Candy Cane Fudge and Mushroom Tarragon Pate

So it turns out we don't have any pictures of Toby's ice cream dish or his xmas potluck dish. Yes we had two potlucks this weekend! A ice cream one on Saturday and xmas themed potluck on Sunday. For the ice cream potluck Toby made a super alcoholic large version of the frozen margarita pie that I made last time. Except this time he made the ice cream using the lime recipe from vegan scoop. For the xmas potluck he made this:

 Mushroom and Tarragon Pate using this recipe from BBC.

• 50g margarine
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 leek finely chopped (he used a regular onion)
• 2 garlic cloves crushed
• 100g chestnut mushrooms , finely chopped (he used button mushrooms)
• 100g shiitake mushrooms , finely chopped
• 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 2 tbsp crème fraîche (see vegan version below)
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon plus extra to garnish(he used dried)

1. Heat butter in a large frying pan. Add shallots, leek and garlic, then gently fry for 7 mins until softened.
2. Increase the heat, add the chestnut and the shiitake mushrooms, then cook for 10 mins, stirring, until the juices have evaporated and the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the mustard and crème fraîche, then season well. Cook for a further 2 mins then stir in the chopped tarragon.

Almond Creme Fraiche loosely based on recipe for cashew cream fraiche from Vegan Epicurean.

Makes approximately 20 tablespoons (he made much less)

Ingredients:

1 cup almond meal
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (start with half)
1 pinch of salt (optional)
approximately ½ cup of water to process

Directions:

Place the almond meal,  half the apple cider vinegar and salt in your blender and turn the machine in. Add water slowly until the cashews have just been liquefied. Stop the machine and taste the mixture and adjust the flavors to your taste. Refrigerate until needed.

I quite liked the pate despite my mushroom texture issues and Toby loved it.

I was exhausted by Sunday so I opted to make something which I thought was easy and quick for the Xmas potluck. This Candy Cane Fudge from A profound Hatred of Meat.



 I loved the simple idea of adding crushed candy canes on top. I had all sorts of issues with the fudge though. First, I almost the burnt the coconut milk, then had to use the kitchen aid to mix it together but it was still too dry. So I ended up adding more and more coconut milk and then in the end you couldn't get it out of the pan. It also results in way too many dishes for such a simple dish. I think next time I would opt to make the five minute fudge from my sweet vegan and just add the candy canes to that.

Check out what fat fueled vegan made for the ice cream potluck, and Lisa's post about the her dish at the xmas potluck and hopefully there will be more recipes posted online!  

G/F Chocolate HoneyComb Ice Cream Cake

Cindy had a ice cream potluck for her birthday on Sat. So I made her this gluten free chocolate honeycomb ice cream cake with chocolate crackle base. I took inspiration from two online non-vegan, non-gluten free recipes and combined them. The chocolate crackle base idea was from Koali's life blog and the inclusion of honey roasted nuts was from the Eat Drink Live version of nigella's cake.

First I made the honeycomb, unfortunately I had tried a few more honeycomb recipes which all failed. Maybe due to the humidity before finally returning to the original recipe that I made last time. I covered in chocolate again and cut it into small chunks.

To make the chocolate crackle base. I simply copied Koali and followed the same recipe but substituted the chocolate for dark chocolate and the rice bubbles for g/f version of rice bubbles. YES STUPIDLY REGULAR RICE BUBBLES AREN'T G/F!

1 250g dark chocolate
roughly 1 1/2 cup of g/f rice bubbles
1. Line a 20cm spring form cake tin with baking paper (I didn't do this but it didn't seem to matter)
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler
3. Add rice bubbles a large serving spoonish at a time. Mix through until you get the consistency of chocolate crackles. You want enough chocolate to set but enough rice bubbles to give a constant crunch.
4. Spread the mixture over the bottom of the cake tin.

Then I made honey roasted nuts, but instead of roasting them or using honey. I followed this recipe from the sweet and salty life for agave walnuts and substituted peanuts:

Agave Glazed Peanuts

4 TBSP Raw Agave Syrup
2 TBSP Margarine
1 Cup Peanuts

Pour it all into a medium pan and sauté on medium heat.
When the Peanuts are hot, lower the flame and allow the nuts to simmer until the glaze has become thick. You will know the Walnuts are ready when there is no liquid in the pan and the nuts have completely soaked up the Agave and Earth Balance. Let them cool and then store the nuts in an air tight container to keep them soft and moist. I then cut them into chunks too.

For the ice cream, I just followed the vanilla ice cream recipe in Vegan Scoop but instead of adding vanilla essence I added a whole vanilla pod and cooked it with a combination of rice and coconut milk.  I don't think the vanilla was needed though and probably wasted with alll the other flavours combined.

In the last few minutes in the ice cream maker I added the chopped honeycomb and nuts. Then spread it over the chocolate crackle base.

And decorated it by making a C with some honeycomb and nuts that I had put aside.

