Green & Gold for the Australia Day Barbecue

I have a confession... I am a sucker for advertising and particularly the irreverent. Over the years there have been a lot of TV campaigns for Australia, Lamb and Australia Day, the 2015 version with Richie Benaud is perhaps my favourite.  What better way to celebrate a public holiday in Summer than with a barbecue.

Green and Gold are the Australian National Colours and we have a lot of zucchinis in the garden at the moment. This zucchini salad would be a perfect green and gold accompaniement to the barbecued lamb. Lovely crisp green and yellow zucchini, lemon zest, spring onions, chopped parsley and mint, a few pistachios for some crunch and dressed with lemon, honey and mustard dressing.

First up some barbecued prawns. Many will remember this ad for Tourism Australia with  Paul Hogan where he encourages us to 'chuck another shrimp on the barbie'. Plain or marinated, the barbecued prawn is a delicious start to a meal.

The current Australia Day campaign -  Operation Boomerang sees the usual promotion of lamb on the barbecue, usually chops but I like a leg of lamb, flat boned and barbecued until just done or still a bit pink or as George Colambaris reflects in the clip - well done? never! Over the years I have enjoyed the the series of ads by Sam Kekovich as the Lambassador not meant to be taken too seriously and often a good play on words.

What would Australia Day be without 'a Pav' for dessert. More Green and Gold. How many of you remember this Pavlova Egg advertisement? Not sure how much work it really saved.

And for those still hungry there were still some of these to have with coffee.

Zucchini Salad

Salad 2 medium sized yellow zucchini 2 medium sized green zucchini 4 spring onions 1/4 bunch parsley 1/4 bunch mint 1/4 cup pistachio nuts 2 lemons

Dressing 2 tablespoons lemon olive oil 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 tablespoons of lemon juice 1 teaspoon French mustard or seeded mustard 1 teaspoon honey generous grind of black pepper and a pinch of salt

Method

Cut zucchini into strips using the shredder tool and place in a large bowl.

Thinly slice spring onions and add to zucchini blend.

Finely chop parsley/mint and toss through salad.

Zest lemons, add zest to salad. Retain lemons to juice for dressing.

Toss salad ingredients and then pile onto a serving plate. Scatter the salad with nuts and pour the dressing over the salad just prior to serving.

Dressing

Combine all ingredients in a screw top jar, shake vigorously.

Pea, Artichoke and Goat Cheese Salad with Mint Dressing

Absolutely delicious and easily prepared. It is one of my favourites and a go to salad when I am short of fresh greens or the numbers for dinner suddenly increase.

With the exception of the mint all ingredients can be kept on hand and it can be made without mint. It is good with a barbecued meat, particularly lamb and good for vegetarians.  All you need is a bag of frozen peas, a jar of artichoke hearts, some goats cheese, I like Meredith as it is soft and creamy and a simple mint dressing which could be omitted and another vinaigrette style dressing substituted. I grow lots of mint, however, when it is dormant I use a lemon olive oil dressing and add a generous amount of lemon zest and sometimes a tablespoon of finely chopped Middle Eastern preserved lemon.

Pea, Artichoke and Goat Cheese Salad with Mint Dressing

Ingredients

500 g frozen peas,

1 jar artichoke hearts

3 cubes of Meredith Goat Cheese

1/3 cup chopped mint
2 tablespoons oil (grape seed, lemon olive or olive oil)

1 tablespoon sushi vinegar

1 clove garlic, crushed

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Cook froze so peas until just cooked and allow to cool slightly. I use the microwave.

Drain artichoke hearts and cut each heart into four to six pieces.

Cut each cube of cheese into small pieces.

Combine oil, sushi vinegar, pepper, garlic and chopped mint  in a screw top jar. Shake vigorously and pour over salad. Gently toss to coat the salad with the dressing. Serve at room temperature.

Ceviche with Fresh Salsa

This is possibly the best way to cook fish if you do not like to actually cook. Really fresh fish is an absolute must and the fish needs to be kept refrigerated, I have been known to store it on ice in the fridge during Summer. I purchase the fish from a specialist fish shop and always tell them that I want to eat it raw. This is definitely a dish that you make the same day as you purchase the fish.

The salsa is deliciously fresh and makes a great salad. I like to serve it with half an avocado and sometimes I use the leftover as a filling in a toasted tortilla wrap.

The fish is not cooked in the traditional sense. It relies on the acid in the lime juice to 'cook' the fish. I could get all technical and explain how the acid in the lime juice denatures the proteins in the fish, however, just accept that the process causes the flesh to become firm and change colour and makes the fish look cooked.

