It Just Has To Be Delicious

Archive for the ‘Vegan/Vegetarian’ Category

Rajmoni, Brentwood, Essex UK

Having not had a good old British curry for ages, I carefully read reviews of Indian
restaurants local to Brentwood and plumped for Rajmoni in Warley Hill. It seemed to be a local favourite.

Rajmoni 1

We were made very welcome and the restaurant was moderately busy for a Monday night. The first thing that made me go ‘ooh’ was the chutney tray. Chutney trays are a rarity in Perth and this made me very nostalgic with its quartet of mango chutney, tomato chutney, mint sauce and onion salad. Perfect with pappadoms.

Rajmoni 2

I also had a Cobra Beer – such a nice refreshing accompaniment to a curry.

Rajmoni 3

I chose King Prawn dhansak – which had just the right amount of sweetness, a hint of
lemon sourness, enough lentils to add texture (I really object to dhansaks with just a runny sauce containing a few lentils), and chilli heat. The key to getting the heat correct is to cook all of the spices thoroughly so that they don’t taste raw, and hot curries often benefit from a day in the fridge to mellow the spices. If a curry is gauged correctly it can still be quite hot but comfortably edible, and Rajmoni managed to get the combination just right.

Rajmoni 4

My companion chose chicken madras which was tasty and nicely spiced. It was also nice to have two curries with very different sauces – with Indian restaurant batch cooking, you can sometimes find that all of the curries end up with the same sauce.

Rajmoni 5

I asked for Aloo Peas (peas and potato) which wasn’t on the menu, but the staff were happy to prepare it for me. Again a delicious side dish, nicely prepared. (Indian side dishes are a rarity in Australia, so again this is something which I miss about UK curries).

Rajmoni have several vegetable and vegan side dishes available as well as veg stuffed naans and parathas – two or three of these dishes would make a great vegetarian meal.

Rajmoni 6

Accompaniments were a keema naan (naan stuffed with minced lamb) and fluffy pilau
rice.

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Rajmoni 8
What a nice meal, my UK curry fix was complete and it was everything that I wanted it to
be. I would definitely recommend Rajmoni and will be revisiting next time I am in the UK.

Visit Date – May 2014

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Category:

Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

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Amani Bar and Kitchen, Leederville

Amani Bar & Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Opposite the Luna Theatre on Oxford Street, sits Amani Bar and Kitchen. We visited after work and it was already filling with Friday night socializers. A combination of high tables, a few lower chairs and tables, and a long bar, there’s a perch to suit everybody, and the music is retro funky, perfect for setting a carefree mood.
We had heard that their vegan/vegetarian selection was good, so we chose a range of tapas style dishes.
Starting off with a superb glass of Castelli Riesling while we perused the array of choices.

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The first dish was most likely the star of the show – a beautifully soft and gooey mushroom parfait with onion jam and generous fingers of toasted focaccia.
Everything melted into a wonderful combination on the tongue, and I would have
been happy of this were my only dish of the evening.

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The next dish was cauliflower and walnut tacos with guacamole and a preserved lemon cabbage slaw. Again, each mouthful – pure joy.

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Next came miso glazed eggplant with hummus and coconut ‘bacon’, perfectly cooked, soft and luscious, and another tick in the excellent column.

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Our last serve was non-veggie – cajun prawns with charred corn salsa, guacamole, and white corn chips. Excellent finger food, plentiful prawns, and every scoop a delight.

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We had a really good time at Amani, there was a great friendly vibe, and the food was outstanding. There’s certainly plenty of dishes to suit most palates and diets, other dishes on the menu include charred pork shoulder, scallops, chicken liver parfait, fried chicken and maple bacon sliders, plus a variety of cheeses and dips. I’ll definitely be back.

Visit Date – March 2020

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Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

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F5 Coffee Co, Belmont

F5 Coffee Co Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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F5 Coffee Co is an unassuming cafe in amongst some local shops on Belvidere Street in the airport suburb of Belmont. It’s clean and tidy with an appealing cake and sandwich cabinet and a menu with an Asian twist. They serve 5 Senses coffee which is a bonus, and today’s blend was a special roast (made especially for the cafe) of Ethiopian and Brazilian beans. It was smooth and delicious – no sugar needed to sweeten this coffee – and we loved our soy latte and soy flat white.

