Category: Entree/Snacks

2 beetroots
250ml white wine vinegar
250ml water
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
lettuce, torn in to small pieces
vegan feta, crumbled.
handful walnuts
1 grated carrot
rind of half an orange
1 sprig of mint, leaves removed and finely sliced

1. Slice beetroot using mandolin. 2mm thickness will give you enough flexibility for tacos. Slice using gloves so your hands don’t stain.

2. Combine white wine vinegar, water, coriander, sugar and salt in a pan and heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Add sliced beetroot and let cool. Ideally overnight so flavours can infuse.

3. Mix together grated carrot and orange.

4. toast walnuts in a dry pan. Let cool and then chop finely.

5. To serve: lay out beetroot slices and top with lettuce, crumbled feta, toasted walnuts, orange infused carrots and mint. Position on serving platter and drizzle with a small amount of oil.

1/2 cup dried chickpeas
1/2 head of garlic
2 cups water
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup tahini

1. Cook chickpeas, peeled garlic cloves and water in a pressure cooker for 35 minutes.

2. Once the pressure has been safely released, drain the chickpeas and garlic and put in a food processor. Add lemon, cumin, oil, salt and 1/4 cup water and blend on high until smooth and creamy.

3. Add tahini to food processor and blend until combined.

4. Serve topped with whatever you like. I’ve topped with chilli/lime oil and roasted butter beans in the image above but your options are pretty endless.

Notes:
Cooking dried chickpeas results in a nicer, smoother hummus but you can always replace the dried chickpeas with one can of tinned chickpeas.

Serving suggestions:
Sumac
Chilli infused oil
Roasted beans or nuts
Cumin
Zhug

2 onions, finely sliced
2tbsp butter
1tbsp oil
1tbsp balsamic vinegar
1tsp brown sugar
S+P
6 zucchinis, finely sliced
2tbsp butter
1tbsp oil
2tbsp crack

2tbsp sugar
3 tbsp butter
2 sprigs thyme, leaved removed from stalk
1tbsp balsamic vinegar
Pepper

1 sheet puff pastry

1. Heat the butter and oil in a pan and cook the onions until caramelised. Add balsamic vinegar, sugar and salt and pepper and cook until sticky. Set aside.

2. In the same pan (Don’t clean it in between any of these steps), heat the butter and oil and add the sliced zucchini. cook until softened and browned. Add crack and turn off the heat. Set the zucchini aside.

3. In the same pan, heat the sugar, butter, thyme, balsamic vinegar and pepper, stirring, until the mix becomes thickened. Make sure that when you’re stirring it, you collect any bits leftover from the onion and zucchini cooling. It’s flavour city!

4. Pour this liquid in to a ceramic quiche pan.

5. Using your artistic skills, lay out the zucchini slices and then top with the caramelised onions. Finally, place the puff pastry on top, trim and edges and tuck it inside the pan around the veggies.

6. Bake in an oven at 200C until the top is browned and cooked.

7. Place a board or a plate over the tarte tatin and flip it so the pastry is on the bottom and the zucchini is on show.

8. This is good eaten hot, room temp or straight from the fridge.

approximately 20 grape leaves
20 vegan prawns – I used Lamyong brand from my asian grocer
oil
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1.5 red chillies, finely diced. Go the whole 2 if you like it hot.
15g ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
200g pineapple, chopped in to small squares about 1/2cm
60ml lime or lemon juice
salt and pepper
5 tablespoons chopped peanuts, toasted

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan. Add red onion, chilli ginger and garlic and cook over medium heat for about two minutes, constantly stirring the pan so the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the pineapple and some pepper to taste and cook for about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Add the lemon or lime juice and keep in fridge until you are ready to serve.

2. Rinse the vine leaves in water for about 5 minutes. This will help them separate. Gently separate the vine leaves (they will tear easily) and hang over a wire rack to dry out a bit. This is important as we are going to fry them and don’t want them to be very wet as they will sputter in the hot pan.

3. If you haven’t already toasted the peanuts, heat them in a dry pan over medium heat. Keep an eye On them and move them around the pan regularly. Turn the heat off as soon as they start to brown and give the pan a couple more shakes as the residual heat might still burn them.

4. To serve- heat about a teaspoon of oil in a non stick pan. Once hot, add the vine leaves in one layer. You will need to do this in batches. Turn to cook on the other side. You’re aiming for some bits to crisp up a bit. Remove and place on serving platter. Continue with remaining grape leaves.

5. In the same pan, fry the prawns turning once brown on one side to cook the other. Place one prawn on top of each grape leaf.

6. Spoon over each prawn about a teaspoon and a half of the pineapple salsa and generously sprinkle the toasted peanuts on top.

Notes:
When cooking the pineapple salsa, you don’t need to cook the onion and garlic through. In fact, you don’t want to do this. We’re just taking the edge off them with a little cooking and then the whole thing will mellow and taste perfect after it’s been marinading in the lemon or lime juice. Citrus cooks food so it will take any residual sting out of the strong flavours and leave you with a spicy fresh…mmmmm you’ll like it 🙂

Frying the grape leaves: you will have some fried sections of the leaves when you fry them and some not. This is perfect. You don’t want the leaf to be too crispy as you will be using it as your edible plate so it needs to me mailable but the few crispy bits will bring out the saltiness of the grape leaves and add a yummy seasoning to your dish.

DONUTS
1 cup whole meal flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk
2 tablespoons melted vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

ICING
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 170 Celsius and spray a donut pan or mold with non-stick spray.

