Grapes on a plate

 

 

In a largely domestic life, in a country without civil war, with my health, my children happy, my husband loyal and with money enough in the bank, these grapes looking pretty on a plate makes me smile.

 

What a luxury, to stop and notice their perfect tense skins. To choose a fetching purple plate to put them on. To waffle on about it here. What a blessing that I can concern myself with the details of my life in such a languid manner. To contemplate pomegranates.

 

 

 

 Some may call it boredom, but I choose to see it as a return to nature and simple pleasure.  

 

And how simple is it really? Equilibrium is often hard won. I struggled for a long time, I fought myself and strived and fell, dancing high and crawling low and then spent years shrinking from the image of my younger self with her tumult and pleas for love.

 

But now I want to face the past with the same strength that I give to my present and the calm I will for the future. It's all in the way I choose to see it. So, I'm putting my troubled girl on a purple plate. Yes, she made mistakes and didn't know her own worth, but she was also ripe and sweet and contained within her the perfect seeds of creation.

 

Be kind to yourself. This, of all my mother's wise advice, is the most comforting and profound. She says this to me on the phone, far away in Australia, as I ring her with bad dreams and regrets. Be kind to yourself darling. It's like an instant balm, and I realise that I have been judging myself harshly, that I have let my mind obsess and fret over things that miraculously are healed by a shift in my perception - a shift to kindness.

 

It was my wonderful mother's birthday yesterday, shared too by my dear friend Rhonda - a lovely synchronicity. These September 28 women are a force of nature: energetic and smart, creative and pragmatic, competent to a fault, honest and wry and always up for a party. Lucky me to have them both.

 

I catered for Rhonda's party last night. Writing in this in bed is a nice antidote the the hours of wine quaffing, deep talking, giggling and lounge-room dancing. Here's one of the plates I made based on a recipe from Hugh-Fearnley's Three good things on a plate leaflet that came in the paper one recent weekend. Sweet roasted pumpkin melds with lush abandon into the soft folds of ricotta and is given a bit of resistance with salty air-dried ham.

 

 

 

 

Hugh's roasted pumpkin with ricotta and prosciutto

(Serves 4)

 

1 1/2 butternut pumpkins, peeled, de-seeded and chopped into big chunks

3 cloves garlic, skin on and lightly bashed

5 or so thyme stalks - reserve some fresh leaves for serving

2 tbs olive oil plus a little extra virgin olive oil to serve

100g ricotta

8 slices prosciutto

salt and pepper

 

Method:

 

Preheat oven to 190C/gas 5

Put pumpkin in a roasting tin. Add the garlic and thyme to the tin. Add oil and season well with salt and pepper. Toss so that pumpkin is coated with oil.

Roast for about 40 minutes or until the pumpkin is getting nice brown bits and is soft - stir halfway through.

Discard the garlic and thyme and allow to cool.

Put the pumpkin on a large platter (or individual plates) and dot with the ricotta.

Tear the ham over the top and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves, a splash of extra virgin olive oil and another twist of pepper and sprinkle of salt for good measure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back!

Can you guess where I've been?

Holland!

Well, it was a while ago, but that's my excuse for not having posted for so long.

So, here's some of the food that's been gracing our table, starting with the best cake I have ever made, a raspberry cream cheese crumble cake - three distinct textures in one cake. The first is a springy almost chewy sponge, then dense smooth baked cheesecake topped with a golden crumble punctuated with zingy raspberries. It really is very special.

(Please excuse Instagram photos, it's my new plaything - I will get back to the proper camera soon, and Instagram does what it says - creates instant pictures, that have allowed me some spontaneity and a sense of freedom and inspiration to get back to sharing recipes on this blog)

 

Next up is a Sicilian style pasta inspired by my main man Yotam Ottoloenghi with roasted cauliflower, tuna, pine-nuts, saffron and raisins that I served with a salad of wild rocket and the last of the summer figs. I love cauliflower cooked this way - with a dash of olive oil, some salt and pepper and roasted in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. I first had it at Mr Wolf, the fab pizza restaurant and bar in St Kilda, Melbourne. I also put it into paellas and cous-cous salads, it would be great as a mezze plate topped with a garlic, yoghurt and tahini dressing.

 

 

Raspberry and cream cheese crumble cake

2 1/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
zest of one lemon
150g unsalted butter, cubed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
small pinch of salt
3/4 C plain yoghurt
1 egg
1 1/2 C fresh or frozen raspberries plus 12 for topping

For the cream cheese:

220g cream cheese
1 egg
1/4 C sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Celsius
Grease a 20cm cake tin with butter, line the base with greaseproof paper.
In a food processor, blitz the flour sugar and butter until crumbly, reserve one cup of mixture for the crumble top of the cake.
Put the rest of the mix in a large bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, yoghurt and egg. Mix with a spoon or spatula until well combined then fold in the raspberries.
Pour the mixture in the tin and smooth the surface to make even.
Beat the cream cheese with the egg, sugar and lemon juice, spread over the mix in the tin.
Sprinkle the reserved crumbs on top and dot with the extra 12 raspberries.
Cook for 1 hour until your cake tester comes out clean.


Tuna, saffron and cauliflower spaghetti
(serves 4)

1/2 a head of a medium cauliflower, cut into small florets
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tbsp raisins or currants
pinch of saffron - powder or threads
splash white-wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 red onion, finely diced
2 stalks celery cut on angle into 1.5cm slices plus leaves pick and reserved
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
250g spaghetti
50g pine nuts toasted
1 tin tuna in olive oil, oil drained
Parmesan grated to serve

Method:

Get the oven hot, 220 Celsius.
Toss the cauli in one tablespoon of oil and season, put on a baking tray and cook till golden, about 10-15 minutes.
In a frypan, warm the rest of the oil and cook the onion and celery till soft, about 8 minutes.
Add the raisins or currants and the saffron, sugar and vinegar, let it sizzle and release the pungent vinegary smell, add the cauliflower and garlic and saute for a few minutes.
Meanwhile boil the pasta in salted water until al-dente. Drain and add to the sauce along with the pinenuts, tuna and celery leaves.
I serve it with Parmesan but some people turn their noses up at cheese on seafood pasta...