As with cooking it is easy to overdo it, too much time in the lime juice and the the fish will become tough. Very thin slices fish will only take twenty minutes. It is best to check the fish as it is in the lime juice.The fish can be removed from the lime juice and then refrigerated until you are ready to serve.

An Explanation of the Process

Raw fish in lime juice and a little salt.












Fish after time in the lime juice. In this case it was nearly four hours, the pieces were 2  cm dice.

The fish cubes cut in half, notice the outside looks cooked and the middle is still pink















the fish mixed in with the salsa








and as a wrap









also nice with a little kewpie mayonnaise in the wrap

The process again, this time with salmon

Fresh fillets of salmon.










Remove skin and divide portion into smaller pieces.

 
Slice each piece into 4-5 mm thick slices.










Place in the lime juice

This is how the salmon looks as it 'cooks' in the the lime juice. Anti clockwise, Top left, raw fish, bottom left, after 5 minutes, bottom right, after 10 minutes, top left after 20 minutes. Notice that the outside edges of the salmon become paler colour and the texture of the fish slightly firmer.

Ceviche with Fresh Salsa

400 g  very fresh firm fleshed fish* 1 cup lime juice 1 teaspoon salt Firm or fairly firm flesh such as rockling, marlin or salmon To Serve Optional Avocado / thin wraps Small amount of oil and lime juice mixed to a dreassing

Salsa 1/4 red capsicum, 1/2 Lebanese cucumber 1 mango, 1 tomato 2 spring onions 2 tablespoons chopped coriander 2 teaspoons grated green ginger 1 red chilli, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed Juice of 1 lime Freshly ground black pepper

Method

To Prepare Fish

Remove any dark flesh/blood line from the fish.

Slice fish into 5 mm thick slices / Dice fish into small cubes.

Cover fish with salt and lime juice, making sure fish is totally covered.

Cover with clingfilm or place in a container with a lid and place in refrigerator. The thicker the cubes of fish the longer it will take to ‘cook’ If the fish is very thin it will take less than an hour. More time is required for thicker cubes of fish.

Drain fish, discard the lime juice.

Assemble the Salsa

Finely dice the capsicum, cucumber, mango and tomato and thinly slice the spring onions. Mix salad ingredients together.

To serve
1. Slices arranged on a serving platter. When serving it this way I usually put a thin slice of avocado inbetween each slice of fish and then put the salsa on top and spoon  a little drizzle of lime juice or a dressing made with lime juice and oil over the plated fish. Serve immediately.

2. Combine fish with all the salad ingredients and mix carefully. Spoon over avocado if using or mound onto a plate or into a bowl. Serve immediately.

3. Use as a filling for a wrap.

Vegetable Slaw with SriRacha Dressing

Another great salad and more fun with these tools. Use the one that produces long thin strips, then pile up the strips on a cutting board and roughly cut into three or about the length of bean shoots. When making this salad I like to have approximately the same proportion of each of the vegetables except for the onion. I usually include a red capsicum, however, there were lots of greenish yellow banana peppers in the garden that needed to be used.  Kewpie mayonnaise, SriRacha sauce and Sushi seasoning can be found in the Asian ingredients section of most supermarkets or Asian grocers.

Long thin strips of carrot ready to be cut into thirds.











A mixture of zucchini, cucumber, carrot, long thin peppers, bean shoots and thinly sliced red onion. Finely chopped fresh mint, vietnamese mint and coriander are a good addition.

Vegetable Slaw

1 zucchini

1 cucumber

1 red capsicum

1 carrot

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1 /2 bag bean shoots

Sri Racha Dressing (recipe below)

Optional

Finely chopped coriander, mint, Vietnamese mint

Method

Rinse all vegetables.

Fine julienne all the vegetables except for the bean shoots or use the tool that cuts into strips and then cut into thirds.

Combine all vegetables in a large bowl and toss, add chopped herbs if using them and toss again.

Dress the slaw with the SriRacha dressing.

SriRacha Dressing

2 tablespoons Kewpie mayonnaise

1 tablespoon sushi seasoning/lime/lemon juice

1 teaspoon Sri Racha sauce, add more if you want a really hot and spicy dressing

1 clove garlic, crushed

Combine all ingredients in a screw top jar and shake to mix or whisk together in a bowl.

Leftovers

Leftover slaw will hold quite well in the fridge providing it is not sitting in too much dressing, this technique allows excess dressing to drain into the rice. Great for lunch the next day.

