Hunky Dory's, Newport, Wales

Ha! I bet you all thought I would never blog again?

I went to Newport today, which is about a 40 minute bus ride from Cardiff. Hunky Dory is a short uphill walk from the Newport bus station and despite the name and pic of the Bowie album cover on their menu, it has little to do with Bowie. They were playing Elvis Costello and Tom Waits while I was there.

Heading in the right direction

Can't remember what the soup was exactly. Had coriander and lentils in it.

The salt and pepper shakers are little tea pots

I wasn't expecting something that looked like this when I ordered the mushroom pot pie. Mushroom and gravy with a rectangle of puff pastry. I don't know if it really meets the requirements for a pot pie.

Mushrooom pot pie

The cherry cake was my second option as they had run out of gingerbread cake. It was nothing special and a little bit dry.

Cherry cake

Meal cost about £9 all up. It's decent enough food and I'll give their burgers a try next time I'm in Newport.

Trip was totally worth it after I found a spiritualist church a few doors down from the cafe. Didn't think they still existed.

Hunky Dory

17 Charles St, NP20 1JU 01633 257 850

Newport, South Wales

http://hunkydoryscafe.blogspot.co.uk/

Welcome to the breakfasts of my life (in the UK)

Regular readers of my blog would be clueless to the fact that I've recently moved overseas. For the next year Cardiff, Wales is my home and I intend to eat every vegan dish available in the city while I'm here. Tales of those meals are for another time.

Before arriving in Cardiff I spent some time in Manchester and Liverpool meeting up with friends and soaking in the vegan/vegan friendly culture.

8th day co-op

8th day is a co-operative that runs a health food store and cafe. It is also the first place I saw hemp milk being legally sold for human consumption. A fine vegan breakfast is available at 8th day co-op in Manchester. Toast, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, sausages and some battered tofu triangles. There is really nothing to complain about with this other than that there should be more everything. It worked out to about £5 including a freshly squeezed juice.

MelloMello

This place was a very short walk from my hostel in Liverpool and it was well worth the walk. Their scrambled tofu doesn't have much going for it when compared to what you get in Melbourne but brown sauce can make up for that. Solid breakfast that comes with a coffee for only £4.50.

The highlight of the breakfast menu is the breakfast sundae. Violence-free yoghurt, granola and fruit compote.

I had both of these every day while I was in town. They also have sandwiches and a pretty solid dinner menu. It also has a very well-stocked bar (they had coopers!) and is a live music venue too.

Gluten free Meat cake

I think it was vegansaurus that first introduced me to meat cakes. Knowing that I was about to reach a major milestone in my life, I needed to mark the occasion with something out of the ordinary. It was to be  meat cake. I based the recipe on a fresh new stomach's thanksgiving cake. I used just over 1.5kg of tofu to make a multi-layered tofurkey cake with mashed potato icing. I made it GF too by using tamari instead of soy sauce and topped it with massel gravy just before serving.

Thanks to K for the pics and to the wonderful folks at Las Vegan for accommodating my peculiar cake eating ways so readily.

Holy Moley! cafe, Greensborough

Many think Greensborough is devoid of any redeeming qualities. In many ways they are right, but not in the case of holey moley! Gourmet coffee cafe. One of the owners is vegan and they have a few funky pies, bagels, sandwiches and fancy shakes available to the hungry vegan. I've been a few times and usually go for the falafel bagel and a choc-peanut butter shake.

It's only a couple of minutes walk from Greensy savers too.

Holy Moley! Gourmet Coffee (They serve Robert Timms coffee which is gourmet for Greensy)

2/134 Main Street, Greensborough, Melbourne, VIC 3088




Vegan yoghurt masterclass

The vegan easy market day, held a few weeks ago, had many great speakers and demos, but only one was deemed worthy of being uploaded by the vegan easy challenge crew. ;) Check it out here.

We'll have naan of that.

With my yoghurt making now perfected, I scoured the internet for recipes that required plain yoghurt and came across this naan bread recipe. The prep is easy. The only problem I had was shaping the loaves, as can be seen in the pic.

