Tag: recipe

Christmas and Pomegranate Salad

Christmas and Pomegranate Salad

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It is Christmas Night here. We have had three family things on and picked up oldest daughter from the international airport (she is no longer starving in Paris whilst on exclusive girls school French tour; a whole other story) and I now find myself sitting serenely on the veranda with a glass of the Pepperilly, iPad and dog.

Rob is heroically putting overtired six year old to bed and the big kids have put on Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation. We’re loving him as Pierce in Community.

Pierce-chase MSF

The Sensible Friends have been busy feeding and wining families during what was apparently the hottest Christmas Day in the world here in Perth – it cant possibly be true but it was in the paper so it must be – and this salad Sara threw together today was just crying out to be shared, after I begged her to send me something.

Here’s a recipe I made up today by just throwing a few handfuls of what I had in the fridge together – it was all based around trying to find something to go with the 2 beautiful pomegranates I bought at the markets.

Sara’s Quinoa & Pomegranate Salad

2 cups of tricolour quinoa
A couples of handfuls of chopped fresh mint, parsley and coriander
1 cup toasted pine nuts or flaked almonds
1 cup pistachios
1 cup of chopped dates
Seeds and juice from one or two pomegranates
Salt & Pepper
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbs olive oil

Boil quinoa as per packet instructions. Cool and mix in nuts, dates and fresh herbs – mix through beautiful pomegranate seeds. Season with salt and pepper and mix through lime juice and olive oil.
I also put a little bit of cumin in with it just to add some spice

Here’s how Christmas looked here at 8am.

Beach Xmas 2012 MSF

Seriously Good Mayonnaise Recipe

Seriously Good Mayonnaise Recipe

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Many of you already know of the wonderful food of Yotam Ottolenghi.  I can’t wait to get his latest book, Jerusalem. Hoping someone reading this will give it to me for Christmas in a few days time and considering that the only person who is aware of My Sensible Friend at the moment is my husband (I haven’t got it looking quite the way I want it yet), well….this could be my way of finding out whether he is actually reading the blog or not.

“Ottolenghi draws on a wealth of culinary traditions – with a focus on the Mediterranean basin – providing inventive yet honest food, anything from a lemon and mascarpone tart to a grilled mackerel with olive and raisin salsa, made only from the best basic raw ingredients.”

How perfect is that? I have had the first, self titled book of Ottolenghi’s for a while now, and want to share with my thermomixing friends a version of his marvellous mayonnaise, called Ruth’s Mayonnaise. You don’t need a thermomix to make this, a food processor or a bowl and whisk (if you’re superwoman) will do.

There is another recipe of his involving feta and fennel that I am hoping to get out there tomorrow if I can bear the Christmas crowds at the shop today. The thermomix book calls for room temp eggs in their mayo, but if you live in Australia in summer the chances of having eggs lying around at room temperature are pretty much nil and I have found using cold eggs makes no difference at all.

Ruth’s Mayonnaise

  • 1 good big egg
  • 1 tbs dijon mustard
  • 1 tsp raw sugar
  • half tsp good salt
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 2 tbs cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
  • few sprigs fresh coriander (optional as I never seem to have any in the fridge)
  • approx 500ml cold-pressed oil like macadamia (I find olive too strong-tasting)

Turn Thermomix on to speed 8 and drop garlic onto running blades.

Insert butterfly and add everything but oil.

Turn on to speed 4, let egg mix up for about 20 seconds, then pour oil in slowly with MC on. Takes about two to three minutes. All done.

If you’re doing this without a Thermomix halve your ingredients so you’re not whisking for three days; just combine everything but the oil, then slowly pour the oil into the bowl of the other ingredients while you whisk. Friends or kids make great bowl-holders and whiskerers.

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