Salmon, Potato and Bean Salad With Horseradish Pesto

I'm hot. Very hot. Smoking hot. But before you get the wrong idea about me completely, let me reassure you that it's not just me. The kids are hot. The dog is hot. The house is hot. Even the cold water is hot. I'm not joking. Weather wise, February is my least favourite month in Sydney. because it is so stinking hot and humid that to walk anywhere feels like a swim. Picture a city that is completely sweat-soaked, and breathing hard, and you have a good idea of what I see around me.

Poet Les Murray describes this much better than I ever could in "A Retrospect of Humidity":
"the Lycra-bulging surf drips from non-swimmers
miles from shore, and somehow includes soil.
Skins, touching, soak each other. Skin touching
any surface wets that and itself
in a kind of mutual digestion.
Throbbing heads grow lianas of nonsense."
So that's what my head has been full of: lianas of nonsense. Unrelenting rain last week only made matters worse, as the evaporating puddles on the ground have added to the dampness in the air. I know in a couple of weeks, temperatures will subside, the humidity will lift and we will all feel better, but for now, we are all flattened by a steamer.

No surprises then that I am currently drawn to salads. Salads for dinner have been a welcome development in the last few months, made possible because my children have finally moved beyond the "er yuk it's green" stage. (If you listen carefully, you can hear wild cheering from me). I used to find myself picking the finely chopped parsley off pasta in a restaurant because the kids thought green was so contaminating that nothing could be eaten with even a green fleck in it. I slowly eased them into iceberg lettuce ("hey kids, it's just crunchy water"), and from there gradually started expanding the variety of leaves. They don't love it, but they will eat it. The stronger bitter leaves are still a bridge too far, but one they will eat is baby spinach. In case you were wondering, when I first gave them spinach, I didn't tell them it was spinach. I was worried that the word "spinach" would sound kid alarm bells, in a way that the taste would not. I just said it was a "new leaf" for them to try. Worked for me, anyway.

This salad caught my eye in the latest Donna Hay Feb / Mar 2010. It is quick and easy, and with the potatoes, it really is sufficiently filling for dinner. Smoked salmon fillets are available in the supermarket, so your only cooking is the potatoes and beans. The rest can be thrown together. Even the pesto - just use store bought and stir in some horseradish, if making your own seems like torture in this heat. Incidentally, Donna's horseradish pesto was tasty, although I upped the amount of horseradish to give it a bit of extra zing. You won't be surprised to hear that the kids wanted to have theirs without the pesto. No complaints from me: you've gotta walk before you can run.

If you are cooking anything from Donna Hay Feb / Mar 2010 this month, email me or Melinda from Melbourne Larder. We'd love to have you join us on our We Made It challenge.



Salmon and Potato Salad with Horseradish Pesto
adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Feb/Mar 10
serves 4

750g baby potatoes
300g green beans, trimmed
2 x 200g hot smoked salmon fillets
60g baby spinach leaves
Horseradish pesto, recipe below

Boil potatoes until tender (12-15 mins). Remove from water and cool slightly. Boil beans for two mins until tender (you can use the potato water). Drain and cool slightly. Slice potatoes and place in a serving bowl with salmon, beans and spinach leaves. Drizzle with pesto, and some extra olive oil, if you would like to use it. Serve.

Horseradish pesto: (you can use store bought and stir in some horseradish)
2 1/2 cups basil leaves
2 -3 tbls bottled horseradish, depending on taste (not horseradish cream)
2 tbl pine nuts
2 tbl finely grated parmesan
1/4 cup olive oil

To make the pesto, put all ingredients, plus salt and pepper in he bowl of a small food processor and process until smooth.

Fig and Mozzarella Salad

I have written before about why I like Donna Hay recipes. Apart from the delightful photography and styling of her magazines and cookbooks, she earns her place in my kitchen pantheon for the utility of her recipes. If you are time-pressed, but still like to put a "from scratch" dinner on the table every night, Donna's your girl. Her dishes are good-tasting and good-looking, and simple enough that there is usually no possible margin of error. Most of her recipes have only a handful of ingredients, and none of them are ever too difficult to source, even at 6.45pm on a Wednesday night. While other recipe writers might challenge you more, with demanding technique, or wow you with exotic flavour combinations, there are days when a simple Donna salad is unsurpassable.

Like today. I was racing around like a mad thing trying to get 75 things done and it was only 9am. I needed petrol, and as I stood, filling my car, I was listing the day's tasks in my head. After about 20 seconds, I started to panic about how I was going to get everything done. The only option - breathe deeply and just get on with it. So I hopped into the car and headed off to the supermarket. It was only once I was a couple of kilometres away, I realised I hadn't actually paid for my petrol. A new urgent task - return to the petrol station and pay before I was thrown in jail or hunted down by a current affairs program. By the time I got back to the petrol station one of the attendants was busily reviewing the camera tape for my licence plate details. Happy ending. Stolen petrol paid for. No jail. No news crews. Repeat after me "Breathe deeply and do less".

This month's We Made It challenge is focusing on Donna Hay Feb / Mar 10. The We Made It challenge began because Melinda from Melbourne Larder and I both wanted to put our cooking magazines to use, instead of treating them as bedtime reading or coffee table decorations. After mining Gourmet Traveller in December and Delicious in January, we have arrived at Donna in Feb. I must admit that I was expecting a beautiful Valentine's spread in this month's magazine and instead it is all about keeping life easy in summer: 50 Fast Dinners, a feature on an amazing array of tacos and some luscious fruit desserts. But maybe the gods (or Donna) knew what they were sending me: I think this is probably a good time for me to be concentrating on keeping things simple.

This fig salad fits that mantra: figs + buffalo mozzarella + baby rocket. I wound up also adding some crisped pancetta just because it needed using. Donna's dressing was equally simple - just caramelized red wine vinegar. On a crazy busy day, this is a great salad recipe to keep in your back pocket.

Fig and Mozzarella Salad
adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Feb / Mar 2010

6 fresh figs, halved
180g buffalo mozzarella torn into chunks
80g baby rocket leaves
100g pancetta, cooked in a 180C oven until crisp (5 mins)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 tbl caster sugar
2 tbl olive oil

To make the dressing, mix vinegar, water and sugar together in a small saucepan over high heat. Stir to dissolve sugar, then boil until it seems syrupy (2-3 mins). Set aside and allow to cool (pouring it into a cold bowl will speed the process). Arrange figs, mozzarella and rocket in a salad bowl (with pancetta if using). Drizzle with glaze and olive oil.

