dark chocolate tart with gingersnap crust

Photo by Deb at Smitten Kitchen

I'm a HUGE fan of Deb from Smitten Kitchen. I had a dinner party last night for meat eaters so I thought I would make the most 'recognisable' menu for them so I picked italian. I made an amazing minestrone out of the 'voluptuous vegan' cookbook, I also planned on making 4 mushroom and asparagus risotto but we got too pissed. Anyway, I wanted to make a bitter chocolate tart and couldn't really find any vegan recipes, I'm kind of lax to veganise dessert recipes but anyway I veganised Debs chocolate tart and it came out AMAZING.

ingredients
1 x packet of gingersnaps (the homebrand kind are vegan)
1/4 cup of marg - melted
1 or 2 packets of dark chocolate (I like lindt 70%)
1 packet of japanese tofu
90mls of soyatoo or coconut cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

method
1. Preheat oven to 165 degrees.

2. Finely grind gingersnap cookies in processor. Add melted butter and process until moistened. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom and up sides of 9 inch pie pan.

3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. Throw all the ingredients into a food processor and whiz until combined. Pour chocolate filling into crust.

4. Bake chocolate tart for about 30 minutes. Let sit for at least 15 minutes for it to firm up.

notes: When using tofu (any tofu!) put into a container and run fresh water over it slowly until the water runs completely clear (usually a few minutes) then drain depending on what kind of tofu it is, with silken/soft I sit in a strainer over a bowl until I'm ready to use it.

I used homebrand gingersnap biscuits (they're vegan!) most homebrand products are vegan

I bought 'soyatoo' soy pouring cream at the Radical Grocery store on Sydney rd Brunswick, support your local vegan/ethical businesses!

I'll do a post on tofu soon, it took me years to figure it out! Until then check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu

The Melbourne Veg Food Guide

Is gold. GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD.

Purchase it here.

Aduki

Monday Melbourne Roundup

This week: MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF MIFF.

Out

In the Loop

Armando Iannucci, hands down, has to be my favourite comedian of all time. So you can imagine I was squirming with sick joy that his first film would be playing at film festival. It was my first session and it did not disappoint. Armando makes generally uncomfortable observation/political comedies and In the Loop was the same. It was very distressing but extremely funny. Part of his power, you're too busy laughing to really let the enormity of what he is saying really sink in, its not until its over that you start to feel really sick. Very funny, very scathing and James Gandolfini in a military uniform is very very sexy. Side note, as that man gets fatter he gets sexier, how the hell does that happen? Prrrow!



Alphaville

I felt I should go and see one film in the Anna Karina stream. I chose Alphaville. It was utterly bizarre and hilarious. Anna came out for a Q&A after the film which was great. Shes lovely.



Eats/Drinks

Trippy Taco

I finally went to Trippy Taco and its great! The service is pretty much non existent, but the food more than makes up for it. I lived in the US for a while (7 months) and since coming home I really REALLY miss the abundance of amazing, cheap mexican food. Trippy Taco has finally filled that gap for me! Woohoo! I had the two tacos with vegan cheese and it was really tasty. I'm also going to try and patronise solely vegetarian food outlets more and more. Highly recommended and very reasonably priced.

Bowl of Soul

I love Shane and Alida. Until I go to Burning Man I'm going to try and eat as little wheat as possible. The logic behind this is I will eat more vegetables and be more discerning with the things I eat. I went for their 'steak out' sandwich, with no bread. So I basically had a gigantic salad with a fake steak on top and all the trimmings (vegan bacon, cheezly, bbq sauce and onions). It was amazing and I think I have a new favourite there. Bowl of Soul are really great, they're up there with the Vegie Bar for me, consistently providing excellent vegetarian food. I feel really lucky I work near them.

San Churro

After Trippy Taco I popped into San Churro on Brunswick st to get a chocolate fix, I had their pear liquor ball and the chilli chocolate truffle. Im not sure whether the truffle was vegan even though the assistant told me it was, I didn’t like it anyway (I don’t know WHY I keep going for truffles I just don’t like them!) but the pear liquor ball was amazing. San Churro are actually pretty good. Their white chocolate is vegan, its all cocoa butter. Unlike the shit experience I had at the Lindt flagship store (next).

Lindt (no link?!)

Clare and I were EXTREMELY EXCITED to spot that Lindt were opening a chocolate café on Collins st. We kept walking past, pressing our faces against the window, excitedly discussing what the opportunities could be. How disappointed can two people be? I thought that at least their dark hot chocolates would be made with their 70% dark chocolate (my favourite), NO. I could only eat 2 things in the entire store, dark chocolate dipped candied lemon rind and orange rind. The coffee was terrible. Super mega sad face. The best vegan chocolate experiences I've had has been with Haighs, they have a surprising amount of vegan chocolates (same for KOKO Black).

