Zucchini Confit with Charred Lemon and Chilli.

Last year was our first year without a child in school and therefore tied to school holiday periods for holidays. With dear friends and treasured traveling companions our little late summer holiday tradition began. Touring rural roads stopping at farm gates for supplies our camp cook ups are often driven by seasonal produce. Last year while camped on a north Tasmanian beach with a haul of local goodies I pulled together an idea that became the seed of today’s recipe. You can read about it here. As with many at this time of year gardens are overflowing with a glut of late season summer veg. At a recent farmers market my favourite market gardener threw handfuls of zucchini into my basket all but begging me to take them off his hands. I was tempted to try Stanley Tucci’s much lauded zucchini pasta recipe but instead was drawn to rework my olive oil braised zucchini recipe and gosh am I a happy zucc lover.

Ingredients:

¼ c extra virgin olive oil

3 (500gm) zucchinis halved lengthwise and sliced on the diagonal about 1cm thick.

1 garlic clove peeled and thinly sliced

2 french shallots peeled and thinly sliced

Red chilli thinly sliced to taste. I like to deseed to control the heat and have used one whole long chilli here but you do you.

1 tb butter

Half a whole lemon

Method:

In a heavy based fry pan large enough to hold all the zucchini gently warm the olive oil over a low heat. Add the shallots and cook gently stirring frequently until translucent and soft, around 5 minutes. Avoid allowing the shallot to colour as we’ll caramelise it later and don’t want to do that now or it will burn later. Add garlic and chilli and cook for three minutes to soften again avoiding colour.

Add zucchini and stir frequently cooking for 5 minutes stirring often to keep the shallots and garlic moving. Once the edges of the zucchini start to colour and caramelise add the halved lemon flesh side down to the centre of the pan and increase heat to medium. We’re trying to caramelise the lemon flesh to release the tang and gently flavour the dish without a harsh sharp citrus flavour. Keep the zucchini moving around the lemon for 3-5 mins. Once the lemon flesh has began to brown add the butter and still constantly to incorporate everything keeping that lemon flesh side down (now I’m sounding like a nag but stay with me). At this point the zucchini will have softened and taken on a darker almost translucent colour, the shallots will have caramelised almost crisping up slightly. Cook for a further few minutes to gently begin to brown the butter and finish the dish nicely.

Notes and suggestions:

* Sprinkle lightly toasted pine nuts over the finished dish for some crunch.

* I served this alongside my White Bean Dip. It will sit happily on a bed of humus, yoghurt or labne. Goats cheese is also delicious dotted on top.

* You could stir through pasta for a lovely vegetarian dinner.

* While this is a very versatile dish it’s a particularly lovely accompaniment to Lamb Shoulder.

White Bean Dip

Combine the following in a blender and blend to your preferred consistency. Mine is a little textured here but sometimes I go a little further and make it much smoother. You may need to stop blending a couple times and scrape down.

1 lightly drained can of white beans, (any kind of white beans will be fine)

1 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 Tb lemon juice

Finely grated rind of a lemon

2-3 Tbs water (this will help loosen it and help it move through the blender more efficiently)

1 garlic clove peeled

1 tsp cumin

¼ tsp salt flakes

½ tsp tahini

* Sprinkle lightly toasted pine nuts over the finished dish for some crunch.

* I served this alongside my White Bean Dip. It will sit happily on a bed of humus, yoghurt or labne. Goats cheese is also delicious dotted on top.

* You could stir through pasta for a lovely vegetarian dinner.

* While this is a very versatile dish it’s a particularly lovely accompaniment to Lamb Shoulder.

Bruschetta Salad

Cicadas buzzing in the trees, laughter trilling on the breeze and glasses clinking. The sounds of summer often punctuates our little street on Sunday’s at dusk as neighbours who’re friends and friends who are neighbours gather together in the shade of my next door neighbours backyard to chat about their week and enjoy a final unwind as the weekend winds down. It’s a glorious tradition enjoyed periodically where delicious wines are shared and a little afternoon nibble is passed around. The spontaneity of our gatherings adds to their enjoyment and calls on our creativity diving into our kitchens in search of offerings to share. With a glass of bubbles in hand last Sunday my other hand, held delicious bruschetta topped with a mixture of little jewel tomato threaded with basil shreds fresh from our hostess’s garden. She’s quite the urban farmer who generously shares her glut of produce, often in surprise bowls at the front door. During a recent such soiree, as the juices of macerated tomatoes dripped between my fingers and the clock ticked towards dinner time my mind wandered to what was left in my own kitchen and the bowl of tomatoes grown in the little micro market garden surrounding me sitting on my own bench. Later, while meat sizzled on the BBQ, I threw together basil from my own garden with tomatoes from my neighbour and a few other embellishments to create a salad that harked back to those garlicky summery flavours of fresh bruschetta.

Bruschetta Salad can be as easy as you wish or a little more involved if you’re feeling fancy and have a few extra minutes up your sleeve. I’ll give you the tips for the easy version below the recipe for the Sunday “I’ve got time,” version. Inspired by Lucy Tweed and her brilliant book Every Night of the Week, I love to serve this salad only semi constructed showing off all the beautiful colours and produce but also allowing diners to choose all the bits they love and almost build their own little salad while they serve themselves. If you prefer to serve like a tossed salad style be sure and add the bready bits just before serving to preserve the crunch.

