Lately: Happenings in the Kitchen

Ever since the winter air, quite suddenly, fell upon Sydney (and to my delight), I've been a little more active lately in the happenings around the kitchen. While I think its partially procrastination I've awfully missed those days cooking in the kitchen so I'm happy so get my hands busy again developing vegan recipes in style of good ol' home cookin'. Seems like the cold weather has made me go on a bake and soup spree. I've been wanting to start writing up and refining recipes but seems like it won't happen anytime soon so for now enjoy the food porn.

Tteok Mandu Guk (떡만두국) / Korean Dumpling & Rice Cake Soup: I've been caught on up with Nostalgia back in the non-vegan days when my friend and I had this soup at a local Korean restaurant, the soup was flavoursome and intensely garlicky. Till this day I've been trying to make stock to match up to that beautiful garlicky homestyle flavour. Still no success, I get decent soup but there's always somethin missin'.

Sigeumchi Namul (시금치나물) / Seasoned Spinach: I make this every time I have spinach in the fridge. Probably one of the most basic Korean dishes you could ever make. Simply blanch spinach, squeeze out excess water  and season with some minced garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce and/or salt and sesame seeds (you can also add sliced green onions). I always find mixing it by hand the best because the flavours are incorporated into the spinach better. Same method can be applied to a range of other veggies such as beansprouts.

Mongolian Soup: Probably one of the most simplest soups you could ever make with its throw it in style. Chop potatoes , carrots, onions, tomatoes, and mushroom throw it into a large pot of water and boil. When it boils add diagonally sliced celery and season with soy sauce and good amount of cracked black peppercorns. No need for artificial vegetable stock the natural sweetness of the veggies does that for ya. We eats it with some pasta. Also added some seasoned shiitake stalks when boiling the soup. Basically the longer you boil the more intense soup you get. The peppery soup is sure to warm your heart.

Mah good ol' buddy Bambi wanted some Moussaka, so that's what I made when she was over.  I didn't make proper Bechamel sauce cauz' to be honest I don't really like bechamel sauce... maybe it's because I've never had the proper homemade kind only the gross white goop you get from canteen lasagne. So I made my own twist and added some mashed potato layer (only very thin) so it's kinda like a shepherds pie now, some vegan cheese sauce I whipped up (vegan margarine, flour, vegan cheese, soymilk, Tartex vegan pate) and some vegan 'feta' i made by mushing some silkened tofu with lemon juice + salt (draining the excess moisture).

So the Moussaka didn't have as much eggplant as it should have but the dish was filled to the brim and we got ourselves  a hearty meal! I used mixed beans for the tomato sauce making it quite wholesome. As you can see we totally emptied the dish out.

Bo Lui Chay / Vegan Vietnamese BBQ skewers: Marinated seasoned shiitake mushroom stalks (which has been marketed as 'vegan lamb') in a lemongrass/five spices/onion/garlic/sugar/mushroom sauce/soy sauce/hoi sin concoction I'd leave out the hoi sin next time though made the paste super sticky and clunky when I was stir-frying the paste to get the aromas going. Skewered with onions and radishes, brushed with some oil and grilled on the pan.

Mini Quiche Lorraine: Again another experiment but I am super pleased on how this turned out! I think all it needs now is a better soft to firm/hard tofu ratio (I made the mistake of buying firm soft tofu rather than firm hard tofu) and less salt.

At first I wasn't sure if the blended acrylic-paint like consistency of the tofu was going to sog up the whole thing or not but surprisingly once baked it came out with a light & fluffy - egglike texture. So who said one needs egg to make Quiche? Not I that's for sure. I could probably make the filling less soft however.

Creamy Tomato Pasta Bake: I've been meaning to make a creamy pasta dish for a while now even though I wasn't fond of it before (because gee that stuff is waay heavy and to be honest tasted like nothing but I probably ate the wrong places). I ended up not doing a Carbonara (which probably should be called carbs-bonara lol) and going half half on creamy vegan bacon sauce and tomato sauce. Popped it in the oven with some cauliflour and pumpkin, topped with sliced tomato - voila! It was warming especially for a cold day and also for Mama's day.

I think I really need to start making a watermark/logo thingo on my images. One can never trust the internet.