Melon Salad With Ginger Syrup

Today is Australia Day, which almost officially marks the end of the nation's holidays. Like the French, who effectively shut down for August, much of Australia has been on leave for the month between Christmas and Australia Day. Tomorrow, the offices will be full, and some schools will open their doors for the new year, with the rest to follow on Thursday. It feels like the new year starts on January 27th, with a nation turning over new leaves, starting new pages, and so, at least in my mind, now is the time for resolutions.

I love the process of making resolutions and the notion that a new year will bring clean starts and new opportunities, and possibly a shinier, better me. When I was 21 I gave up smoking as a New Year resolution, and stuck to it, so I really value the opportunity that fresh starts offer. The difference now is that I am old enough to know that no good will come from attempting a resolution from January 1, when I still have more than three weeks of holidays, and its favourite sins of sloth and greed, to get through. So from tomorrow, my resolutions for the year ahead include:
- finish the year slimmer and fitter than I started it (a perennial for everyone, isn't it?)
- blog three times a week (maybe a stretch target of four times per week?)
- work on my photography (you must all be glad to hear that)
- start a gratitude journal (more on this later)
- get a full medical check up (in case you're worried, nothing is wrong, I just know that once you are in your 40s you are meant to do these things from time to time)
- throw out less food. I tried to do that this year, but could certainly get a lot better at making use of the leftovers in our fridge.
- cook more vegetarian meals for the family.
- start a herb garden.
- and the big scary one: contemplate the future and what I should be doing in it.
I promise to let you know how I go.....

This week, still being in my slothful holiday mode, I made this cool and refreshing fruit salad. The recipe is one I clipped a long time ago (it is in Vol 1 of my recipe clippings), and I know it came from a Martha Stewart magazine because of the typeface, but unfortunately I did not note the date. I served it for brunch, but it could just as easily be a dessert, or even a lunch, served with some ham. The recipe calls for a canary melon, but they are rarely seen here, so I just skipped that. Martha also suggests tossing through the zest of 2 oranges, but I forgot to do that (I mentioned the sloth already, didn't I?) The end result is light and fresh and tasty, and definitely one of my favourite fruit salads.

Do you have a favourite fruit salad?

Melon With Orange Ginger Syrup

adapted from Martha Stewart

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, strained (or 1 cup unsweetened orange juice), plus zest of two oranges 1 cup sugar (I reduced this to 3/4 of a cup) 1-2cms fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons Cointreau (I only used 1 tbl - depends how much you like Cointreau!)
1 small honeydew melon, cut in half, seeded
1 small canary melon, cut in half, seeded (I couldn't find this so I skipped it)
1 rock melon, cut in half, seeded Mint sprigs, for garnish

Place the orange juice, sugar, and ginger in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Let simmer, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved and syrup has thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat; strain syrup into a clean bowl; add the Cointreau; stir to combine. Put into the fridge, until syrup is cold. Using different sizes of melon ballers, cut balls from the melons. Place balls in a medium bowl; add the cold syrup, and zest if using. Toss to combine.

Coleslaw and Chicken and Lime Leaf Fritters

"Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever." ~Mark Twain

So before my shortcomings become any shorter, indulge me while I catch up on some homework. I have two extra dishes from the December Gourmet Traveller to post about. The first is the King Cole coleslaw that I made on Christmas Day. I have a bit of a thing for coleslaw: something about the crunchiness, the creamy dressing, the slightly sour flavour of cabbage offset by other ingredients. When I saw the King Cole coleslaw in Gourmet Traveller, it seemed a perfect salad for Christmas lunch - excellent seasonal colours, all in reds and white, and something that could be prepared ahead to take the pressure off Christmas Day. While the results were good, (it was a tasty coleslaw, and I liked the inclusion of the radish and the hazelnuts), it was not significantly better than other coleslaw I have made. In fact the best bit for me was the leftovers: I had a small bowl of coleslaw for dinner on both Xmas night and Boxing night - which were more than satisfying after days spent feasting.

The final dish I made from Gourmet Traveller Dec 09 was the chicken and lime leaf fritters. This recipe comes from a restaurant called Cookie in Melbourne and was included in the magazine section where readers are able to request chefs' recipes. I always love this section as the unwritten subtext is that these recipes must be really, really, really good for someone to go to the trouble of writing to Gourmet Traveller to ask them to get the recipes. I did however make some changes to the recipe. Deep frying always leaves me with battle scars, so I decided instead to bake the fritters (which must make them balls not fritters). I also did not have any rice flour, but I did have some potato flour that I used instead, and it formed a nice thin crust on the outside of the balls. Instead of frying, I sprayed them with olive oil spray and put them into a 170C oven for 35 mins until they were golden brown and cooked through. These had a great Thai-style flavour, were really more-ish and made a perfect nibble for New Year's Eve. I am confident that they will be turning up around here again soon.

My focus on Gourmet Traveller Dec 09 came from a challenge with Melinda from Melbourne Larder that we called "We Made It". Sick of under-utlising our food magazines, we decided to try to focus on one and see how much we could cook from it. I loved doing this because it forced me to explore the magazine in depth and prodded me towards recipes I may never have otherwise attempted. Looking back over the month, my favourites were:

- the Rosemary Cranberry Florentines

- the Chilli Mud Crab

- the Ouzo Cured Ocean Trout

January's focus will be on the Dec/Jan edition of Delicious, so if you are cooking from Delicious feel free to join in. Now excuse me while I go attend to my shortcomings.

King Cole

Serves 8
½ small white cabbage (about 1kg), shredded
1 radicchio, shredded
8 radishes, thinly sliced
½ Spanish onion, thinly sliced
½ cup each torn dill and parsley (loosely packed)
35 gm (¼ cup) hazelnuts, roasted, skins rubbed, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp sunflower seeds (optional)
Sherry dressing
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
1½ tbsp sherry vinegar
3 egg yolks
375 ml (1½ cups) olive oil
20 ml dry sherry, or to taste

Combine cabbage, radicchio and radish in a bowl of iced water, stand until crisp (5-10 minutes).
Meanwhile, for sherry dressing, process garlic, vinegar and yolks in a food processor until combined. With motor running, add oil in a thin steady stream until thick and emulsified, stir through sherry, season to taste.