Leftover slaw with some cold chicken tossed through it and piled onto some cold rice.

Good Gadgets to Have

I have been using both of these quite a bit lately, both are relatively inexpensive and easily obtained in cookware suppliers, possibly even some supermarkets and large chain stores.

This is what they do

long thin ribbons

long thin strips

This salad is very quickly made when you use the right tool.

Green Mango and Cucumber Salad

1 small green mango, sliced into thin strips
1 small cucumber, sliced into thin strips
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 tablespoon chopped coriander
juice of 1 lime
chopped chilli to taste

Toss all ingredients together.

Better then Lettuce

In an effort to use I up the glut of zucchini I decided to experiment with it as a substitute for lettuce. Very pleasing results, so happy with it that I think it will replace lettuce for the duration of the zucchini season.

zucchini, cucumber, avocado, thinly sliced spring onion, smoked salmon,
lemon zest and lemon dressing

The thin pale strips, some with dark green edges are attractive, pile up nicely and provide substance to the salad. Use a wide or regular vegetable peeler to make the strips. Cucumber can also be sliced this way. Add other ingredients according to your taste and whatever you have in the fridge.  The zucchini can be sliced in advance and will keep in an airtight container in the fridge overnight, making it an ideal lunchbox salad.

zucchini, cherry tomatoes, cut in halves, red capsicum, julienned, olives, walnuts,
fresh oregano, lemon thyme, parsley

To make the salad all that you need to do is combine the ingredients of choice with the zucchini strips, pile the salad onto the serving platter and dress with a little of your preferred dressing.

zuchini, diced apple, fresh dates, slivered, walnuts, sulanas plumped in a little sherry or orange juice,
blue cheese dressing

Dressing is a matter of personal preference, however, my tastes run to something a little more substantial than French dressing. I will often make a dressing with some commercial mayonnaise to give it some body or that has some soft blue cheese/fetta whizzed in. I use Thomy brand or Kewpie, both readily available in the supermarkets. Do not add salt to the dressings as the blue cheese and fetta are quite salty. I add frshly ground black pepper to the salad/at the table rather than in the dressings.

Lemon Dressing
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
zest of 1 -2 lemons

Place all ingredients in a screw top jar and shake. Store in the fridge.

Blue Cheese Dressing
2 tablespoons soft blue cheese
2 tablespoons walnut oil
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cloves garlic

Whiz all the ingredients together in blender or food processor. Store in the fridge.

Smoked Trout, Potato, Bean and Asparagus Salad

Good to make on a hot day. Assemble this salad at the last minute as it is best made when the potatoes are hot and the green vegetables are still warm. Add some crusty bread  and maybe a bowl of sliced tomatoes for a delicious lunch or light dinner..

Smoked Trout, Potato, Bean and Asparagus Salad

This is a warm vegetable salad; the potatoes absorb the flavour of the trout and the dressing better when warm.

Salad 12 baby/small new potatoes 18 green beans 2 bunches asparagus 1packet/150 g smoked trout fillets, flaked 1 tablespoon capers 1/4 cup chopped parsley Zest of 1 lemon Freshly ground black pepper

Dressing Juice of 1 lemon 2 tablespoons good quality mayonnaise 2 tablespoon lemon olive oil 1 – 2 tablespoons sushi vinegar, according to taste

Method

Combine dressing ingredients in a small screw top jar, shake, and season with a little salt if necessary.

Wash/scrub potatoes. Place in a pot of cold water and slowly bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until just cooked. Drain and cut each potato into halves. This will take approximately 20 minutes, longer for larger potatoes.

Blanch beans and asparagus, quicly refresh under cold water and drain well. 

Place potatoes, asparagus and beans on a serving platter

Sprinkle the parsley, lemon zest some pepper and most of the capers over the top, reserve a few for garnish.

Scatter the flaked trout over the salad, *pour some of the dressing  over the salad and top with remaining capers.

* Add as much dressing as you like, I think it is better to use less and add more at the table. Store any unused dressing in the fridge.

Green Vegetable Salad with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

Green vegetables, blanched or lightly cooked make a simple leaf salad more interesting. This salad is more substantial and easily adapted to whatever vegetables you like. I used lettuce leaves, beans and some asparagus from the garden and added some additional asparagus and broccolini. It is important not to over cook the vegetables. Cos, butter and mignonette lettuces are my preferred, a little rocket adds a peppery touch. I keep a packet of Blue Castello cheese in the fridge for dishes such as this.

