Digital detox

Hi Everyone! I've been really concentrating on my self development lately. I've stopped dating, started meditating seriously and committed to doing the couch to 5 km running program (I'm on week two!). I've had to make a lot of massive life decisions lately and I guess I'm just giving myself room to get used to them. So in keeping with the space/self betterment I'm going on a digital detox for 2 weeks starting today (I will still be checking email) but no Facebook, no Twitter and no Blogging. Thanks for being the best readers EVER, you guys keep me inspired with your positivity and your great feedback but ALSO your wonderful cooking. So many of you have great food blogs.

So I'm going to miss you but I'll see you in two weeks! Adbusters digital detox is supposed to happen in April but its great to do it any time. xoxox.

black sticky rice

First things first, I bought my first BRAND NEW kitchen items this week, 6 wine glasses and a rice cooker. I've always had hand-me-downs and second hand items from ebay (I cant stand buying new things when you can recycle - best purchase EVER was my food processor for $50). I still feel guilty, especially the amount of packaging the rice cooker came in but anyway expect a lot of rice recipes from now on! Woo hoo!

Ingredients
250g black sticky rice, soaked in water for 3 hours
pinch of salt
1/3 cup brown sugar sugar
250g dark palm sugar, chopped
1/4 cup of water
1 cup coconut cream

method
1. Soak the sticky rice in water for at least 3 hours but up to 8.

2. Rinse and cook just like brown rice with 1:1.5 rice to water for about 50 minutes. Give it a stir around the halfway mark to see how its going. A wee bit of moisture at the end is fine.

3. Once the rice is cooked throw in the brown sugar and salt. Melt the palm sugar in a small pan over low heat then add the water and the coconut cream and cook a bit to thicken it up. I mixed about half the coconut cream/sugar syrup into the rice then served and drizzled a bit more over the top.

Best.dessert.ever.

stuffed artichokes -qaqoċċ mimli

or in Maltese - Qaqoċċ mimli

I was lucky enough to be able to borrow quite a few Maltese cookbooks from co-op leader extraordinaire Margarita (she is Maltese also). Maltese cookbooks are hard to find!! So expect quite a few Maltese recipes filtering through! Artichokes are just about to go out of season so get to the markets quickly. This was my first time cooking them and I have to admit I was a little daunted but it was super easy and worked out SO DELCIOUSLY.

ingredients
4 globe artichokes
2 cups of stale bread (around 6 slices, crusts trimmed), sourdough if possible
2 tbsp of capers
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
2-4 tbsp of flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup of olives (preferably green)
2 tbsp olive oil
fresh lemon juice
salt

added extras/ideas:
fresh chilli
lemon zest

method
1. Cut the stalks off the artichokes about 1 cm from the base. Trim the outer leaves off altogether (around 2 levels of leaves) and slice the top off altogether so it removes the tips of most of the leaves (about 2 cm). Trim the hard stalky tips of the outer leaves that didnt get trimmed when you topped the head off.

2.Squeeze a lemon over the top of the artichokes and soak in some salty water (I just did this in the sink, make sure you clean it thoroughly first!) for about half an hour.

3. comes the fun part! Holding the artichoke like a baseball bash it onto the kitchen bench quite hard, rotating it in your hand after each hit until you've done the full 360 degrees. This loosens the globe to enable stuffing the leaves. Gently stick your fingers in between each layer to slowly open up the artichoke like a flowering rose. Now you are ready for your stuffing.

4. To make the stuffing tear the bread into small pieces and throw into a food processor. Add the olive oil, capers, olives, garlic and parsley (and whatever other flavourings you are adding) and pulse a couple of times until it is 'roughly chopped' Grab handfuls and stuff into each layer of the artichokes until they are full.

5. Steam them (I used my rice cooker!) in a steamer (packed in as tightly as possible) for about an hour or until one of the outer leaves falls out easily when pulled. Cut in half, drizzle with some olive oil, lemon juice and salt and ENJOY.

notes: The heart is fully edible but as you go out the leaves become less edible. In Malta you do not wasted anything, there is flesh on the outer leaves you just have to suck on them like getting an olive away from its pit.