Drain cabbage mixture, dry in a salad spinner, add to a bowl with onion. Add sherry dressing, toss to combine, transfer to a serving bowl, scatter with herbs, nuts and seeds.

Chicken and Lime Leaf Fritters

Serves 6
For deep-frying: vegetable oil
For dusting: rice flour
500 gm minced chicken
1 Spanish onion, finely diced
1 cup (loosely packed) coriander, finely chopped
6 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
80 ml (1/3 cup) fish sauce
80 ml (1/3 cup) lime juice
To serve:
thinly sliced cucumber, long red chilli and lime wedges

Preheat oil in a deep-fryer or deep-sided frying pan to 180C. Place rice flour in a bowl, set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix well (mixture will be quite wet). Divide mixture into even walnut-sized balls, dust with rice flour. Then either deep-fry in batches, turning occasionally, until golden and cooked through (2-4 minutes; be careful as hot oil may spit) OR spay with olive oil and bake at 170C for 35mins. Drain on absorbent paper, season to taste with sea salt flakes and serve with cucumber, red chilli and lime wedges.

Mixed Tomato Salad: We Made It

December is upon us. I have neglected my blog even more than my garden for the last couple of weeks, so apologies to any regular readers who thought I had fallen down the proverbial plug hole. Some low level renovations made me briefly computer-less, followed by the usual ups and downs of a household at this time of year, but I am planning to more than make up for lost time this month, so brace yourselves.

A few months ago, I saw a post from Melinda at Melbourne Larder about making good use of food magazines. In one month, she had made more than 10 recipes from a recent Gourmet Traveller. I was impressed because - brace yourselves - my name is Suzie and I am a food porn addict. I don't just enjoy them; I mainline food magazines. As well as filed and orderly collections of magazines I am keeping, there are piles of unsorted magazines hidden in various corners around the house. I have an enormous box of unsorted clippings from magazines that have been sent off to recycling, plus three largish scrapbooks of sorted recipes. Whenever I find myself out and about with some time to kill before collecting the kids, going to an appointment, or meeting a friend, I tend to dive into a newsagency and collect another hit. Which all wouldn't be nearly as wicked if I actually used them a bit more instead of just conjuring up hypothetical meals in my head.

So I dropped a note to Melinda suggesting some sort of monthly challenge, and after an exchange of emails, we have decided to play. Our plan is to pick a different magazine each month, try and cook and review and post as much as possible from it in the month. If anyone else decides to join in, they are more than welcome, just drop a comment in to either Melinda or me. No more rules or pressure than that. This month's choice is Australian Gourmet Traveller, December 2009. And tentatively, this project of ours is called "We Made It". Which, incidentally, is how I feel by the time I get to December.

So first recipe off the rank was a mixed tomato salad with sumac, herbs and flatbread. At this time of year, the available varieties of tomatoes spin out from the usual choices of Italian, vine-ripened or bog standard to a gorgeous palette of shapes and sizes and colours. And the recipe is not prescriptive as to what varieties you pick - take a look at what is available and what will look pretty in a bowl and work from there. Tomato salads are a great addition to any buffet or plate because of the shot of colour they give. They also last longer than your standard leaf salad - I enjoyed the remainders yesterday of a salad prepared the night before - so make sure you don't bin the leftovers. The tomato holds its shape and texture well, and if anything the flavour is enhanced. Incidentally, I prefer to blacken the capsicum skins under the griller than mess around with open flames - no need for yet another cooking scar on my hands!

If you would like to join in the fun of cooking from Gourmet Traveller this month, leave me a comment, and make sure you go and visit Melinda at Melbourne Larder and see what amazing things she is whipping up too.

Mixed tomato salad with sumac and herbs

Australian Gourmet Traveller December 2009
Serves 6

3 red capsicum
1.2 kg assorted tomatoes, such as vine-ripened, green, ox heart, grape, cherry, kumato
80 ml (1/3 cup) extra-virgin olive oil
3 golden shallots, thinly sliced
1 lemon, juice only
2 tsp sumac
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 bunch each coriander, parsley and mint, leaves torn
To serve:
grilled flatbread and crumbled feta (optional)

Grill capsicum over a low open flame until blackened, turning occasionally (20-30 minutes). Transfer to a heatproof bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand until cooled (1 hour), then peel, coarsely chop and set aside.

Cut large tomatoes into wedges, halve smaller ones and combine in a bowl. Add olive oil, shallot, lemon juice, sumac and garlic, season to taste and toss to combine. Stir through capsicum and herbs and serve with grilled flatbread to the side and crumbled feta, if desired.

Pumpkin Time Part 2 - Perfect Pumpkin Salad

Having roasted my pumpkin yesterday, I was planning to make this salad last night but we decided to head out for dinner instead. So today I got to enjoy my salad, with all the components made ahead, meaning no work apart from the tossing. This made it such a thoroughly enjoyable Saturday lunch I am going to start trying to have a salad planned and ready to go every week. Our Saturday mornings are usually pretty frantic, racing from one end of the city to the other according to the season and the sport the kids are playing. It was so nice at the end of that racing around, to sit down to something lovely, instead of the usual scramble to find something for lunch.

This Nigella recipe is from a compendium of chefs' recipes, and fits perfectly into the I heart Cooking Clubs theme this week of an autumn meal by Nigella. As it is Spring here, I can vouch for the fact that the salad worked just as well on a warmish Spring Saturday as it would on an autumn day. Nigella says she drew her inspiration for this salad from her very popular summer salad of feta and watermelon, replacing the sweetness of watermelon with te sweetness of pumpkin.

Roast Pumpkin, Radicchio and Feta Salad

from Nigella Lawson in "Off Duty: The World's Greatest Chefs Cook At Home"

900g peeled and deseeded pumpkin

1 tbl vegetable oil

1/2 red onion cut into fine half moons

juice of 1-2 limes (60 ml)

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

250g feta cheese, crumbled or cut into bite-sized pieces

1 radicchio headcut into bite-sized pieces

2 tbl oil

Cut the pumpkin into 6cm pieces and put them in a roasting tin with the vegtable oil. Roast at 200C for about 45 mins, until tender but not mushy. Allow to cool (this step can be done up to one day ahead). Steep the onion in the lime juice for 15 mins or longer (mine wound up steeping overnight and it was fine).

