Showing posts with label parsley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parsley. Show all posts

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

The first time I made this was the end of February. This time of year is when my desire for outrightly healthy meals kicks in. From my birthday in November, through all of the parties of Christmas and New Year (and NYEEEE) and our dating anniversary and Lance’s birthday and every other excuse under the sun we can think of to indulge in decadent meals and lots of booze means we get to mid February and both Lance and I think – hey, remember when we used to keep it simple and just have grilled meat and salad for dinner. Without wine. Or a beer. Or snacks. Back when our portion sizes were reasonable? Maybe we should do that again for a while. The fact that this thought might have occurred after a long weekend which involved a 9 course wine-matched degustation that we added a 10th dish and 10th wine to because there was an extra dish we just had to have is surely a coincidence. Not to mention the daily ice creams (or two). And cheese platters. And wine.

 And we're eating again now after the 4-day chocolate feast that is Easter!

Tuesday night’s dinner was a grilled steak and this salad, with a wonderful dressing drizzled over everything. An abundance of bright herby chimichurri flavours all blended up with toasted pumpkin seeds and Greek Yoghurt, drizzled over tart mango, crunchy shoots and peas and juicy Lebanese cucumbers. It feels decadent whilst being totally healthy. Blackening the garlic in the pan first softens the garlicky punch and adds a lovely roasted flavour to the whole situation.

 
The dressing makes much more than you require, but it’ll do meals for around 3 days if refrigerated. As well as being a dressing, it’s also a delicious sauce on baked potatoes, or stirred through quinoa or your favourite grain.

 
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt DressingGoing Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing

½ cup pumpkin seeds
4 cloves garlic
2 bunches coriander (about 2 cups roughly chopped)
Bunch parsley (about 2 cups roughly chopped)
Salt and pepper
7 big gloops of Greek Yoghurt (around 200g)
¼ cup water (for thinning)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Green Mango Salad

1 underripe mango (you want it to be sliceably firm, and a tart)
Handful bean shoots
Handful snow peas, topped and tailed, then thinly sliced
1 cucumber, peeled into ribbons – seed middle discarded

Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing
Going Green - Chimichurri, Pumpkin Seed and Greek Yoghurt Dressing


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Easy Entertaining - Bone Marrow Pesto Spread



One of the recipes I was given to test for the Recipes and Ramblings Cookbook was called “Lovely Bones”. It’s a dish of roasted bone marrow with a radish salad, served with some warm sourdough bread. And it was pretty remarkable. The flavours and textures all worked really well together. Lance and I devoured the dish eagerly! However, on the recommendation of a butcher, I bought whole bone marrow shaft pieces instead of cut in half lengthwise to make flat, open pieces. And it was really, really messy to eat. And I’m a grub to start with. It wasn’t really the type of meal you could eat in polite company, but it was designed to be a shared entrĂ©e. It's so dramatic being served marrow in the bone like that! So, I recommend trying that recipe by getting the cookbook. (It's available at Fresh Provisions, Beaufort St Books and Planet Books)


I had 6 pieces of marrow bone leftover after making that dish and knowing that Lance probably didn’t want to be up to his elbows in marrow juices again, I thought I would change things up a bit. I’ve still kept some of the original flavours of lemon, parsley, smoked paprika and garlic, but I’ve changed it into a pesto-style spread. Much more polite to eat in mixed company and so delicious. The rich oiliness of the bone marrow means you don’t need to add the traditional olive oil or nuts to the pesto. And you can remove the marrow much more cleanly in your kitchen than at a dinner table. I used a fondue fork to poke in and around the hole to remove the marrow as I don’t have a marrow spoon (and, in fact, didn’t know that such a thing even existed until very recently!)


It only takes about 30 minutes to make, and is quite the fancypants dinner party appetiser!



Bone Marrow Pesto Spread
(adapted from Lovely Bones in Recipes and Ramblings Volume 3)
6x 5cm marrow bone shafts
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp smoked paprika
Sea salt and fresh black pepper to taste ( a good pinch of each)
2 bunches parsley, with the big part of the stalk removed
Juice of one lemon
¼ tsp hot English mustard
½ tbsp. capers
Sourdough to serve


Preheat the oven to 200C


In a small casserole dish, place the bone marrow shafts with the holes facing up. Mix the minced garlic, smoked paprika, a good pinch of salt and pepper in a small bowl and sprinkle over the top of the bone pieces. Pop in the oven.


In a food processor, blitz the parsley, lemon juice, mustard and capers until quite finely chopped but still some texture to it. You might need to scrape down the sides of your processor a few times.


When the bone marrow starts to pull away from the sides of the bone, after around 20 minutes, remove from the oven and place the sourdough loaf in to warm up.


Using a fondue fork or other long thing implement, poke out all of the marrow into the casserole dish, getting all of the flavoured garlic too. Discard the bones.


Add all of the parsley mixture into the casserole dish with the marrow, and mix well with a fork, breaking the marrow up. This should be enough to warm through the whole spread. 

Check for seasoning.


Cut the sourdough into slices, put the marrow pesto spread into a nice serving bowl and serve!