Camis Shanghai Dumpling House

Ahhh Camis. Feeding the poor, the hipster and the drunken masses a bajillion times a day (I mean seriously they must sell something in the 10s of thousands of dumplings per week). Clare and I being on a no wheat thing ate the fried rice (was surprisingly good this time - a lot of other times I've had it too oily), spring onion pancake and pumpkin cakes. What is in the pumpkin cakes does anyone know? Pretty sure they're not vegan, little help? You know what the servers are like there, they barely take your order.

Syracuse

Wow. I am really starting to love this place. Daniel and I had some snacks and a drink there on Friday night and its just lovely. Its quite fancy but the space is just gorgeous and its nice to be somewhere on a Friday night in the city that does not guranteed turn into planet of the apes after sundown. Its an incredibly meaty place (like a plate of olives I think was the only vegetarian thing) but I politely asked the waiter if the kitchen could so something for me and the served me an intensely delicious tasting plate! It was sooo good. Ten points for no fuss too. LOVE IT THERE. Relaxing, kind of like a Von Haus x4 space wise.

Go vegan!

Dennis Kucinich is awesome.

Local Melbourne Food Blogs

Can you recommend some to me? I'm so inspired by the breakfastblog now... I would love to know if there is more people out there doing similar amazing work.

Monday Melbourne Roundup

I've had a cold I just cant damn shake. I finished Buffy on the weekend. I've banned myself from parking my butt in front of the projector for a whole week.

Out

Man from Mukinupin

The conundrum. Clare and I have walked out of the 2 plays we have seen at the new shiny MTC theatre out of just sheer boredom/horror. We can safely bet from now on that the plays produced on this stage are purely for the pre-blue rinse set out to feel 'cultured'. Poor Boy was atrocious, the one with Miriam Margoyles (though with amazing actors) just didn’t hold us, and well, the Man from Mukinupin was much the same. We almost didn’t go in from previous new MTC theatre experience. Anyway, the play was a musical done in vaudeville style, set in 1914 in an outback town in Western Australia, centered seemingly, around Aboriginal genocide. A vaudeville musical about Aboriginal genocide. Ambitious. 'Creative'. We left at half time.

Eats/Drinks

Rice Queen
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO disappointing. The Age you smite me! The majority of the ages recommendations (to be fair Matt Preston didn’t really recommend it that highly) have ALL been so freaking disappointing (minus Movidas Next Door). I mean this place has such good lineage! St Judes Cellar and the Panama Dining Room! The food was ok, certainly not bad, definitely edible, not that disappointing. The space is gorgeous, I think what really let it down was no table service. Daniel and I can drink. So having to get up every time we wanted a drink and cross the cavernous space to wait in line to be served, be served, walk drink over cavern back to table, it was a dull experience. Having table service would have boosted this immensley. The cocktail I has was really REALLY boring and for an asian restaurant they had like 2 dishes that could be made vegan. All in all disapointing to the max. Food 6 Service 3 Space 9 Overall 12/20

The Grace Darling

Took Daniel in just for a quick drink, well several beers really. I love this pub and I think its my favourite ever in Melbourne. Overall 1million.

Tom Phat

Holy shit. I've been perusing the breakfastblog and going to all the highly rated places esp. in Brunswick. We tried Gingerlee (and agreed with him) I agree with his (I think its a guy?) judgement on A Minor so Clare and I took Saturday morning breakfast at Tom Phat (his most highly rated in Brunswick). I am still thinking about this meal. I had the scrambled tofu, I cant remember what Clare had. My dish was just amazing, with extremely delicate, light thai sauces, big chunks of square tofu, fresh herbs, tomato and corriander and a pan fried bit of roti bread it was SO AMAZINGLY GOOD I am still drooling all over myself. The space is ok, nothing amazing but light and fresh which is nice. The constant buzzing and wall shaking from next door using a jackhammer wasn’t even enough to spoil my love for this place. The waitress was lovely, fresh oj was lovely, the coffee very good, my chai was a bit watery but I just wont have that next time. Food 10, Service 9, Space 7 Overall 17/20

Monday Melbourne Roundup

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tireeeeeeeeeed. My folks being in town really took it out of me. I spent the majority of the weekend watching Buffy. I'm on season 7, I'm so so SO sad its going to be over soon, but really happy to be getting my life back. I now resent toilet breaks and have stopped answering my phone.

