It’s dead-easy

Christmas is still ahead of us and we seem to have had a long, hot summer already. This is the time for cool salads and chilled white wine. The dressing makes this one a beauty, but don’t read further if you’re on low-fat everything. But you might want to ask yourself why all the people on low-fat food are overweight. I’m persuaded that cutting down on carbohydrates is more effective so I don’t worry about fat much.

Salad as a salad

We’ll cover several variations here, and the first one is a salad to accompany barbecued fish, chicken or meat. Vegetarians will find it good enough to eat on its own, though, and it’ll look a lot better than this one by the time we’re finished.

Here are the ingredients for our spectacular salad:

Mignonette lettuce

Raddiccio

Rocket

Basil leaves

Baby spinach leaves

Asparagus tops, thin or sliced in half

Snow peas

Swiss brown mushrooms, thinly sliced

Grape tomatoes, whole or bigger ones chopped

Fennel bulb, cut into very fine strips

Rinse through in a colander, let drip-dry and transfer to a big salad dish. Then add:

Semi-sundried tomatoes

Pitted dark Olives

Fetta cut into smallish cubes

Anchovies (optional)

Now for the blue cheese/mayonnaise/yoghurt dressing. It’s a bit over the top, I admit, but it’s a doddle to make and turns a simple salad into a serious dish. The yoghurt should be low-fat or light to balance the full-on mayo and cheese. ALL you need is:

Whole egg natural mayonnaise (like S&W)

Light natural plain yoghurt (smooth, low-fat)

Soft blue Castello cheese

2 tblspoons lemon juice

The ratio is about 2 table spoons of mayo to 3/4 of yoghurt to 50g of Castello. You can adjust this to suit your taste, i.e. use more yoghurt if you want a lighter dressing. If you’re making a bigger salad, raise the numbers but maintain the ratio.

The only trick is to take as much mayo and Castello as you plan to use out of the fridge half an hour before, to let it come to room temperature, then they’re easier to mix. Use a fork and blend the two into with the yoghurt.

You can serve it as a separate dressing, a good idea if you have low-fat types coming for lunch, or you can mix it with the salad. What you want to make sure of is enough dressing to thinly coat the tuna and salad. Don’t overdo it – you can always add more.

Variation 1: add some protein

EGG SALAD – Add some boiled eggs to the salad, cut in half

TUNA SALAD – Put a tin of tuna of two on top of the salad, or mix it in

CHICKEN SALAD – Add some fried chicken pieces or slices 

BEEF SALAD – Add some beef, sliced thin

Variation 2: change the flavour of the dressing

If you lean toward Italy, you can use green or red or pink Pesto instead of Castello. (The red and pink make it look like a prawn cocktail dressing). Or you can look to France and use a quality grain mustard – your choice.

Dead simple, isn’t it?

Kim

This is a dead-easy and quick meal that tends to impress the pants off guests because it sounds and looks exotic. Once you’ve bought the ingredients, it takes about 5 minutes prep time and 10 -15 cooking time. It all happens in a frypan, and the result is traditionally served with rice or pasta. However, it’s perfectly fine to substitute beans and/or asparagus if you prefer high GI options.

This is for two, so just up the quantities for more people, but don’t try to make more than four people can eat at once.

500g rump steak or Scotch fillet

1 onion, thinly sliced

Clove of garlic, chopped fine

3 shallots, chopped course

1 1/2 tsp paprika (not too hot)

300g Swiss brown mushrooms (sliced)

 olive oil or butter, as needed

 200ml sour cream (light if preferred)

 3 tsp red pesto or tomato paste

A nip of bourbon or brandy, or half a glass of white wine

Salt and pepper

Fresh parsley, chopped

Tinned green peppercorns

You know how to cook the rice or pasta or beans – best to do that beforehand and warm up in the oven because, the first time you do this, it must have your full attention.

Fry the onions and garlic in olive oil or butter.

Cut the beef into strips about 2 inches long but not too thin.

Sprinkle paprika over the beef like flour and roll to cover.

Add beef to frypan, sear on fairly high heat, then turn to medium heat.

Add green peppercorns (optional)

Add sliced mushrooms, stir, add more oil or butter if necessary

Add red pesto/tomato paste

Timing is important here: onions first, steak 2-3 minutes later, mushrooms 5 mins after steak, then the white wine. If you opt for the Bourbon, leave that until the end.

You need a long match and take care because you want to burn the alcohol off (this is the part that truly impresses guests). When the flames go out, add the sour cream (a little at a time – don’t want the colour to go grey-brown), then the parsley, then stir and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook gently for another minute until everything hangs well together.

Kim

Not when you can make one THIS GOOD. Another dead simple recipe. It takes a bit of patience during assembly, that’s all.

Sometimes I feel pretty stupid. I cooked this gorgeous stir-fry last night, which came out just as I wanted, and forgot to take a photo. Duh! As it happens, it’s a very simple dish – and fast.

Ingredients

• Two duck breasts
• Half bunch shallots
• Handful of snow peas or sweet peas
• Small clove garlic
• Sesame seeds
• Seasoning
• Sesame oil
• Aussie bush honey (natural)
• Soy sauce

Preparation

Trim the excess fat off the duck breasts

Cut each half into about 5 slices

Cut about four decent size shallots into inch long segments

Trim the ends off the snow or sweet peas

Add 3-4 teaspoons of honey and some soy sauce into a cup and mix them.

IMPORTANT: the mix must be evenly balanced, so that neither soy nor honey dominates the flavour. If you get the balance right, the honey will blend in completely without much effort.

I borrowed this photo just to give you an idea – it’s close to what my dish looks like.

Cooking

You need heat for this, using either a frypan or wok.

• Turn up the heat, add some oil, toss in the garlic and sliced onion to gauge the heat of the oil. Chop up the garlic now and add it
• When the onion starts frying vigorously, toss in the shallots and the pieces of duck.
• Spoon a little of the honey/soy mix over each piece of duck, keeping the heat fairly high. Add sesame seeds and seasoning, turn over after 90 secs
• Do the same with the other side: add honey/soy, sesame seeds and seasoning and turn over 90 seconds later
• Add snow peas

Turn over the duck pieces twice more. If you like it very pink inside, fry 60 secs on each side twice instead of 90. You want the outside nice and brown. The trick is to add just enough soy/honey sauce so it keeps turning into a thin glaze. Just keep adding more as needed – you can always add more but you can’t take any away. Stir the lot well when done to make sure it hangs together, and serve.

Use rice or noodles or veggies on the side.

Options

• You can use chicken instead of duck breast, but chicken breast does not have much flavour and tends to be very dry
• Maryland will have more flavour and moisture but you’ll have to pre-roast it on a tray in the oven, get it nearly cooked, then finish off in the pan or wok
• You can try adding more ingredients, such as shitake or oyster mushrooms, a touch of chilli if you like, but I’d suggest to keep it fairly simple.

We had this with a bottle of Delatite 2009 Gewuerztraminer. Brilliant together.

Enjoy

Kim