Put he pumpkin in a bowl with the feta and onions, radicchio and half the pine nuts. Gently mix it all (Nigella suggests using your hands for this). Mix the oil in the bowl the onions were steeping in, then dress the salad with this mixture. Sprinkle remaining pine nuts over the top.

Parmesan and Polenta Chicken with Corn Salad

Ten reasons why I love this time of year:

1. The sun wakes me up early.

2. My jasmine is about to pop.

3. There are lorikeets in the garden.

4. The air smells good.

5. It is light when I leave home. It is light when I return.

6. All the (non-native) trees are bright green with new growth.

7. New season fruit and vegies are in the shops.

8. I'm not cold (I despise being cold).

9. Third term is nearly over.

10. Stone fruit is on its way, but then again so is Christmas.....

And so winter gives way to spring, and shanks give way to salad. Part of my plan for the warmer seasons ahead, is to get the kids eating main course salads for dinner. For some sensible and also some stupid reasons, I have never really pushed salads on them in the past, but it is definitely time. With this in mind, I was glad to see the challenge this month for Hey Hey It's Donna Day, because it was a kid-friendly main course salad.

The salad looked delightfully sunny and yellow. The polenta and parmesan crumbed chicken was tasty, although a bit "sandy" in texture according to one 10 yr old expert. I accidentally overcooked the corn, so instead of coming off the cob in nice elegant slivers, it came off kernel by kernel (hence the lack of an elegant photo above). No matter; the small fry don't really care about plating or aesthetics. Baby spinach is a great salad leaf for children too - not too strong in flavour or bitter, it is the second salad leaf I got them to eat (sort of) after iceberg lettuce. The dressing is a little strong for the kids, so serve this on the side for the adults rather than dressing everyone's salad. All in all a lovely meal enjoyed by the whole tribe. And the leftover chicken made great sandwiches for the kids for a couple of days.

Thanks to Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness for the choice. If you feel like making use of your enormous pile of Donna hay cookbooks / magazines once a month, join in Hey Hey It's Donna Day, facilitated by Denise from Chez Us.

Parmesan and Polenta Chicken

from Donna Hay Magazine, Issue 31

2 cobs corn, husks and silks removed

olive oil for brushing

2 x 200g (7oz) chicken breasts

flour for dusting

2 eggs, lightly whisked

1/2 cup(100g/3 1/2 oz) polenta

1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

100g (3 1/2 oz) baby spinach leaves

1/2 cup basil leaves

grated parmesan cheese, extra to serve

dressing

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons honey

sea salt and cracked black pepper

To make the dressing, place the mustard, lemon juice, garlic, oil, honey, salt & pepper in a bowl & whisk to combine. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 220 C. Brush the corn with oil, place in a baking dish & roast for 25 minutes or until golden. Slice the kernels from the corn & set aside.

Slice the chicken in half horizontally, dust with the flour, dip into the egg & press into the combined parmesan & polenta to coat. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat & cook the chicken for 2-3 minutes each side or until golden & cooked through. Arrange the chicken, corn, spinach & basil on plates & spoon over the dressing & grated parmesan to serve. Serves 4

Zucchini Salad for Hay Hay It's Donna Day

I have decided to jump into a new cooking group on the web: Hay Hay It's Donna Day. Regular readers would know that I am already cooking and posting Donna's recipes regularly (so a new group is not really much more incremental work), and I like the idea of a monthly challenge. I have had an ongoing love affair with Donna Hay's recipes for years. I have collected every issue of her food magazines (slightly obsessively embarrassing), plus have most of her cookbooks. She is so prolific that it is becoming a problem for me to house my collection of her work, let alone the other squillion cookbooks I seem to have amassed. So why do I hang onto her magazines when I am happy to ditch others? There are a few reasons:

- I find her recipes work (as long as you follow them) and they are generally pretty quick to pull together and never require a trolley of ingredients.
- the magazines are beautiful to look at, and the food is styled so wonderfully that it is a pleasure using them.
- there is an outstanding index to the magazines, which used to be in hard copy but is now on the web. This means that if I am looking for a particular recipe, I can track it down without literally thumbing years of accumulated magazines. Yay!



So on to Hay Hay It's Donna Day #27. Denise from Chez Us has stepped in to facilitate the event after it was started by Barbara at Winos and Foodies and then nurtured by Bron Marshall. This month's challenge was chosen by host Priya from Akshayapaatram, and she nominated summer salads, preferably vegetarian as her theme. So off I went to my large pile of Donna magazines and found this Witlof with Zucchini, Mint and Fetta Salad in the Dec/Jan 07 issue. It was really good - so good in fact that I am planning to make it again as soon as I can get to the supermarket to get more zucchini. I have never been a zucchini fan, I think because I started eating zucchini as part of ratatouille (squishy and a bit of an underperformer). Served like this - sliced thinly and chargrilled - zucchini is a star. Throw in some fetta and mint and toss it through some lettuce (sadly no witlof to be found), and it is completely delicious. The dressing is nothing more than some white wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper - all you need to show off this gorgeous produce.



Witlof With Zucchini, Mint and Fetta
from "Donna Hay Magazine" Dec/Jan 07
Serves 8, as a side dish

2 yellow zucchini, thinly sliced (I used a vegetable peeler for the slicing)
2 green zucchini, thinly sliced
1 tbl olive oil
150g fetta, chopped
1 cup mint leaves
1 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1 tbl white wine vinegar
1 witlof (I used oakleaf lettuce)

Heat a char grill pan over medium heat. Toss the zucchin with 1 tbl olive oil, and sea salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Chargrill in batches for 1-2 mins or until golden and soft. Place zucchini, fetta, mint, extra oil and vinegar in a bowl ad toss gently to combine. Serve on a bed of lettuce.

Pasta Salad With Sun Dried Tomatoes

I can remember making my first pasta salad, at around the same time I discovered sun dried tomatoes. It was a recipe from one of the old Vogue Entertaining cookbooks, and used multi-coloured fettucine. The sun dried tomatoes were a revelation for me - I can still clearly remember the surprise of the intense burst of taste delivered by something that looked like a shrivelled up hibiscus flower. It was oily, salty, tangy, pungent, and incredibly more-ish. Suddenly sundried tomatoes were turning up in pastas, salads, sandwiches and quiches everywhere (ah yes the 80s). But then, after a few years, we moved on to semi-dried tomatoes, olives and then to goats cheese, and the sun-dried tomatoes moved back a bit on the deli shelves.

