Moorish

I was given Greg Malouf's book Moorish for Christmas and was inspired to a week of Middle Eastern delights in the kitchen. First we had lamb steaks with a lentil risotto. He seems to use risotto as a side dish quite a bit. This was a basic risotto - just onion, rice, stock & Parmesan. The lentils were just boiled with a finely chopped onion & a bayleaf then added to the rice near the end before the Parmesan was added. Top with caramelised red onions and serve with a carrot salad.

Shred a carrot or 2 and serve with a dressing comprising:

1 clove garlic crushed

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp chilli powder

juice of lge lemon

drizzle of honey

2 tbsp olive oil

splash of orange blossom water

The real find was labne. Wrap about 500g yoghurt in a piece of muslin. Suspend over a deep vessel, supported by a wooden spoon. If your dish is too shallow the yoghurt will rest in the dripping whey. Leave in the fridge overnight. I only had about 6 hours but it worked satisfactorily. You will end up with a thick curd. Blend about 100g of ordinary youghut with a handful each of fresh mint & flat leaf parsley leaves until you have a pale green paste. Season the curd ball with a tsp dried mint & a little salt. Swirl through the green paste so that there are streaks of green - not mixed right through. This is so delicious you will be looking for reasons to eat it.
The next night Phoebe was out and this is always an excuse to have shellfish. We made a mussel soup with a preserved lemon risotto. Saute onion, garlic & leek until soft then add the cleaned mussels & 1/3 cup white wine, turn up the heat & steam until they have all opened. About 3-4 minutes. Remove the mussels from their shells & add the meat back to the pan. Add a teaspoon each of turmeric, chilli, coriander, cumin, ginger and a good bunch of chopped parsley with 2/3 cup of cream. Bring to the boil & mix well.

Meanwhile prepare a basic risotto (you'll only want a small quantity) adding a preserved lemon (peel only) thinly sliced half way through. Put a spoonful of risotto in a soup bowl & pour over the mussel soup.

I served this with a sort of vegetable fattoush. Tomatoes, Lebanese cucumbers. spring onion, yellow capsicum, baby fennel, black olives and croutons of Turkish bread, tossed with a vinaigrette of oil, lemon & garlic, then sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.
I had most of a loaf of Turkish bread left over so the next night we had Turkish burgers. I made mini lamb rissoles - 500g lamb mince, 50g soaked bulgar wheat, 4 tsp each dried mint & oregano, 1 clove of crushed garlic & lemon zest. We toasted the Turkish bread on the grill & served with labne, hummus, and other accompaniments I found in the fridge. We each made our own version.

The next night I made a Spanish omlette with left over potato, chorizo & prawns. Saute the filling items, then remove & wash out the pan. Lightly whisk the eggs with saffron & season. Mix with the potato mixture & pour back into the pan. Cook on a high heat for a few minutes until the egg has started to set then add some crumbled feta and either turn down & cover until cooked or finish under the grill. You want this to be quite thick & sliceable so don't use too wide a pan. Finish with a sprinkling of parsley.

Then I got a fancy for lamb with pomegranate. When we don't get our lamb from our butcher - Bill at Gipps St Butchery, we buy Wai-ora lamb at the market. You can order ahead & pick up on the day. It is beautiful. We substituted turkey stock for the pomegranate juice and used Pukara Estate Pomegranate balsamic vinegar which we bought at the Food Show. We sprinkled pomegranate seeds over the cooked, sliced lamb and served the pan juices as gravy. We served with roasted potatoes from the garden & baby kumara. And the first crop of peas with baby carrots. Washed down with a glass of rose. The perfect end to the holidays. Back to work tomorrow.

Phoebe filled tartlet cases with the last of the caramel & some chocalate icing. These are known as Chocolate Caramel Delights.