"Who? Only a yoghurt."*

I've been out of blogging action for a while due to being busy and not being bothered to blog.

After discovering that inner health plus dairy free is vegan, and snatching up one of the yoghurt makers that ALDI was selling a while ago, I set myself on the task of creating the finest plain vegan yoghurt my suburb had ever seen.

I searched a few sites looking for advice on how to make it and ended up with this thread at veganfitness.net and Bryanna Clark Grogan's page.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients

1.5 litres of malt free soy milk
5 capsules of Inner Health Plus dairy free

Method

•  Bring soymilk to boil and let cool to about 40 degrees celsius.
•  Stir in the contents of the 5 caps. 
•  If you have a yoghurt maker just follow the instructions. If not, wrap in a blanket and keep it in a warm place overnight or even longer. I kept mine going for 36 hours.

It won't be quite like commercial yoghurt, as most of them use thickeners, but it's good enough for me.

Yoghurty enough

* Prizes for knowing where the quote in the post title comes from. First person to answer will receive a firm handshake and/or a pat on the back the next time I see them. Good luck.

Confessions of a vegan supplement junkie (part 1)

My long involvement with the vegan strength crew has led me down a path of never ending experimentation with health supplements. My natural tight-fistedness also kept me on the lookout for cheap suppliers and my inner geek saved me (most of the time) from falling victim to the many dodgy claims of the supplement companies. I thought it was about time to share some of my findings rather than just keep it to myself and a few friends. The first installment will be about protein supplements.

Let me get my basic recommendations out of the way.

My first recommendation is to always go for unflavoured protein and to buy in bulk. The crappy little tubs of soy protein you can buy at your local supermarket are a total rip-off as are the pricey supps which are mostly sugar, oil, "super foods" and other fillers with very little protein per serving not to mention very few servings per container.

Second, don't fall for the marketing hype. For the most part your body doesn't care if the form of the amino acids you consume is raw, processed, "alkalising", "natural" or whatever other buzz words are popular at the moment. It's just another way for companies to try to get more money out of you. If you are concerned about the amino acid profile of certain proteins you can always buy two types and combine them (pea or soy and rice is a common blend) or just get nitrofusion if you are too lazy for that ;) .


Protein powder

Protein is often lacking in the diets of people who eat no protein. Thankfully this is not the case for people who don't make poor food choices ;) . Not too long ago there was little choice available to the vegan muscle man/woman wanting to add a quick and easy protein boost to their diet. Soy and rice protein were the only local options. In recent years it has expanded greatly and there is no reason why a vegan couldn't be knocking back 200+gms of protein a day if they wanted to, which could theoretically be done without supplements if you tweak your diet enough, but why would you bother? ;)


NHS Soy Protein Isolate

I initially started out buying the NHS soy protein (around $95 for 3 kg) from Evelyn Faye Nutrition in the city and it is still pretty good value, gets the job done and doesn't taste too bad.

Bulk Nutrients Rice Protein Isolate

The cheapest source of protein powder in Australia, that I have found, is bulk nutrients' rice protein isolate which can be as cheap as $22 per kg if you buy in bulk. I can't comment on the taste as I've never tried it.

Vital Greens Pea Protein Isolate

My go to protein powder at the moment, mainly for convenience as there are a few cheaper options. The best place to get this is from the Uproar store as the markup is minuscule and the profits go towards actually helping animals and promoting veganism.

Some people think pea protein is revolting, but I don't have a problem drinking it with plain water. I think this might be due to something like the brussels sprouts phenomenon where many people are disgusted by them yet I find them delicious. I think I'm a non-responder to pea protein's taste.

Nitrofusion

When nitrofusion hit our shores a few years ago all the cool kids were using it as it was the ultimate blend of pea, rice and artichoke protein that provided the greatest amino-acid profile of any protein powder on the market. The problem was with the Australian distributors who seemed to hate the eastern side of Australia and refused to send any of the product to potential suppliers in Victoria. Eventually Uproar came to the rescue, providing an insanely cheap source for chocolate, mocha and berry flavoured nitrofusion. It tastes pretty good too. However, it does contain a few filler ingredients like sweeteners which may be problematic for people wanting to control their macronutrient intake.

iherb.com

This is the place to go for vegan protein powders. There are lots of them here. The only problem is that lots of them contain hemp protein and xylitol, which can both cause a problem at customs. Sunwarrior rice protein and a multitude of rice, pea and soy proteins are available from iherb. Take your pick. The prices are practically unbeatable at the moment thanks to the strength of the Australian dollar.

