Mozzarella, Peach and Frisée Salad

From Kitchen Seasons, Ross Dobson, Hardie Grant Books, 2007.

Just looking at the photograph of this in Kitchen Seasons made me want to get to and make it. And it was so easy to make—and also looked so appetising.

A couple of handfuls of frisée went into a bowl. Two peaches were sliced into segments and carefully mixed with the frisée. A dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar and freshly ground black pepper was made and poured over. The mixture then went onto serving plates and torn buffalo mozzarella added. The salad was ready.

Bitter frisée against sweet peaches and creamy mozzarella—an excellent mix.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Vegetable Briouat

From A Month in Marrakesh, Andy Harris, Hardie Grant Books, 2011.

Looking for a light supper-type meal I decided on making these briouats.

Firstly the vegetables had to be baked. The veges were all cut into smaller pieces and then placed in a baking dish. I used a tomato, 2 courgettes, a brown onion, ½ red capsicum, ½ green capsicum, a small eggplant and one garlic clove. They were seasoned and sprinkled with ½ tablespoon ras al hanout, a Moroccan spice. They went into a 170ºC oven for 1½ hours. After they had cooled they were cut into smaller pieces and mixed together in a bowl with the juice of ½ lemon and some chopped parsley. 

I took out eight sheets of filo pastry and cut them in half. Now using 4 of the sheets I formed a sausage by wrapping up ¼ of the vegetable mix. This made  a rather long sausage, giving me 4 of them of this size. I wouldn’t follow the directions so carefully next time but would cut the pastry differently and make 8 smaller ones that would be much easier to cook.

They were now fried in a little hot oil until browned on all sides. They were cut into smaller pieces because of their size. They were served with yoghurt and sambal oelek. I should have made some harissa but the chilli mix I already had.

I was quite happy with the results for these. The filling was gently spicy from the ras al hanout while the roasted vegetable mix was a tasty one. The yoghurt and chilli went well with it, indeed I think it was needed.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Pickled Spring Vegetables and Marinated Tofu Salad

From Kitchen Seasons, Ross Dobson, Hardie Grant Books, 2007.

To make this salad I took a block of firm tofu and placed it into a bowl. I poured on some light soy sauce that had ¼ teaspoon five-spice powder stirred into it. I left the tofu in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to marinate.

After the tofu had marinated for an hour I prepared the vegetables. I took a handful of sugar snap peas, a few snow peas, and a bundle of asparagus. The snap peas I topped and tailed, the snow peas and the asparagus I cut in half. These were all dropped into a pot of boiling salted water for a minute then drained and plunged into cold water.

I now placed two tablespoons sugar and a little less than 100ml rice vinegar into a saucepan and brought them to the boil. They were left to simmer for 5 minutes then let cool.

I took ½ a daikon and cut it into batons. These were placed in a bowl with the blanched vegetables and the cooled liquid poured over. This lot was left for about half an hour.

The tofu was now drained, cut into slices, dipped in flour and fried in a little oil until crisp. It was now cut into batons for the salad. Some slices were kept whole to go alongside the salad.

Two spring onions were sliced finely. Some coriander leaves were picked. Three tablespoons light soy sauce was mixed with a few drops of sesame oil.

Now the salad could be put together. The vegetables were drained and placed in a bowl with the spring onions and coriander. The tofu batons were added and the soy sauce mix poured over. The salad was gently tossed.

This was a refreshingly different salad. The vegetables had some crunch left in them while being sweet/sour from the pickling. The tofu was soft and creamy. Well worth the time spent on it.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

From a la grecque: our Greek table, Pam Talimanidis, Hardie Grant Books, 2009.

I don’t usually do much cake baking but this lemon yoghurt cake appealed.

I turned on the oven to heat to 180ºC and then took out the electric mixer. In it went 125g softened butter and 220g caster sugar. These were beaten until they had combined and become pale. I then added two eggs and beat them in one at a time. Once this was done I added 250ml yoghurt, 3 tablespoons lemon juice and the zest of a lemon. Once these were combined well 430g self-raising flour and ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda went in. This made quite a firm mixture. I placed it in a lined spring-form tin to bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

When the cake was almost ready I made the syrup. In a saucepan I brought to the boil 125g sugar, 125ml water, the zest of a lemon cut into fine strips and the juice of half a lemon. I let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes and it was ready. The cake came from the oven and the hot syrup was poured over.

This was a very dry cake, even with the syrup. In fact the next day I had to make up another batch of syrup to pour over. This improved it somewhat. I was disappointed with the cake as the flavour, despite the lemon juice and zest, was lacking and it was very dry. It was improved a little with the extra syrup but that was not enough to really save it.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Spaghetti con Patate e Cavolo Nero (Spaghetti with Potato and Cavolo Nero

From a recipe by Lina Siciliano in Italian Food Safari, Maeve O’Meara with Guy Grossi, Hardie Grant Books, 2010.

Having been given the pasta attachment to our KitchenAid equipment I naturally had to use it. Rolling out the pasta was a breeze and I soon had the sheets ready to be cut into spaghetti. The cutter worked well but it, for me, made the spaghetti too thin. It was like very thin noodles. I’ll try the fettucini cutter next time.

Though the thinness of the spaghetti seemed wrong for the dish I was making I went ahead as the pasta was made. I cut two medium-sized potatoes into bite-sized pieces and placed them into a pot of salted boiling water. After 5 minutes I added about 8 cavolo negro leaves sliced and with the thick inner stalk cut out. The cooking now continued for another 10 minutes. Now the pasta was added and cooked for about a minute as it was very thin.

When the pasta was added to the saucepan I heated up some olive oil in a frying pan with two peeled garlic cloves to flavour the oil.

I saved a cup of water from the pasta pot and drained the ingredients. These were added to the pan with the oil and gently turned to coat all with the oil. Some of the water from the cup was added to give a little more moisture. The pasta was ready to serve.

This was a subtle dish. The flavours were delicate; there was nothing overpowering here, just the gentle tastes to savour.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