Spicy carrot and beetroot salad

This started as a simple carrot salad I learnt from a Greg and Lucy Malouf cook book - grated carrots and delicious spice.  But these days I almost always add beetroot, and maybe some seeds.  And then this morning I went bonkas and threw in pomegranate, walnuts and chevre and the things went to a whole new level.  Tangy and juicy and hot hot pink.  I got a spray of pomegranate down my white t-shirt that made me look like I murdered an exotic fruit, and in many ways, I did.

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots
• 1 beetroot
• 1/2 a pomegranate
• big handful of walnuts
• big handful of sunflower seeds

Dressing:

• really good olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• splash of orange blossom water
• teaspoon cumin
• teaspoon of cinnamon
• half a teaspoon chilli powder
• teaspoon of honey

Grate the carrot and beetroot and put in a large mixing bowl.  This is the most time consuming part. You're already 80% there.  Oh man I love an easy salad.  Scoop the seeds from half the pomegranate.  If this is the first time you've done this it will be slightly baffling and little hard white bits will stick to the seeds (at least, this was my experience the first time I used one).  The key is to abandon all utensils and muck in with your hands - the little juicy seeds will come away from the fruit easily.

 Toast your walnuts and seeds by placing them in a thin layer in a dry frying pan, and tossing on a medium heat for about 2 minutes until they start to brown and the seeds start to pop.  Then add these to your salad.

Now mix the dressing, by taking all the dressing ingredients and stirring them vigorously in a little ramiken, like so.

Toss the dressing through, and finally, place your creamy chevre (that's fancy for soft white goats cheese) on top.

Mussels Provencale

BRAG ALERT: So this one time I was in the South of France, and I pretty much ate mussels and drank rose from carafes every day, during a balmy evening on a beach most likely.  It was basically devine.  That was 11 years ago. And now have this wonderful local seafood shop, and they always have these fresh bags of mussels.  Every time I go there I think about buying some, and then go, "not today...". Until, this weekend, I finally bought some and set about trying to recreate the whole experience.


Now technically I have my seasons all wrong.  See here in Melbourne it's currently freezing and windy and raining sideways and all in all roast chicken or spicy tagine or maybe even self-saucing pudding for dinner kind of weather.  But we had mussels provencale, and let me tell you, they work in all seasons.  I added some unconventional vegetabley ingredients, to up the nutritional and stodge content a bit, and you could do likewise with whatever is in the fridge (fennel would work well as would onion, shallots, leek, zucchini or capsicum).  But as long as you have the basics - garlic, chilli, tomatoes, wine - you can't really go wrong.


Ingredients: 

• Mussels
• 1 tin crushed tomatoes
• white wine 
• olive oil
• 2 or 3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 hot red chilli, finely chopped
• 2 squash
• 1/2 cup puy lentils
• salt and pepper
• fresh crusty bread and butter to serve

First you have to prepare the mussels.  I had never cooked them before so wasn't sure I was doing it right.  By since my dish turned out ok I'm guessing this process is acceptable: Rinse under cold water a few times, then trim off the beards and scrub the shells with a scourer to get any grit off.  These mussels had lots of beards.

Then soak the whole lot in a bowl of cold water about 10 minutes.  Change the water and soak again for another 20 mins or so, this time adding some salt and flour to the water.  I was told this would help remove sand and grit from the mussels.  Not sure of the science but the mussels were grit free, so it's probably a good idea.

While your mussels are soaking, fry up your garlic and chilli in some olive oil.  Once softened and fragrant, add the tin of tomatoes and a cup of white wine (use a good quality wine, you'll drink the rest later).  Grate or finely chop your squash (or vegetables of choice) and add to the mix along with your lentils and bring the whole thing to the boil.  At this point I also added about half a cup of water as I knew the lentils would absorb a lot of liquid.  If not using lentils, probably skip this part.  Cover and simmer the whole lot for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are cooked, and top up with wine or water if it's getting too thick. 

Finely chop a couple of big handfuls of parsley and add one handful to the pot.  Then rinse your mussels one last time and add them as well.  Cover and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the mussels have opened.  Then add the remaining parsley.

Discard any that don't open, then serve with the fresh bread and butter for mopping up the broth, and your crisp white wine.  We stuffed ourselves on these little puppies last night and still didn't get through the whole lot. Oh boy!

Zucchini salad

Fresh, green, tangy zucchinis.  I have long loved zucchinis, but never before has it occurred to me to eat them raw.  I suspect that there's a whole world of cooked vegetables that I should be eating raw.  I have already converted to raw beetroot.  And then Jamie fucken Oliver.  I hate the idea of sprooking Jamie Oliver recipes, but there's no denying that some of them are good.  I saw this one being made on tv and knew that I would make it soon. So I did.  It takes five minutes from start to finish, it's healthy and it packs punch.  Need to know more?

Ingredients:

• zucchinis
• 1 lemon
• good quality olive oil
• fresh mint
• red chilli
• salt and pepper

Finely chop the mint and chilli.  Grate the zest from the lemon.  Sprinkle all three over the dish you will serve the salad in.  Squeeze over the lemon juice and drizzle the olive oil.  Sprinkle a pinch of salt and cracked pepper.

Then using a vegetable peeler, peel the flesh from the zucchinis in ribbons over the top, avoiding the seeded middles.  Then smoosh the whole lot around until the zucchini is evenly coated in all the delicious little tasty bits.  Serve it with fish or seafood or chicken or pie or just eat it up with a fork and a glass of white wine!

Meatballs in sugo... in sandwiches!