Veganessentials.com

You can't look past this site either. It has a great range of proteins and prices comparable to other online stores. Best of all it is a fully vegan company that stocks heaps of great stuff that you can't find at other places and you know for sure that it's vegan unlike other sites that don't bother doing the research to confirm if products are really vegan.

Protein Bars

Clif Builder's bar

A few years ago these played a big part in me getting stronger and also fatter, when I was sometimes eating three a day. They are more accurately described as chocolate bars with added protein as there are more carbs than protein. You can get these from uproar, Vegan Essentials and iherb.

Organic food bar - Protein

If you are after an overpriced and disgusting protein bar that contains kooky, mumbo jumbo, ingredients (i.e. biodynamic foods) then this is the bar for you. If however you are after something that actually tastes nice, go with the builder's bar or make your own.

Protein Bar recipes

Veganfitness.net has a great thread with protein and energy bar recipes that you could try out. Vegan kettlebell guru, Mike Mahler, also has some cool recipes on his website for bars, cookies and shakes. Check them out.

If you'd like to calculate your protein and macronutrient intake, check out cron-o-meter and sites like nutrition data and the USDA nutrient database.

Well, that's all for part one. Let me know of any other protein bargains you have found or if you have any good protein bar and shake recipes. Now, off to the gym with you!

Video of the day
Rocky IV training montage

Gluten Free Choc-orange and Cashew Fudge

Long time no post. My recent return to study and a lack of blogspiration has been my undoing. I'll try to remedy that in the coming weeks.

My uni is only a short walk from Smith street so I've been checking out Las Vegan (never disappoints) and trippy tacos (trippy fries was not vegan or even vegetarian last Thursday. WTF?!) regularly and have hiked down to Soul Food (vegan breakfast good, chickpea salad puke-inducing) and FOE (too many hippy types and their cow and chicken hating ways pisses me off, particularly when I'm hungry) but won't be going to the latter two for a while.

Anyway, let's get to the business end of this post. I'm a sucker for any new vegan products that come out, like the soy condensed milk that came out last year, but am lacking when it comes to actually making something out of them. I've had a can of the condensed milk sitting around for a few months and I'd singled it out as the focus of my next big, lazy, recipe. I googled condensed milk recipes and found an easy one for fudge. Basically, microwave the contents of a can of the condensed milk with a broken up block of chocolate (I used the Lindt 70% and a few tablespoons of cacao powder) until it's all melted and then add a splash of orange extract and some chopped nuts (I used cashews). Pour into a tray and chill for a few hours. I chucked it in the freezer to speed up the process.

Not much to say about this other than it was sweet, chocolaty and fudgy.


NEW VEGAN FIND (Villa Reale: Pesto alla Trapanese)

I was at the Heidelberg Leo's a few nights ago and found a few vegan pestos. They are from Italy and pricey ($8.80 for a 180g jar). I mixed some into a bowl of rice pasta and was blown away by the taste. The ingredients are so basic that I intend to make some myself when I eventually buy my dream food processor.

GF Black Bean brownies

I'm always thinking about ways to incorporate beans into a sweet dish and stumbled upon this recipe at veganfitness.net for black bean brownies. I modified the recipe to make them GF and easier to make. Luckily Melinda's GF brownie mix is vegan. All I needed to add was margarine, which I made myself, and a tin of black beans.

I basically followed the packet instructions and used mashed black beans as a binder instead of  no-egg.
 
My margarine recipe is a blend of several I found on the net.


