carrot salsa

We’re all feeling a little desiccated and wilted in Melbourne, like 3 day old tulips in a quarter-full vase.  We’re actually experiencing a proper summer where the temperatures remain above 30⁰ C for days and days on end.  This not usual for our town where we’re languishing  in sleeveless tops for 2 days followed by an extreme cool change and we’re back to entombing ourselves in pashminas and peacoats.    Because we pride ourselves on being tres chic….Well, nothing screams more tres chic than an elegant summer salad.  This recipe for a very modern, light carrot salsa is from a distinctly un-chic  tome, The Cooking Book, which is furnished with 1000 recipes including coronation chicken rolls and couscous royale.   But don't let that put you off.  When I served this recently at a matinee, it was greeted with much fervour!  Serves 6.

5 large carrots, peeled and grated

1 red onion, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

Juice of ½ lemon

2 tbs pomegranate molasses

Handful of coarsely chopped mint

Handful of coarsely chopped parsley

 ¼ cup light olive oil/ vegetable oil

100g toasted pepitas

 Just combine all ingredients excluding pepitas, cover and set aside for at least an hour (overnight would be sensational)for flavours to develop.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Add pepitas just before serving.

 

DBFG Cornflake and Coconut Biscuits

My 7 y.o daughter's book du jour is The Daring Book for Girls . On the back cover it announces that this book is ‘for every Australian girl with an independent spirit and a nose for trouble…” and it contains a plethora of information such as ‘how to fold a sari’, ‘putting your hair up with a pencil’, ‘ the story of Joan of Arc’, amongst others.  I used it as a reference book when I needed to identify the snake I encountered on my maiden bike ride down the Kew Boulevard with my new bike last December.  As I careered down the steep descent on the bike track in a state of unalloyed exhilaration, I notice something  grey with white stripes coiled ahead.  At first, I assumed it was a garden hose but then when it began unwinding I knew it was definitely not an inanimate object!  My joy morphed into sheer panic and so I swiftly swerved off the bike track onto the road narrowly eluding  a collision with a car.  I made it home in record time and later, in a somewhat becalmed state, I referred to the heading on ‘Snake Sense’ in DBFG and learnt that it was the venomous  tiger snake.  Did you know that Australia has 8 of the 10 most venomous snakes in the world?

Well, this charming book also has a couple of pages devoted to baking.  It contains a simple recipe for  cornflake biscuits, which I’ve altered by substituting  the sultanas for coconut.  I’ve made them so many times with my children who adore them.  And because they don’t contain nuts they are a superb addition in school lunch boxes.    Makes about 24.

140g butter

¾ cup sugar

2 drops vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup self-raising flour

1 cup desiccated coconut

Cornflakes, to coat

Preheat oven to 180⁰.  Grease and line with baking paper 2 baking sheets.

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale in colour.   Beat in vanilla and egg, combining well.  Stir in the flour and coconut.  Roll teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls and roll in Cornflakes to coat, flattening them slightly.

Place 10 biscuits on each baking sheet, leaving plenty of room between them as they disperse quite brazenly in the oven.  Cook for 12 to 15 mins.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  They will look and feel soft, but they will harden up. 

Languorous Custards with rosewater flavoured strawberries and rhubarb

Making food look pretty is not my forte. So when I was called upon to host a bridal shower recently, I decided to rise to the culinary challenge and asked my friend Sharon for help.  She bought these beautiful paper baking cups.  No need for fancy piping or a deft hand in sugar art, with these polka dot wonders.  And of course I needed something with which to fill them.  Again, referring to my cook book du jour, Janelle Bloom’s fast, fresh and fabulous I drew inspiration from her recipe for roasted fruit custards.

 

This silky custard dessert with rosewater flavoured roasted rhubarb and strawberry, evokes a sensation akin to observing a belly dancer languorously emerging from a mound of velvet cushions to the plaintive sound of the nay.  Makes about 20 small paper cups

1 bunch rhubarb, trimmed cut into 1 cm lengths

400g strawberries, hulled and halved

4 tbs caster sugar

2 tbs rosewater

Stirred vanilla custard

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthways

300ml pouring cream

250ml milk

4 egg yolks

½ cup caster sugar

2 tbs cornflour

Preheat oven to 220⁰.  Lightly grease a baking tray.  Combine rhubarb and strawberries with the rosewater and sugar and place in a single layer on the baking tray. Roast for 10 mins till fruit is just tender. Remove from the oven and stand for 5 mins to produce syrup.

For the stirred vanilla custard, scrape black seeds from the centre of the vanilla bean halves.  Place cream, milk, vanilla bean halves and seeds into a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat.  Cook stirring often for 10 mins or until mixture just comes to the boil.  Remove vanilla bean, wash and set aside to dry.  (Place in a jar of caster sugar to make vanilla sugar).

Using an electric mixer, beat egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until pale.  Add the warm cream mixture and beat on low speed to combine.   Pour mixture back into saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, over a low heat for 12 mins or until custard thickens and coats the wooden spoon. 

In the meantime, place a tablespoonful of roasted  fruit into each cup until all is used.  Pour custard over.  Maybe you can make it a little prettier with a diminutive sprig of mint on top.