Yim Yam II

May 17, 2013

Last Friday we made a long overdue return to Collingwood's Yim Yam. Though they looked busy out the front and it was too cold for the courtyard, a waiter led us downstairs where there were still plenty of tables available. The menu doesn't appear to have changed substantially though it's difficult to tell when it runs to 91 items, many of them helpfully annotated with vegetarian-friendly Vs. (Vegans and others with dietary requirements are encouraged to speak to the staff, though Yim Yam don't guarantee 100% gluten-free food.)

Though I knew I should be ordering something new for the amusement of our readership, I selfishly returned to the toasted rice & coconut salad ($12.90). Sweet and chewy misshapen hunks of crusty rice are as darling as they sound deformed, elevating fried rice to centrepiece status. I really must insist that you order this too.

We backed it up with coconut rice ($4) and Gang Khi Lek ($13.90), "a curry dish made with khi lek (cassia leaves) which are very bitter, but when cooked with coconut milk and curry spices alchemically transforms to deliciousness". Indeed there was no bitterness and plenty deliciousness to be had.

I topped off the meal with a couple scoops of coconut ice cream ($5). The sweet elastic gelato-textured ice cream held the occasional bite of young coconut flesh, and a sprinkling of toasted coconut added crunch and nuttiness - this was coconut in brilliant 3D.

Yim Yam turned out an excellent, low-key meal - BYO and eat vego and the cost's very reasonable too. Though the service was courteous, it wasn't conscientious - a couple of items were unavailable (intriguing Thai waffle, why do you forsake me?), our entree order didn't make it to the kitchen, waiters rarely checked in on the downstairs dining room, and our bill wasn't correctly itemised on our exit. But our bellies were filled with great food, staff were responsive when we hailed them and for the most part we were happy to dine unattended. We're content to keep it casual at Yim Yam.

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You can read about one of our previous visits to Yim Yam here. The Collingwood restaurant has since received positive write-ups on Fitzroyalty and foodie about town.

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Yim Yam
76 Smith Street, Collingwood
(also in Yarraville, Ascot Vale and Moonee Ponds)
9419 3985
veg dishes: $6.90 - $13.90
http://yimyam.com.au/

Accessibility: The front area has a flat entrance but is fairly crowded. Access to the courtyard and other rooms (plus the toilets) require you to negotiate at least a few steps. The toilets are spacious enough but not necessarily designed with accessibility issues in mind. Ordering takes place at the table, then payment is at a relatively high and crowded counter out the front.

'Turkey' sandwich slices

May 11-16, 2013

This installment of my sporadic adventures in home-made seitan is inspired by a newly purchased cookbook - Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day by Celine Steen & Tamasin Noyes. This book is cute, with a friendly tone, fresh veges and home-made mock meats and few difficult-to-source ingredients, wholesome wraps and veganised classics, sweet stuff and charming colour photos.  

The Gobbler Slices are a DIY seitan clearly intended to imitate turkey meat. The dough works white beans, white wine and some green herbs into the gluten. I'm still battling a disconnect between U.S. recipes' 'vital wheat gluten' and Aussie groceries' 'gluten flour' and this time I took Mel's advice, dramatically reducing the liquid involved. The seitan was very dense and tasted pleasantly of poultry herbs; it reminded me of Sanitarium's Vegie Roast, though it was far less salty. (I might try kneading it more, aiming to develop the gluten strands, if I made it again.)

Having doubled the recipe, we've spun the seitan out over many sandwiches. We started by making 'razz-elnut spinach' sandwiches (pictured above). These layer the mock slices with spinach, hazelnuts and a silken-tofu based dressing that's flavoured with white miso and raspberries. It's tart, toasty and savoury, unexpectedly brilliant.

We also took inspiration from the Double-Decker Deluxe (picture above), originally intended for the book's beef-style seitan. Here the seitan is marinated in stock, coffee and garlic, fried, and then smothered in a dressed that consists primarily of blended cashews and vinegar, plus a little chilli and parsley.

Since this seitan is dense and subtly flavoured, I'm not inclined to take it beyond the realm of sandwiches.  But sliced thinly and lavished with condiments, it's a delight and potential packed-lunch staple.

