1. Green salad with grated carrot and pistachio
Carottes râpées sounds a lot more elegant than “grated carrot salad”, but let us not get hung up on labels. This is a textural, colourful wonder: carrot slivers, juicy sultanas, herby yoghurt dressing, plus sprightly lettuce and chicory leaves (endive or witlof could also work, depending on what you can find). It’s a low-effort, high-reward salad – the type you’ll gladly unveil at bring-a-plate lunches and receive platitudes in return.
2. Spring salad with buttermilk feta dressing
This has all the greatest hits of Australia’s current seasonal produce – broad beans, crisp young lettuce (the recipe calls for gem lettuce, but baby cos will do), sweet fresh peas (though all is forgiven if you use frozen), plus a mint and parsley oil. And if you’ve had creamy salad dressings ruined for you in the past, this version with tangy buttermilk, feta and lemon will make reparations.
3. Grilled broccolini and asparagus with green pepper salsa and butter beans
Australia’s asparagus season is in full swing. Although the green spears do quite nicely steamed, they can also be thrown on the barbecue. Broccolini, green capsicum – these, too, benefit from a gentle grilling (don’t we all?). Also in attendance: a silky, garlicky butter beans (you will need about two x 400g tins), a swirl of salsa, a smattering of fried almonds. The result? A vegetable dish that holds its own.
4. Mustardy chicken schnitzel with braised peas and pea salsa
It is hard to resist crumbed chicken, and while this one is a little ambitious for a weeknight, it’s an ideal dinner for banishing Sunday evening blues. The crust has a modern update, made with semolina spiked with wasabi and dijon mustard. There’s a double act of spring peas too – a bed of peas braised with red shallots, butter and anchovies, plus a simple pea salsa with tempered mustard seeds.
5. Baked feta and dill frittata
This is a frittata with heart – a creamy, salty heart. In the middle of this dill and spinach frittata, Yotam Ottolenghi has plonked a whole 200g block of feta (although it’s important to measure the thickness of yours first), which becomes golden and slightly molten in the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature for a lovely weekend lunch or an easy midweek dinner – it is worth every slice.
6. Steamed fish with vinegar and soy
If spring has you in the mood for lighter proteins, Chinese-style steamed white fish is an excellent choice. (In Australia, barramundi and Patagonian toothfish are good choices.) This recipe dials up the aromatics – there are the usual suspects like ginger, soy and Shaoxing wine, plus fennel seeds, cumin and aleppo pepper (if you can’t find this, Nigella Lawson recommends substituting with chilli flakes and sweet paprika). Serve with Asian greens (always a bargain vegetable) and jasmine rice for the complete package.
7. Oregano stuffed porchetta with pickled shallots and herbs
There are many ways to roast pork, but porchetta is a league of its own. There is a mastery in stuffing, rolling and trussing up 1.8kg pork belly, and letting it turn into a buttery-textured roast with a crackling skin. It’s a weekend project worth your time. Here the oregano stuffing is lightened with ginger and lemon while the side of pickled shallots (meaning red shallots, not spring onions) provide a lovely astringent contrast. Serve with lemony potatoes and silverbeet for a spring roast meal-deal.
8. Strawberry and basil tart
Strawberries are affordable and abundant this season, and if you are yet to experience the joy of pairing them with basil, now is the time. Find 400g of the ripe red things, macerate them – but not for too long – with sugar, lime and basil, and bake into this tart with a basil-infused custard.
9. Blueberry and cream cheese crostata
Also on the cheap berries list: blueberries. Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe is a blueberry pie-cheesecake-crostata hybrid with a not-too-sweet cream cheese filling, a wholemeal crust and a crown of sugar-dusted blueberries. There is some fiddling around with strips of pastry, and a bit of time waiting for the dough to rest in the fridge and the pastry to cool. But once you’ve reached the final step, it is likely to be afternoon tea – you couldn’t have timed it better.
10. Steamed banana sponge with anise butter syrup and salted peanuts
Steamed cakes are a revelation – I find they are lighter and fluffier than their oven-baked counterparts, yet also taste creamier due to the high-moisture steaming process. This recipe riffs on the steamed sponge you might find at yum cha, where in that context, it’s known as ma lai go. Ottolenghi’s recipe is a richer, upside down cake with bananas and a caramel sauce. You will have to look for a bamboo steamer that can fit your cake tin, or you could try using a steamer rack suspended over a large wok of water.
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