A fair bit of work but SO DELICIOUS. Enjoy.

monday melbourne roundup

Spring is definitely on its way! Everyone was so chirpy on the weekend it really was a joy. This week an old friend from Sydney came to town so we did a lot of the tourist things. Its good it breaks me out of my shell!

Out.

The Trial

If you're not familiar with the Franz Kafka novel I wouldn’t recommend seeing this play. As a huge fan of not only the book but total-dream-boat-taking-Australian-theatre-by-storm Ewen Leslie this was a match made in heaven for me. A slick, intelligent and gorgeously lit/staged production it was utterly amazing. Ewen Leslie in his underpants for almost 2 hours was just a seat sizzling added bonus. All paranoid, dystopian loners should consider it a must.

The walk back into Melbourne from the Malthouse that night:




Tickets thanks to Melbourne Fringe Festival - Fringe Dwellers

Los Chicos at Off The Hip Records

How did I not know about this record store?!?! Of course it takes someone coming to town to show you things about your city you'd never experienced. This was the best night I've had in AAGGEESSSS. Free beer, sexy people, free bands. Los Chicos were totally smokingly hot and SO AMAZING. It was awesome. The end.







Tim Burton Exhibition - ACMI

I've paid for a few exhibitions at ACMI and they've always been L A M E. This is TOTALLY WORTH IT. It is so magical and breath taking just like all of his films. It’s a wonderful testament to a truly visionary and weird artist.






Eats.drinks.

Tom Phat

Cant.stay.away. I took my guest there for dinner last night. I had the tofu and tempeh nasi goreng which is so lip smackingly delicious I'm drooling over these photos. http://northsideladies.blogspot.com/2010/01/tom-phat-brunswick.html I stand by that review. The glass of Grenache I had was absolutely delicious too.

Cabinet

Popped in for a drink after Los Chicos. Neh, its not a great space, its kind of a cross between seamstress and von haus. Just doesn’t do it for me.

Lord of the Fries

I tried the onion rings and THEY ARE DELICIOUS!! I've gone completely off LOTF to be honest. I don’t like any of the vegan sauces so whats the point you know? Thankfully I can eat the onion rings plain. TASTY!

In other news… spring is COMING !! :D




I ate this burger (it was CRAZY!)



djionaisse, beetroot, notburger patty, grilled onion, spinach, pineapple and green tomato relish

And I watched the Runaways, which was actually excellent. Both girls were utterly amazing and it was so SO beautifully shot, I couldn’t believe how amazingly good this film was. Also teenage rock n roll lesbos? Cmon. 4/5.

mama vittoria's collingwood

Un-vegan friendly. I was there for a work function, ordinarily I wouldnt go to such a full on Italian restaurant by virtue of there really not being anything for me to eat. The staff were visibly "put out" when I asked what could be made vegan. As you can see my pizza was sparse and bland and for $19 an eye watering rip-off. I think the 2.5/5 on google is generous. The garlic pizzas had no flavour and the base was too chewy. Go to Bimbos yo!

No rating, no details (couldnt find any other bloggers reviews either). Dont eat there.

shakahari - carlton

I ATE SOMETHING DIFFERENT!! Simon and I shared the avocado tempura (not pictured) which was delicious as usual and seems to be the thing corriander haters can get on board with! Feeling gross and bloated from a weekend of pigging out on wheat I decided to get the Shakahari salad a mixture of steamed and raw vegies with brown rice and an apple flavoured satay sauce. This was absolutely delicious and perfectly balanced. Dessert I can never go past the tofu crème caramel, it wasn’t its best this time the tofu wasn’t as perfectly held together it crumbled into runny eggs quite quickly. The service, although always with a beautiful smile was light on the ground and I felt we waited too long for pretty much everything. The restaurant was also FREEZING. The food is still sublime but the rest of it was really down this time.