'Turkey' sandwich slices
(slightly adapted from the Gobbler Slices in
Celine Steen & Tamasin Noyes' Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day)

1 x 400g can white beans, drained
1 cup white wine
juice of 1 lemon (about 5 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sage
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
2 1/2 cups gluten flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
4 tablespoons besan/chickpea flour
4 tablespoons arrowroot
1/2 cup water

In a food processor, blend together the beans, wine, lemon juice, oil and spices (onion powder through to celery seed) until smooth.

In a medium bowl, stir together the gluten flour, yeast flakes, besan and arrowroot. Pour in the wet ingredients from the food processor and stir everything together into a dough. Dig your fingers in to mix it well and develop the gluten strands! Gradually add water as needed to incorporate all the flour into the dough.

Roll out two large pieces of foil. Divide the dough in half and roll each piece into a thick cylinder about 15cm long. Roll each dough-log in foil, completely covering it and twisting around the ends.

Steam the rolls for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Allow them to cool completely before you use them. Slice the rolls as thinly as you can for sandwiches.

Tofu-ricotta cheesecake

May 12, 2013

This cheesecake is my May calendar recipe. It's a funny one, a tofu cheesecake that isn't vegan. It is full of protein; the tofu is backed up by ricotta and eggs. And it's sweetened with honey rather than white sugar (though there's no doubt some of that in the biscuit base).

I made a few substitutes for convenience - I didn't have the full quantity of almonds so supplemented them with cashews, I likewise topped my quarter-cup of honey up with maple syrup, and I used canned rather than fresh passionfruit. All of this worked out just fine. The use of a food processor for both layers made construction awfully easy, yet the major revelation was the baking technique. There's a water bath, but you don't put the cheesecake in it. Instead the water sits in a tray in the bottom of the oven, creating humidity. I have never seen such a serene cheesecake, smooth and barely coloured by the heat, gently pulling away from the sides of the tin all on its own.

The recipe includes the kind of sour accents I like - a gingernut base, limes in the filling and passionfruit on top. The more unusual ingredients still assert themselves effectively - there are overtones of tofu and honey (even at a half-quantity of the latter), while the tofu and ricotta team up to create a light and velvety texture I have not previously experienced in a baked cheesecake.

Tofu-ricotta cheesecake
(original recipe on the Woolworths website)

155g packet gluten-free gingernut biscuits
50g almonds
70g butter
500g ricotta
250g silken tofu
finely grated rind and juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 cup honey
170g can passionfruit pulp

Line a springform tin with baking paper.

In a food processor, grind together the gingernuts and almonds; transfer these crumbs to a bowl. Melt the butter and pour it into the crumbs, mixing thoroughly. Press the mixture into the base of the springform tin, smoothing it out with the back of a spoon. Refrigerate.

Preheat an oven to 140°C. Fill a deep baking tray at least half-way with water and place it on the bottom shelf of the oven.

Clean out the food processor, then use it to blend together the ricotta, drained tofu, lime rind and juice, vanilla, eggs and honey. Keep blending, occasionally pausing to push down anything unmixed on the walls of the container, until the filling is smooth.

Retrieve the base from the fridge and pour over the filling. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour, it should be smooth, just barely golden and pulling away from the tin at the edges, and a bit wobbly in the middle. Turn the oven off but keep the cheesecake in there for a further hour. Next, let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a bench and finally, cover it and refrigerate it overnight.

Pour the passionfruit over the cheesecake before serving.

Madame K's Vegetarian III

May 11, 2013

We had poorly thought through dinner plans with AOF and Lisa on Saturday night, and found ourselves flapping about trying to come up with a venue late in the afternoon. After finding a few more hyped up places booked up, we ended up going for Madame K's in Fitzroy. We called ahead and booked a table before turning up, which turned out to be wise - it's pretty full on a Saturday night. It's a lovely place, with a stylish blue fit-out and a massive and varied menu.

