james test

March 12, 2017 We don't eat them a lot, but I have a soft spot for baked potatoes. This is an unusually glamorous and slightly labour-intensive version from The First Mess . Laura Wright's photos capture waxy white potatoes piled high with bright-orange cauliflower and chickpeas, spattered with spicy hot sauce. Mine don't have quite the same show-stopping qualities, but they're quite the comfort food nonetheless. We correctly deduced that this recipe is a weekend project, so we set about it on a Sunday and doubled the filling recipe to ensure some leftovers (I've just left it at a single quantity in the recipe below). My pot-full of cauliflower and chickpeas never quite took on the saucy consistency of Wright's, most likely due to the combination of constrained hot sauce and chopped roasted tomatoes I used, and I added some extra tomato paste to try to thicken it all up. It helped a bit. We loved these hearty carb-boats of spiced stew, but I'm not sure in wh...

March 12, 2017 We've noticed that the inner north's cafes are less busy on Golden Plains weekend, and we try to take advantage of it. This year we ventured out to Fitzroy's New School Canteen, which Steph & Hayley had been urging us to visit. They were impressed by the array of vegan and eggy breakfasts, respectively, and knew I'd be all over the 'dessert breakfast' section of the menu. Sadly, by the time we gave New School Canteen a shot the menu had changed and 'dessert breakfasts' were no longer a feature. For us sweet lovers, the solitary option was a chia pudding - no thanks! Rather, there's an abundance of rich savoury eggs, breakfast burgers and toasties (including vegan cheese!) with a superfood-styled rice bowl and grain salad as exceptions. Michael was, of course, spoiled for choice. He was impressed by the panko-crumbed poached eggs ($17.50) served with green papaya slaw, chilli jam, and tofu so deeply braised that it was nearly bla...

March 10, 2017 When we're feeling lazy on a Friday evening, we're lucky to have the Snug close by. (South-siders can no longer say the same, with their St Kilda sister closing this month .) We've been pleasantly surprised to find that even as folks clock off for the week, the back garden is not necessarily packed with drinkers and smokers. Their vegan menu has stabilised somewhat since our first visit . Michael went back to the bangers'n'mash (now $26) - it's a filling but not over-the-top serve with a lovely red onion gravy. Little else on the menu looks familiar but plenty looks appetising, from cauliflower poppers to shepherd's pie, spaghetti alfredo and three mock burgers. I took on the fillet-no-fish burger ($20) - it's a really nice rendition based around the excellent Gardein fillets, with a soft-but-not-too-sweet bun, tartare sauce and salad. Chips were abundant, cut thick with the skin left on. (I should've hunted down some sauce for them....

March 5, 2017 I made this slice specifically for slouching on the couch and sharing with a friend on a Sunday afternoon, and I can't imagine a better setting for it. It's got a biscuity almond & oat base, jammy berry filling, and messy swirls of peanut butter and peanut polka dots on top. Even for those of us who didn't grow up with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, it's a charmingly childish and comforting snack. I suspect a lot of ingredients here could get swapped for convenience: rolled oats and almonds could sub out for flours and other nuts, any frozen or fresh berries would do, and what about other nut butters? There is one component that's a bit sensitive, though! I thought keeping my base almonds chunky would be fun, but it just rendered the base greasy with oil and too crumbly to support the slice in our hands. I'll blend all those base ingredients much more thoroughly in future. No matter - little spoons and plates just enhanced the cocoon we cr...

March 3, 2017 Late in 2016, the Melbourne veg*n grapevine was buzzing with rumours about a new vegan pizza place in Collingwood. The opening got postponed a few times and the excitement steadily grew. So when they finally threw their doors open, it didn't take long for us to join a gang of Melbourne veg*ns to go and check them out. Part of the delay in their opening was related to the transportation of their fancy pizza oven - they're going for a similar thin-crust wood-fired vibe to the much loved Gigi in Sydney and they've got the setup to match. The menu has something for everyone - classics like margherita, mock-meat extravaganzas like pepperoni and healthier options like the supergreen (spinach and kale pesto with broccoli and zucchini). We ordered eight pizzas between the eight of us, and the staff were kind enough to cut things into (uneven) eighths to make the whole sharing experience easier.  The first four, clockwise from top-left were: the classic sausage (bbq b...

February 28, 2017 Dosa Plaza is an unassuming eatery holding up the corner of an apartment complex in Preston, where High St and Plenty Rd fork off. We'd paid only passing attention to it, until a couple of friends invited us to try it out with them after work. Opening and discussing the menu was an excursion in itself - it's all vegetarian and stretches to over two hundred  items. Vegan, gluten-free and onion-garlic-free dishes are clearly marked, and there's even a 3-page summary sheet of vegan foods available on request. This was a journey that started briefly with pasta before focusing on Mumbai chaat, the Punjabi foods found at most Indian restaurants across Australia, and then south Indian delicacies - idlies, vadas, dosas and uttappas. Chinese fusion dosas, Mexican  fusion dosas, Indo-Chinese dishes, desserts and drinks. Phew! We tried our best to sample across the board. A dozen mini-idlies ($8, pictured above left) were an auspicious start, freshly steamed and a li...

February 25, 2017 I was travelling for my job during the week leading up February Ottolenghi club, which meant I wouldn't have time to make icecream. Instead I made posset! I've tried my hand at posset once before 5 years ago , funnily enough for the same reason; I guess a dish of refrigerated cream and sugar is the next obvious choice after a dish of freeze-churned cream and sugar. I've since learned that curdling the cream is another essential part of posset. This allows the dessert to set to a velvety self-supporting consistency in the fridge. Ottolenghi's version uses lime zest and leaves to infuse the cream, then lime juice for the curdling. He'd have us pile it up with papaya for serving, but I preferred to use mango. The overall effect is both rich and refreshing, sweet and sour - a beauty in its own right, and not simply an icecream understudy. Mango-lime posset (slightly adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's Guardian column ) 900mL double cream 18 fresh or fr...

February 25, 2017 We had such a great time at January's Ottolenghi-club, that we reconvened just a month later for Febru-lenghi, another celebration of Yotam's ridiculously good recipes. You'd think it would be getting hard to keep standards high, but this felt like one of the best club-meetings ever - you can get a full run-down over on our facebook page .  I was home alone for the week and got a bit carried away, committing to three different dips - butternut and tahini spread , avocado and broad bean dip and this butterbean hummus with red pepper and walnut paste. This was all a fairly significant time commitment, although a lot of it was spent just waiting for things to roast or cool. The end result was amazing though - each one of these dips was somebody's favourite around the table. The beautifully fresh avocado and broad bean dip was the most summery, while the sweet and nutty pumpkin dip was a bit heartier.  The fanciest of all was the butterbean hummus, which ...

February 15, 2017 Cindy's started doing a bit of work out at Monash which, if nothing else, gives us an excuse to meet up in Richmond after work for dinner. We'd heard good things from friends about the food at Feast of Merit, a social enterprise that raises money for YGAP  and serves up Middle-Eastern inspired goodies all day long. It's a lovely space - lots of light streaming in through the big windows and a nice buzzy atmosphere without being deafeningly loud.  The menu is pretty standard mid-range Melbourne: small, medium and large share plates with lots of veggie options and then nothing but meat under 'protein'. The staff gave us a good idea of sizing and we ordered a good mix from the small and medium sections, starting with chickpea chips with tomato jam ($9), braised radishes with pomegranate molasses and leaves ($9), caramelised onion hummus ($8) and za'atar grilled flatbread ($5).  They were a beautifully presented selection of dishes that took up alm...