Salad

To make this salad allow per person

A small handful of leaves

3-4 green beans

3 asparagus spears

2 broccolini spears

1/2 - 1 cup walnuts, toasted

1/2 -1 wedge of soft, creamy blue cheese, cut into small pieces

Salad Dressing

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 tablespoon walnut oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 clove garlic, crushed

salt and pepper

Mix / shake the  ingredients together

Or use a commercial dressing

To Make the Salad

Wash all vegetables, trim and blanch. Rinse in cold water.

Wash leaves, dry in a salad spinner or pat dry with paper towel or clean tea towel.

Place leaves on the bottom of the serving dish.

Pile vegetables on top of the leaves, making sure that they are mixed and evenly distributed across the salad.

Scatter small pieces of cheese and toasted walnuts over the salad.

Drizzle with dressing.

Warm Potato and Sweet Potato Salad with Herb and Parmesan Dressing

Warm vegetable salads are an interesting alternative to the garden salad. Not quite hot vegetables and not a cold salad. I like to serve warm vegetable salads with barbecued meat, those that include potatoes are a little more filling and  usually very poular with the men and teenage boys. Sometimes I have it as a meal with a soft fried egg on top.

Generally, it is best to put the dressing on the hot vegetables as the the flavours of the dressing seem to be absorbed better. Once dressed, the salad can be left at room temperature until it is needed. For this salad the vegetables were baked in the oven and this is my preferred method. I have made it with steamed potatoes and toasted the nuts in a dry pan on the stove top - perhaps a better technique when the weather is very hot.

Dinner, warm salad, BBQ leg of lamb, sauteed mushroom and asparagus, steamed broccolini and a light sauce/jus.

The jus is made by reducing 1 litre of chicken stock, a cup of port and a fresh bayleaf or two until it is a third of the volume. The flavour is intensified and the consistency becomes quite thick and almost syrupy.

Warm Potato and Sweet Potato Salad

Herb and Parmesan Dressing

Salad 6 potatoes 1 sweet potato ½ cup walnut pieces

Dressing 2 tablespoons, chopped parsley 2 tablespoons chopped mint 1 clove garlic, crushed 4 tablespoons walnut oil 2 tablespoons sushi vinegar 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, finely grated Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Wash potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces and place on a tray.

Peel sweet potato, cut into bite sized pieces and place on a tray.

Bake at 180 deg until tender or and starting to colour. Approximately 30 minutes. Do not overcook.

Place walnuts on a tray and roast until slightly coloured.

Combine the ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl.

Add the hot potatoes and walnuts into the bowl of dressing, toss / stir, making sure the dressing coats the potatoes.

Roast Carrot Salad

The weekly roast is a fixture on the menu. Lamb and lots of veg being the most popular. This is my warm weather version. The preserved lemon that is used in  the carrot salad can be purchased or you can make your own using the recipe in my previous post Lots of Lemons

Roast Carrot Salad

Roast Sweet Potato, Broccolini and Green Bean Salad, Fetta, Green Olives and French Dressing

Barbecued Leg of Lamb, with Cumin Butter and Dukkah

 A flat boned leg of lamb cooks in an hour on the barbecue and the vegetables can be cooked quickly in a hot oven.

Mixed Grains with Lemon and Parsley

This salad contains approximately equal quantities of cooked buckwheat, Freekah, Puy or black lentils, and quinoa with lots of chopped parsley and some lemon juice. Each of the grains need to be cooked separately, rinsed in cold running water and drained. Cook more than is needed and freeze for another time. 

If the weather is very hot I steam the vegetables but the carrot and sweet potato are better baked. 

Roast Carrot Salad

4 carrots

2 pieces / quarters of preserved lemon

1 lemon

1/2 cup pistachio nuts

1/2 cup currants

1/4 bunch coriander, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons lemon olive oil

Wash, peel and slice carrots 1 cm thick. I slice diagonally and then cut the slices in half.

Place on a tray, spray lightly with cooking spray and bake  at 170 deg C until just cooked. 

Remove pulp from the preserved lemon, rinse well and dice into small pieces and place in a mixing bowl.

Add zest and juice of the lemon, pistachio nuts, currants, oil and a few grinds of black pepper. Mix well.

Add hot, cooked carrots and coriander and toss or stir until the carrots are coated and the salad is evenly mixed.

Place in serving bowl.