Deets: best to book to avoid disappointment 201-203 Faraday St, Carlton ph: 9347 3848
$$: each dish was around $13.50

Get your link on! So many people have things to say about Shakaharis:

My blog: One, Two
Vegan About Town: One, Two, Three
Heres The Veg: One, Two, Three, Four, Five
Tummy Rumbles: One
Melbourne Veganesque: One

avocado wasabi salad

Salads are slowly creeping back into my repertoire as the seasons change and with 3 delicious organic avocados slowly going bad in my fruit bowl, vegan yum yum came to the rescue. I have heavily tweaked this recipe (I cant eat chickpeas) but feel free to follow the original I'm sure its as delicious as my version. For a great salad read this post and for more salad inspiration hit up my salad index!

ingredients
greens of your choice for 4-6 people
1 carrot, shredded
1 medium head of broccoli (or bunch of broccolini), chopped small
black pepper to taste
vegetable oil or sesame oil

wasabi-tamari butter beans
1 tsp oil
1 can of butter beans, rinsed
1 tsp wasabi paste
1/2 tsp maple syrup
1 tbs tamari* or soy sauce

avocado wasabi dressing
1 ripe avocado, diced
2 tsp mirin*
1 tsp seeded mustard
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp wasabi paste
1/4 to 1/3 Cup vegetable oil

soy roasted almonds
1/4 cup of almonds, roughly chopped
1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds*
1 tbsp of tamari/soy sauce

method
1. Toss the almonds and seeds in the soy and toast in the oven on high for about 10 minutes (you will hear the sunflower seeds start to pop like popcorn, that means they're almost done).

2. Whisk the wet ingredients for the beans and cook over medium heat until beans have soaked up the liquid, put into a bowl.

3. In the same pan (dont wipe it out) drizzle a bit of oil and pan fry the broccoli until it starts to take a bit of colour (a few minutes).

4. Mash the avo until it resembles a paste and then slowly whisk in the liquid ingredients until all combined.

5. Then rinse your greens, grate your carrot and toss in the dressing. Add your beans and broccoli and sprinkle your nuts and seeds on top. Voila! TASTY!

notes: Tamari is gluten free, soy sauce is not. I used mirin instead of white wine vinegar as it seemed more appropriate. Any kind of seeds would be great, I used a combination of sunflower, pumpkin (pepitas) and linseeds, every salad needs a 'crunch' factor. Soy roasted seeds and almonds are the most DELICIOUS SNACK EVER get into it! The original recipe calls for wasabi powder, I could only find paste. It packs a punch so slowly add if you're bit of a heat pussy. You can always add more, but cant take things back!

monday melbourne roundup

A not so busy week, then a really busy weekend!

Out

Book Club - Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland

It was my pick this month. The Doug fans LOVED it, others did not. I encourage you all to read more or any Douglas Coupland <3

Bret Easton Ellis @ The Athenaum

I was apprehensive about this, I didn’t really want to find out that he was a self obsessed arsehole. It took a while for Bret to relax and lose his defenses (why are we surprised when writers are weird and difficult in interviews ESPECIALLY on stage in FRONT of bajillions of people, they're WRITERS!) he was utterly charming, sweet and lovely. I'm so glad I went it was wonderful. Hero intact.

LUCKY YOU!! The whole thing is now online!



Equal Love Rally - Saturday 14th August

Homophobia and discrimination are important issues. Just because it doesn’t effect you doesn’t mean you should not stand up for it. If you want to get involved the next rally event invite is HERE






The Greens Fundraiser at the Noise Bar

This was a sweet little gathering, some great music, great food donated by the lovely Anikee at Radical Grocery. It was nice to be out having a couple of ciders.

Greenberg


I've been sitting on this for a few weeks, waiting until film fest was over to watch it. All I can say it.. I love Noah Baumbach.. his films are so gentle... the attention to detail is astonishing. 4.5/5

eats.drinks

Shakaharis

I ATE SOMETHING DIFFERENT!! Stay tuned for a review but suffice to say it was as wonderful as usual.

Dench

Avo on toast, didn’t bother taking photos. Although the bread is the BEST EVER, its really stressful to eat there on the weekend. I don’t want to go there on the weekends anymore.

Tom Phat

My first Tom Phat in ages. The scrambled tofu continues to rock my world.

One year ago: Black Forrest Cake

lemon olive oil cake with passionfruit icing

This was a hodge podge "oh I dont have anything in the house lets look up olive oil cake recipes" thing. If you eat eggs I suggest making the original recipe here at Epicurious otherwise prepare yourself for a thin, but delicious cake!