2. In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix until combined evenly.

3. Add the milk, melted butter and vanilla extract and whisk until incorporated.

4. Spoon the batter in to your mold and bake in oven for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before unmolding

5. In a bowl combine icing sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice.

6. Dip each of the donuts in to the icing and sit on a tray to set.

300g potato
250g firm tofu
3 sheets nori
Teriyaki sauce
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds

1. Finely grate potato (leave the skins on just ensure they’re washed) with a microplane and place in sieve to drain.

2. Chop tofu up finely then squash and spread the tofu using the flat part of your knife by squashing and dragging the tofu across your breadboard until all the tofu is flattened in to a squished paste. Do this with the whole batch two more times. Doing this three times is important because each time, the tofu becomes a little bit more glutinous resulting in a great texture.

3. Squeeze as much of the liquid out of the potato as possible then mix the potato and tofu together in a bowl.

4. Cut your Sheets of nori in to 8 or 10 rectangles.

5. Take a piece of nori and with the rough side facing up, flatten roughly a tablespoon worth of tofu mix on to the nori. For added texture and aesthetic appeal, score the piece of eel with a butter knife down the centre and then a few times on either side at an angle.

6. Lay the piece on a dry breadboard while you prepare the rest.

7. Heat some oil in a non-stick pan and add each piece nori side down. Cook until crispy, flip and cook the other side until crispy.

8. Serve topped with teriyaki sauce and a sprinkling of white sesame.

1 pack tofu
4 tablespoons corn flour
1 tablespoon Sichuan hot and spicy sauce (I use Lee Kum Kee brand)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon chingkiang vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sliced coriander
1 teaspoon sesame seeds, toasted

1. Cut tofu in to ~2.5cm cubes

2. Dry with paper towel.

3. Put corn flour in bowl and coat tofu pieces.

4. Cook in sandwich press (you can cook two sides at a time this way) and turn to cook each side until crispy.

5. While the tofu is cooking, combine remaining ingredients to make sauce.

6. Plate tofu when cooked to your desired crispyness and drizzle with the Sichuan sauce. Serve the tofu with sauce on the side so bold players can go crazy with some extra dippy dippy!

700g cabbage, finely chopped
¼ cup pickled red ginger
4 spring onions, finely sliced (save the sliced tips for serving)
1 cup flour
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp baking powder
150g soft tofu
1 cup water
4tbsp flax meal
1tbsp mushroom powder
Oil

TOPPINGS:
Teriyaki sauce
Vegan mayo
Spring onions, finely sliced
Rice seasoning
Togarashi

1. Put chopped cabbage, red pickled ginger and the sliced spring onions (saving some of the green tips for garnishing) in a large bowl. Add flour, salt and baking powder and gently stir to combine.

2. In a blender, add tofu, water, flax and mushroom powder. Blend until smooth and pour in to bowl. Stir until combined evenly

3. Heat about 1 tbsp of oil in a non-stick pan over med-high heat. Add approximately 1 cup of batter to the pan and squish down until it’s about 1.5cm thick. Cook until browned on one side and then flip to cook the other side. Transfer to a serving plate.

4. Brush or spoon over teriyaki sauce, top with mayo in a zig-zag pattern, sprinkle with rice seasoning, sliced spring onions and add togarashi to taste.

   Notes

   • Togarashi is a Japanese chilli. It has orange rind in it and it’s so good. Don’t limit your use of this to Japanese dishes.

   • Rice seasoning can be purchased from your Asian grocer and some supermarkets. It’s seaweedy, sesame seed goodness.

   • To anyone who has read this recipe and seen my video making okinomiyaki, did you notice that I do things in a slightly different order each time? In the written recipe, I add the dry mix to the cabbage then add the wet mix. In the vid I add the wet mix to the dry mix and then add that to to cabbage. The point is that slight changes don’t make a huge difference in most recipes. Try it, enjoy the process, taste as you go and feel proud of yourself you good thing!!

~3 king oyster mushrooms, sliced in to 1cm thick rounds.
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup roasted macadamia nuts plus extra for sprinkling on finished dish
1 birds’ eye chilli, chopped finely
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped
3/4 cup coriander, chopped
1 lebanese cucumber, thinly sliced
65g (1 cup) bean sprout shoots, trimmed
1 small red capsicum, deseeded and cutinto strips
3 green shallots, trimmed and thinly sliced diagonally

1. Cook sliced mushroom in a combination of half butter and oil over medium heat.

2. Turn once browned on one side and cook on other side.

3. Place brown sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, olive oil, macadamias, chilli, ginger, mint and coriander in a blender and blend until smooth.

4. Combine all other ingredients except for the spare macadamias together in a bowl.

5. When the mushrooms are cooked, ready your platter or individual servers or scallop shells if you already have them and are cool with that. I have about 20 that I’ve had for over ten years.

6. Spoon the salad mix on to the scallop shells, top with a scallop, then the dressing and finally sprinkle some macadamias over the top.

3 shallots, sliced finely
3 tbsp pickled red ginger, chopped finely
100grams prawn (I use Lamyong brand prawns), chopped up
300ml mushroom stock
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flax meal mixed with 2.5 tablespoons hot water and left to sit for five minutes)
100grams flour

TOPPING
teriyaki Sauce
vegan Mayo (I use kewpie)
leftover shallot and pickled ginger
japanese rice seasoning

1. Chop schallots, pickled ginger and prawn and set aside.

2. In a bowl, put flour and flax egg. Add a small amount of stock and stir until no lumps. Add more stock a little at a time until its all incorporated.

3. Heat takoyaki pan and oil it. As soon as it starts to smoke, Pour in batter until the holes are slightly overfilled.

4. In each hole, put a piece of prawn, a sprinkling of shallot and a sprinkling of ginger.

5. Using a spoon, turn takoyaki balls so the other side cooks.

6. When browned, remove and plate,

7. Top with teriyaki sauce, mayo, shallots, ginger and rice seasoning.