Vegan margarine recipe

1 part water (I used 1/4 cup)
2 parts oil (I used 1/2 cup)
Enough ground soy lecithin to emulsify the mix (About 2 tablespoons)

Blend the oil and water and add lecithin. Continue blending until it resembles a soft margarine. Add some turmeric if you want to make it yellow.

I made these for the "super duper vegan picnic" that was held last weekend and everyone who had a taste was a fan. They probably would have thought less of me if they knew how easy it was.

GF gingernut biscuit cake

A few weeks ago Craig and Bec held a potluck at their place and I re-invented the choc ripple cake to make it gluten free. This was done by substituting the choc ripple biscuits with LEDA gluten free gingernut biscuits.

The cream was made with 2 cartons of morinaga tofu, which I found in the Asian foods section of safeway/woolworths, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, caster sugar and a splash of soy milk. N.B. Make sure the blender is running while you pour in the oil.

I added the final touch by dusting it with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar.

The end result. Photo: courtesy of K from In the mood for noodles

This dish is a total winner for anyone looking for a mushy, high sugar, treat i.e. everybody.

GF Lentil Loaf

For Lisa's Christmas potluck I made the lentil loaf from CPG's, The Vegan Table, but with a GF twist. I was pretty happy with the outcome.


Ingredients

4 cups water
2 cups brown lentils
1 to 2 onions
3 garlic cloves minced
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup GF corn crumbs (orgran brand)
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
1 to 2 tablespoons tamari
1 to 2 tablespoons GF vegan worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Oil a loaf tin.

Boil and simmer lentils in 4 cups of water until soft and thick. About 1 hour.

Sautee onions and garlic in some oil until onions are soft. Set aside in bowl.

Once lentils are done, take off heat and let cool for 30 mins. Combine with onion/garlic, 1/4 cup ketchup,  corn crumbs, walnuts, parsley, thyme, tamari, Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Combine and adjust to taste.

Press into loaf tin and spread 1/2 ketchup on top. Bake for 45 mins.

Choc-orange pudding pops and Molasses-Vanilla ice cream with candied walnuts

Last weekend was full of pot lucks. WTB holding an ice cream pot luck on Saturday and Lisa a Christmas themed one the next day.

I decided to make two dishes for the ice cream pot luck. If one of them was crap hopefully the other one could make up for it. For weeks I had my heart set on making the "choc-orange pudding pops" from Vegan Soul Kitchen, but was lazy in tracking down popsicle molds. I eventually found some cheap ones at woolworths on Friday, but I'd already decided to just make the "molasses-vanilla ice cream with candied walnuts" by then. However, I eventually managed to twist my own arm into doing what I had originally intended and made both dishes.

Chocolate-Orange pudding pops

This is just the recipe for choc-orange pudding, but you freeze it, after placing it in molds, rather than putting it in the fridge.

Ingredients

6 tbs coconut millk
1/2 cup agave syrup
1/2 tsp orange extract (I made my own using this recipe)
1/2 cup cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used raw cacao powder)
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
340 grams silken firm tofu (I used the joyce brand from woolworths)

• Whisk everything but the tofu together in a saucepan and bring to a boil and then simmer for a minute.
• Blend in tofu.
• Let cool and pour into molds.
• Freeze until frozen ;)

I struggled to get these out of the molds in one piece, but there was success later in the day when I took some over to an MVS training session, where the skilled ice cream hands of my friend Dan pulled out the excalibur of popsicles (pictured above).

Molasses-Vanilla ice cream with candied walnuts

3 cups coconut milk
2 tbs arrowroot powder (I was tricked into buying tapioca powder thanks to tricky labelling, but seems to work okay)
6 tbs agave syrup
1 tbs black strap molasses (probably could/should have used carob molasses)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup candied walnuts (toast walnuts for 8 mins, rub off skins through sieve, mix in EV olive oil, agave and raw sugar and stir constantly in a frying pan on med-high heat until liquid has mostly evaporated)

• Mix 1/4 cup of cocount milk with arrowroot powder.
• Heat rest of coconut milk with agave, molasses, vanilla and salt with the coconut & arrowroot mixture.
• Refrigerate until totally chilled.
• Pour into ice cream maker and hope for the best. Add nuts in the last minute of freezing. Place in freezer for a couple of hours until it firms up.