Out

Melbourne International Film Festival Launch
MIFF is by far my favourite festival of the year. SQUEE FACE MILLION FOLD. So Monday night was the launch which was too long and we were made to sit through many boring speeches before we got to the part of why we were all there GETTING THE FESTIVAL GUIDE EARLY. It wasn’t that painful actually, the director got up and spoke so did the mayor or some sort of political shithead, we watched some trailers blah blah blah, sang happy birthday to geoffrey rush.. Blah blah.. I made a total arse of myself by loudly proclaiming that my total fantasy was to meet in line my favourite local film reviewer at MIFF, fall in love and live happily ever after. Realising that my friend probably knew him, started loudly probing him for information.. Wondering whether he was really bitter.. Or gay… my friend got REALLY uncomfortable when I realised he was standing behind me. Nice work fuckface. Anyway I got the festival guide and read through it like a crazed freak. Im going overseas in August so I could only afford a 10 pass.. Which is slowly creeping up to.. 13 sessions… lets see where this takes me. SQUEE FACE!!!!

Orlando
Wasted from 8 beers and a day of tattooing, I scarfed an Abotsford Invalid longy at my mates house and we headed to Orlando at about 11. Super fun, good music and nice crowd. So the antithesis of the gay scene! It finished at one and I stumbled home with a can of solo in one hand and a falafel roll in the other. Fun times, I will definitely be going to the next one.

Chapel Tattoo
I think the best shop in Melbourne but people have their favs, you cant go past Tattoo Magic or Dynamic for excellence as well. I spent the afternoon with my man Andrew, the second sitting for my shin piece. Getting your shin tattooed is painful. That is all.

Eats/Drinks

The Toff in the Town
Met up with my parents after MIFF launch. We had all already eaten, the Toff is like the only nice restaurant open on a Monday night. We ate some pumkin dip though which was lovely. We also scored a dining car which was super nice too. I really like it at the Toff, wankery as it is.

Movidas Next Door
My ace card. I wanted to take my parents out to something that would seriously blow their mind (as cutler wasn’t the pant shitting experience I had hoped it to be), so you just cant fail with Movidas Next Door. I ate before I went because I wasn’t too sure what I would be able to eat (if anything) since becoming vegan. I wasn’t able to eat much. I had the potatoes with the cheese sauce on the side (so my folks could have some) and I had the crumbed and panfried artichoke hearts (which were out of control) apparently there is another bean dish which they can do without the tuna but I was too full by then. Yummy wine, my parents were absolutely blown away. Score.

Recorded Music Salon
As promised I am spending more time there. They sell Holgates Chocolate Stout (WIN). I had a massive day tattooing on Friday and was VERY sooky afterwards, solution, meet Daniel at Recorded Music and get shitfaced. Win. I had the only 2 vegans things on the menu, the olives and the hommous and it was good for a snack. Vegans avoid if you want a meal. The hommous is yummy! I <3 you recorded music salon. Muchly.

Lord of the Fries AND the Walkers hot dog man took a beating this week too. OOH OH OH and Tower sushi at Flinders st station, their handrolls and in particular their seaweed salad freaking ROCK.

Labels

I've gone through the almost 300 posts in this blog to create some more order, on the right there are now a whole new bunch of labels to hopefully help you navigate easier. Ifyou ver get bored hit the youtube label, there's tonnes of good stuff there. mwah!

Oh also, I finally pawed through the guide to eating (google map to your right) and sorted the restaurants/cafes into suburb for easier scrolling.

Monday Melbourne Roundup

Friday night was date night. I had money to burn and a lady to spoil, so I thought I'd take Clare on a tasting menu of my favourite spots in Melbourne that she hadn't been to yet (yes I actually go out with other people than Clare, to places she hasn’t been before, I know its amazing). So Friday was very very very busy and boozy. Couple that with my derby wife in town for the derby match and my parents arriving on Sunday for my Dads birthday, last week was busy with the socialising. Never fear though, I still managed to finish season 5 of Buffy (watch this space) and clean my house (miraculous).

Out

Carnagelle - VRDL

I used to do roller derby (I was involved for about 18 months), a big injury freaked me out enough to stop skating, the politics between the girls freaked me out enough for me to stop being involved altogether. I'm just not made of strong enough stuff (read I like hiding at home alone compulsively eating cookies and watching buffy). So anyway, to cut a long story short, my derby wife (who had moved to Brisbane a year ago) was coming home to compete in the QLD vs VRDL bout. It was my first derby bout this season and I was so happy and awed by how much more professional and amazing it has gotten. The first game was Melbourne vs Geelong. The second game was SSRL vs VRDL. SSRL are seriously good and if it was a home game I think they would have kicked VRDLS ARSE! However VRDL won and a great game was put on. My only complaint, the pervasive and intrusive constant smell of barbecue was gross. The sexy people was enough to make me forget about it though. Such a great Saturday night. Go! Support your local roller derby league!