I was pretty happy with the end result, especially given that it was a big experiment and I wasn't sure how it would all go together.  It was pretty sweet and had loads of crunch. I think you could easily reduce the nuts and/or honeycomb and just get rid of the chocolate crackle base or the nuts if you wanted to.

Instead of taking pictures like I normally did, I just relaxed and ate and ate and ate. There was so much amazing ice cream and g/f penguin waffles! Toby will talk about his ice cream dish next.

Coeliac Diagnosis Confirmed

I found out on Monday night that the biopsy confirmed that I have coeliac's disease. If you haven't been following my blog for a while you might not be aware that most of this year has consisted of me trying to find out. I actually had another biopsy at the start of the year which didn't show anything. I then ate gluten free for months before another specialist insisted that they test again.

The strange thing is that when I was eating gluten initially there was no obvious side affects. It wasn't like I ate bread or even gluteny mock meat and felt sick. I just some random bad days. Also when I went gluten free for a few months I didn't really feel much better. But when I returned to eating gluten for the second biopsy I spend most of the month feeling bloated at random times and sometimes for days at a time and just feeling really blahhh. Also almost the entire time I had a cold or nausea, or some sort of minor things wrong with my health. So I suspected that I had it but wasn't sure if it was just placebo effects.

I still haven't ruled out fructose malabsorption, but my specialist suggested that I wait 6 months and then if I am still not feeling better have the test which is fine with me!

My specialist can't explain why the biopsy results  changed, since they were only about 6 months later. But he did say that someone people have negative biopsies and then years later they have another biopsy and have it. Almost like people are pre-coeliac or something. I have mixed feelings about it, it's good to finally have an answer to what's wrong. Also after eating gluten free for a while I know that I can do it. But I'm a little disappointed too because I do have to be strict forever to prevent some serious health problems in the future. And eating out is a little inconvenient most of the time. Also, I'm not sure how I will be able to eat in Hong Kong, when we return to visit Toby's family since most of the vegetarian restaurants are based around gluteny products and wheat is in soy sauce and most sauces. Anyone know of other vegetarian coeliac who have travelled to Asia and managed to eat out?

So from now all of the recipes on here will be gluten free again. Although I still have a few gluteny restaurant reviews to get through first.

I joined the coeliac society straight away, and received this pack which also includes some optional extras that I paid for like the gluten free travel guide. I'm most looking forward to using the Coles discount card. Unfortunately it does contain a few items which aren't vegan like the bread and chocolate biscuits. So if you want them please let me know.

Tuxedo Strawberries

One of the vouchers for the langham high tea was for my grandmother, who is unfortunately in hospital at the moment so couldn't attend with us. So I really wanted to recreate part of the experience for her. I showed my colleague pictures from our high tea and she commented that her friend had made her the tuxedo strawberries once. This led me to do a google search and discovered that it was possible to make them.

It took a little practice to get it right and there was plenty of reject looking ones but I think if you had a proper piping bag instead of trying to use toothpicks (which didn't work at all) or a ziplock bag it might be easier.

I took one into my grandmother who surprisingly was able to eat it and loved it. And then took the rest to a friend's mahjong playing gathering, I finally learned how to play mahjong. Thanks Eve!

Here's the rough recipe:


Tuxedo Strawberries

2 punnets strawberries
1 and 1/2 blocks of sweet william white chocolate
1 cup dark choc chips

Wash and pat dry strawberries, make sure they are dry or the chocolate won't stick.

Melt white chocolate, dip strawberries in white chocolate and set aside or in fridge to set.

Melt dark chocolate, dip in one side, and then another, so you have a v shape. I found this amusing youtube video helped to understand.

Use piping bag filled with dark chocolate to pipe bow and buttons onto each one.

The white chocolate kind of balances out the bitterness of the dark chocolate so I think even people who hated dark chocolate would enjoy these. They are fiddly though and had Toby and I quite stressed and running late. Also, as we learned the hard way you need to use something small and deep like a glass so you can properly dip the strawberries and it ends up using way more chocolate than you think, but i've tried to estimate for the recipe!

High Tea at Langham Hotel

Warning: this post contain pics of some non-vegan food, a first for this blog but I wanted to demonstrate the differences between the options and ask how I can replicate the chocolate things. Also, these pics were taken by a camera phone so a bit small and blurry.

My brother got my mum, my sister and I vouchers to have high tea at langham last year for xmas, and with them about to expire we had to use them soon. We finally used them today since I had the day off work for my biopsy. So I had the biopsy at 9am and high tea at 2pm. What a mixed up day!

I was a little sceptial about whether I would be just given salad and fruit but was pleasantly suprised when this arrived.

On the bottom there was 3 different types of sandwiches, cucumber ones, avocado ones and one with eggplant, tomato and lettuce.

Then on the middle there was a range of expected fruit.

