Food, Finds & Forays
Hey there....
I’m back!...Gosh it’s great to be back here catching up and sharing with you again.
It’s been quite the hot summer so far. We were promised a cooler wet one of the La Nina variety but here we are with long, hot, dry days. This has made for slower summer days, trips to the beach to cool off or lazy evenings visiting friends with swimming pools. Cool drinks, lite food and skin warmed by sunshine that lasts deep into the evening before it sets in a blaze of colourful glory.
We started the year camped by a cool mountain fed river. Together, with our friends, we alternated between languorous lunches in some of the regions loveliest locations and hours with toes in the river soaking up relaxing hours reading, laughing and rejuvenating after 2021.
But as with every summer all good things come to an end and we were homeward bound. Whilst not back with you until now I did start the working year early with a new client, creating beautiful images for their business launching soon. It was such an invigorating start to the business and creative year. Please reach out by hitting reply if you’d like to work with me this year and we can get started making plans.
On the Food, Finds & Forays Front I have a couple of great reads to share with you and some delicious uses for the abundance of summer produce. From my own kitchen a creation born of the generosity and abundance of neighbours.
I hope where ever you're reading from your year has started well and wether sunbathed or rugged up against the northern winter you've enjoyed your holiday season xx
Food
Cicadas buzzing in the trees, laughter trilling on the breeze and glasses clinking. The sounds of summer often punctuates our little street on Sunday’s at dusk as neighbours who’re friends and friends who're neighbours gather together in the shade of my next door neighbour's backyard to chat about their week and enjoy a final unwind as the weekend concludes. It’s a glorious tradition enjoyed periodically where delicious wines are shared and a little afternoon nibble is passed around. The spontaneity of our gatherings adds to their enjoyment and calls on our creativity diving into our kitchens in search for offerings to share. With a glass of bubbles in hand last Sunday my other hand, held delicious bruschetta topped with a mixture of little jewel tomato threaded with basil shreds fresh from our hostess’s garden. She’s quite the urban farmer and cook who generously shares her glut of produce, often in surprise bowls left at my front door. During a recent such soiree, as the juices of macerated tomatoes dripped between my fingers and the clock ticked towards dinner time my mind wandered to what was left in my own kitchen and the bowl of tomatoes grown in the little micro market garden surrounding me sitting on my own bench. Later, while meat sizzled on the BBQ, I threw together basil from my own garden with tomatoes from my neighbour and a few other embellishments to create a salad that harked back to those garlicky summery flavours of fresh bruschetta.
Bruschetta Salad can be as easy as you wish or a little more involved if you're feeling fancy and have a few extra minutes up your sleeve. I’ll give you the tips for the easy version below the recipe for the Sunday “I’ve got time,” version. Inspired by Lucy Tweed and her brilliant book Every Night of the Week, I love to serve this salad only semi constructed showing off all the beautiful colours and produce but also allowing diners to choose all the bits they love and almost build their own little salad while they serve themselves. If you prefer to serve like a tossed salad style be sure and add the bready bits just before serving to preserve the crunch.
Ingredients:
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and flattened with the back of a knife.
¼ C extra virgin olive oil
¼ tsp salt flakes
3-4 thick slices ( 200gm) of sourdough or crusty country style bread. The older the better though obviously sans mould. We don’t want it that old.
3 Cups of cut up mixed tomatoes.
¼ cup shredded basil leaves. Don’t cut these up until you’re ready to assemble or they'll bruise.
3 handfuls of your favourite salad leaves. I prefer baby butter lettuce but baby cos (romaine) is also delicious. You want to use something fairly neutral in flavour.
Method:
Preheat oven to 200c
Combine squashed garlic cloves, olive oil and salt and allow to sit and mingle while you prepare the bread. You can tear up bread into small pieces or slice into cubes, whichever you prefer. Toss in a bowl with half the olive oil. Spread evenly in one layer over a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Toss/turn half way through cooking to re-distribute and check how they're going. Cool on the bench on their trays while you prepare the toms.
If you’re using cherry tomatoes simply halve them. If you’re using larger regular tomatoes chop into large chunks like the size you’d cut into for regular bruschetta. In another bowl combine tomatoes, remaining garlicky oil and shredded basil and leave to marinate a few mins.
On a platter spread washed leaves out in one layer. Mound tomatoes on top and place croutons in another mound next to them. Serve immediately.
Last minute/Cheat’s/’I can’t be bothered’ Version:
Now…This can be made a whole lot faster when you get that call from family or friends as you walk out of work on Friday night saying “hey let’s get together…we’ll come to you…” Don’t panic my friends. They’ll look at this placed on the table and think you’ve been slaving away for hours.
Instead of making the croutons, you can buy these pre-made at the supermarket. While you’re there run into the oil aisle and grab some flavoured olive oil for the garlic oil (also a great option if fresh garlic upsets your digestive system). These two quick short cuts will save you time and get you to pretty much the same place.
Serving suggestions:
This is delicious with any barbecued (grilled) meat but my particular favourite is to serve alongside lamb. For a vegetarian option chickpeas work well.
Finds & Forays
Every Christmas and birthday the family routinely ask me what I’d like for them to gift me. And inevitably every year, amongst other suggestions, is a list of cookbooks. Surprising right? This last year the list was long and mighty. Gosh it was a great year for new books, thankfully, the boys excelled leaving two beauties under the tree.
Neil Perry’s book, Everything I Love to Cook feels like an ode to Australian food and produce. This beautiful volume pays homage to all the different cultures who’ve brought their culinary traditions to us and which we’ve embraced with gusto while placing our bountiful, fresh produce centre stage on a plated pedestal. There’s so many recipes ranging from sandwiches, through all the proteins to pasta and noodles, enveloping the influence of European and Asian Australians, to desserts of all the flavours we know and love. It’s going to take me a very long time to work through it but I’m up for the challenge.
Stanley Tucci’s book My Life Through Food, is exactly as the name suggests, a collection of his memories and experiences as told through the lens of the food memory attached to them. Both personal recollections and professional behind the scenes moments in his life are recalled through the culinary memory at it’s core. Reading the pages is like sitting down to dinner with Tucci and enjoying a rollicking evening listening to him looking back on his life so far. Even the recipes he shares from both his family and restaurants he’s enjoyed throughout the world are written in a narrative as if he’s sitting at a dinner table amongst the detritus of a shared table as describes the meal just enjoyed and how to prepare it at home. I can almost hear his beautiful smooth voice telling the story as I read and taste the food he so eloquently describes. I almost felt like I should have a glass of red wine at my side while I read!
The days have been long, hot and dry where I live this year which calls for lighter meals than usual. We bought ourselves a new BBQ last year which has been given a workout of late but I’m always looking for something different to go alongside whatever comes off the grill. This colourful plate looks perfect to sit next to pork or lamb. I think it’s tang would be an excellent balance to the richness of those meats, though I’d love to have it with some seafood too.
In Australian agricultural circles this year’s harvest was predicted to be the unicorn season. One where all the weather conditions collide to produce bountiful, high quality produce. Having the labour to pick and pack has been a whole other issue, thank you covid, but certainly what has made it to market has been delicious. As the season peaks and produce is plentiful all the stone fruits sit like plump, bright colourful orbs at farmers markets and stores. I recently came across this recipe and am super keen to give it a whirl. It looks like a simple way to prepare and enjoy my favourite summer fruit and use up the abundance of the harvest and leftover dessert for breakfast is totally a thing right.
Image credit Bake Club
