Some of our family's favourite recipes and a gentle friendly reminder.
Hey there....
How was your week? Mine’s had ups and downs which you can read about below, but mostly it’s good and all’s well that ends well.
We had a brilliant weekend spending Saturday with friends, at their house, more than 5 kms away drinking magnificent Tasmanian vintage sparkling wine. Lockdown is definitely over. This weekend, a long weekend here in Melbourne, we’ll probably still stay close to home. Normally we’d hit the road and go away camping signalling the beginning of the camping season but as it's the first holiday weekend out of lockdown I think it’s going to be pretty hectic out there. Maybe we’ll head out for dinner somewhere or wander down the coast for a day trip.
I’m excited to see the start of the outdoor dining season. Day light saving has begun, the early evenings are warmer the barbecue has been fired up and birdsong serenades us while we dine. To celebrate the al fresco season I’m sharing one of our favourite salads with you this week. I’ve been making this for years originally inspired by a variety of leftover vegies needing using up in the fridge, it’s evolved into a dish we enjoy warm in winter and cold in summer. It makes a great base for lots of lovely additions and pairs beautifully with a variety of meats and seafood while also being versatile enough to serve vegetarians alike.
In keeping with the theme of family favourites I’m sharing some delicious finds that have become go to recipes for us. Found on the internet and always on high rotation they’re a bit of a mixed bag but we love them, maybe you will too.
Finally an unexpected foray this week and a friendly reminder.
Righto lets go!!
Food
Roast Vegetable Salad
For the most I'm pretty lucky with the lovely blokes I share my table with. They’re good eaters with an adventurous enough palette to indulge my experiments. But… and there’s always a but…they’re not the biggest vegie lovers. Each has their own preferences only a few of which cross over, though the three all share a distaste for pumpkin. So some days out of exasperation I fall back on this old favourite. It’s colourful and vibrant, it cleans out the vegie drawer in the fridge, it goes with nearly anything, can be built up to be a meal in itself and is excellent for sharing with vegetarians. And the best part…. It’s all muddled together so more vegies are consumed than perhaps the eater may or may not intend.
I’ve shared the basic version of this Salad but like a lot of family recipes it’s different every time in one way or another acting as a blank canvas of sorts to transform into whatever you need.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small, orange sweet potato peeled and cut into chunks
3 cups of pumpkin cut into chunks the same size as the sweet potato
2 large carrots peeled and sliced thickly
1 spanish onion cut into wedges
2 garlic cloves bruised
1 capsicum cored, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 zucchini quartered lengthways and sliced thickly
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
2 handuls of baby spinach leaves or rocket (arugula) leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Dressing:
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
½ tbs brown sugar (I’ve used my favourite Panela Sugar here)
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, crushed or grated
Method:
Preheat oven to 180c.
Combine all dressing ingredients in a jar shake well and set aside allowing the flavours to combine while you make the salad.
Place sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot and garlic in a bowl with half the olive oil toss to coat, spread out on a large baking tray and roast for 20 minutes.
Combine onion, capsicum, zucchini and cherry tomatoes with remaining oil, toss to coat again. Add to the other veg on the same baking tray after the initial 20 minutes and return to oven for a further 15 minutes or until tender and softened and the edges are just caramelised.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the thyme leaves straight away. The heat from the vegies will warm the thyme and bring out the fragrance and flavour.
Allow to cool a little so the vegies won't wilt the leaves too much. Serve on a platter either layering with the fresh leaves or gently tossing them through. Drizzle over the dressing (give it another shake before you do this), sprinkle over sea salt flakes and fresh ground black pepper to taste.
Notes:
Slice 1-2 chorizos, fry and sprinkle the cooked slices over just before serving.
You can bulk up the salad, especially for vegetarians, by gently folding through a can of drained beans, lentils or chickpeas.
Slice 100 gm of haloumi fry over and toss over salad just before serving.
Sprinkle over crumbled feta to taste.
Dried chilli flakes are also delicious sprinkled over.
In the spirit of the birth of this salad feel free to throw in any other veg in the fridge that needs using up guided by the recipe for cooking times.
