one of those rare occasions where you tear out a recipe from the weekend magazine and actually cook it. this is french toast, with croissants instead of bread. and cherries, stewed apple and yoghurt. so decadent for a friday morning.

the recipe called it ‘pain perdu’ (hence the lost bread). but it’s basically your everyday french toast recipe, just using the croissants (sliced through the centre) to soak up the egginess instead of bread. fried in a little butter and voila.

the festival, not the friend. full of little recipes and interesting quotes. and lps.

email me if you want one, i’ve got loads, printed with love at the rizzeria.

when i was in berlin a few months ago i ate a whole lot of fresh tempeh. the girls are back in sydney from berlin, and we celebrated their return with more eating of tempeh. what was to be a bbq but sydney got really cold, really quick. so it became a pie and vegetable dinner, with lots of wine and conversation between the five of us.

mushroom & tempeh pie
(in the 9 years bim and i dated she refused to eat tempeh. now when i cook it there’s always a little moment of acknowledging that tempeh can taste good. especially done my way)
in an oven proof saucepan fry up a chopped onion, then a block of cubed tempeh, 2 big handfuls of chopped brown mushrooms and a big dash of red wine. leave to simmer for a bit, then add some chopped green beans, tamari, tabasco and whole cherry tomatoes. and cider vinegar if you have it. this whole process should take about 15 minutes.
peel and thinly slice a big potato, and layer the potato over the top. dab with a few bits of nuttelex and bake in the oven until golden.

served here with red cabbage sauerkraut (chopped red cabbage, pressure cooked and dressed with cider vinegar and caraway seeds), broccolli steamed and dressed with pinenuts and garlic, and asparagus steamed and drowned in lemon juice.

and some qp mayonnaise on top for the extar creaminess.

twice this week i’ve reached for the packet of peas in the freezer. shame on me, but also much excitement.

there’s a changing of the guards taking place at the moment (the mountains are calling the writer in my midst) and we’ve been apathetically interviewing potential housemates. last night, after a second visit, the deal was done and in a few weeks all will be a bit more stable at home again (with a flurry of painters in between).

this is the leek and bean cassoulet from my favourite cookbook of the moment, veganomicon.

the stew
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cups of veges stock
a couple of tablespoons of flour
2 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, thinly sliced
3 golden shallots, cubed
3 carrots, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced (how much fin is the garlic crusher?)
a big tablespoon of chopped thyme
3/4 cup frozen peas
a tin of white beans – we used butter, but the smaller ones could be better

stir the flour into the vege stock
boil the diced potatoes till tender, set aside
in the dutch oven, saute the leeks, carrots and shallots in the vege oil until soft and almost browning.
add the garlic, thyme and salt and pepper
cook for a minute, then add the cooked potatoes and frozen peas and vege stock
simmer for about 7 minutes

the scones (or swans, as paul called them)
3/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
1.5 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
salt
1/4 cup nuttelex

put the vinegar into the soy milk and let it curdle
mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the nuttelex and use your fingers to make it breadcrumb like.
add the curdled milk and stir it all together. it needs to be dough like, a little sticky but not too much (i had to add more flour)
make small balls of the dough and cover the stew with them

bake in a hot oven until the scones are golden brown

(it’s also great cold for lunch the next day with tomato pickles)