The flavour of this was quite interesting, tasting a bit like licorice with an occasional kick of sweet candied walnut. A different type of molasses would probably add a milder and fruitier element.

Black bean salad

My continuing relationship with black beans is, er, continuing, and rather than making a dish that involves mashing the beans, I opted for the simplicity of a salad.

This recipe is based on the one in La Dolce Vegan, substituting white onion for red because the ones at the supermarket are always rotten. 1 tsp of cumin, a Tbs of oil and 2 tbs of balsamic vinegar ensures the salad will be dressed for success. The pic will show you what else goes in.

 
This may not be of interest to those who are not etymologically inclined, but the word "salad" comes from the Latin word for salt, sal, so I encourage you to add plenty to this dish.

Required soundtrack - Salad days by Minor Threat

choc ripple cake

At WVD I saw a cooking demonstration by Yahvinah from soulveg, who also has the website, The cheapest Vegan. She cooked up quite a few tasty dishes, with many that included tofu cream. After tasting some of this cream, I knew I had to make some for myself. You can find the recipe on her site. Basically it involves blending a soft tofu and adding sugar and vanilla to taste. If it is still too thin, add some oil. I used the Joyce silken firm tofu and this was perhaps too soft as no matter how much oil I added it wouldn't thicken up enough.

As you may have guessed by the blog title, I was looking to make a choc ripple cake. Arnott's choc ripple biscuits are vegan and convenient for someone who doesn't feel like making a bunch of chocolate biscuits. They also come with a handy recipe on the back of the packet that is easily cruelty-free-ified so there is no real reason to post the recipe as it is fairly self-explanatory.

Since my cream wasn't quite thick enough, I assembled the cake in a small plastic container, making little cream sandwiches with all the biscuits and pouring the left over cream on top. After leavin it in the fridge over night, I raised the classiness of the dish by sprinkling raw cacao powder on top of it.

I don't think I've ever had a choc ripple cake before, so I had nothing to compare it to, but it was pretty good and I could have eaten all of it in one sitting if it were not for my strict discipline in controlling my calorie intake. It probably could have had more sugar though.

Recommended soundtrack - "Cream" by Prince and The New Power Generation from the album Diamonds and Pearls

Eggplant Bharta and Roti

K's tweet about her search for roti a couple of days ago got me thinking about Indian food and when I think about Indian food I think about eggplants. I flicked through my cookbooks and found a recipe for eggplant bharta in La Dolce Vegan. I also made some roti bread.

Eggplant Bharta

Ingredients

• 1 small eggplant
• 1 small onion
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 5 cm ginger, grated
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 small hot pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (Excluded as I couldn't remember what cilantro was (coriander leaves according to wikipedia) and couldn't be bothered looking it up)

Combine eggplant, onion and stock in a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, until eggplant starts to soften and reduce. Add everything else, except tomatoes and simmer for 2 minutes. Reduce heat and add tomato and cilantro, re-cover, simmer for 5 minutes.

Kramer suggests serving over rice, but I just ate it with roti bread.

Roti bread

• 2 1/2 cups wholegrain flour
• 1 1/4 cup water

Make a well in the flour and gradually pour in the water and mix until dough is formed. Knead for about 8-10 minutes, or less if you can't be bothered. Cover and let dough rest for about 30 mins.

Heat up your frying pan. Put a handful of flour on a plate. Break dough up into about 6 balls. Dip ball of dough into flour and roll out into a thin circle, about 15cm in diameter. Place rolled out dough into your frying pan. Start preparing your next roti. By the time that one is ready, your roti should start bubbling a bit which means it is time to flip it over. Same deal on the other side, but now you can press down firmly on the edges of the roti with a spatula to make the roti puff up (This is the coolest part of making roti bread). The bread is done after that. Set it aside and brush with margarine.

Perhaps the coriander leaves would add more to the flavour, but it wasn't that bad without it. Eating it with the roti was the ideal combination and I'll definitely be making roti more often.