Ingredients:

2 large cloves garlic, peeled and flattened with the back of a knife.

¼ C extra virgin olive oil

¼ tsp salt flakes

3-4 thick slices of sourdough the bread. The older the better though obviously sans mould. We don’t want it that old.

3 Cups of cut up mixed tomatoes.

¼ cup shredded basil leaves. Don’t cut these up until you’re ready to assemble.

3 handfuls of your favourite salad leaves. I prefer baby butter lettuce but baby cos (romaine) is also delicious. You want to use something fairly neutral in flavour.

Method:

Preheat oven to 200c

Combine squashed garlic cloves, olive oil and salt and allow to sit while you prepare the bread. You can tear up bread into small pieces or slice into cubes, whichever you prefer. Toss in a bowl with half the olive oil. Spread evenly in one layer over a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Cool on the bench on their trays while you prepare the toms.

If you’re using cherry tomatoes simply halve them. If you’re using larger regular tomatoes chop into large chunks like the size you’d cut into for regular bruschetta. In another bowl combine tomatoes, remaining garlicky oil and shredded basil and leave to marainate a few mins.

On a platter spread washed leaves out in one layer. Mound tomatoes on top and place croutons in another mound next to them. Serve immediately.

Last minute/Cheat’s/’I can’t be bothered’ Version:

Now…This can be made a whole lot faster when you get that call from family or friends as you walk out of work on Friday night saying “hey let’s get together…we’ll come to you…” Don’t panic my friends. They’ll look at this placed on the table and think you’ve been slaving away for hours.

Instead of making the croutons, you can buy these pre-made at the supermarket. While you’re there run into the oil aisle and grab some flavoured olive oil for the garlic oil (also a great option if fresh garlic upsets your digestive system). These two quick short cuts will save you time and get you to pretty much the same place.

Classic Essential Salad Dressings

Ten houses down the street. The stretch of road I knew like the back of my hand, each front garden and it’s blooms in every season, each dog’s bark and each neighbour’s wave, the path to my best friend’s house. A well worn path two little girls, later teenagers and later again young women, would tread to each other’s homes where we’d each slip into each other’s families assuming the honorary place in the tribe and pecking order we were lovingly afforded. Where we’d feel as much at home as we did in our own homes, where reaching into a timber louvred pantry door to obtain ingredients to contribute to the ‘family’ meal felt as normal as it did at the other end of the ten homes. It was at these times that you were reminded that whilst always welcome and warmly embraced this family had it’s own pantry. One holding different flavours and ingredients for meals that made their memories special and that shaped their tastes and time together.

It's in this kitchen I discovered many flavours and dishes different from the ones my own family had shared meals in. Where soup was made of many different types of grated vegies and chicken simmered for a few hours or where mustard was king as a condiment on fresh fluffy white bread rolls with thinly sliced smoky ham for Saturday lunch. Condiments and embellishments for food often took pride of place in the centre of the table where tender, juicy roast beef was served with horseradish and hot English mustard and siblings competed with each other for the prize of the most resilient palate to tolerate the heat of the spicy yellow spread to loud cheers and jeers from amused parents. And in summer herby crumbed chicken fillets sizzled in a pan were served next to a fresh salad of crunchy iceberg lettuce and tomatoes robed with all manner of dressings. This both delighted and astonished me. I came from of a kitchen of plain foods with few additions and fewer flavours. The notion that even a simple salad could be finished with a flourish and elevated was one of the discoveries that fascinated me.

Whilst the dressings were often of the bottled Kraft Foods variety Italian and French being my favourite, the thin tangy homemade mayonnaise made by Joan the matriarch of my second family was also notorious and even higher in my emerging culinary esteem. Now, inspired by those moments in that compact kitchen that exploded with flavour, even the simplest of salads always reach my table adorned with glistening ribbons of dressings threading flavour through the leaves and greens nestled together.

This coming summer, I thought you might like to try some of the dressings I use to add flavour to our sides inspired by Joan and a family who always made room at the family table for one more mouth and lots of flavour.

Tangy Mustard Vinaigrette:

120 ml extra virgin olive oil

20 ml honey dijon mustard

20 lemon juice

Salt & pepper to taste

Ranch’ish Yoghurt Dressing:

½ c Greek yoghurt

1 tsp onion powder

1 garlic clove crushed

½ tsp dried dill OR 1tsp fresh dill finely chopped

1 tsp fresh parsley finely chopped

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp olive oil

1 Tb (20 ml) water

Classic Mustard Vinaigrette:

120 ml extra virgin olive oil

20 ml honey Dijon mustard

20 ml white balsamic/white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Sesame & Honey Dressing:

1/3 c (80ml) olive oil

1Tb tahini

2 tsp honey

3 tsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

With each dressing you can use one of a few methods. You can whizz in a blender until smooth and fully emulsified, usually less than a minute. I use a Vitamix using one of the small cups and blend for 20 seconds. You could also use a stick blender as per your appliance’s instructions. Alternatively and probably the most versatile is to place all ingredients in a jar with a secure lid and get your muscles working shaking until thoroughly combined. A good job for the kids if you have helpers.

They all keep well in the fridge though the yoghurt dressing probably should be discarded after five days….if it lasts that long.