Finds
I’ve been collecting cookbook since I was very young. I’m lucky enough to have some very old ones of my grandmothers and my own dating back to my teen years. It's fascinating to look back at the evolution of home cooking and reflect back on old recipes I once cooked frequently but are now forgotten. Some I still use often for old favourites like the 'Women's Weekly Basic Cookbook' for crumbed lamb cutlets which are marinated in soy sauce and garlic before crumbing. An unusual combo that strangely works. Or the original Stephanie Alexander’s 'The Cook’s Companion.' My now husband bought this beautiful tome for me for our first Christmas together in our first home and to this day holds the only recipes for Sticky Toffee Pudding and Lemon Tart I use.
Sometimes however the pull of the internet’s endless galaxy of recipes is too tempting. There’s a few I keep bookmarked and use frequently which like many bookmarked in traditional cookbooks are firm family favourites too.
Many years ago when pulled pork became all the rage I couldn’t find a recipe for it in any books on my shelves or magazines. It was also around the time I was beginning to explore pinterest and coincided with the pressure cooker phase. I found this gem that the family loves. I have dared to try a couple others but was politely reminded how much this one is loved. The recipe calls for a slow cooker which I don’t own. I’ve adapted it for pressure cooker by cooking it for 45 minutes on high pressure and letting the pressure come down naturally. More recently I’ve been cooking it more traditionally by quickly browning the meat and onion and adding all the remaining ingredients, covering the pot and cooking in the oven on 170c for 1 ½ - 2 hours or until the meat falls apart checking every 30 mins after the first hour and topping up the stock if it's getting a little dry. My preferred cut of meat is pork neck or scotch but shoulder works equally well. If you’re cooking it in pressure cooker or oven cut the meat into thick steaks/slices to reduce the cooking tome.
Much like last week’s banana cake the internet holds a multitude of carrot cake recipes, indeed Google found 146,000,000 when I searched!! But this my, friends, from the queen herself wears the crown to reign over all other carrot cake recipes. Nigella’s Ginger and Walnut Carrot Cake is my all time favourite of the carrot cakes. Like all who came before it, it has a moist caramel coloured crumb topped with classic cream cheese frosting but the afore mentioned ginger is what makes it stand out from all the competition. It would seem, that carrot and ginger are indeed best friends and this cake is the fruit of their perfect, baked marriage.
This recipe for Quick Chicken Curry first jumped off the screen at me in a Facebook post. I was planning meals for a camping trip and knew when I saw this, I had to try it. You see I cook most of our meals before we travel and vacuum pack them for freshness, safety and ease of packing. They last for weeks and allow the flavours to improve with time while being perfect to pack without threat of spilling in the camping fridge. Use your own favourite curry paste, I’ve made it with loads of different types and indeed have even combined a few leftover spoonfuls from different jars. Just wait until you smell it bubbling away, the aroma is so lovely it even had my husband’s colleague of Indian heritage asking for the recipe when she smelt leftovers reheating in the lunch room at work.
Images drawn from original websites
Forays
This week’s foray was not one I’d planned nor how I imagined spending the first week of freedom here in Melbourne. I share this story as a reminder and perhaps a gentle prod to fellow women. You see purely coincidentally, because I’ve previously been a bit lazy in this area, I found a lump in my breast. This is the third time so I should be a little more primed but these scares never get easy. Now I’ll let you know at this point after a series of tests this week all’s well and it’s another occasion of my kachangers not playing nice. They’re a lumpy old pair of cantankerous girls who like to put the wind up me every few years, this time arriving with an early trick or treat. They must have known it was nearly Halloween. Anyway my point is I’m sharing this story to remind you to ‘cop a feel of your melons,’ have a gentle prod and poke, check them out in the mirror. Get to know them well so if you ever do notice a change you’ll know it’s not your normal and can scoot yourself off to the Doc for a check-up and hopefully, like me, all will be well and if not you’ll know early and get onto it early. So get chatting girls and remind each other to do your self examinations and boys remind the women you love to look after themselves.
In Australia women over 40 are entitled to a free mammogram every two years. Consult with your GP about your own situation, from the age of 50 women generally do this routinely every two years as part of our normal health screening routine. You can get more info here or make a booking here. Breast Cancer Network Australia is a brilliant source of info for the Australian context as is your GP in all health matters. For overseas readers please check with your own healthcare professional for services in your area and let’s all become familiar with our boobs and lets all talk about it more and remind each other!
Image: 'Birth of Venus, Boticelli'