Blueberries

Over the holiday break we did a family outing to Staglands with our visitors. On the way back we stopped at the Blueberry Farm because we had promised some people blueberry ice cream. The shop was closed BUT you could pick - so we got a bucket each and went to work. Blueberries are not too bad to pick. Not back breaking like strawberries and you could slough off handfuls at a time so quite quick really, although some of us definitely collected more than others who never quite got the hang of it. There were 8 of us, and 1/2 an hour and 4 kilos of blueberries later we were done.

While the rest were off at the unicycle champs, Mandy & I got to work. I found a blog called Farmer's Daughter on an environmental website called Grist and I followed her instructions to make a batch each of blueberry jam & chutney. We ended up with about 6 jars of chutney & 8 of jam. One jar of chutney was consumed by a ham enthusiast before the holiday was over and we made quite a dent in the first jar of jam. It was effortless to make and I will be returning to this blog for more ideas. I had actually never made jam before becasue I was too scared but now am a convert.

Before we set off in the morning Mandy had made a pavlova using my mother's recipe. My mother was the queen of pavlova & Mandy inherited the crown. I've never mastered the art myself. This is my mother's recipe.

3 egg whites
9 oz caster sugar (about 1 cup)
2 tsp vinegar
2 tsp boiling water
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp cornflour
½ tsp baking powder
Beat the first 5 ingredients until the egg whites form soft peaks then add the cornflour & BP.
Shape on to a baking tray. I noticed Mandy drew the desired size on the baking paper first and stayed within the lines. I thought this was a good idea. Put in oven at 190 C. Turn off oven and leave till cold. At least 2 hours. This turning off the oven seems to be the trick. I discovered in Mum's recipe book that she had the recipe from a friend but used the method from Aunty Cassie. Mandy also says beware of humidity. Apparently the enemy of pavlova.

We served pavlova decorated with blueberries.

That done we moved on to the promised blueberry ice cream. I used the standard Nigella method for ice cream making which I find failsafe, substituting blueberries for strawberries. This was delicious & I recommend you try it. It was suggested that I needed to break up all the blueberries because if you got a whole one you were biting into a frozen blueberry. I don't mind that but you decide for yourself.

Ham

At Christmas you will find a glazed ham is a lifesaver. I like cooking as you know but when you have guests you can't spend every minute in the kitchen. They begin to feel somewhat ignored. But they do expect to be fed. The ham will do it's job. And don't think of it only at Christmas but any time you are having a crowd.

Glazing a ham is quite easy. We usually do Nigella's cranberry glaze. Ignore the instructions for cooking. We buy them already cooked here - the glaze is not complicated. This year we did an apricot glaze from Dish Magazine (issue 27). We forgot to photograph it but it really did look like this. It was delicious, but Peter says the cranberry one is easier. What glaze do you use?

Don't overlook serving it hot on the right occasion, however we glaze on Christmas Eve & start eating Christmas night - first with new boiled potatoes & salad. Over the coming days the ham appears in many guises. On sandwiches with rocket or baby spinach and cranberry sauce or blueberry chutney. Make a pasta salad - this is my classic tuna pasta but diced ham is perfect. Cook some small coloured pasta shapes according to the packet. Add a combination of diced spring onion, diced capsicum, peas & corn, hard boiled egg, radish - really whatever you have in the fridge plus diced ham (or a tin of tuna) and mix with mayonnaise. Perfect lunch and travels well for a picnic.

One evening some were off to watch the Unicycle World Championship so I cooked some fettuccine & tossed it with pesto & diced ham. Make a pea & ham risotto. Before you know it the ham will be gone and you will miss it.

When it's done throw the ham hock in a pot with 500g green split peas, a diced onion and some mint & a bay leaf and simmer for several hours. Freeze for the cooler weather (if there's any left...). Your ham has served you well.

While our visitors were here, Peter also made a paella - not our usual mixta but a seafood-free version with chicken & pork. You can make a paella with whatever you have to hand - you need a wide thin bottomed pan and remember it's the opposite to risotto - DON'T stir.

For a final New Year's Day feast, before our guests left, we did a loin of pork with lentils, red cabbage, crushed potatoes & kumara.

Then we sent them on their way with a bag of ham sandwiches.