Soundtrack - Bob Dylan at Budokan

Swedish Chocolate balls

Any vegan who has been to Sweden, or has met a Swedish vegan, is familiar with Delicato balls and their chocolatey, coconutty goodness. Alas, these seem to be unavailable outside of Sweden. Not even at IKEA.

Thanks to my Swedish friends, over at veganfitness.net, I discovered that delicato balls are just a commercial version of the Swedish treat, chokladboll. Armed with a recipe, I whipped up a quick batch a couple of nights ago. I took some to work, where they went down quite well, and opened the floodgates for a days worth of jokes about balls.

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cups oats
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 6 tbsp cocoa (I used cacao powder)
• 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar (I used the Hoyts brand) or 1 tsp  vanilla extract, added with the coffee
• 2/3 cup margarine (nutellex)
• 6 Tbsp  cold coffee
• flaked coconut

Method 

• Mix oats (Instant Oats will give a better texture and flavor and is recommended), sugar, vanilla sugar, and cocoa in a large bowl.
• Using your hands or a potato masher, incorporate the margarine into the dry ingredients until the dough has an even consistency.
• Add the coffee and mix until incorporated.
• Fill a small bowl with flaked coconut.
• With your hands, roll the dough into 3 cm diameter balls.
• Roll each ball in the coconut or pearl sugar and place on a tray.
• Chill chocolate balls for at least one hour before serving.

Required soundtrack: Anything by Roxette 

Tofu fingers with tartar sauce

My fridge is full of tofu at the moment because I just can't resist buying the joyco "nigari hard tofu" as it's so cheap and stuffed with protein (55 grams per pack).

With so much of it available to me, I knew that I had to make a tofu dish for the BBQ potluck. The vegan table came to the rescue with it's "Tofu filet with cornmeal crust and tartar sauce". I did a practice run on Friday and it went well, so I made it again on Saturday.


Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup polenta
• 3 teaspoons mixed herbs (thyme, rosemary, marjoram, basil, oregano and sage)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 cup vegan milk
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 1 block joyco tofu (325 grams)

Mix all the dry ingredients together and in another bowl whisk the mustard into your vegan milk.

Cut tofu into 1cm slices and heat oil in a frying pan.

Dip tofu into vegan milk and dredge in the flour mixture. Fry for a couple of minutes on each side until perfectly brown and crispy (just like in the photo).

For the tartar sauce, mix in finely chopped parsley, pickles and capers into some vegan mayonnaise. I used the Praise 97% fat-free mayonnaise.

Check out K's write up of the potluck to see pictures of all the great stuff other folks made and of my sweet cornbread.

Black bean burgers from hell and blackened tofu slabs

There aren't many things that are more awesome than veganism or heavy metal music, unless of course you combine them both into an online cooking show. Tim Hogarth has done this with his heavy metal vegan cooking website and youtube channel. The videos are really fun and the recipes are not too difficult to make. I've made the apple pie and black bean burgers so far.

Check out the video and recipe for the black bean burgers.

The only mildly difficult part about this recipe was cooking up the black beans, since I'm not willing to pay $5+ for a can of beans no matter how convenient it is. I buy my black beans, and most of my dried beans, from D'Souzas at Preston Market.

BLACKENED TOFU SLABS

Just when you think it can't get any cooler, I pull out a recipe from "vegan soul kitchen". Having experienced the "watermelon with basil sea salt" a few years ago while at a friend's place, and flicking through their copy, I knew that I needed to get it, and I finally did.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 kilo extra-firm tofu (I used the joyco nigari hard tofu that you can get from safeway), frozen, thawed, pressed and patted dry, cut into 3 even widthwise slices

Combine everything, except the tofu, in a small bowl and transfer to a large plate. Brush the tofu with  olive oil and dredge in seasoning. Fry until crisp (2-3 mins each side).


Typing up the recipe has made me realise that I actually put in too much cayenne, which explains its dominance, but that is the kind of dominance I don't mind.

Having made too much of the seasoning, I mixed it in with some margarine and used it as a sandwich spread. It's a keeper.