Inspired by Movida

I always enjoy the flipping through a cookbook and recently resolved that I would use my cook books more. Today, I grabbed from the shelf Movida Rustica - Spanish Traditions and Recipes by Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish. This book is beautiful, fantastic photographs, lots of achievable recipes and more importantly, it imparts an understanding of the history of the food traditionally consumed at a time when the Spanish population was poor and needed to eat whatever was to hand. In true keeping with the style of the recipes and the sentiment of eating what was available I scanned the fridge. Some chicken, some prawns that I had defrosted overnight, fresh small tomatoes from the garden and some vegetables. Plenty of dry goods, oils and spices in the pantry. This is the result.

fried salt cod (prawns) with tomatoes p276.
this recipe was an ideas or concept dish. I did not use salt cod but the prawns and I used fresh tomatoes not tinned. I also decided to not puree the cooked tomato and to toss the prawns into the tomato mixture.

chicken skewers marinated with paprika and oregano p152.
Obviously I did not bother with the skewers and cooked the chicken as smallish pieces.

This warm grain salad is delicious. I always cook more grains than I need and then freeze it. It defrosts well and is easily reheated in the microwave. The dressing is made with yoghurt. I usually serve the dressing in a bowl and not over the salad. it looks better in real life.

A platter of steamed vegetables to round out the meal.

Plated up and ready to eat!

Mixed Grain Salad with Yoghurt Dressing

Ingredients

Salad 1 cup cooked puy lentils/ black lentils or combination 1 cup cooked Freekah 1 cup cooked quinoa 1 cup cooked brown rice ½ cup toasted almond slivers ½ cup toasted pepitas Optional finely diced preserved lemon chopped parsley

Dressing 1 cup plain/natural yoghurt a drizzle of honey (about 1 dessert spoon)or more to your taste juice and rind of 1 large lemon 2 tablespoons of lemon olive oil 1 -2 cloves of garlic, crushed Salt and pepper to taste Optional 1 tablespoon tahini

Method

Cook grains until just cooked and tender. Do not overcook. 

I cook them in separate pots, however, they could be cooked together. Cook the one that takes longest first and then add the others. 

Rinse well under running water and allow to drain thoroughly. 

Keep the grains warm or reheat in microwave.

Put grains in a bowl and mix in the pepitas, almonds and if using the preserved lemon and chopped parsley.

Pile salad onto serving plate or into a serving bowl. Serve with the yoghurt dressing

To make dressing

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. The dressing should be thick and a spooning consistency, add more oil or lemon juice if needed.

Vietnamese Inspired Noodle salad

I really enjoy the fresh flavours of Vietnamese food and make this salad quite often over summer. It is a salad inspired by  and not an authentic recipe. It is perfect in hot weather and makes a great dish for 'ladies that lunch' leaving plenty of room for a decadent dessert.

 The base salad can be made into a more substantial meal with the addition of chicken, barbecued meat such as rump sliced across the grain and seafood. Sometimes I serve the salad separately to the meat or I slice the meat and toss through as shown below.

I usually cook the meat, however, purchased roast chicken or cooked prawns(shells and heads removed) are also very good.  Chinese roast duck is excellent. As with most of my recipe ideas adapt to you taste. Use less of an ingredient or leave it out, add things that you like or have to hand. For the salad think fresh, colourful, crisp and crunchy. Add more chilli if you want it hotter.

Vietnamese Style Salad
1/3-1/2 packet Rice vermicelli/rice noodles
Cos / Iceberg lettuce
carrot, capsicum, red salad onion, asparagus spears, snow peas, cucumber, green beans or any selection of vegetables
bean sprouts if you have them
fresh herbs - mint, Vietnamese mint, coriander- 1/2 bunch each
2-6 fresh long red chilli- deseeded and finely sliced or chopped

Place noodles in boiling water and cook until tender - approx3- 4 minutes, drain, rinse and allow to cool.
Cut up vegetables into thin matchstick length shapes (julienne), coarsely shred the lettuce.
Combine all salad ingredients and toss.
Place in serving plate and pour dressing over the salad just before serving.
*If adding meat/chicken/seafood to salad do it just before serving and toss again before putting onto serving plate.

Dressing
Juice of 1-2 limes
2 tablepoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil - optional
2 cloves garlic, crushed
small knob of green ginger ,finely grated-optional

Alternative Dressing
2 tablespoons Poonsin Vietnamese Dipping sauce - available in supermarkets
1 -2 tablespoon sushi vinegar if you have no lime juice or combination of both
1-2 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil - optional
2 cloves garlic, crushed
small knob of green ginger ,finely grated-optional

Place ingredients for dressing in a jar and shake or whisk together in a bowl. Pour over salad

organise the ingredients

noodles, salad vegetables, herbs and chilli ready to be tossed

salad ingredients tossed

salad ready to serve