Ingredients
3/4 cup olive oil
1 large lemon, juiced + the zest
1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
5 egg replacers
3/4 cup sugar

Icing
1 cup of icing sugar
pulp from one passionfruit (or more if you like it super runny)

Combine all the ingredients and bake in an oven heated to 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. (keep an eye on it! mine cooked VERY quickly - but again wonky oven). Drizzle the icing on top! Voila! So sour and tart utter deliciousness.

Notes: I actually ended up using about 1/2 a cup of oil and more lemon juice, tangtastic!

Things I cooked last week

It was a huge week in the kitchen, being poor will do that.

Home fries
Porridge with coconut cream, raspberries and almonds
Pineapple upside down cake
Bigilla
Lentil burgers
Mac Daddy
Green split pea soup

Monday Melbourne Roundup

I burned out pretty hard on MIFF in the end. I saw 19 films and sacked 7 for one reason or another. The people were really beginning to irritate me! Much rowdier crowd this year, also seeing so many things back to back really diminished their effect on me. Most films now are filed under 'watch again', still a great way to see a lot of good cinema that you wouldnt ordinarily be exposed to. My third MIFF down, I will do it even BETTER next year! Bai bai MIFF for another year. Now my first Writers Festival event is this week, but really trying to keep a low profile during August.

Out

Brotherhood

The Danish brokeback and just as wonderfully done in my opinion. 4/5



The Kids are Alright

I cant tell whether I hated this film or liked this film. Most people in it were total arseholes. 2/5

MIFF - Snacks on the run x2

Vegan cookies from Lord of the Fries.



Seaweed salad. I swear there is ONE seaweed salad supplier as they all pretty much taste exactly the same. I do like the one from the sushi joint at Flinders st station the most (cant remember what its called).



And of course I packed a little container of sausage rolls to snack on. SO YUMMY.

vegan sausage rolls

People foam at the mouth at the announcement that Cindy and Michael have brought their "sausage rolls" to potluck. They are so coveted that I have NEVER been able to manage to get a sample before they are all gone (yeah slow poke, too busy stuffing myself with something else no doubt). So on the weekend I decided to make some (its sausage roll weather no?) and also a good snack to pack for MIFF. I did pretty much ALL substitution as I didn't have ANY of the ingredients on hand, but these turned out UH-MAZING. The original recipe is here.

ingredients
125g pinenuts, toasted
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup of cooked bulghur (I cooked in vegie stock)
1/2 cup of cooked lentils (again in vegie stock)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tablespoons soy sauce
fresh parsley, chopped (to taste)
1 tbsp of liquid smoke
salt and pepper, to taste
3-4 frozen puff pastry sheets, defrosted
non dairy milk or olive oil spray to brush pastry

method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Pulse the ingredients in a food processor until it resembles sausage mince. Place sausage shape amount of filling along the width end of a piece of pastry and roll tightly (spraying the pastry with olive oil spray along the way so it 'seals' together when rolled over). Pack the ends with mince, you might need the end of a wooden spoon or something to get it all in there.

3. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Seriously, its that easy.

notes: Always keep pastry damp, defrost in the packet and don't open until you're ready to use it. If it is already open, put a damp, clean tea towel over the top. If you dont have liquid smoke GET SOME or a sprinkle of smoked paprika would be amazing. My oven is MUNTED, there is only 'low' or 'high' so my temps are always a bit generic you guys are smart enough to figure this all out though.

tiramisu

I've been obsessed with making tiramisu for some time. Look, I cheated with this and used a gluten free cake mix for the sponge base but you forgive me right? It was 9.30pm on Friday night and I just couldn't wait a moment longer. In looking around the web at other recipes (and this is the reason why I write this blog) all the other vegan recipes has so many ingredients in them, I like to keep things simple. This almost made me cry. An old favourite from my childhood, with love to you.

ingredients
1 x lot/packet/recipe of plain cake
1 x cup (250mls) of espresso (I pulled about 3 short blacks)
1 x tub of kingland cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup of white sugar
1 x can of coconut cream (refrigerated)
some booze of your choice, I used whiskey as it was all I had but marsala is traditional
dark chocolate shavings for serving

method
1. Spread the cake mix into a large baking/roasting pan and bake until *just* cooked (not browning on top but a knife comes out clean from the centre), leave to cool. The large roasting pan will get the cake just the right height for layering.

