Things I learned How to Make at Moora Moora

I've been WWOOFing at the Moora Moora community for just over two weeks now, and I'm headed off on my merry way tomorrow evening. Moora Moora was founded in the 70's and is a friendly and sustainable home to about 40 adults and 20 children. The entire village is off the grid and they rely mostly on solar power (and gas for stoves, hot water etc.) I've been staying with Luc and Amy (and Jem, their little one,) who run the CSA for the community and residents of the nearby town of healseville. It's early spring here so it's been mostly a lot of preparing beds, making compost, and planting and caring for seedlings. Left over from the winter crop though, is heaps of coriander (CDN: cilantro) which was picked fresh from the garden and turned into Coriander Pesto.

This is honestly so delicious that I can't believe I haven't tried it already. 
Combine in a food processor:
Olive oil
Fresh Coriander (cilantro)
Garlic
Toasted sunflower seeds
Lemon or Lime juice
(some nutritional yeast might be nice too...)

THEN!
The possibilities are endless. We ate it with pasta, kidney beans and asparagus, but I think it would be fab with black beans and fresh tomato as well.
This morning I spread it on toast with avocado and salt and pepper. So Yum.

The second great idea comes from a dinner shared with other Moora Moora members, and is a great way to use up leftover rice.  Karaage raisu, Japanese for fried rice, or rice balls. You simply form rice into balls (dipping hands in water first) and fry in hot oil until brown. They are really great dipped in soy sauce or tamari but I think they would be out of this world dipped into ponzu shoyu!

Aussie "Meat" and Two Veg

I was recently staying with a super awesome veg*n couple who live in the dandedong ranges in Victoria. Surprisingly, I had some fantastic vegan noms in their smallish town of Belgrave including an awesome assorted plate dished up by the owner of "hippie haven" and made with love by his mama.

We got to chatting about what traditional Australian foods are. Vegemite? Beer? Australia it seems, is much like the States and Canada and other products of british imperialism in that it lacks a deeply engrained food culture that most European countries enjoy. From what I can gather, popular Aussie food has it's roots in traditional British food. Rhys explained to me the concept of "meat and two veg" its pretty self explanatory, and often includes bland boring veggies.

I like to cook for my hosts, so I attempted to make them a vegan version of the classic dish, with a little bit more personality.

Menu:
Portobello-tofu steaks.
Salad greens w/ lemon tahini dressing.
Green beans in soy ginger sauce.

I was really happy with the results! It was super tasty and aesthetically pleasing. I'll share with you the lemon tahini dressing today, and maybe one day if you are very well behaved and I'm a little tipsy, I'll tell you how to make the portofu steaks. (yes, I just portmanteaued portobello and tofu)


Tahini Lemon Dressing
Combine:
Tahini
Lemon juice
Ginger
Fresh garlic
A litte bit of olive oil
Chili flakes


Okay.... That might be a little too simple to be called a "recipe" but if you are new to
tahini based dressings give it a shot! It's a great way to add extra protein and calcium to your salad.


What do you think is a traditional dish in the country you grew up in?