My fav layer though was the top was strawberries covered in drak chocolate and an amazing sago dessert. The sago dessert was unlike any other sago dessert I've had, it had a berry coulis, mango, and some sort of other flavour that reminded me of vanilla but was something else. I asked my mum who works in catering and she couldn't pinpoint it either. I suspected that the white substance was coocnut cream/milk but couldn't taste any coconut flavour so not sure what it was. There was so many flavours in my tiny dessert, it was truly great.

My mother and sister chose the langham classic high tea which comes with sandwiches, scones and a range of desserts. And my sister's friend chose the chocolate indulgence which was the same except all of the desserts included chocolate and it come with a chocolate brulee on the side.

This is the classic:

 

and this is the chocolate:

Mine lacked the outstanding level of detail on the desserts like this white and dark chocolate covered strawberry:

 

and this mini chocolate eclair:

I was in abosulte awe of the presentation of their desserts, which left me wondering where can I get vegan desserts that look so pretty or how can I make desserts that even closely resemble those?  Overall though I was pleasantly surprised and impressed that they could manage to do a vegan high tea even if it wasn't as pretty.

Aria Bar at Langham

1 Southgate Ave

Southbank

VIC 3006

G/f Blogging rant

I've having my biopsy finally tomorrow to find out if I have coeliac disease which reminds that I have wanted to talk about the gluten free blogging community for a little while. When I first g/f I started reading loads and loads of g/f blogs around the world, not just the ones on my tool bar! However, I'm continually surprised and disappointed that there doesn't seem to be quite the sense of community that I find in the veg blogging world.

It really really gripes me when people don't link to other blogs when they have visited a cafe/restaurant that others have blogged about. I know I'm not alone in that thought, Lisa has talked about being a good link citizen  and fitzroyalty has talking about in regards to blogging ethics. I think it's pretty rare in the Aus veg blogging world at least but g/f bloggers never seem to do it which I personally think is rude.

I've also noticed that many g/f bloggers don't even have links to other blogs on their side bar or if they do it's just the super famous ones generally from overseas which is another pet gripe. It also made it hard for me to find heaps of local g/f blogs when I first started. Whereas, if you find most veg blogs you will generally find a large number of links to other local and non-famous veg blogs.

There are a few exceptions to g/f sense of community like Book of Yum's adopt a g/f blogger but I really haven't come across much else.

Why do you think it is? Has anyone else noticed it? I'm happy to be proven wrong and discover that there is a real strong g/f blogging community which I haven't come across yet. I have met other coeliacs in life and been excited to share info and tips with them so I don't get it. Is it because being vegan or vegetarian is a choice and g/f isn't?

On a g/f food related note, I am addicted to these g/f pretzels and actually prefer them to regular pretzels now, I particularly love them covered in chocolate.

Shakahari 3

Last week we went to Shakahari to celebrate my graduation and discovered that the menu has changed again since I last blogged about it only a few months ago. They still have an incredibly large number of g/f dishes, I think all six of their entrees and half of their mains are g/f. I was relieved to discover that they had kept a few of their classic dishes too like the avocado magic, satay legend and the croquettes. I managed to try everyone's dishes as well as order my own.

Toby and I shared the quinoa gnocchi (g/f), which doesn't look or taste much like gnocchi but was still delicious. The favour and texture reminded me a little of chinese style turnip cakes.

I couldn't resist ordering the croquettes de chine which are sadly not g/f but contain mashed potatoes, yam, macadamia nuts, pickled tunips with are served with kimchee, greens and an amazing tangy ginger sauce, these are still my favourite! My teenage sister enjoyed her share of this too I think even more than her own dish.

My mother ordered the satay legend, skewers with tofu, veg and seitan, served with rice greens, and pickles. She polished the plate and said that she loved it.

Toby ordered the laksa which comes with crispy tofu and tempeh. He requested for them to make it mild and I didn't get to try much of this but he said that it was rich in coconut flavour and that he really enjoyed the protein filled dish. It's a pricey laksa though at $19.50 but at least you can guarantee that's it vegan.

My teenage sister ordered the g/f pasta, which come with a pesto sauce, soy cheese and plenty of mushrooms. She ate it all except for the mushrooms, because she hates them. I enjoyed my tasting of this and thought the pasta was awesome for g/f pasta.

And we were intrigued by the soy almond panacotta dessert.  This was served with almond toffee, strawberries and a sweet orange coulis. I loved it but worried when I shared some with my sister that the soy flavour would be too much for her but she said that 'it tasted like real panacotta but a little less creamy'. I've never had real panacotta before so had nothing to compare it to but thought it was similar to the old tofu caramel in it's creamy smooth texture and loved the flavour combination.

 

It was a great success, everyone loved their meals and it's not everyday that I can manage to get a teenage omni to enjoy an upmarket vegetarian restaurant which doesn't offer chips.

I'm so hungree blogged about it recently, you can also read reviews based on their menu a few months ago here and here or our first review here.

Shakahari

201-203 Faraday St

Carlton
9347 3843