- Restaurant Review and News: New
- Flavour of the month: Lemon grass
- Cooking Tip: Preventing browning of fruits
- Site of the Month: Toronto Vegetarian Association
- Recipe Update: Recipes from Oz
- General News and Site Update
- Australian "Meat" Pie (ovo; vegan option)
- Amanda's Kitchen is looking for volunteers to help write articles for the web site, and to translate articles from English to French. If you're interested please e-mail AmandasKitchen@yahoo.ca or consult the Writer's Guidelines.
- A new monthly feature has been added to the newsletter: Restaurant Reviews and News. if you have any hot tips, or would like to submit a review, please contact AmandasKitchen@yahoo.ca.
- The monthly feature article has been temporarily discontinued. Summaries of feature articles will continue to be sent to you as they are published on the web site, but will no longer be part of the monthly newsletter.
- Over the summer, Amanda's Kitchen will be focusing on building up the Montreal section of the website. If you have any favourite food-related shopping spots, "must see" suggestions for tourists (and locals), or insight into the local history of Montreal's various communities, please let me know.
May 2001
In this issue:
Restaurant
Review and News
Starting next month, a new feature in the
newsletter: Every month, Amanda's Kitchen will review a Montreal
restaurant from a vegetarian perspective, and keep you update on the vegetarian
restaurant scene in Montreal.
CLOSEDOn that note, it is with great sadness that we noticed the closure of Wrapps, an exclusively vegan restaurant in NDG. On a positive note, they are still making and selling their amazing almost vegan (no eggs, no dairy, contains honey) muffins in stores across Montreal. A great breakfast treat, I've found the muffins at Plantation in the Faubourg Ste-Catherine, near Guy street.
unconfirmed
We
also have unconfirmed reports that Elixir on Duluth street, another
vegan heaven, has also closed its doors. If you can confirm or deny
that report, please contact me. Like Wrapps, Elixir's sumptuous vegan
treats (brownies, cookies, cakes) are still available in stores across
Montreal.
Flavour
of the Month
Lemongrass
A wonderful refreshing herb to explore during
our hot summer months, lemongrass is native to South East Asia but is also
grown in Central and South America, Africa, India, Australia and parts
of the United States. This tropical grass resembles a spring onion
but has an attractive sweet-scented lemon flavour. It is one of the
essential herbs that gives Thai and Vietnamese food their distinctive flavour.
In folklore, lemongrass planted around the home and in the garden was used
to repel snakes and other unwanted pests. It is also traditionally
used in some lust potions, as well as to help clear the mind and develop
psychic powers.
Like citronella oil lemongrass is a natural insect repellent. It is also a natural antiseptic, astringent and anti-fungal, and can be applied as a poultice or in a soap to relieve various skin conditions. Drunk as a tea, lemongrass helps relieve aches, pain and may aid digestion.
In the kitchen, lemongrass' gentle citrus flavour is best used in subtly spiced and scented dishes like those found in South East Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia). Traditionally used with fish or chicken, in vegetarian cooking lemongrass combines well with coconut and other delicate spices in soups, curries, marinades and even stir-fries. Thai Tom Yum soup is probably the best known recipe for using lemon gras, but Indonesian saté is another dish making extensive use of this herb.
Lemon peel may be substituted for lemongrass
in recipes, but the result will not be so finely flavoured, and a small
bit of ginger added to the lemon peel will bring out a more authentic aroma.
Lemongrass is found fresh in most Asian and some Indian groceries.
It can also be found frozen and preserved. To cook with lemongrass,
only use the lower 10-15 cm (4-6 in) of the plant, discarding the fibrous
upper leaves. To bring out the aromas of lemon grass, gently bruise
the grass with a mortar and pestle or rolling pin before using. Try
to avoid dried lemon grass, since it lacks much of the essential oil that
brings lemongrass its characteristic flavour and scent. If you are
stuck using dried, try to find whole, dried lemongrass and soak it in cool
water before using. The dried powder is not recommended at all.
Preventing browning of fruits
I don't know about you, but during those spring and summer months I get a hankering for nice, juicy, fresh fruit. But a lot of fruits, and some vegetables, turn brown after they've been peeled and sliced. This happens because compounds called phenols in the fruit react with air to form brown pigments or melanins. Browning isn't harmful, but it can be a nuisance if you're leaving a nice plate of fresh fruit out to nibble on and it keeps changing colour. Cooking will destroy the enzymes involved in this process, but that's hardly what we want to do with our fresh summer fruit now, is it?
So what else can we do to prevent browning? Refrigeration will slow the browning process since chemical reactions usually happen more slowly at lower temperatures. It will also help keep your food fresh and bacteria-free. A second option is to add a barrier between your fruit and the air. This can be done by coating the fruit in a light syrup or sugar water, or keeping them soaking in water. The latter works great if your pealing potatoes, but isn't such a great idea for bananas. Changing the acidity of a fruit also works to slow browning. This can be done by coating the fruit in lemon or lime juice; a wonderfully refreshing idea in the summer, especially if a touch of sugar is added to the lemon juice. Mmmmm Yummy! Who says you need gourmet cooking to find exquisite taste? Not me.
Sites
of the Month
Toronto Vegetarian Association (http://www.veg.on.ca/)
Founded in 1945, the
Toronto Vegetarian Association (TVA) is the largest and second oldest locally-based
vegetarian organisation in North America. Membership has now topped 1,700
and is increasing all the time. TVA is a registered non-profit charitable
organisation and is run solely by volunteers. Beside organising an
annual
food fair every fall, TVA last year (2000) played host to the International
Vegetarian Union's World
Vegetarian Congress. TVA's web site is full of interesting local
information for the vegetarian, fact sheets and links. It also
includes a selection of articles from previous issues of their bimonthly
newsletter, including profiles, recipes, reviews and in-depth reports.
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Disclaimer: This newsletter and the Amanda's Kitchen web site are not prepared by a registered dietician, nurse, doctor or other medically-qualified individual. Any health and nutrition information provided by Amanda's Kitchen is designed to support, not replace, information provided by a registered dietician or healthcare provider. Where appropriate, Amanda's Kitchen has endeavoured to support information contained on the site and newsletter by providing references to source data and, where possible, specific HTML links.