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.