We decided that the best way to sample from the menu was to share dishes, so we ordered three starters and three mains between the four of us. The starters (from left: Japanese spiced tofu with salad and vegan wasabi mayo, $11.90; steamed wontons with mushroom, mashed potato and water chestnut, $7.90; pan-fried chive dumplings, $6.90) were excellent, with each of them named as somebody's favourite. The chive dumplings probably won it for me, although the wasabi mayo that came with the tofu was the pick of the condiments.

We mixed up the mains as well, starting with the prik khing (stir-fried crispy tofu with red curry paste, beans capsicum and chili, $15.90).

I love the way Madame K's loads their dishes up with veggies - this was full of fresh capsicum, zucchini and snow peas with a few spongy bits of tofu to really soak up the mild curry sauce.

We embraced the mock-meat with our other two mains - the nasi goreng ($16.90) comes with skewers of satay 'chicken' and mock prawns.

I really liked this - the rice was nicely fried and the satay sauce hit just about the right balance between spicy and sweet. 

Our final main was Thai spicy salad (spicy and sour salad with musrhroom made lamb, fresh herbs, lemon juice, lemongrass, fresh chili, cucumber, tomato and green salad, $15.90).

This was the spiciest dish of the night - I've been disappointed by overly mild Thai salads at loads of places, so it's nice to get one that cranks things up a bit. The 'lamb' wasn't to everybody's tastes, but the fresh veggies and sharp dressing more than made up for it (for the record: I was pro-lamb, as I'm pro- almost every kind of mock meat).

We somehow found room for dessert, and Cindy and I split a black sticky rice with lychees and (soy) ice-cream ($10.90).

We've more often sampled black sticky rice at breakfast, but the addition of ice-cream was enough to make this desserty. It's not the most exciting dessert in the world (no chocolate for starters), but it was a warm and satisfying end to an excellent meal.

Madame K is a reasonably safe bet in the veg-heavy northern end of Brunswick St (where it competes with The Vegie Bar, Yong and Lord of the Fries). We've had patchy service in the past, but things ran pretty smoothly on this busy Saturday night, so they might have got themselves organised these days. If forced to choose I'd tend to favour Yong, but Madame K's provides a bit of variation and is well worth a visit.

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Read our previous reviews of Madame K's here and here. How I See It, A pretty health life and veganopolous have all enjoyed their visits since our last blog post, while Mel: Hot or Not was less impressed. 

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Madame K's Vegetarian
367 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
9415 6909
snacks & mains $4.90-16.90
http://madamek.com.au/

Accessibility: There's a small step up on entry and tables are quite densely laid out. We ordered at the table and paid at a medium-high counter at the back. We didn't visit the toilets.

New Day Rising III

May 11, 2013

We had lunchtime business around Brunswick East and tossed up our options: a trip back to Milkwood? CERES Cafe? Trying something new at Piano Piano? Nah, we couldn't resist the lure of bagel-based good times at New Day Rising. It's still tiny, still popular and yet somehow, we still managed to grab a table without having to wait. The staff are friendly and pretty efficient, keeping the small room buzzing and getting takeaways out the door before anyone gets impatient.

I finally got around to trying the Valoumi (bagel with grilled haloumi, mayo, chilli, tomato and rocket, $11).

This is outstanding - salty, spicy, juicy and just spot on. Bagels really are an excellent vessel for brunch.

Cindy cranked up the spiciness with the jalapeno, provolone and manchego toasted sammie ($9).

New Day Rising were short on jalapenos, so they subbed in some other small peppers. Which were hot. Super hot. Still, the creamy cheese and acidic, spicy peppers made for a fine, simple sandwich. One we're intending to whip up at home sometime soon.

New Day Rising is pretty fantastic - a veg-only cafe doing brilliant, cheap meals (nothing over $13) and combining ludicrous hipness with friendly, upbeat service.

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Nobody seems to have blogged New Day Rising since we last visited. Check out our first visit here.

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New Day Rising
221d Blyth Street, Brunswick East
veg brekkies $5-13
facebook page

Accessibility: A small step up on entry into a fairly crowded interior. You order at the table and just pay whoever you can grab by the coffee machine. The bathroom is accessed from outside somewhere - we've not checked it out.