This recipe reminded me why I loved sun-dried tomatoes in the first place. It was full of flavour, and is the sort of side dish that would stand up well to a marinated steak or a BBQ, without being swamped by the other flavours. Make sure you use the fusilli rather than any other pasta because the spirals seem to grab the dressing and hold it close, so no bite is bland. I substituted baby bocconcini for the mozarella as it is a little lighter, and I like the shape of the balls. I also reduced it to about 250g, which was plenty of cheese for me. And my supermarket was out of green basil but had purple basil, so I used that - I like the dark tones it gave the salad, less colourful but more dramatic than green, and the taste is the same. I also skipped the oil in the pasta water as I don't believe it is useful. Just make sure you stir your pasta as it goes into the water and every couple of minutes while it is cooking and it won't stick.

This salad was the first July pick for the Barefoot Bloggers and came from Cat of Delta Whiskey. Drop by her blog, she always has something worth reading to share. The Barefoot Bloggers are a far flung group who are cooking their way through the opus of Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. Join us twice a month for something completely delicious. Thanks Cat - you brought back some great memories.

Pasta With Sun-Dried Tomatoes
adapted from "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" by Ina Garten

250g fusilli (spirals) pasta
500g ripe tomatoes, medium-diced
3/4 cup good black olives, such as kalamata, pitted and diced
500g fresh mozzarella, medium-diced (I used 250g baby bocconcini instead)
6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

For the dressing:

5 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
6 tablespoons good olive oil
1 garlic clove, diced
1 teaspoon capers, drained (I used salted, just rinse them well and then use)
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 cup packed basil leaves, julienned

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water with a splash of oil to keep it from sticking together (I left out the oil). Boil for 12 minutes, or according to the directions on the package. Drain well and allow to cool. Place the pasta in a bowl and add the tomatoes, olives, mozzarella, and chopped sun-dried tomatoes.

For the dressing, combine the sun-dried tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, capers, salt, and pepper in a food processor until almost smooth.

Pour the dressing over the pasta, sprinkle with the Parmesan and basil, and toss well.

Curried Couscous

The dramas of 09 continue with the discovery last week that a small part of our house has structural problems and basically needs re-building. How much work (and cost) is not clear until the builders start pulling off our walls next week. It makes me feel ill even writing that. Just my luck that the room in question is basically the repository for every piece of paper / book / file in the house. The next week will be spent boxing and clearing. Keep your fingers crossed for me - I am hoping that if things come in threes, this is the end of the three that began with chicken pox and followed with whooping cough. Then, just maybe, the second half of the year will be smooth sailing.

Luckily for me then, this week's Barefoot Challenge of curried couscous was a cinch. It was tasty, easy and I had nearly all the ingredients on hand. Couscous is always a winner with me because it is so fast and virtually impossible to stuff up. It also allows for any number of tweaks. My only changes to the recipe were to halve it, and I used stock instead of water for making the couscous, and left out the butter. The curry flavour was not overstated either, just a warm note in the salad. It worked well as a side when I served it with a lamb tagine, but I could also see it as a salad at a BBQ or maybe even as a girl's lunch with prawns or chicken breast tossed through it as well.

This month's first Barefoot Challenge is a recipe that I can see myself making again and again, so thank you to Ellyn from Recipe Collector and Tester for your choice. The Barefoot Bloggers are a cooking group that every month cooks something from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. Click here to see what others thought of the recipe.

Curried Couscous

from "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" by Ina Garten

1 1/2 cups couscous
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup good olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup small-diced carrots
1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins
1/4 cup blanched, sliced almonds
2 scallions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
1/4 cup small-diced red onion

Directions
Place the couscous in a medium bowl. Melt the butter in the boiling water and pour over the couscous. Cover tightly and allow the couscous to soak for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, curry, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Pour over the fluffed couscous, and mix well with a fork. Add the carrots, parsley, currants, almonds, scallions, and red onions, mix well, and season to taste. Serve at room temperature.

Tuna Salad - Sashimi Style

I have spent the last few weeks away from my kitchen and my computer, so minor renovations at home could be completed, and my cooking has been limited. But I couldn't let May slip away without making and posting this fantastic tuna salad which was one of this month's picks for my Barefoot Blogger cooking group. Coincidentally, I recently had lunch at Sushi-E (try it if you are ever in Sydney and would like some fantastic sushi), and ate a salad with almost exactly the same components as Ina's one below, so I have tried here to reproduce the flavours that I loved so much. In particular, I hunted down some wasabi flavoured furikake to season the salad. Delicious!


I served the tuna raw, which is my personal preference, and halved the quantities as it was just for darling husband and myself. I still wound up with very generous serves and leftovers. If you haver never tried raw tuna, it tastes soft and silky and not at all fishy - just make sure you purchase sashimi grade tuna. I couldn't find wasabi powder here - it comes as a paste - so I used about 1 1/2 tsps of the paste in my half serve of dressing, instead. I also plated the salad as an appetizer rather than as a main meal, as I think delicate portions work better with this sort of food - it also makes the expense of the tuna go a lot further (and good tuna can be pricey). This is a salad that I will make again and again - it would be wonderful for entertaining, and is incredibly easy. It would lend itself to being chopped very small and served in tart shells as well. And if you can access sashimi quality fish - have it raw. Some things are just too lovely to cook!



Thanks to Kate from the elegantly named Warm Olives and Cool Cocktails for such a wonderful choice. I am thrilled to have been lured back into the kitchen for this one.



Tuna Salad
adapted from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten

1kg very fresh tuna steak, cut 1-inch thick
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for brushing
2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black, plus extra for sprinkling
2 limes, zest grated
1 teaspoon wasabi powder
6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (3 limes)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
10 dashes hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)
1 to 2 ripe Hass avocados, medium diced
1/4 cup minced scallions, white and green parts (2 scallions)
1/4 cup red onion, small diced

Brush the tuna steaks with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the tuna steaks in a very hot saute pan and cook for only 1 minute on each side. Set aside on a platter.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, pepper, lime zest, wasabi, lime juice, soy sauce and hot sauce. Add the avocados to the vinaigrette.

Cut the tuna in chunks and place it in a large bowl. Add the scallions and red onion and mix well. Pour the vinaigrette mixture over the tuna and carefully mix.

