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.

Salmon Kibbeh

A few months ago, I was in a bookshop browsing when a couple of women wandered in and started chatting about cookbooks. I am never one to shy away from a good bit of eavesdropping, especially when I might learn something, so I continued my (apparent) browsing, while listening in hard to what they were talking about. Karen Martini. How good her cookbooks are. How everything I have made out of this one (couldn't look to see which one) has been an absolute winner. How this pasta was so good. How my husband loves this dessert. On and on and on. As soon as the women moved on, I casually wandered over to the bookshelves and started thumbing through the Karen Martini books, trying to figure out which to buy. Eventually I decided on "Cooking At Home", bought it and then got distracted and it sat unused for a month or two.

Then last week, when I was having an "oh @#$% what in the hell will I make for lunch for 11 people?" moment, something prompted me to pull back out the sadly neglected Karen Martini book. I spotted a recipe I recognised from the stonesoup blog, Kibbeh-style ocean trout. And it was, in my opinion at least, sensational - no reflection on my cooking skills - it is served raw. Definitely unusual, but deliciously flavoured, easy to put together and needs to be prepared a couple of hours in advance. In other words it has every element for a perfect starter for a lunch or dinner party. Kibbeh is usually a meat and burghul dish, from the middle east, but it really works well with the raw fish instead. Karen Martini suggests that this may be the dish to tempt people who are nervous about eating raw fish as it is so more-ish. I think she might be right.

Kibbeh Style Ocean Trout

from "Cooking At Home" by Karen Martini

400g ocean trout, skin and bones removed and pulsed in a food processor to a medium fine paste

2 golden shallots finely chopped

150g coarse burghul, soaked in 185 ml hot water for 10 mins then squeezed to get out any excess water

3 tsps sumac

3 pinches allspice

1/2 clove garlic finely chopped

1 1/2 tsps salt flakes

freshly ground black pepper

1 large green chilli, seeded and finely chopped

2 large red chillies, seeded and finely chopped

finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

3tbl extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

Chill a large ceramic or glass plate, then mix trout paste, shallots, burghul, spices, garlic, salt and pepper, chillies, lemon zest and juice, and oil until just combined. Press the mixture onto the chilled serving platter and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serve with finely chopped pickled vegetables and mint scattered on top and toasted lebanese bread to spread with the kibbeh.