I show you how to make-a tha meat-a-balls!  Seriously though, gratuitous ethnic stereotyping aside, MEATBALLS! I made them, and they are stupendously good.  Tasty, delicate, with an almost creamy texture but still plenty of oomph.  They have shot right to the top of my winter stodge must haves.  I was a little nervous, never having made them before.   And I recklessly decided I didn't approve of any of the recipes I looked up for them and made them up on the fly.  I thought it would be hard and super fiddly, but it was remarkably straightfoward.  And they are excellent.  Also, there's just shitloads of them so I now have a trusty stockpile.


Making meatballs also required some important deliberations.  How big to make them? (I went with slightly bigger than a golf ball).  What mince to use?  Should I put cheese in them? What kind of cheese?  Well I wanted fluffy moist meatballs and my guts told me that this meant ricotta.  Sometimes my guts are so on the money.  Serve them on spaghetti or in a crusty white bread roll?  I let Leith make that call: he chose rolls, and having just eaten one, I can say with some authority that he was right to do so.  Also did I mention there's shitloads? So spaghetti and meatballs later this week for us!


Ingredients:

• 300g pork mince
• 250g lean beef mince
• 2 cloves garlic
• wedge of ricotta (about 200g)
• 1 egg
• fresh basil (lots)
• fresh continental parsley (quite a bit)
• 3 crusty white bread rolls (or two rolls and 1/2 cup breadcrumbs if you have them)
• reggiano parmesan
• rocket
• lemon
• salt and pepper
• 1 litre tomato sugo

  
To start with, if you don't already have breadcrumbs you can make some like I did, so heat the oven to about 180C and put one of the chopped up rolls in there to dry it out.  Then start preparing your ingredients for your meatbally mush.  Grate about 1/3 cup of parmesan (I didn't want to use too much as I knew I would be adding ricotta as well).  Then smash up the garlic in a mortar and pestle.  I deliberately smashed it instead of finely chopping it as I wanted all the juices to come out and mix right through the mince.  Then finely chop the basil and parsley.

Put everything for the meatball mixture in a bowl (except the bread which was still in the oven): the two types of mince, the herbs, garlic, egg and salt and pepper, and mixed it thoroughly with your hands.  By the time this is done the bread is probably ready to crumb so take it from the oven (but leave the oven on) and put the pieces in a plastic bag.  Then - and this is super fun - smash the bread to smithereens and steamroll them with a nice heavy rolling pin.  I decided that there were still some slightly too large pieces and wanted only fine ones in the meatballs, so I sieved the whole lot into my mixture.  Then mix through the bread crumbs and the ricotta, taking care not to work the mixture too much.

Now it is time to form the meatballs! I deliberated for some time over how big they should be, until I settled on what seemed an appropriate size.  I was also delighted to see how many I had - this recipe produced 30 meatballs.  I decided to cook just over half, and to freeze one dozen uncooked meatballs for another frosty Winters' eve.  Lay the meatballs out on a tray and pop them in the oven for about eight minutes.  I really added this step because I was scared they'd immediately disintegrate in the sauce I was using, but I also wanted them to do most of their cooking in the sauce, not baking to a crisp in the oven.  After eight minutes they were only just starting to brown on the outside, and I decided this was about right.

While the meatballs are in the oven, heat up your tomato sauce.  I used the last of the tomato sugo I made at the end of Summer - two small containers, one with added herbs and one with added chilli.  The chilli in particular was a good addition to the meatballs.  Defrost/heat the sauce in a heavy pot until it is simmering.  Then once the meatballs come out of the oven, very gently place them one at a time into the pot, making sure they are all submerged in the sauce.

From this point you can simmer them as long as you want (but at least 20 mins to cook the meatballs all the way through) I simmered them for close to an hour, to reduce the sauce to a really thick consistency.  About 10 minutes before serving them, start preparing all your other bits.  First of all, heat the oven - even if you're using fresh bread rolls, five minutes of warming them in the oven can just tip them over the edge.  Peel some long strips of parmesan.  And dress your rocket with a little olive oil, lemon juice and cracked pepper.

Finally it is time to construct the sandwiches!  Start by placing three or four meatballs on the base of the roll.  You might want to break each meatball in half and really spread them out over the roll.  Then ladle over the tomato sauce, as much as the sandwich can take! Add as much cheese as you fancy, and top with rocket. Ta da!  Home-made meatball sandwiches on a cold Winter's night.  You're welcome.

Kale chips

Have I ever mentioned, a few thousand times or more, about how I love chips? All chips.  Hot chips.  Cold chips.  Crinkle cut chips.  French fries.  Chips with gravy.  Chips with cheese.  Chips with vinegar.  BUT NEVER CHIPS WITH SAUCE.  Sauce on chips is gross.


Anyway, where was I?  Oh yes, chips.  So in a quest to eat delicious, crisp, salty snacky things, but cram some nutrients in them as well, I made kale chips.  Baked them in fact (see how virtuous I am?).  Kale, Tuscan Cabbage or Cavollero as it is also known,  is one of those vegetables that seems to get a good wrap - have you noticed this?  Healthy types seem to bang on about it a lot.  But then it very yummy.  It also has much less moisture than most green leafy vegetables, thus making it an excellent chipping candidate.  So I made some.  And get this... they were as good as potato chips!! I know, right?


So anyway, here's how.


Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of kale
• two teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
• Lemon oil  

Set the oven to about 200 C. Cut the kale leaves from the stalks, and into appropriately chip-sized pieces.  Mix your spices.  Then, using a pastry brush, lightly brush the lemon oil over both sides of the kale, and sprinkle the spices over.  Toss, and lay them out in a baking tray. 

Pop them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes.  Check them periodically as the crinkly edges will tend to burn if the oven's too hot.

Once done they will go all crackly.  Serve them with some smashed up pappadams for a delicious snacky treat.  You and your gentleman companion will polish them off in no time, I assure you.