Chickpea, Beetroot and Nut Salad - Cooking to Combat Cancer

You don't need to look very far around here to find people impacted by cancer. And it is hard to know what to say about such a catastrophic topic in a post like this. Some of my close people have won their fight, others lost, some are currently fighting the battle. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to who develops it - just a horrible random lottery. I am comforted by President Obama's pledge to find a cure in our time, and hope that philanthropic dollars continue to make their way to researchers despite the GFC. And a cure is coming. In a great recent development, my daughters will be immunised against cervical cancer thanks to the pioneering work of Dr Ian Frazer. More power to him and all the other scientists and doctors on the frontlines.

Chris at Mele Cotte is hosting her third annual Cooking to Combat Cancer, challenging bloggers to post recipes that feature ingredients believed to be anti-cancer. This salad strikes me as a great choice for the challenge. Filled with beetroot and carrot (both high in anti-oxidants), chickpeas (high in fibre), nuts and seeds (including brazil nuts and flax seeds linked to anti-cancer benefits), flavoured with turmeric, ginger and chilli (also linked to possible anti-cancer benefits), it is very good for you. Even better, it tastes sensational, and it keeps for several days as the tastes develop more and more. It comes from NZ's Cuisine magazine which I currently love, love, love! I found it in the pages at the back where they collect recipes requested by readers from helpful chefs. The reader after this recipe said it was so good she had to order a second serving. I can only agree.....

Chickpea, Beetroot & Nut Salad
Courtesy of Vilagrad Vineyard - Chef Kristian Nooyen

For the salad mix
¾ cup dried chickpeas, soaked then cooked until tender with 1/2 tsp turmeric
1 medium beetroot, cut into matchsticks, rinsed and set aside to dry off
1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks
4 spring onions, sliced
2 sticks celery, diced
1 thumb fresh ginger, very thinly sliced
½ cup coarsely chopped parsley
1 cup coriander leaves

For the nut mix
2 cups mixture of peanuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ teaspoon each salt, cumin and coriander powder
¼ teaspoon chilli powder
25g chilled butter

For the dressing and to serve
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon brown sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup olive oil

For the salad mix

Toss together all the ingredients, setting aside half the coriander leaves for garnish.

For the nut mix

Bake the nuts and seeds for 5 minutes at 180°C then sprinkle with a mixture of the sugar, salt and spices. Grate the butter over. Bake for 10 minutes more, stirring often. Set aside to cool.

For the dressing and to serve

Mix all the ingredients together well. Toss the vinaigrette and 2⁄3 of the nut mixture with the salad mix. Garnish with the remaining nuts

Quick Chicken Salad for an Unexpected Lunch

If you walked into my house unannounced this morning, you would find two school hats sitting near the front door, in the same spot they landed before Easter. There is a very large pile of newspapers, magazines and mail on the dining table. You would also find the oven trays and pans from last night washed but still sitting in the drainer waiting to be put away. My daughter's Egypt project sits with some school notes that need to be dealt with. There are a couple of spare pairs of shoes tossed to one side. There are some coffee cups yet to be put in the dishwasher. Ironing is sitting out waiting to be put away. The house is clean but it is certainly not tidy. I'm embarrassed to say that my house looks like this most mornings.

You will not be surprised to know that when visitors are coming, my house does not look like this. I run around making sure that everything is returned to where it belongs, ensuring that the tables that usually accumulate daily clutter are clear, the draining rack in the kitchen is empty and ideally most of the kitchen prep has been done too so that (on a good day) there is not even a chopping board sitting around. This takes time and creativity (one of my proudest moments was when I figured out that my washing machine could be used as a hiding spot - just don't forget what is inside or you could be creating a disaster). So a surprise visitor for lunch means a recipe that is both quick and simple to allow for a mad dash around the house returning everything to the places they belong. Please tell me that other people do this too...



This salad is lovely and easy, and the flavour combination is great. It also keeps really well - it was a delicious lunch for me for a few days. The recipe is from "The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook" by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins which was published in 1984, and is still a great resource for me. Lots of really delicious ideas once you sift out the occasional 1980s horror - if you see this book in a secondhand bookshop, grab it. Just the thing for seeing an old friend, (and admiring how nice everything looks when all our clutter is put away). And it only takes about 15 minutes to make.



Chicken Salad With Red Grapes and Pecans
from "The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook" by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins

4 whole chicken breasts (8 halves) poached and skinned (I used a cooked rotisserie chicken, skinned)
1 cup diced celery
1 1/2 cups seedless red grapes
3/4 cup pecan halves, toasted
Salad leaves
Roquefort Mayonnaise

Cut the chicken into 3cm chunks, then combine with celery, grapes and pecans in a large bowl.
Make the mayonnaise. Toss the salad with the mayonnaise and refrigerate until cold. Seve on a bed of salad leaves.

Roquefort Mayonnaise
2 egg yolks
1 tbl dijon mustard
2 tbls sherry vinegar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup crumbled roquefort (I used a goats cheese instead)


Process egg yolks, mustard and vinegar in a blender for 30 seconds. With the machine running, slowly add the oil to make a thick mayonaise. Add cheese and pulse a couple of times (until just combined, not smooth). Season to taste.

Chinese Chicken Salad

Unlike many Barefoot Blogger picks of dishes I've neither seen nor heard of, this week's Chinese Chicken Salad had me on very familiar territory. The honey/soy/sesame oil flavour trio makes regular, well-appreciated appearances around here in salads, marinades and stir fries. We also tend to eat at Chinese restaurants a lot, where my daughters love a northern chinese salad called kai see fan pei (forgive me the English approximation of the Chinese name - you won't be surprised to hear I don't read or speak Chinese), which tosses cold shredded chicken, cucumber and rice noodles with a peanut based sauce. So I was very interested to try Ina's version of this dish. And the verdict? Enthusiastic from all the family.

I tweaked the recipe slightly. It is not easy to get breasts on the bone with skin here (breasts tend to come only as fillets), so instead I opted for an already-cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket which I then skinned and shredded. Since it is the night before school holidays start, I was glad to have taken this short-cut. Then I added some celery and some cucumber to increase the vegetable content. I also reduced the amount of salt in the dressing after reading the comments earlier in the week. And the kids had crisped chinese noodles sprinkled over the tops of theirs for a bit of fun and texture. The next time I make this, I will increase the amount of ginger as I would like a bit more of a zing in the dressing, and maybe even chop in some raw chilli for a tiny bit of heat. I also suspect that the salad will be even better tomorrow after it has sat for a while. Lucky me - lunch is sorted.