Richie 1250 and the Brides of Christ

I'll be honest. I'm a shit friend. I rarely go to friends openings, rarely go and see friends bands, I'm just so busy and double booked! So anyway you can imagine how shit I felt when I found out via facebook that a guy I work with is in my friends band. I've known Tim for 2 years and worked with Roshan for 18 months and I've never put 2 and 2 together BECAUSE I NEVER WENT AND SAW THEIR BAND. Shame face. So it was their last gig for a while and we went. They are amazing and I'm totally fucking retarded for having not gone sooner. I've heard their stuff on RRR before and knew what I was getting in for but I never realised it would be so fucking good live. Awesome band. Check em out on myspazz.


Gertrude St Projection Festival

Spec. I love this town, I really do. After Ezards and Recorded Music Salon, I took Clare to the opening of the Gerturde st projection festival. It was so wonderful. So crisply cold, walking Gertrude st with so many other people out and about, seriously spec. Go and check it out while its still on.

Eats/Drinks

Recorded Music Salon

Love love love love love it. I'm going to try and make a habit of going there at least once a week. Quiet enough, fantastic music, obviously genx manager as I never hear anything above 95 on the stereo. I will also try and eat there some time soon.

Ezard

Yes fancy. The wife has been (like the majority of Australia) completely and utterly obsessed with Masterchef, I finally paid off my loan, I took her to Ezards. We did the pre theatre degust (out by 730) and I'm glad we did! We weren't able to be fit in for the full degust at the 8pm sitting but this was more than enough food, I was full to the gills! Clare had the vegetarian I went the vegan and it was really something quite special. Palate cleanser first up was a red miso soup, served in a wee espresso cup. Red miso paste is a bit too full on for me so I didn’t really like it. The first course was pumpkin tempura with pomegranate molasses, shaved new coconut and some sort of puree I cant remember what it was. Seriously divine. Second course was pickled beetroot salad with blood orange, mint and rhubarb (Clares had feta). Gorgeousness. Third course was steamed soft tofu with an asian sauce. The sauce was out of control, sweet, salty, sour, pungent, everything you want out of an asian sauce. Clare and I were practically licking our plates. Fourth course, dessert, Clare has some sort of ice cream thing I don’t actually know what hers was (bad me) mine was a pineapple carpaccio with passion fruit sugar syrup, strawberries with mint and raspberry sorbet. Just divine. In all honesty I was really disappointed when it came out, I was like.. Oh here we go again the vegan gets fruit for dessert, but it was one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. Highly highly recommend it for something special.

Panama Dining Room

Took Clare for a quick cocktail, I'm glad its not so crazy there on a Friday night anymore. I really love this place. We stuck our heads into Rice Queen (their new space downstairs) its just beautiful. Hopefully I'm going there for dinner this week.

Grace Darling

My friend Russ has a new pub. And yes continuing on the I'm a shit friend thread, its been open for like 6 weeks now and I still hadnt gone. So I stuck my head in on Friday night and its stunning. Like stunning. Like one of the most stunning pubs in Melbourne stunning. Cant wait to eat there (doesn’t look too vegan friendly though but I'm sure things can be worked out) and the dungeon downstairs is where I will hold my 30th more than likely. Check it out, its clearly Melbournes new "it" bar, because the attractive level of the people there was kings of leon film clip and beyond, like maybe Blondie film clip.

The Alderman

Quick goodbye derby wife drinks. The fire there is yummy. I cant really say much more (than I've already said) about the Alderman, its a Melbourne treasure.

Cutler and Co

Well *someones* a spoiled little girl this week. Pops is in town for his birthday and asked me to suggest a place we could have dinner, I flamed it onto Cutler and Co PRONTO. Its been on the list for so long for me and well, when someone else is paying, you know why it was kicked up the list. That and I wanted to give poor ole Pops the best meal of his life. Knowing already that is meat people heaven I was apprehensive as to what I could eat, but it didn’t really matter to me anyway as it was really all for my Dad. Anyway I did ask them if they were able to accommodate vegans when making the booking and they told me no problem. They designed a special menu just for moi! Veruka was very happy. First up though, straight up gin martini with olives was d I v I n e. My entrée was pureed, barbecued Jerusalem artichoke heart soup with homemade croutons with slivers of pickled garlic. I'm not shitting you, its one of the best things I've ever eaten. The flavours were so finely attuned and balanced my mouth felt like a Listerine explosion. 10/10. My main meal was roasted vegetable salad with pureed nettle sauce. It was delicious, but after that amazingness of my entrée it was just a notch lower I would give it an 8/10. Cutler and Co lives up to the hype, the staff are courteous, without being too frou frou or pretentious, the interior slightly wanky but still lovely and the food spectacular. I highly highly recommend going.