Slaw salad

This delicious salad will pop with freshness in your mouth. A play on slaw with some extra treats, all dressed up with a light yet satisfying dressing. Make it tonight.

Enough for two, my favourite amount :) 

Slaw salad

1/8 green cabbage - sliced thinly
Two handfuls mixed leaves - chopped
1/4 cup flat parsley - chopped
10 cornichons chopped, these are tiny gherkins
1 large T of low fat thick Greek yogurt
1 small lemon juiced
2 boiled eggs (to your liking)
Shaved grana pandano cheese (a younger sweeter parmasean)
Walnuts chopped


In the bottom of a sald bowl combine the yogurt, lemon juice, parsely, salt and pepper. This is your dressing.
Place the cabbage, mixed leaves, cornichons into the bowl and mix well into the dressing.
Plate up with the quartered boiled eggs, walnuts and cheese.


Simple and delicious.

Kangaroo with pomegranate salad

Yes that's right kangaroo. There's lots of it in the Aussie supermarkets, it's low in fat and high in iron, hasn't been injected with hormones or antibiotics and is very well priced.

I bought some my first week here (in May) studiously put it in the freezer and tried to avoid eating it. To be honest I was scared. I didn't want to eat something yukky (who does) and someone told me it smelt awful while it was cooking. I left it in the freezer.

Last weekend the flat had a BBQ. The freezer was raided and the kanga pulled out. Well I thought - this way I can try a little bit, it'll be cooked outside on a BBQ and it will finally be used up. About four drinks later the BBQ was served. With my dutch courage in full swing I popped a bit in my mouth and nothing awful happened. It was actually really nice, tender and meaty like steak. Awesome! I like kanga. New food joy.

So all those who can - please do try some. You'll be pleasantly surprised. Use it in any way you would steak. 

Tonight I bought some more kanga and put it together with this pomegranate salad I first tried at Otto's in Woollamooloo.


Pan fried kanga with pomegranate salad.

1 steak of kanga per person at room temperature seasoned and oiled
1/2 pomegranate per person
1/2 nectarine per person chopped
8 almonds per person chopped roughly

Make the salad first. The trick with pomegrantes is to cut it into quarters (very carefully as like beetroot they stain) then fill a bowl with water and immerse the quarters in the water while you remove the seeds from the flesh. The delicious seeds sink and the bitter pith floats allowing it to be sieved off, then drain the seeds and place in a bowl. Add the nectarine and almonds. Mix and set aside.


Heat the pan and place the kanga in. Cook the same as you would steak - minutes on each side. The top side will look slightly watery when it's time to turn. Rest covered with foil for 5 mins - you do want the steaks medium rare.


Slice up and serve on a bed of the salad.


The slight sourness of the pomegranate goes well with sweetness of the almonds, nectarine and meaty kanga steaks.


Enjoy!

Food musings

I like thinking about food. Sometimes ideas just pop into my head and sometimes I have to think harder about a certain ingredient or half a dish I have going on in my head and try and find the match for it.

While I was ohmmmming at the meditation course I had a while to think about food - and definitely got a few good bursts of inspiration there.  

Dinner tonight was parmesan scrambled eggs and baked beans from a can.  It got me thinking about making my own baked beans - which is certainly not a new idea.  Suddenly I visualised the finished meal in my head:  

Chickpeas (cannellini beans? kidney beans?  cannellini and broad beans? - maybe any bean) cooked with tomatoes and herbs (thyme, parsley,basil, lemon juice) with a poached egg and parmesan cream sauce.  Sounds divine. May have to cook it this weekend.

The dishes I created in thought form only while away over New Years are:

• Tuna Ravioli with a pea sauce
  
• Smashed potato, haloumi and quinoa stack, with green beans on the side and a tomatoey sauce.
  
• Won ton soup -nothing new here, just would lie to make one. However it will need to be vege now.
  
• Mango chicken - probably also a no-go now, but still keen on the coconut rice and salad with walnuts and lime dressing

Ohmmmmm tasty  ;)