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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!