Thank you to Mckenzie of Kenzie's Kitchen for the great choice. You can have a look at how all the other Barefoot Bloggers enjoyed the recipe here. See you all after Easter - apologies in advance for the late comments.

Chinese Chicken Salad

from "Barefoot Contessa Parties" by Ina Garten

4 split chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on) - I used one pre-cooked chicken, skinned and shredded 250g asparagus, ends removed, and cut in thirds diagonally
1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded
2 scallions or green onions (white and green parts), sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted

For the dressing
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup good apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon peeled, grated fresh ginger
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub with the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in large bite-sized pieces.

Blanch the asparagus in a pot of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes until crisp-tender. Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. Drain. Cut the peppers in strips about the size of the asparagus pieces. Combine the cut chicken, asparagus, and peppers in a large bowl.
Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the chicken and vegetables. Add the scallions and sesame seeds and season to taste. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Curried Crab and Watermelon Salad

Sometimes I am surprised by the things that go beautifully together that at first blush appear to be incompatible. Blue cheese and dessert wine. Goats cheese and rosemary. Chilli and chocolate. Vanilla and fish. I am sure that there is someone with a lot more knowledge than me about the science of taste profiles who could explain why these pairings work. I'm also sure I am not the only one to sometimes look at recipes and wonder whether some combinations are even edible let alone successful. Sometimes however, being bold in your combinations can pay off.

This recipe leapt out at me from a Delicious magazine (December 08/ January 09) that I was thumbing a few weeks ago - one of the reasons I love food mags like this one. It brings together an apparently odd combination of ingredients - watermelon, crab, curry powder - into a very delicious and elegant salad. Even better, it can be prepared an hour or two in advance. It would also work as an hors d'oeuvre if you cut the watermelon circles smaller. The gentle heat of the curried crab sits beautifully with the crisp and sweet watermelon - a perfect last taste of summer.

Curried Crab and Watermelon Salad

from Valli Little in Delicious Magazine

serves 4

1/4 cup olive oil

2 small Granny Smith apples, grated

1/2 onion finely chopped

2 1/2 tsps good quality curry powder

2 tsps lime juice

1 tbs chopped coriander

1 tbs chopped mint

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 cup fresh crabmeat

4 slices of watermelon, 3cm thick, cut into 7cm rounds (use a biscuit or scone cutter)

Pappadams to serve

Heat 1 tbl olive oil over medium heat. Add apple, onion and 1 1/2 tsps curry powder and cook until onion and apple have softened (5 mins or so). Remove from heat and stir in lime juice. Cool slighlty then puree in a blender with herbs and mayonnaise until smooth. Mix with grab, season to taste, then chill.

Combine remaining 2 tsps oil and 1 tsp curry powder in a small bowl. Set aside.

Place a watermelon round on each plate, then using the cutter to help you shape it, pile the crab salad on top of each round. Drizzle with curry mixture and serve with pappadams.

Curried Chicken Salad aka Coronation Chicken Salad

When I was studying at university, I had a job in a fairly rough pub, making counter lunches. We used one end of the Front Bar as a makeshift kitchen, with a pie warmer, fridges and a microwave, all jammed into a tiny corner. The clientele was largely railway workers and people who lived in the nearby Salvation Army men's hostel, and the food we served was substantial blokey food - pies, bakes, rolls and so on - always good food but definitely no frills. But once a year on Melbourne Cup Day the whole place went decidedly upmarket. The office workers from nearby would descend on the Ladies Lounge for a cup lunch, and we would serve a fixed price meal, to go with their cheap champagne and cask wine. The owner of the pub always insisted that we include Coronation Chicken in the menu. Having little experience of Cup lunches at the time, I just presumed that this meal must be "de rigeur" for a day of hats and horse racing. Needless to say, I have never since seen Coronation Chicken served on Cup Day.

Which is not to say that it shouldn't be. I had completely forgotten how charming this salad is, especially in the hot and sweaty months of the year, however a column from Jill Dupleix in last month's Delicious Magazine (Feb 09) reminded me. It really is a lovely cold salad. Even better, I put it together using up some leftover cooked chicken (part of my ongoing 09 crusade against leftovers). Served in a hollowed out papaya shell, it was easily winning enough for a day at the races.

(And why is it called Coronation Chicken? Apparently the recipe was conceived as a lunch for the Commonwealth Heads of State who gathered for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. Cold salad was easy to serve to a multitude and the curry spices were a diplomatic nod at some of the far flung reaches of the empire).

Coronation Chicken adapted from Jill Dupleix in "Delicious"

1 poached, roasted or BBQed chicken (or leftovers - if less than one whole chicken, adapt amounts accordingly)

6 cooked potatoes chopped (I think I would leave this out next time and serve with a lovely bread on the side instead)

1 Lebanese cucumber chopped

1 tbs chopped chives, plus extra as garnish

1 butter lettuce (or 1 bag mixed summer lettuce leaves)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 papaya, cut into chunks

Dressing

2 tbs mayonnaise (use the best you can)

1/3 cup yoghurt (low fat is fine)

2 tbs mango chutney

1 tbs mild curry powder

1 tsp tomato paste

Tabasco to taste

1 tbl of lemon juice

Whisk dressing ingredients together until smooth then season to taste. If it is too thick, water it down a little by whisking in 1 tbl of water. Cut chicken into bite size chunks. Toss the chicken, potato, papaya, and cucumber in the dressing. Put a bed of lettuce on each plate and top with the chicken salad. If you are serving in a papaya shell, slice a tiny bit off the bottom so it sits flat on a plate and serve the salad into it. Sprinkle with cumin seeds and chives.

Waldorf Salad and A Remembrance of Things Past

Last week, pondering my fridge as part of the ongoing 09 crusade against food waste, I noticed some lingering apples and celery. Like some sort of trivia game quiz, I found myself pondering: "apple + celery = ?" when the blindingly obvious answer hit me. It was time for a Waldorf salad. Waldorf salad was very chichi when I was growing up, but along with deep fried camembert (not kidding) and apricot chicken, it has disappeared. Having it again reminded me why it was so popular in the first place: the crunchy texture is very satisfying, the apples bring sweetness to the celery and the walnuts seal the deal. Make sure you use a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice in the dressing to stop the apples browning, and to lighten up the mayo a little. Feel free to throw in any other add-ins (raisins, other fruit, change the nuts add some leaves etc). And by the way, the leftovers will be just as nice tomorrow.

