmony is a Thai vegan restaurant, which serves some seriously good Thai food. I usually go to the restaurant in Erskine Street. They also have a takeaway outlet in King Street.

The menu is heavy on mock meats, but also has some more traditional items. Mr BrisVegan, an omni, has said that it is some of the best Thai food that he has had, and, seriously, he has had a lot of Thai food.

Here are my most recent choices:

This is a Mixed Entree plate, Tom Yum Soup and tropical juice. The Mixed Entree is satay, spring roll, curry puff, money bag and tod mun. The spring roll is pretty standard, but the money bag and curry puff are miles above average. The satay is juicy seitan served with a very satisfying peanut sauce. The tod mun was probably the best thing on the plate. It was a spicy tangy patty very similar to the traditional tod mun pla.

The Tom Yum soup behind it is fantastic. It is a wonderful hot, sour soup with delicious umami undertones. It is full of veges, mock meat and tofu. I always order this as it is seriously the best Thai soup I have ever had.

Another entree that I have had in the past and heartily recommend is the Tofu Tod, a plate of tender juicy deep fried tofu with chilli and peanut sauce.


For a main I had the Musman Curry quick meal, as I was in the mood for curry. It was very good. I got this for a change, but Musman is not my favourite style of curry. I enjoyed it very much, but in the past have liked the red, choo chee, jungle and roast "duck" curry even more. I have also enjoyed several of their stir fries and their excellent salads. Most meals (but not the salads) come as a quick meal with rice, for usually under $10 or as a larger meal without rice, which would probably be enough for two to share after entrees.

I did not have desert, but they have a good range of sorbets (including chocolate) and traditional Thai deserts.

As a Buddhist restaurant, they do not serve alcohol or allow for BYO. However, they do serve several vegan non-alcoholic wines and beers in addition to fresh juice and the usual soft drinks. Their prices are very good and the quality is consistently high. As you can tell, I am a fan.