Warm Spinach, Caramelised Onion, Feta and Pecan Salad

From Vegetarian, Pippa Cuthbert & Lindsay Cameron Wilson, New Holland, 2010.

Just the name of this salad was enough to make me want to have it.

I put 30g butter in a pan and when it was melted added a sliced red onion. I let it cook on a low heat for about 30 minutes when it was soft and gaining a golden colour. I now added 30g roughly chopped pecans and 50g crumbled feta. These were mixed with the onion and then 100g baby spinach leaves were added and stirred around so that they were well mixed and warm but not wilted. A sprinkle of salt and freshly ground black pepper and the salad was ready. It was served with a slice of parsnip flan.

This was such a delicious salad, one that is worth repeating. The butter in which the onion was cooked now served as the dressing so there was no need to add any other. And the feta had just slightly begun to melt adding to the rich buttery dressing. The onions were savoury and sweet, the feta salty and tangy, the pecans crunchy all melding well with the warmed spinach leaves.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Sautéed Mixed Greens

From Vegetarian, Pippa Cuthbert & Lindsay Cameron Wilson, New Holland Publishers, 2010.

I had made rissoles from the night before’s risotto that had firmed sufficiently for me to just squeeze a handful together and form it into a patty shape. I wanted greens to go with them. I had English spinach and watercress in the refrigerator and needed a simple recipe to use them.

I cut the leaves from the spinach bunch and picked the leaves from the watercress. I chopped a red chilli and a garlic clove. I took a handful of sesame seeds and quickly roasted them in a frying pan. I put on a saucepan of salted water and, when it was boiling, tossed in the greens for a minute or two and then drained them.

I heated a little olive oil in a frying pan and threw in the garlic and chilli for a few seconds, then added the greens. I seasoned them while they were heating up in the oil. After a couple of minutes sautéing I sprinkled them with sesame seeds and they were ready to serve.

These greens were delicious done this way, so much so that it could become my standard method for serving greens.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Spinach, Roasted Capsicum and Ricotta Lasagne

From Vegetarian, Pippa Cuthbert and Lindsay Cameron Wilson, New Holland, 2010.

Like most lasagne recipes there were a number of tasks to be done before the lasagne could be put together.

A tomato sauce had to be prepared. An onion and some garlic cloves, all chopped, were sautéed until soft, at which time a can of tomatoes was added, a little sugar, a handful of torn basil leaves and seasonings. This was left to simmer for about half an hour.

 A Béchamel sauce had to be made. When ready a big handful of grated Parmesan cheese was added.

Red capsicum had to be put under the grill to roast them. When they had blackened they were placed into a plastic bag to steam until they were cold enough to handle. They were then peeled and cut into slices.

A goodly quantity of spinach leaves were blanched in a pot of hot salted water until they had begun to wilt. They were then drained and dowsed in cold water. Excess moisture was squeezed from them and they were cut up finely. This was then combined with a mixture of ricotta and cream cheese. The recipe called for only ricotta but I had both in the fridge so wanted to use them up. An egg went into this mixture together with salt and pepper.

The dish was now put together. A third of the Béchamel was spread on the bottom of a casserole dish. This was covered with a layer of lasagne. Onto this went half of the tomato sauce and half of the ricotta mix. Another lasagne sheet covered this. Now another third of the Béchamel was added. I then placed on this half of the capsicum slices, another sheet of pasta, the rest of the tomato sauce, the remainder of the ricotta mix, another pasta sheet, then the rest of the Béchamel. To finish the remainder of the capsicum was laid over this and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese was added. It went into the oven and was baked for about half an hour.

This turned out to be a rich lasagne. It was creamy from the béchamel and ricotta, with the added tang of the capsicum slices and the tomato sauce cutting through. Filling, satisfying comfort food.

I am glad it turned out to be so good for the book it comes from is a bit of an editorial disaster, so much so that I always hesitate to use it. I don’t trust it in the slightest. Every recipe I have tried has had some element in it that is not quite right. This recipe for example has a list of ingredients which begins with the sub heading ‘For the tomato sauce:’. Then follows the complete list of ingredients so one would take it that they are all for the tomato sauce. There is no indication of where the sauce ingredients end and the remainder of the recipe ingredients begin. To find out you have to read the recipe itself. It’s not too difficult to do but incredibly annoying to pay for a book to find that it has been put together so poorly. I always check recipe books now before I purchase them. If they are from New Holland publishing house I tend to cast them aside. 

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔

And yet another soup

Roasted Tomato, Lentil and Chestnut Soup

from Vegetarian, Pippa Cuthbert and Lindsay Cameron Wilson, New Holland Publishers, 2010.

I was not going to use this error-filled book again but I had a few chestnuts on hand and wanted to find a recipe in which to use them. I found one in Vegetarian.

Before much else could be done, tomatoes had to be roasted in the oven. They had some sugar sprinkled on them which would account for the slight sweetness in the soup. Apart from shelling the chestnuts there was not much else involved in putting this soup together. And it was a reasonable soup though not particularly special. The touch of sweetness from the tomatoes and the chestnuts worked quite well with the savoury taste of the lentils. From the ingredients I would have thought, though, that it would have been a lot more flavoursome.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔ 

Another Pumpkin Soup

Butternut Pumpkin Soup with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

from Vegetarian, Pippa Cuthbert and Lindsay Cameron Wilson, New Holland Publishers, 2010.

I have not been particularly happy with this cookery book. It has many errors in it (See my blog ‘A Cook Book to Avoid’). However, to date, I have only cooked two items from the book. I thought I would give it another chance with a different recipe. I tried a soup. It’s difficult to go wrong with a soup.

Because there were so many errors in different recipes I gave this a thorough read through before going very far. Everything seemed to be in order.

It was a simple soup. The butternut pumpkin has a sweetness to it that was nicely modified by the addition of blue cheese and the brown butter sauce added at serving time.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