It was hard to choose something from the menu because everything sounded great, from toasted bagels and big brekky, to Lamington style French toast , zucchini, corn and sweet potato fritters, tom yum salad, and truffled mushroom ragu.
Eventually I settled for a nasi goreng and oh my goodness it didn’t disappoint. Served with a wedge of lemon and sriracha sauce, it was beautifully spicy, but not overly so, and contained the most delicious selection of capsicum, beans, chilli, chicken and prawns, all topped off with a wonderfully dippy fried egg. I ate the lot and enjoyed every mouthful.

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My partner chose the pulled pork benny, served on sourdough toast with a sriracha hollandaise, bbq sauce, and perfectly cooked poached eggs. The pulled pork was soft and melting, the combination of flavours on each forkful really complimentary, sweet, hot and savoury. Absolutely delicious.

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We really enjoyed our visit to F5 and will definitely return next time we are down in Belmont. The service was friendly and it’s a place where the locals all know each other and get a warm welcome from the staff. Ooh that Lamington French toast – I can’t wait to try it !

Pictures from another visit:

Soy Cappuccino:

f5 1

Zucchini, Pea and Broccoli fritters with spinach pesto, avo and feta smash, beetroot hummus and fried egg:

f5 2

Vegan black bean, beetroot, and walnut burger with chips, pickles, tomato relish and aioli:

f5 3

Last Visit Date – June 2020

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Coffee shop review, Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

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Rich chocolate orange brownie

Many years ago I popped into Mooba coffee bar when it was in the heart of Subiaco, and had a jaffa brownie with my coffee. It was one of those brownies that was so memorable and delicious that I can still recall the flavour of it now. Today I decided to try and replicate it myself, so looked for a recipe and ended up with my variation on a few different recipes. My recipe is pretty much dairy free – there’s a little bit of milk in one of the chocolate bars, but it’s fairly small. It’s not vegan though because there are eggs in the mixture.

You can make a half serve in a loaf tin that will give you six generous slices – just halve the ingredients. The full recipe will fit nicely in a 24 x 20 cm square tin.

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Ingredients (full recipe):

200g butter or dairy free spread like Nuttelex
200g Lindt dark chocolate (70% or 80%) (broken up into pieces – break each square into four pieces)
zest of 2 oranges (pick the orangiest colour ones you can find – the deeper the colour, the better the zest)
4 large eggs
300g caster sugar
100g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
100g Lindt dark chocolate orange intense (chopped into small pieces)

Method:

  1. Heat the oven to 180 deg C or 175 deg C if fan assisted.
  2. In a smallish saucepan melt the butter, 70 or 80% dark chocolate and orange zest – keep an eye on it, stirring occasionally, only heat it gently. Once melted, take it off the heat to cool.
  3. Whisk the eggs and sugar until the colour goes really pale and they increase in volume. I whisked mine for 3 minutes with an electric whisk.
  4. Stir the melted chocolate mixture into the whisked eggs, make sure it has cooled enough otherwise it will scramble the eggs.
  5. Now sift the flour, cocoa and salt into the mixture and fold it in with a metal spoon.
  6. Stir in the broken chocolate orange intense pieces.
  7. The mixture might look lumpy and rough, but don’t worry – it will be delicious.
  8. Pour into a lined tin approx 24 x 20 cm. Tap the tin on the worktop to make sure that the mixture is down into the corners and then pop it in the oven on the lower shelf.
  9. The full size will take approx 40 minutes to cook and a half serve will take approx 30 minutes to cook but it depends on the efficiency of your oven.
  10. When you insert a skewer, it will be slightly gooey in the centre, but as long as it is not too liquid – that’s fine. The top should be crispy like a brownie.
  11. Cool on a rack and serve.
  12. You can add ice cream, sorbet, fresh orange slices, crushed nuts, candied orange, or dust with a little icing sugar. The brownie is good on it’s own too.

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Category:

Recipe, Vegan/Vegetarian

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