One pie to rule them all

After trying the Linda McCartney pies a few weeks ago and being bitterly disappointed with its complete lack of flavour, I decided it was time to create a record of all the pies I've tried and rate them on their taste, presentation and all that other stuff food critics write about to help fill up their word count.

Funky pies

My first encounter with these was at last year's world vegan day, and unfortunately they were still frozen in the middle when I dug into a few of them. I wasn't blown away by them as they seemed to be too heavy on the oily pastry rather than the fillings. The fillings were also too chunky, with massive morsels of "chicken". All the flavours are good, but the chilli-non carne is one I won't be trying again. My favourite item from the funky pies people is not a pie at all, but their bacon and mushroom quiche. The brownies are pretty good too.

I was lucky enough to make a visit to the actual cafe in Bondi last year and sampling the rest of their menu was a pure delight and judging by k's recent post, they have raised the bar even higher.

Funky chunky

Rating - 3.5/5

Linda McCartney country pies

How excited I was to find out that these were available in Melbourne after remembering a pleasant experience with them when I was in England a couple of years ago. It was, however, a distorted memory, clouded with tasty potatoes and gravy that covered up for the flavourlessness of the pie. After the first few bites I felt a slight confusion. "Where is the flavour?", I asked myself. I ate a little more and realised that there wasn't any.  I finished it, but the taste of betrayal lingered for a few more hours.

Like most things in life, parallels can be drawn with the entire Wings catalogue. Linda McCartney foods have put out a few good things, I admit that the sausages are nice, much like Wings' "Live and let die", but there are a lot of things that went wrong (e.g. sausage rolls and all the lacto-ovo stuff/the rest of Wings' records, excluding "Band on the run" and, depending on my mood, "Mull of Kintyre").

Rating - 1/5

Primal pies

While in Sydney last year I checked out most of the must try eateries and sampled two of the pies on offer at Naked Espresso. While I feel they are closer to my ideal pie than the Funky and Linda McCartney ones, they lack a crucial element, structural integrity. The photo below demonstrates this.

As you can see, there is no unity between the filling and the pastry (and it's not just because of the way I'm holding it ;) ). It looks like it has been deflated.  One wrong move and you can say goodbye to all that filling. It's a strange problem as it was a non-issue when I experienced my first vegan pie all those years ago at a humble Preston bakery/cult-ery.

Rating - 4/5

La Panella

Going to La Panella is like visiting an old friend who has become slightly whacky, bleached their hair and made a million friends who are willing to give them large sums of money to set up their own T.V. network, but they still know how to make a nice pie. The pastry is thick enough to hold the filling together, maintains its structural integrity once bitten into and has the perfect T.V.P., gravy and vegetable ratio. True, sometimes I can't tell the difference between the plain vegetable and mushroom pie, but there is such amazing synergy between the core ingredients that I can easily disregard it.

Besides the unbeatable value, the biggest plus for these pies is that they can make carcass munchers unconsciously make an ethical food choice for once in their otherwise heartless lives.  Luckily(?) the supreme master's followers are growing so there may be more of this type of thing happening around the place.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vegan_Meat_Pie_02_Pengo.jpg

Rating - 5/5


Special mention: Janet's pies in Newtown make a couple of vegan pies with only vegetables!?! in them. Nevertheless they are filling and borderline healthy. Here's a succinct but informative blog post by a sydneysider.

"Cheese burger" pizza

I was thinking about pizza throughout most of the day and decided to make one when I got home from work. I used a recipe from Sarah Kramer's "la dolce vegan".  It's very easy to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 pizza crust (I used the herbed crust from the same book. Basically add a teaspoon each of dried basil and oregano to a regular dough)
• 3/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1-2 pickles thinly sliced
• 1/4 small onion, thinly sliced
• 300 gm sanitarium vegie mince
• 1 cup cheezly
• 2 tbsp mustard

Method:


Preheat oven to 230 degrees. Spread sauce on crust, then place onions, mince, cheese and then mustard (I just squirted the mustard on). Bake 15-20 mins and you are good to go, after allowing to cool for a few minutes.

This was a great pizza and strangely I was unable to finish the whole thing.