everyday experiments with food
Here is the accompaniment to tonight’s Chermoula Chicken and Beetroot and Yoghurt dip with Pita bread.
Couscous
Oven- dried cherry tomato halves and fresh cherry tomatoes
Chopped red onion caramelised with sugar and blood plum vinegar
Toasted pepitas and slivered almonds
Fried haloumi
Fresh coriander and basil leaves
Blood orange segments
Diced red and green chilli
Toasted sourdough crumbs
Sprinkle with lemon juice and blood orange juice
Top with lemon slices, black pepper and salt
So the summer of salads has begun.
Ingredients
Mixed lettuce leaves
2 medium-sized beetroot
1/2 small red onion, sliced thinly
Walnut pieces
Sugar
Feta
Rind of 1/4 of a preserved lemon, diced finely
2 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
2 tbsp date vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
Pomegranate syrup
Salt and pepper
Peel 2 medium sized beetroot and slice very thinly (we used red and gold beetroot). If using two colours, keep them separate as the colours will run together.
Blanch beetroot in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Refresh in cold water and pat dry on paper towels.
Roast walnut pieces at 180C for 3-4 minutes. Mix 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup of water. Cook walnuts in syrup on low heat until most of the liquid dissolves. Allow to cool and then break into small pieces.
Place lettuce on plate, then add beetroot slices on top, then onion slices , walnut and crumbled feta.
Add chopped leaves. Mix date vinegar and oil and drizzle over the top.
Drizzle with pomegranate syrup and add salt and pepper.
We served the salad with deep-fried Moroccan fish balls, yoghurt and harissa.
Here’s a relatively simple but colourful salad.
Ingredients
2 cups couscous cooked in chicken stock
Spinach leaves
1 cup pistachios, roasted and chopped
1 cup semi-dried figs, sliced
2 blood oranges, peeled and segmented
Fried haloumi slices
1 pomegranate – bottom half on platter, seeds from top half scattered over
Juice of half a lemon drizzled over couscous
Several lemon slices on top
Black pepper
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are my favourite chefs at the moment. Not only are Ottolenghi’s restaurants famous, the cookbooks are sensational. Here’s our second experiment with blood orange.
One my aims on this blog is to share my own inventions, but also to share one great recipe from one of the cookbooks on my shelves and encourage you to go an buy it!
Here’s the recipe on his website. It’s the kind of thing that you’d expect from Kylie Kwong, except that she uses blood plums.
The website has lots of sensational recipes here.
I served it on top of a carrot and sweet potato mash, with asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes, and a chilli as garnish. Very, very yummy.
