December 17, 2009: Barbecue veges

When it comes to planning our Christmas party, my lab tends towards a DIY style. It's not difficult to see why - there are numerous talented cooks amongst us so the catering is guaranteed to be excellent. This year we held a barbecue and I volunteered to bring something vegetarian for the hot plate. Mushrooms were an easy option - I just sprinkled them with garlic slivers, rosemary leaves and balsamic vinegar.

These skewers required only a little more effort - they're made up of tofu and red capsicum chunks doused in a smoky marinade much like this one (I just added some apple cider vinegar for tanginess). They were well worth it.

Elsewhere on the hot plate were tender zucchini fritters and the saltiest haloumi I've ever sampled. The trestle table groaned under the weight of salads and snacks. I was impressed by the colleagues who merrily took charge of the barbecuing in the midst of a downpour, and amazed at the entire group's good cheer and perseverance in the face of bad weather - bocce went ahead and many people kicked on right until we had to surrender the venue.

December 15, 2009: Slow-cooked summer chili

At 3:30am on my birthday, when I couldn't sleep, Michael gave me a slow cooker. Until now, my knowledge of slow cookers has extended to stews and dried beans - the stuff of winter. (But, as Michael observed, "your birthday's not likely to fall in winter anytime soon".) Michael also supplied me with Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson, author of Vegan Planet and 1000 Vegan Recipes. This book quickly set me straight - as well as the chapters on stews and beans that I expected, there are also sections devoted to appetisers, breakfasts, desserts and beverages! Sitting on my bed at that early hour, I got a little over-excited as I scanned a dessert section with multiple vegan-friendly cheesecake recipes and a beverage section featuring warming winter punches. If this slow cooker were a little more cycle-friendly, I could see myself taking it to every vegan potluck for the next year.

In the later morning light, I scaled back my ambitions and focussed on making something we could enjoy during a week full of social activities. I returned to the more conventional sections on stews and vegetables, finding several chili recipes and settling on one that emphasised summer vegetables. Chopping and sauteing all the veges took some time, so the slow cooker wasn't a labour-saver in this instance. (In particular I found the eggplant peeling and corn-cob shucking a real drag.) However it did produce a chili different from any I've eaten before. While the vegetables were gorgeously tender after 8 hours of cooking, I was amazed that they hadn't disintegrated - the eggplant cubes and corn kernels still retained their own structures and textures.

Chili like this is wonderfully versatile: we ate it on rice, slathered it over corn chips to make nachos, and stuffed it into toasted sandwiches.

Slow-cooked summer chili
(based on Farm Stand Chili with Chickpeas from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
2 small eggplants, peeled and chopped
1 green capsicum, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 generous teaspoon chilli powder
1 1/2 cups water
400g can crushed tomatoes
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup corn kernels
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large frypan and gently saute the onion, celery, eggplant, capsicum and garlic for 5 minutes. Stir through the chilli powder and take it all off the heat.

Tranfer the sauteed veges to a slow cooker and add the remaining ingredients, seasoning to taste. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

December 14, 2009: Marquis of Lorne

Our most recent pub club outing was to the Marquis of Lorne, nestled on Fitzroy's residential George St. The entry level is a pleasant and unassuming bar; one level up and you're in the dining room; one further is a more partially enclosed bar space, this one with comfy second-hand furniture. It seems that there's also some pool tables in the basement!

There's only one meat-free main amongst the steaks and parmas, currently a risotto with asparagus and oven-roasted tomatoes, shaved parmesan and basil pesto ($18). Risotto - snore. So often the bland, uninspiring default for vegetarians. Worse, Michael tells me that this one wasn't even cooked through.

It's also easy enough to fashion a meal out of the bar snacks, starters and sides. I found that the grilled saganaki on a roquette and watercress salad with lemon and lime dressing ($12) made for an enjoyable light meal, with plenty of peppery greens and acidity to cut through the salty cheese.

We also shared some wedges 'round the table. Though they cost an above-average $8, it's also an above-average portion, with plenty of sour cream and tomato sauce for dipping.

Unusually, there wasn't anything on the dessert menu that captured my interest so we retired upstairs for more drinks and debate. On a quiet weeknight the Marquis of Lorne is a lovely spot for such things, though I won't be inclined to eat more than the bar snacks in future.

Address: 411 George St, Fitzroy
Ph: 9415 9904
Fully licensed
Price: veg food $5-18

December 14, 2009: Leftover makeover - apricot and walnut bread pudding

When I made baked artichoke dip recently, I scooped it up with a terrific walnut sourdough baguette. Then we went away for the weekend and the leftovers went very, very stale. I was determined to revive them and thought a bread pudding might be the solution - it proved to be a good one, since I was also able to add some past-their-best apricots and too-dry dried cherries.

The only other ingredient required is some custard to soften it all up. Though I prefer the taste of an egg-based custard, one made with custard powder is more pantry-friendly (and is easily veganised). The custard's flavour didn't dominate but it did the perfect job of restoring some tasty but unchewable ingredients.

Apricot and walnut bread pudding

1 1/2 cups walnut sourdough bread, cubed
1/4 cup dried cherries
1 tablespoon custard powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup milk
10 small apricots, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

In a small saucepan, stir together the custard powder and sugar, adding a little milk to form a paste. Whisk in the remaining milk and bring the custard to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the custard for about 2 minutes.

Mix together the dried cherries and bread cubes in a casserole dish, then stir through the custard. Stir through the apricots.

Bake the pudding, covered for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for a further 5-10 minutes, until the top is dry and golden.

December 13, 2009: Gigi's of Beechworth

We only had a short time in Beechworth post-Provenance to explore (long enough for bird #263, a white-winged chough) and the first order of business was some sustenance to get us through the day ahead. For a food-tastic country town, Beechworth wasn't overflowing with breakfast options on a Sunday morning - we'd been warned off the bakery (pictured above) and there wasn't a great deal else on offer.

Gigi's looked promising, with a reasonably varied menu and enough veg options to get our hopes up. Not to mention the Age Good Food Guide sticker on the door - sure sign that this place knew what it was doing. Unfortunately, they didn't - the service, while friendly enough, was all over the place - it took too long to get menus and even longer to have our orders taken, but the biggest problem of all was the coffee. Usually you order a coffee, it comes out before your brekkie and you're ready for another by the time you've finished eating. It seems as though Gigi's was trying to cut our caffeine intake by limiting us to the post-meal coffee - we didn't see a hot drink until after everyone had finished eating. Pretty poor form. And even then the coffee wasn't outstanding.

The food was reasonable without being particularly thrilling. I ordered the home-made baked beans on sourdough with poached eggs and spinach ($15).

The eggs were excellent, as was the bread, while the beans were a little too firm for my taste and lacking a bit in the spices that I'm looking for in breakfast beans. At $15, these fell a fair way short of the cheaper Mixed Business variety.

Cindy went sweet again, with a warm house-baked fruit brioche served with cinnamon butter ($8.50).

I'm not sure what qualified this as 'brioche', but semantics aside, Cindy was pretty happy with her meal - mostly because they used such a heavy hand on the cinnamon butter.

It's hard for me to be too generous about Gigi's - if you're going to position yourself as the fancy breakfast place in town, you really need to get fundamentals like coffee sorted out. Maybe Provenance should muscle into the breakfast market.

Address: 69 Ford Street, Beechworth
Ph: 5728 2575
Licensed
Prices: Vegie breakfasts, $6-$15
Website: http://gigisofbeechworth.com