And in case you were wondering, the name comes from the Waldorf Astoria where this salad was created in 1896 by the maitre d' (not the chef).

Waldorf Salad
3 Granny Smith apples cored and chopped
4 sticks celery chopped
3 tbls walnuts, chopped
2 tbls mayonnaise
2 tbls lemon juice

Combine mayonnaise and lemon juice in a small bowl. Chop celery and apple and toss immediately with the dressing. Refrigerate until serving. Sprinkle with the walnuts just before serving.

Sashimi Salad plus New Year's Resolutions - Yes They're Late

I like New Year's Resolutions, for the same reason I like new journals and new stationery. A sense of freedom and possibility wells up in me when I consider everything ahead - the literal as well as metaphorical turning over of new leaves. The year ahead always offers all the time in the world to read books, get fit(or just fitter), learn a new language, take up a new hobby, volunteer, figure out my next career, or even just ponder whether to plant an ornamental tree in the garden.

But I feel like I missed the boat in January. Freezing cold London on New Year's Eve felt like a time for bunkering down and retreating to a cave, not contemplating the abundant possibilities that midsummer in Sydney conjures up. No resolutions were made and now I feel a little adrift. So here is an abridged version of my 09 resolutions which are being made slightly late fr Feb 1 instead of Jan 1, at least as relevant to food and this blog.
1. My Green resolution: Throw out less food. Come up with wonderful recipes for leftovers. Treat my fridge like a giant Tetris game, where if I am left with two egg yolks from one recipe, I find another recipe to use it in. I am planning to track exactly how much food I throw out in Feb, to get a feel for the size of the issue.
2. My Clutter resolution: Get rid of the food magazine backlog by going through them, pulling out the recipes I want and throwing the rest into the recycling bin. I have piles of pre-incarceration Martha Stewarts, alongside pre-millenium Vogue Entertainings - this must change!
3. My Organisation resolution: Paste all my torn-out recipes into scrapbooks instead of leaving them to compost in a giant unmanageable box (this contains really ancient things like NY Times recipes from 1994; I promise to share any amazing discoveries).
4. My Waste Not Want Not resolution: Cook at least one thing from every recipe book I have never used. Enough said.
5. My Expand The Horizons resolution: Serve a vegetarian dinner once a week to my tribe of carnivores (hey, you've got to start somewhere)



But enough about me. Here is a wonderful salad I pulled together this week in the middle of the chicken pox nightmare. It took no time or effort (yay), but was enthusiastically enjoyed. And the colours are so pretty...



Sashimi Salad



Assorted sashimi (I used a large take-away box of salmon, tuna and kingfish), thinly sliced
1 cucumber, sliced with a peeler into ribbons
4 cups mixed leaves
1 bunch blanched asparagus tips
3 shallots (green onions, white part finely sliced)
Pickled Ginger to taste
1 tbl toasted sesame seeds

Dressing - Asian sesame dressing if available; otherwise juice one lime and sprinkle over salad then drizzle salad with extra virgin olive oil and toss.

Directions- Mix cucumber, asparagus, shallots and leaves together with dressing. Lay the sashimi on top just before serving, then sprinkle with ginger and sesame seeds.

Mango, Avocado, Papaya and Mint Salad - Time To Get Healthy

Having come back down to earth with a thump after our holiday, (thanks to the dreaded chicken pox) it is time for some virtuous eating. I'm not fussed whether it is soups or salads, just anything that has lots and lots of anti-oxidants and vitamins, as a bit of a restorative for all of us. I had spotted this salad in a Maggie Beer book when I was looking for Christmas recipes (she calls it her Christmas Salad), but it works just as well as a January salad (or an August salad provided that you can get your hands on a mango). This salad will definitely be making regular summer appearances at our house.

And on the subject of virtuous behaviour, I missed doing new year's resolutions because we were away, so I am officially declaring February to be the beginning of our new year. Tomorrow I will share with you my resolutions for 09 as well as some more "virtuous eating".

Christmas Salad from "Maggie's Table" by Maggie Beer

2 handfuls rocket

2 witlof bulbs, separated into leaves

2 mangoes

2 ripe avocadoes

1/4 papaya

30 mint leaves

Lime Vinaigrette

Finely grated zest and juice of two limes

125 ml extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

To make the vinaigrette, whisk all ingredients together.

Wash and dry the salad leaves. Slice the mango, avocado and papaya into similar sized long strips. Shred the mint finely and scatter over the salad. Dress the salad with the vinaigrette and adjust seasonings to taste.

Beetroot and Carrot Salad For A Bit of Colour in Your Life

It might be an Australian thing, but I really love beetroot. We grow up with it as a standard inclusion on take-away hamburgers (unbelievable to many non-Australians, but 100% true), so I can't even remember trying it for the first time. In recent years, it has become an increasingly common salad addition or garnish, largely because of the dramatic splash of crimson it offers. On top of that are the significant health benefits, and a sweet, easy flavour.

This salad has a Middle Eastern flavour to it with the cumin, coriander and cinnamon combination - and it packs a punch; an ideal combination to serve with a lamb or chicken tagine. It is also easy to make, and brings a definite splash of colour to the dinner table. Even better, it can be prepared in advance and refrigerated as both the beetroot and the carrot will hold their texture. The recipe comes from "Great Food Fast" published by Martha Stewart, which has lots of nifty ideas for quick meals. If you prefer less strong flavours, I would reduce the cumin and coriander by about 1/4 tsp each. I liked their advice and used the food processor for grating. Just make sure you either use gloves when you are peeling the beetroot, or hold it with a fork to avoid staining your hands pink.

Shredded Beetroot and Carrot Salad
from "Great Food Fast" by Martha Stewart

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tbl extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbl honey

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

500g raw beetroot, peeled

3 carrots, peeled

1/3 cup torn continental parsley leaves

Whisk together lemon juice, oil, honey, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne plus 3/4 tsp salt. In a food processor, shred the beetroot and then the carrots. Add to the bowl along with the parsley and toss all the ingredients together.