Prez is not a morning person*.
So breakfast at our desk is not uncommon, and often consists of leftovers.
Rummaging through the freezer we’d found leftover vegetable soup. We added fridge leftovers – red cabbage, cooked German style from this Bavarian Kitchen recipe.
A few cups of healthy soup and Prez can focus.
Prez says: there’s no wasted food, just creative leftovers.
*Understatement.
Prez had a fridge full of vegetables so our long awaited visit to Gasworks Farmers Market resulted in a quite indulgent looking haul.
There’s blue moon spuds, and Swiss brown mushrooms. Couldn’t resist the beurre bosc and pink ladies.
Then we went to the lovely Gamze Smokehouse stall for smoked beef and pork neck; picked up some Greek yoghurt from Schulz Organic Farms; and spent the last of our hard-earned on a mixed sixie of limited releases from Grand Ridge Brewery (Facebook link).
This is a great market, winding through the park. And lots of puppies.
Prez says: should have brought a trolley to carry it home in.
Prez buys kale, and then eats kale for a week.
This is because a bunch of kale is usually very large. But that was the only fresh vegetable in the fridge – what to do? Luckily the leftovers available were:
Chop olives, chop kale. Stir fry. Put in bowl, add seeds and jerky.
Prez says: you can’t go wrong with four good things in a bowl.
Prez is a bit of a tight-arse and likes to reuse leftovers.
Look at the lovely vegetables, what can’t you see? Sorry vegans, the brown sauce is Prez’s leftover juices from a slow-cooker beef roast.
That recipe, by the way, was:
In the slow cooker for 10 hours, by the 8 hour mark there was way too much liquid, so we decanted some liquid.
And put it in this stew, thickened with a little potato starch.
Which otherwise contains, surprisingly, eggplant and kale.
Prez says: never throw out the goodness.
Prez was drooling over Second Helping’s chilli crab zoodle post, but sadly had no ingredients apart from the zucchini.
Also it was snack time, not meal time.
Zucchini-noodles, aka zoodles, lightly marinated in rice wine vinegar and sriracha, plus sesame and sunflower seeds, made a much less sexy but actually quite tasty snack.
It didn’t really work as bowl food, but if your vegan friends were coming over for dinner we think it could make a substitute san choy bow of sorts (while you ate the real thing).
Prez says: we neither know nor care if this is ‘raw food’ because we think that’s wanky.
Prez does love good Indian food.
Being new to Melbourne, we weren’t sure where to find the good Indian food. Luckily our interest in bagels led to our spotting newcomer Delhi Streets down Katherine Place.
Prez is no vegetarian, but is a sucker for vegetarian Indian food. The samosa chaat (front of photo) was a delicious combination of pea, potato and chick peas, while after shiftily googling the jar of liquid that came with the pain puri (back of photo) we successfully demolished those little pockets of goodness.
Delhi Streets is dimly lit and was packed when we went in lunch peak hour. That’s why the photo is so dim, really.
Prez says: Need a thali next time.
Prez can’t photograph soup, so you don’t get a photo. But you do get a recipe.
Because Prez can make soup, and does it quite a lot. One meatless evening (because we’d run out and the butchers were closed) this tasty version of pumpkin soup was born.
Chop these veggies and place in saucepan:
Cover with water to about 10cm above the level of the veggies, or more if you like a thinner soup.
Bring to the boil, season to taste with:
(Prez doesn’t measure. About a teaspoon of the first three, and double whatever the stock packet says to use for the amount of water, because you’re making soup not stock.)
Cook until veggies are tender, blitz, then add 1/2 cup coconut cream, a good splodge of cooking wine and simmer gently. Don’t re-boil.
Need some spicy? Add sriracha to your bowl when you serve.
Prez says: we took seven photos and they were all out of focus so we gave up and ate it all.
Prez rather enjoys going to Asian grocery stores. Prez once said ‘I can’t live in this suburb there are no Asian grocery stores.’
We’ve tried a couple of the Mangal brand spice blends and they’re pretty tasty – as an added bonus the recipes on the boxes are usually quite viable.
A recent purchase of the Chole / Chana Masala mix was a winner, accompanied by various random creations and Manjula’s kulcha Punjabi flatbread.
Prez says: Do make sure you read the labels if you’re not great with hot and spicy, there are probably some surprises among the range.
Prez was out and about and remembered that the recently opened Beyond Basic Coffee on Beach Street Port Melbourne had seemed to offer nice shade on a sunny morning.
Coffee was had, and coffee was good. The waiter kindly explained the brews of the day but honestly we weren’t paying a lot of attention.
The breakfast menu then caught our eye, and Prez has trouble resisting brekky fritters. These had corn and mushrooms, dollops of cheese (ricotta?) and from memory some sort of herb oil complementing the tomatoes very nicely. Possibly too many veggies on a breakfast dish for some people, given the salad on top, though Prez demolished the plate very quickly.
Prez says: quite nice, not too pricey, and it’s a great location.
Prez was too lazy to go to the shop, so no soondubu jjigae today because there’s no tofu in the house.
But combine gochujang, beef stock and seaweed-and-fungus soak water (don’t waste the minerals); simmer with rice and onion for a while; chuck in some cooked chicken; it’s pretty good!
Add the seaweed and fungus in right at the end and top with chili and cucumber for crunch.
Prez says: it’s not pretty but it’s tasty, and surely it’s healthy.
Prez says 