2. In the meantime, beat the coconut cream with an electric mixer for 5 minutes, it should thicken up but not like dairy cream. Put it in the fridge to set for at least an hour (preferably two) to thicken up. Combine the sugar into the cream cheese and pull the espressos (flavour the espresso with the booze you want to the level you want).

3. Once the coffee and cake is cooled put a layer of cake onto the bottom of a 6" spring form pan or whatever vessel you want to house your tiramisu and gently pour some of the coffee over the sponge. I always pussy out on the coffee and REGRET IT so if you like it strong you really need to get that sponge WET to the point of soggy/falling apart.

4. Spread ALL the "marscapone" cream cheese on top and repeat another layer of cake and coffee then top with coconut cream and chocolate shavings (of course if you want to make yours sky high in smaller vessels save some of the marscapone for extra layers).

5. Refrigerate for AT LEAST two hours, but the longer you leave this the more amazing it gets. I strongly suggest leaving it over night.

notes: Its an assload of sugar but really, an assload is what it takes to get that slight taste of soy ass out of the cream cheese. Of course if you're going to put it into a 6 inch spring form pan you might as well bake the cake in that and then cut the cake horizontally in two and layer like a layer cake. Again really easy and simple, this totally blew my mind!

Things I ate last week

Nom crazy!! I continue to be obsessed with dips and pies. We're also getting TONNES of avocados in our vegie boxes lately so I've been going crazy on the guac.

Bigilla
Burritos
Black Bean Pie
Guacamole

Monday Melbourne Roundup

MIFF!

out

The genius within - The inner life of Glenn Gould

Stunning doco about a fascinating man. Totally captivating. 4/5



Worlds greatest dad

Wow, they weren't kidding about this being a "black comedy", I can genuinely say that this is the blackest comedy (whilst still being actually funny) I've ever seen (and I've seen Four Lions since I saw this). This makes rape jokes look like Pixar. Robin Williams total return to form in Bobcat Goldthwaites second film as writer/director, this was completely amazing comedy territory... it really reminded me of late 70s Steve Martin stuff. Totally amazing. 4/5



Au hasard Balthazar

Film art wank. It was beautifully shot. A film staring a donkey in the French countryside in the 50s. Its exactly what you think it would be like. 2/5



Blame

Absolutely awful. Terrible over acting, serious prop/costume continuity issues, awful dialogue, awful story set up. I walked out after half an hour. 0/5

No trailer.

Collapse

Completely compelling. I have to admit it really just glued together everything I think about the world. The quote "I believe the love of money can truly make the human race extinct" pretty much sums up this film and how I feel. Do I think we will be wiped out in my life time? Maybe not.. .but I definitely think its coming in the next 200-300 years... The documentary was very well put together as well. 4/5



Women without men

This is one of the most stunning films I've ever seen. Not everyone will like this, not everyone will see what I see in this but this film was a truly profound and moving experience for me. I only give 5 stars to things that actually change me as a person, change my DNA.... that say something so beautiful, that speak a symphony that I feel the world is a better place for having it in it... This film completely and utterly killed me and has been the best thing I've seen at MIFF so far... Every single element in this film is perfection, cinematography, direction, acting, music, editing, every single frame is like the most beautiful photograph you have ever seen. Also bear in mind that I'm pretty much working towards being such hardcore feminist I'll end up living in a lesbian separatist community soon.... 5/5

Women Without Men - Trailer from IndiePix on Vimeo.

Four Lions

I'll be honest, Chris Morris could film himself reading the phone book for an hour and a half and I would tearily call it a searing masterpiece on the hypocrisy of the modern world. Thankfully Four Lions is not that, and is utterly amazing. See it. 4.5/5



Marwencol

An incredibly gentle, wonderful documentary. I'm tired of writing reviews now. This is super just see it. 4.5/5





Pie Face Bakeoff - KLT's House

I won best sweet pie with my tiramisu pie (where I was the only vegan and gluten free entry) woo hoo!







And the winner! Collapsing under the weight of its own awesome



Recipe coming tomorrow dont fret kids!